Freeminer

Freeminer is an ancient title given to a coal or iron miners in the Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire, England, who have earned the right to mine personal plots, known as gales.

For hundreds of years, mining of the Forest of Dean Coalfield and iron reserves has been regulated through a system of Freemining, with the Free Miner's Mine Law Court sitting at the Speech House from 1682. The earliest known existing copy of Dean Miners’ Laws and Privileges, known locally as the Book of Dennis, dates from 1610 but the copy itself contains references to much earlier origins. It also claims that Freemining rights were granted to Foresters by Edward I who, in so doing, also confirmed that such 'customes and franchises' had existed since 'tyme out of mynde'. Freeminers had been instrumental in recapturing Berwick-upon-Tweed several times (1296, 1305 and 1315) and it is thought that these privileges were granted as a reward for their endeavours.

A plaque bearing the engraved coat of arms of the Freeminers is on the Greyndour tomb in the Clearwell Chapel in Newland church, and other important medieval and modern mining emblems are in the Freeminers Guild church of St. Michael in Abenhall.

Towards the end of the 18th century, as the industrial revolution began to take hold, increasing demand for coal and iron led to conflicting mining interests and the Mine Law Court became bogged down with disputes. Deep coal and iron reserves could not be mined without substantial investment and the Crown became determined to introduce the free market into the Forest. In 1777 Mine Law Court documents mysteriously disappeared from the Speech House where they were stored and the Court fell into disarray, most of the Court documents were later found to have been in the possession of local Crown officials (Deputy Gavellers) and they were produced as evidence at an Inquiry, some 50 years later.

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