Work at Crump Meadow was started around 1829 by Edward Protheroe.  It was in that year that he was granted a license by the Crown to remove a winding and pumping engine from his Protection Colliery and to re-erect it at Crump Meadow.  It seems, however, that coal was not reached in the shafts until 1839.
The 1841 Coal Awards confirmed Edward Protheroe as being entitled to the gales which formed Crump Meadow viz:- Crump Meadow Engine Pit; Crump’s Resolution; Crump’s Regulation; Gainall Deep Engine and Newcastle.  One source at this time states that Gainall Crump Meadow was producing 70 tons a week whilst another gives the information that there was one shaft 235 yards deep with a condensing engine, 36 inch double, which both pumped and wound; and a new pit in the process of being sunk which was to have a powerful pumping engine erected over it.  By 1847 Crump Meadow is given as being worked by Aaron Goold & Co. The output figures for the years 1841-6 were:
 1841 11,725 tons
 1842 27,833
 1843 32,106
 1844 33,214
 1845 36,174
 1846 35,442
Aaron Goold was Protheroes agent and it is possible that the colliery was worked under his name for Protheroe.  Nicholl’s History of the Forest of Dean, published in 1858, gives the production of Crump Meadow in 1856 as being 41,507 tons.  Protheroe died in 1857 but it is possible that he had already sold his interest in the colliery to the Goold family.
In March 1859 an advertisement appeared in the Gloucester Journal  for ‘the Bilson & Crump Meadow Coal Depot’ situate at Llantony Wharf, Gloucester docks.  This was on the Great Western Railways Gloucester docks branch and thus there was direct broad gauge communication from the colliery to the wharf.  The agent at the wharf was a Mr. Lawrence and the coal prices in the yard, or delivered within a one mile radius were:
  In Yard Delivered
 Best 12s 3d 13s 0d
 Starkey 11s 6d 12s 3d
 Good Seconds 11s 3d 12s 0d
 Thirds 10s 0d 11s 0d
 Rubbles   8s 9d   9s 6d
 Lime Coal   5s 6d   6s 6d
A note of 1866 in the Mining Journal  gives the output as being 12,000 tons per month with markets in Hereford, Gloucester, Stroud, Cheltenham and Bridgewater.  Second quality coal sold for 8/6 at the pits and was said to be a really useful coal for home purposes.  The better quality coal from the Rockey vein fetched a somewhat higher price.
The ownership of the colliery appears to have passed in prior to 1870 to Alfred and Thomas Goold who were the brothers of Aaron
Crump Meadow was connected to the Severn & Wye upon the opening of the Mineral Loop to this point in April 1872.  The siding was a trailing connection with the line falling towards the colliery.  This meant that all loaded wagons had to be hauled back by four horses and as a result a large proportion of the Crump Meadow traffic was passing to the Great Western at Bilson.  This situation remained unaltered until in 1882 a new siding was built, under a Crown license dated 8 August, to the Severn & Wye Bilson branch (see Volume 2, page 000).  This meant that empties could be put into the colliery off the Mineral Loop and then worked by gravity through the screens and out onto the Bilson branch.  The sidings at the colliery could accommodate 50 wagons with all marshalling being done either at Serridge Junction or Lydney.
In 1874 a change of ownership took place.  It had been known within the district for some time that Messrs. Goold Brothers had been attempting to sell the colliery.  A moiety in the colliery had been left by Aaron Goold to his family and this was to be sold by his trustees, his brothers Alfred and Thomas, together with another share which they had acquired since his death, in order to close the trust estate and pay out the children of their deceased brother.  The profits for the year ending December 1873 were put at £38,192 13s. 0d. and the property was valued at £150,169.  In that month an agreement was signed with a Robert Alan McLean under which the Goolds were to receive £110,000, partially in shares and partially in debentures.  A deposit of £5,000 was paid by McLean who was acting on behalf of a group wishing to form a limited company.  On the 7th April 1874 the Bilson and Crump Meadow Collieries Co. Ltd. was incorporated with a capital of £100,000 in 10,000 £10 shares.  This was just sufficient to pay off the Goolds , who recieved £75,000 in cash, £25,000 in ordinary shares and £30,000 in 6% debentures.  In return the Goolds were to find the working capital with Alfred Goold remaining as manager at a salary of £650 per year until the debentures were paid off.  The subscribers behind the new company were mainly from the Swansea area and chief amongst them was a John Crow Richardson who was later to become heavily involved in the Foxes Bridge Colliery which was also in the hands of the Goolds.
The new company appears to have soon been in trouble and in November 1876 a new company, the New Bilson, Crump Meadow, Foxes Bridge and Central Collieries Ltd., was incorporated to purchase the collieries mentioned in its title for the sum of £30,000.  It was also to borrow £30,000 to pay off the debentures in the Bilson and Crump Meadow Collieries Co. Ltd..  An interesting clause was that the Directors of the new company ‘may from time to time purchase shares in the Bilson and Crump Meadow Collieries Co..  Whatever the reasons behind these manoevers the new company was voluntarily wound up in April 1877.
In December 1879 an action was brought in the High Court Chancery Division by Caroline Margaret Goold, a widow (of Aaron?, or Tom? 2 May 1883  death of Margaret Goold, eldest daughter of the late F. W. Goold of Bilson House), on behalf of herself and the other debenture holders against the Bilson and Crump Meadow Collieries Co. Ltd..  As a result a receiver was put in charge of the company which continued to trade whilst a purchaser was being saught.  In May 1881 it was reported that for the year 1880 the Bilson & Crump Meadow Collieries Co. Ltd. had made a small loss. The 6th annual report of the Directors to the shareholders showed that the output was 85,143 tons which realised £32,288 14s. 1d., or an average of 7s 67/8d., against a total expediture of £32,699 10s. 4d., a loss of £410 16s. 3d.
In May 1883 the Bilson & Crump Meadow Collieries Co. were applying for concessions in the coal rate on the Severn & Wye to enable them to ship the bulk of their coal at Lydney rather than at Bullo.  To support their application they pointed out that the cost of sending coal, over the Great Western, to Bullo was 10d. per ton whereas to Lydney it was 1/4d. per ton.  The difference in the two rates was reduced slightly in that the shipping rate to Bullo was 2d. higher and with advantages of accessibility at Lydney to vessels on all tides the difference was reduced by a further 2d.  This left a total difference of 2d. and this concession was probably granted as a wharf was let to the Company at Lydney Basin for the sum of £100 per year.  Another financial arrangement with the S & W was reached in July 1883 when it was agreed that for the sum of 4d. per wagon the railway would shunt all empty wagons for the colliery at Bilson Junction.
At a Severn & Wye directors meeting in July 1884 it was reported that the Bilson & Crump Meadow Collieries Co. had sold their colliery, without notice, on the first of the month.  Apparently the colliery company’s explanation of this was not sufficient to reassure the S & W that the traffic charges would be paid and the General Manager considered it necessary to stop all traffic.  He agreed to let it continue after receiving a guarantee from the receiver and the new managing director for all tolls incurred during May and June.  In October 1884 it was reported that the Bilson & Crump Meadow Collieries Co. Ltd. had now been registered as the Lydney & Crump Meadow Collieries Co. Ltd. which was a new company, formed with a very small capital.  The new managing director was Joseph Hale.
In November 1885 the new company were attempting to deduct from their payments to the Great Western the 4d. per wagon paid for shunting performed by the Severn & Wye at Bilson.  The S & W stated that, as the work was in substitution of that which the colliery company would otherwise have to do, they could see no reason for the deduction of the money.  The matter continued to be discussed until January 1888 when the colliery company agreed not to ask the Great Western for the 4d. per wagon paid to the Severn & Wye.  On the other hand the Great Western were going to allow the 4d. thereby effectively cutting their rate.
The output for the colliery in 1885 was 80,746 tons from Crump Meadow and 10,656 tons from the Bilson Colliery.
In June 1890 the Lydney & Crump Meadow Colliery Co. were requesting permission from the Crown to work the barriers of coal between the Crump Meadow and Bilson gales, having already been granted the facility to work those between Crump Meadow and Churchway in 1885 and for those between Crump Meadow and the Nelson gale in 1874.  With regards to the latest request the Crown insisted that, as water was likely to be encountered in the workings of Bilson, new pumping plant, capable of dealing with 600 gallons per minute, should be installed first.  It seems that the colliery company already had this in hand as in April they had been proposing to install a Hawthorn Davey horizontal compound differential condensing engine, together with two plunger pumps, which would lift 600 gallons per minute.  This new pumping plant would replace the method then in use which was to wind the water up the shaft in tanks.  Whether the Hawthorn Davey engine was installed is unknown but in February 1891 Messrs. Harveys of Hayle, Cornwall, were in correspondence with Joseph Hale in regard to a 60 inch Cornish pumping engine which was to be supplied.
The colliery ran into problems in 1903 when on 21 December water broke into the 20 inch seam.  It was believed that the source of this water was the old Cinderford iron furnaces pond at Cinderford Bridge.  This was now used to serve Ruspidge Mill but the miller there, Mr. Bright, refused to lower the level of the pond to see if it made any difference.  The question had first arisen in 1901 and the Crump Meadow management stated that since March of that year it had cost about £2,000 to deal with the water believed to be from the pond.
Not only were water difficulties hampering Crump Meadow but the colliery was also running out of workable coal.  In January 1904 they applied to the Crown for a 1d. reduction in royalties which would bring them down to 2d. per ton.  The reason for the request was that the water question had made part of the colliery unworkable and as the remaining coal was mainly in thin seams it was too expensive to work.  The provision of coal cutting machinery was being considered to work the Lowery seam, which was only 14 inches thick, and it was hoped that this would prolong the life of the colliery by several years.  It was agreed by the Crown that the royalty should be reduced from 25 March 1904.
Coal winning at Crump Meadow was also hampered by geological difficulties.  Running through the colliery was the Crump Meadow Fault which had a ‘downthrow’ of up to fifty feet and as a result none of the Brazilly seam had been worked to the south of it.  The 1908 Potts Mining Register  gives a total employed at Crump Meadow as being 481 below ground and 92 above.
In 1907 the company bought some new areas of coal in the form of two of the new ‘deep’ gales,  the North Western United (Arthur & Edward) and the Northern United.  To acquire these it was necessary to raise an additional £30,000 by a new share and debenture issue.
A report produced in 1914 gave the coal reserves of the Lydney & Crump Meadow Company as equivalent to a surface area of 3,325 acres, 2,789 of which were unworked.  This latter area included the North Western United and the Northern United gales.  The company at this time were seeking help from the Crown to develop the Northern United gale which they had held since 1907.  It was intended that to work the gale the middle pit at Crump Meadow would be ‘rimed out’, or enlarged, and also it was to be sunk deeper.  The same report also reveals that the company had a railway wagon fleet of 507 whilst the markets for the coal produced were mainly industrial, steel works, tinplate works and copper works with some going to gas works and some as ocean going ship bunkering.  In the latter category the Lydney & Crump Meadow Co. had been quite active in inducing ship owners at Newport and Cardiff to use their coal.  An order for 9,500 tons was being shipped from Sharpness for the purpose of cement making in London.  Bristol Gas Works took about 7,000 tons per year, Guest Keen & Nettlefolds (GKN) took 400 tons per week for their works at Dowlais.  Some of this coal undoubtably came from Crump Meadow whilst the rest would be supplied from Arthur & Edward which was by this date in production.
By July 1920 nearly all of the coal had been worked out and consequently the Crown reduced the dead rent from £250 to £50 per year from 20 June.  In September 1928 it was stated that the company had sustained heavy losses for many years and that immediate action had to be taken to improve the situation.  Work had ceased in the No Coal seam and it was pointed out that the site of the three Crump Meadow shafts was such that they practically drained the whole of the water over a considerable area on the land side, much to the benifit of the collieries in the deep.  Pumping costs were heavy and it was hoped that a scheme of relief could be divised, possibly with contributions from the Crown, so that the development of the Northern United deep gale would not be jeopardised.  Although obviously hoping that some scheme would be put forward to prolong the life of the colliery the Lydney & Crump Meadow Collieries Co. Ltd. tendered the surrender of the Crump Meadow, Bilson and other gales held on 7 September 1928 to take effect on 8 March 1929.
Urgent talks then took place and on 8 September the surrender notices were temporarily withdrawn in the hope that an amalgamation of the Crump Meadow and Foxes Bridge collieries could be arranged.  This proposal fell through although it did prolong the surrender of the gales by six months.  In December the notice that pumping would stop at Crump Meadow in March 1929 was given, and in May 1929 three months notice of cessation of pumping on the Old Fire Engine No.2, Whimsey No.2 and Setting Sun No.2 gales was given.  The Old Fire Engine gale had been acquired in January 1926 with the thought of winning some of the Northern United coal through it.  Another strong reason for its purchase was to protect Crump Meadow from water.  A tremendous quantity was being pumped at Old Fire Engine, approximately 25,000 gallons per hour.  This amount could not be dealt with at Crump Meadow should pumping stop on Old Fire Engine as the capacity of 30,000 gallons per hour was already being handled.
Work on dismantling the colliery began in the middle of 1929 but was postponed in June in an attempt to find a way to avert the trouble which would ensue for other concerns, such as Foxes Bridge, if pumping ceased in September.  The Managing Director of the company, Mr. C. A. J. Hale, stated: ‘My Directors have explored every possible avenue open to them before taking the decision to close down, and with the object of avoiding that, warmly supported the amalgamation of the house coal collieries which appears to be the only practicable method of saving the situation . . .’ ‘. . . Until then we will keep the pit open, although because of the falling off in demand for coal and the dimensions of our own stocks, it will probably not be possible to work every day.’  Work was, however, to finally stop on 17 July 1929.
In connection with the amalgamation question it was reported in the Dean Forest Mercury in August 1929 that 19 million tons of coal could be won through amalgamation.  It was, however, not to be.
On 8 September 1929 the Victory, Churchway, Nelson, Bilson, Crump Meadow, Old Fire Engine No. 2, Whimsey No. 2, and Setting Sun No. 2 gales were surrendered to the Crown, together with the land and some cottages held in connection with them.  The Company kept some land at Bilson, including Bilson House, where its offices were situated and from where the management of the companys other interests, including the Arthur & Edward Colliery at Lydbrook (Volume 3, page 000), was handled.
By 27 September the dam, a concrete barrier, to hold back the water which would accumulate in the workings was almost complete.  The purpose of this was to protect the adjoining concerns and the work was completed in early October and pumping ceased on the 5th of that month.
The Cornish pumping engine was being dismantled on the 7 November and all the plant and machinery was auctioned on the 14th and 15th.  Within a year the water had flooded the underground workings to a depth of about sixty-three feet.
The closure meant that about 150 men lost their jobs.  This comparatively small number shows that the colliery had been in decline for some time.  The men were reasonably lucky as, together with about 750 men from Foxes Bridge, which closed the following year, that the development of the Northern United gale took place and most found jobs at that concern from 1933 onwards.
The Northern United gale, situated a few miles further north, was one of the gales amalgamated under the 1904 Mines Act.  Originally it was held by the Lydney & Crump Meadow Company who contemplated development work right through the 1920s and indeed did some work at the old New Bowson shafts.  These had been abandoned in 1879 and were not in a particularly good condition.  It was probably the cost of the development work which stopped the work and the gale was sold to H. Crawshay & Co. in 1931 for the sum of £27,000.

12 November 1859 Gloucester Journal  FATAL ACCIDENT
On Monday last an adjourned inquest was held at Bilson on William Elton, aged 34, who had been killed at the Crump Meadow Pit belonging to Mr. Goold.  The deceased was employed to draw the water from the pit during the night.  He went to work at his usual time on Tuesday night week, but had not commenced work, and he was afterwards found at the bottom of the shaft dashed almost to pieces.  No one witnessed the accident but as the weather was very boisterous it is supposed that the deceased was blown down the pit.

4 September 1874  application made by Alfred Goold & Tom Goold as owners of Crump Meadow to work barriers in the Rocky & Churchway High Delf between Crump Meadow and Nelson.

23 December 1879  High Court Chancery Division.  Between Caroline Margaret Goold, widow, on behalf of herself and all Debenture holders of the defendant co. and the Bilson & Crump Meadow Colliery Co.
Samuel Wilkinson Woods appointed receiver, John Lawson Whatley appointed trade manager and Arnold Thomas working manager.

20 December 1880  Bilson & Crump Meadow Collieries Co. Ltd. late A. Goold & Co.

4 January 1881 Had bought Churchway (above) and Nelson (below) gales.

18 July 1884  Agreement with receivers to sell whole of property to Mr. Hayes on behalf of the Debenture holders.  Lydney & Crump Meadow incorporated 17 September 1884.

9 November 1888  The last of the huge hempen ropes, formerly used at collieries has ceased to do duty at Crump Meadow and has been replaced by wire ropes.

2 July 1897  Outing to Manchester - 480 souls.

19 August 1898  Crump Meadow third outing - to Bristol.

29 December 1899  Accident, tub etc. down shaft.

5 February 1909 Dean Forest Mercury  Report of a shot firing accident.

22 August 1913 Dean Forest Mercury  Mishap at Crump Meadow. No. 1 or Upcast shaft which in working is in balance with the Central shaft used by the men. Cage with cart coming up wedged 70 yards from surface, tub fell out, took with it stone walling from an old coffer dam put in at time of sinking. Men out immediately through Crump Meadow No. 3 and Duck Pits.
Coal winning suspended Monday & Tuesday but Central shaft rendered safe on Wednesday.