Life Changing Activi.. Fun, adventure, and personal growth in
the Great Outdoors Gallery 54 - Ross on.. Contemporary abstract
art, ceramics and glassware Freeeminers of the Forest of Dean
For 700 years the Free Miners of the Royal Forest of Dean,
Gloucestershire, have mined coal but now their future is in
doubt. It was the skill of their forefathers in tunnelling under
castle fortifications that earned them the right, by Royal
decree, to mine anywhere in the forest without hindrance. Robin
Morgan, aged 62, works one of only two full-time mines
remaining. Robin has been a miner since the age of 15 and was
down a mine helping his father at 14. Robin is now helped by his
son Neil, aged 40, who became a free miner after losing his
factory job. Six days a week they travel underground, at the
Phoenix Mine, which dates back to 1821, to cut out coal for the
domestic market. They still use pick and shovel to tunnel to the
coal face and the mine is little changed from its Victorian
origins. The coal face is narrow and