Foxes Bridge was galed c1826 to
William
Montague of Gloucester (two-thirds share), and Moses Teague
(one-third).
but between 1838 and 1841 it became subject to a claim by Edward
Protheroe
under an agreement to pay him a royalty. Moses Teague was a
free-miner
from Cinderford and had an interest - together with Montague and
William
Crawshay, a South Wales ironmaster - in the Cinderford Iron Company,
who
owned the large ironworks at Cinderford. Teague and Crawshay were
also in partnership at Lightmoor Colliery. (see page 000)
The original workings of Foxes
Bridge
were further south, situated close to the Cinderford - Speech House
road
and to the west of Lightmoor Colliery. Work was begun on this
site
in 1855 but, although the shafts were probably almost completed, they
were
flooded before any coal could be won. By 1869 these workings had
been abandoned and a new start made about three-quarters of a mile
further
north. This abandonment of the original site had a disasterous
effect
upon the Forest of dean Central Railway which was at that time under
construction
with the pits at Foxes Bridge as its intended terminus.
Returning to the colliery itself,
by 1868 Protheroes’ interest had passed to Osman Barrett, possibly soon
after Protheroes death in 1857. In 1868 Barrett and Henry
Crawshay,
who had taken over his father Williams’ interests in the Forest, were
granted
a Crown license to build a tramroad down to the Great Westerns Forest
of
Dean branch at Bilson. It was probably under this license that
the
railway incline from the colliery down to Bilson yard was built.
It is interesting to note also that the Crawshay’s had retained their
interest
in the concern and indeed were to do so until final closure.
In 1870 it was reported that the
colliery raised more than 50,000 tons which suggests a slightly earlier
date than 1869 for work to have begun on the new site. An
accident
report for August 1873 shows that cages were not in use in the shafts
at
Foxes Bridge. A collier had a fit whilst descending in a cart and
fell out to his death. It would appear that ten men were being
taken
up and down at a time in the carts which were free to swing about in
the
shaft. As a result cages were to be provided but alterations to
the
winding engines were necessary before this could be done.
In February 1874 a further accident
occured when a badly patched boiler exploded destroying an engine house
a hurtling debris over a wide area. The unfortunate engineman was
also buried in the rubble and badly injured. At the resultant
enquirey
the practice of patching defective boilers was severely criticised.
The period in the colliery history
from 1876 to 1881 is something of a mystery. In 1876 it was
reported that Osman Barrett [Barrett dead by this time, Barrett
Brothers?
See Easter, Brick Pit etc.] had sold the coal rights at Foxes Bridge.
This
may have been a little premature speculation locally as a new company,
the New Bilson, Crump Meadow, Foxes Bridge and Central Collieries Ltd
had
been formed to acquire the various concerns in its title but nothing
came
of it and the company was wound up in April 1877. In December
1881
it was stated that Barrett and others had conveyed the concern to
Charles
A. Goold the brother of Aaron Goold, who, as has already been seen, had
an interest in the Bilson and Crump Meadow Collieries at this time.
On the opening of the Mineral Loop
in April 1872 a connection was made with Foxes Bridge. A short
branch,
stemming from a loop, served the screens, beyond which connection was
made,
via wagon turntables, to the incline down to Bilson Yard.
Traffic
from the colliery must have been heavy in 1882 as for a period a
locomotive
was hired from the Severn & Wye. The engine concerned was
Raven
(Boulton, 1876) which arrived at the colliery each day after banking
the
early morning coal empties up the Mineral Loop from Tufts
Junction.
After working all day at the colliery it returned light engine to
Lydney.
In 1886 a short siding was put in
at Foxes Bridge for the S&W in order to enable the loading of ash
and
cinders from the colliery to be used as ballast. The S&W paid
the colliery proprietors £2. 2s. 0d. in respect of the fee
charged
by the Crown for the license to lay the siding. The period of its
existance is unknown but it had been removed by 1898 probably having
been
removed during the remodelling of the sidings c1895. In those
alterations
a northern connection to the Mineral Loop was added which enabled empty
wagons to be propelled in via the souther connection and loaded wagons
to be removed via the northern outlet. The alterations gave
accommodation
for eighty wagons.
In January 1888 a limited company,
the Foxes Bridge Colliery Co. Ltd., was formed with a capital of
£121,000
in 12,100 £10 shares. The promotors were Charles Goold;
Arnold
Thomas, colliery manager; William Crawshay, Henry’s second son; John
Richardson;
Charles Wilson; Joseph Bennett; and Winter Morgan. Of these John
Richardson of Swansea was the largest shareholder with 3,757 shares
followed
by William Crawshay with 3,025. Between them the promotors held
11,502
shares, or 95% of the company. Manager Mr. G. E. J. McMurtie
In May 1888 £8,000 for working
capital was to be raised by a mortgage of the whole property. In
March 1892 a further £12,000 was raised, by the issue of
twenty-four
£500 Debentures, to enable a portion of the Lightmoor gale to be
purchased from Henry Crawshay & Co. This coal would be better
worked from Foxes Bridge due to geological difficulties making it very
expensive to work from Lightmoor Colliery. The remaining
£2,000
was for working capital.
Returning to the working of the
colliery, following a breakdown of the winding engine on the incline
down
to Bilson yard the Severn & Wye handled all traffic for a period of
three weeks in September 1899. During this time the bulk of the
traffic
was taken to Lydney whilst that destined for local Great Western
stations
was taken to Bilson Junction for transfer.
By 1902 the colliery was beginning
to run short of tip space on the western side of the Mineral Loop and
so
applied to the Joint Commmittee for permission to construct a bridge
over
the railway to enable further tipping to the east. Authorisation
was given on the conditions that the work was carried out to the
satisfaction
of the railway engineer. It was Keeling’s intention to view the
works
that took his inspection train onto the Mineral Loop when it was
involved
in the accident of 5th February 1903.
Unfortunately, as well as running
out of tip space the colliery was also running out of areas of workable
coal. The area of coal obtained from Lightmoor helped somewhat as
well as assisting Lightmoor itself. Without the extra area Foxes
Bridge would have closed earlier thereby increasing the pumping costs
at
Lightmoor.
As with all the other housecoal
collieries water was a problem at Foxes Bridge and the management were
always looking for ways to ease the situation. In December 1907
they
applied to the Crown for permission to fill the old Laymoor Quarry from
where water entered the workings. It is probable that Laymoor
Quarry
was that worked by Charles Braddock, the contractor on the Cinderford
Extension
of the S&W. (See Volume 2, page 000) Before the quarry could
be filled there was some debate as to whether the cost should be borne
by the colliery, the Crown, or both!
A change in the ownership of the
colliery came around 1904 as an indenture dated 17th May 1904 conveyed
all of Foxes Bridge and parts of the Lightmoor and Soundwell gales to
Henry
Crawshay & Co. although the Foxes Bridge Colliery Co.
remained.
Potts Mining Register for 1908 states that 555 were employed
below
ground at the colliery while 86 were employed on the surface. The
manager at this time was Mr. W. R. Champness who lived at ‘Fairmead’
Belle
View Rd., Cinderford, until March 1911 when he moved into Rock House,
Cinderford.
As mentioned under the history of
Trafalgar Colliery (Volume 2, page 000) the managements of Foxes Bridge
and Lightmoor bought Trafalgar between them in 1919 in order to protect
the two collieries from the water in Trafalgar should that colliery
cease
pumping.
In 1923 the Foxes Bridge management
fell into dispute with the Crown when it was discovered that the
colliery
was occupying a far greater area of surface land than they official
leased.
As a result the surface rent paid to the Crown was increased from
£4
to £21. The colliery company objected strongly to this
increase
pointing out that times were hard and that the workable coal was
running
out thus this large increase would be a hard blow. The Crown saw
no objection especially as they pointed out the colliery company had
had
free use of the land for many years.
In June 1924 the water problems
for the colliery grew when a feeder of water broke into the Deep Pit
shaft
at a depth of 382 feet. It was estimated that the rate of flow
was
approximately 410 gallons per minute.
In order to keep the colliery going
the Foxes Bridge Colliery Co. Ltd. approached the Forestry Commission
for
the loan of £20,000. They supported their case by saying
that
the livelihood of some 750 workmen was at stake and that, if Foxes
Bridge
were to close, then other collieries would be affected. It was
feared
that if it did close and the workings flooded then ultimately Lightmoor
would close, with the loss of 900 jobs, and also Crump Meadow, 150 jobs
and New Fancy, 400. It was estimated that up to another 6,000
people
would be affected, either directly or indirectly, in an area where more
men were unemployed or under-employed, than in any other district.
It was also pointed out that the
Crown would lose the royalties from Foxes Bridge and if the other
collieries
were forced to close then the loss of royalties from them all would be
greater than the £20,000 asked for. Another statistic given
was that even if just Foxes Bridge closed then in 25 weeks the men
would
have received as much in unemployment benifit as had been asked for.
The colliery company required the
money to overcome the water difficulties and to open up new areas of
coal.
It was estimated that there were sufficient reserves of coal for
ten or twelve years, with one untouched seam estimated at one million
tons.
Over the two years prior to 1928 the colliery had only averaged two and
a half working days per week. The main problem , however, was the
water. The estimated amount pumped in 1928 was 63,000,000
gallons,
of which 95,000,000?????? came from the feeder in the Deep Pit, whilst
in December 1927 the main pump had broken down and the water was on two
occasions within 1' 6" of overcoming the pit. At this time the
colliery
was busy installing electric pumps and these were rushed into action to
deal with the inrush. The output at this time was approximately
100,000
tons per year.
In reply to the request the Forestry
Commission pointed out that, although they agreed with everything that
had been stated, the only way to find the money would be to reduce
their
planting programme to the extent of about 2,000 acres. Although
they
did not want to see a colliery go under their funds had been eaten into
by an advance of £25,000 recently made to the Princess Royal
Collieries
Co. Ltd. (see Volume 1, page 000).
The Forestry Commission were also
not completely satisfied that the Colliery Co. were in such a bad
position
as they made out in that they had paid dividends to their shareholders
within recent years. The company countered by showing that their
overdraft at the bank that week was between £8,000 and
£9,000.
The Forestry Commission saw two
alternatives. The first was that the group of collieries, Foxes
Bridge,
Crump Meadow and Lightmoor, should be amalgamated with regards to water
pumping as they were so closely linked. Secondly the company
could
go to the owners and shareholders. The question was asked as to
whether
money had been raised on Debentures. The reply was that although
they had the power to borrow £20,000 only £8,000 actually
had
been. It was this last point that was the downfall of the
company’s
case. In September 1928 the entire property was mortgaged to
Lloyds
bank for £20,000.
The colliery only continued to work
until 1930. In May a special resolution was passed at a Board
meeting
to the effect of: ‘
That, in consequence of the heavy
losses sustained by this Company in helping to deal with the menace of
Trafalgar Colliery water during the years 1919 to 1923, combined with
the
present additional cost of dealing with the influx of water from the
abandoned
Crump Meadow Colliery, it is impossible to carry on the working of
Foxes
Bridge Pits, and the Company cannot, by reason of its liabilities,
continue
its business’
The final nail in the coffin of
Foxes Bridge appears to have been the closure of Crump Meadow and the
ensueing
increase in water to be pumped. In May 1929 Foxes Bridge pumped
ten
million gallons which the following year had increased to twenty-four
million
gallons. It seems also that water had actually broken in from the
Crump Meadow workings as well and over a five month period £3,000
was spent on dealing with it.
The company therefore went into
liquidation and on the 6th June notice was given to nearly 500
employees.
Pumping would have to continue for some time under the conditions of
the
Crown lease. Once pumping did cease, however, a million tons of
coal
would be out of reach for ever.
On the 27th June it was reported
that dismantling was taking place at the colliery. Over five
miles
of tramlines had been lifted and four districts had been stopped with
160
men being displaced. Over 100 tons of rail and pumps had been
taken
out from underground.
Foxes Bridge finally ceased work
on 10 August 1930 although attempts were still being made to keep the
colliery
open. A report in the Daily Express for 3rd September stated:
‘An amazing dispute between the
Government and an old-established colliery company here (Cinderford)
over
a few thousand pounds threatens to throw 1,000 miners into permenant
unemployment
and devastate one of the most beautiful and prosperous mining towns in
the Forest of Dean’.
The Foxes Bridge management had
asked for £3,000 of electrical pumping machinery installed at the
head of the old Crump Meadow shaft together with another £3,000
to
pay for the operation of the machinery for one year. They had
appealed
to the Forestry Commissioners for the Crown to do the work. This
they were not prepared to do although it was pointed out that the dole
payments to the miners would be about £50,000 per year.
‘The
Government will not spend £3,000 a year to save £50,000 a
year,
apart entirely from any moral considerations’. This plea,
however,
fell on deaf ears and with pumping being suspended on 8th November
there
was no further hope of re-opening.