When, in early 1906, local newspapers carried the news that a north country syndicate had purchased two of the undeveloped deep gales, it began a period of local speculation.  The two gales,Union & Cannop and Prince Albert, were bought from Messrs. Henry Crawshay & Co. who had acquired them, together with the Speech House Hill Colliery in 1903.  The conjecture within the Forest was as to whether or not the syndicate were merely outside speculators or if they intended to develop the gales.  It was hoped that the latter was the case in order to provide much needed employment following a long depression in the coal industry.  When it was discovered that development was to proceed there was much local rejoicing, and fervent hopes were expressed for the prosperity and continuing success of the undertaking.
The syndicate was formed mainly of businessmen from Northumberland led by Mr. M. Maclean of Morwick Hall, Accrington.  They formed the Cannop Coal Company Limited, which was registered on 28th June 1906 with a capital of £35,000 in 350 five per cent cumulative preference shares of £100 each.
Union & Cannop and Prince Albert gales were in the lower measures directly below the workings of Speech House Hill Colliery, which was working the upper measures.  It was the aim of the company to work the Coleford High Delf seam, the reserves in the two gales being estimated at between 10 and 12 million tons.  To reach the coal new shafts were to be sunk on the Union & Cannop gale, and it was expected that the Coleford High Delf seam would be reached at a depth of about 200 yards.  It was originally the syndicates intention to use the Wimberry Colliery shafts, but they were unable to acquire the concern at that time.
J. J. Joynes, late of both the Wimberry and Speech House Hill Colliery's was appointed manager at Cannop, mainly due to his extensive knowledge of the coalfield.  It was he who prepared the plans for setting out the colliery, both above and below ground.
The colliery was set in a particularly attractive area of the forest and when the layout of the necessary buildings was drawn up it was decided to preserve as much of the surroundings as possible.  In order to erect the pithead buildings about 300 mature oaks had to be removed together with several tons of bracken.  However, a large number of trees were to be left dotted around between the buildings and a belt of trees was also to hide the colliery from the Crown's new Parkend-Lydbrook road.
Joynes advertised in May 1906 for tenders to sink two shafts and for setting Lancashire boilers and work on site commenced on 10th July 1906.  By August the surface buildings had been started. On the western side of the site workshops were being built for blacksmiths, fitters and joiners together with a saw-mills and a stores building.  To the north work was well advanced on the siting of three Thompson 'egg ended' boilers, each 30 ft. long and 8 ft. 3 in. in diameter with a working pressure of 100 p.s.i.
Just south of the colliery the Crown had agreed to erect two pairs of cottages and lease them to the colliery company.  The plans for these were drawn up and shown to Maclean who immediately queried their size.  they had been designed as 'substantial villas' with large gardens, but Maclean thought that he would have difficulty in letting them, stating 'that miners in the north would not be afforded such luxury accommodation'.  The Crown declined his suggestion that smaller cottages should be built on the grounds that, since they would be alongside the new road, they could not be 'squalid small dwellings' but must be tidy housing as the road would be used by the majority of tourists entering the Forest.  Another aspect of the architect's design queried by Maclean was the provision of a pig-sty in the garden.  This doubt over the provision of another 'luxury' shows that Maclean was not as yet fully conversant with the Forest ways, as most colliers at this time kept pigs to suppliment their income.
The underground workings of the colliery were to be laid out from two centre lines, one running north-south, the other east-west.  They were to be reached by two shafts 33 yards apart, each 14 ft. in diameter, brick lined and surrounded by a 24 ft. block of concrete to a depth of 4 ft.  The purpose of the concrete around the shafts was to prevent 'creep', where the pressure of the surrounding strata forced the shaft out of line.  This was particularly difficult to prevent where a lot of water was present, as in the case of Cannop.
To assist with the development of the colliery, the Crown, wishing to see the exploitation of the deep measures, loaned the sum of £20,000 which was primarily to be used in the sinking of the shafts.  The loan was to be repaid in annual installments once coal had been reached.  The contract for the shaft sinking was let to Messrs. Moreman & Co. of Dunkerton, Somerset, and work commenced in July 1906.  The Crown, anxious to keep an eye on their money, commissioned a series of quarterly reports on the sinking operation.  These give an insight into the shaft sinking and the early life of the colliery once production had begun.
Preparations were also in hand to connect the colliery to the Wimberry branch of the Severn & Wye Joint Railway.  In April 1906 an application had been made to the Joint Committee for a temporary connection, which was approved on the proviso that the sidings were placed on the same side of the branch as the intended screens.
These temporary sidings were to serve a level, or 'drift', being driven to the Coleford High Delf seam slightly further up Wimberry Slade than the site of the new pits.  The driving of this drift would enable coal to be put on the market before the shafts were finished, thereby generating some income for the company.  This would assist the financing of the shafts and some of the coal produced could also be used in the company's boilers.  The sidings, built at an estimated cost of £1,530, were reported complete, apart from a wagon weighbridge, in April 1907.
At the same time as the above siding arrangements were discussed, the layout of the permenant screens and sidings was decided upon.  Sidings for loaded wagons were to be built between Wimberry Junction and the road underbridge on the branch.  This meant that loaded wagons would pass over a short stretch of the Joint Committee's line and it was agreed, therefore, that the colliery company should be placed at an obligation to provide an independent line for the purpose when necessary.  When this was finally done it meant the provision of a second span alongside the existing road underbridge.  The cost of the empty wagon sidings and the screen roads was estimated at £1,073, which did not include signalling or locking.  The loaded wagon roads and the independant connection were estimated at £1,717 and the colliery company was to pay for each section as it was carried out.
Work on these sidings did not commence until coal was reached in the shafts.  In April 1910 it was reported that traffic would commence in a few months and that it was therefore necessary for the work to proceed.  The colliery company asked the Joint Committee if they would incur the outlay and allow them to pay the amount off with interest over five years, with the option of repayment at any time.  This aplication was, however, declined by the Joint Committee which, at the same meeting, agreed that the colliery company could extend the screen roads on their own land and at their own expense in order to give more standing space for empty wagons.  It was on this occasion that it was also decided that, to enable the prospective traffic to be worked satisfactorily, it would be necessary to carry out an extension of the Wimberry branch alongside the running line to a new junction at Speech House Road station.  It was explained that the colliery company wished to continue for the present using a run round at the end of the Wimberry branch as a screen line, and the Committee's consent to this arrangement was given as a temporary measure on the understanding that, when the pits were at work, the loop would be 'restored to the use for which it was first constructed'.
Undetered by their first refusal, in July the colliery company once again asked that the Joint Committee should expend the outlay, and again the request was rejected.  However, a request to allow an alteration in the arrangement of the screen sidings to provide improved accommodation was granted.
In April 1911 the Cannop Coal Co. were again notified that the screen lines and loaded wagon sidings were required and that they should be proceeded with immediately.  An amended plan was produced which showed the extension of the Wimberry branch to Speech House Road station.  This had initially been proposed in April 1906 at a cost of £586; now, however, a new siding, to replace one which would be displaced by the new line, was added to the plan, increasing the cost to £1,929.  The expenditure was justified as the output from Cannop was soon expected to reach 1,000 tons per day.
As well as notifying the colliery company that their sidings were necessary to operation, the Joint Committee also informed the Crown, who owned the land required.  A memorandum in connection with this shows that the relationship between the colliery company and the railway was strained, as Mr. Joynes of the Cannop Coal Co. told the Deputy Surveyor 'that his company don't want their hands forced' over the sidings and that they 'don't want any work to begin for three months'.  The Joint Committee did not, in fact, take possession of the land until November 1911.
The first of the Crown's quarterly reports of the sinking operations was produced on 19th October 1908 and shows that both shafts had been sunk to a depth of 125 yards.  The number 2 shaft, which was to be the pumping shaft, was walled to that depth and the  number 1 shaft, the main winding shaft, was in the process of being walled.  To keep them free from water electrical pumping plant had been installed, comprising two Bellis & Morcom engines driving two dynamos which in turn powered a turbine pump capable of lifting 2,000 gallons per minute.
The drift, driven at a point midway between the Wimberry Colliery and the Cannop pits, had, by 19th October, reached the Coleford High Delf seam, which proved to be 5 feet thick.  A temporary electric pump, capable of handling 500 gallons a minute, had been installed and the equipment necessary to haul the coal out of the drift had been ordered.  It was intended that an output of between 200 and 300 tons per day should be obtained until the pits were completed.  The screening arrangements over the sidings were also well in hand, it being planned that empty wagons should be placed into the sidings at the western connection off the Wimberry branch and loaded ones removed at the eastern end.
By the end of January 1909 No. 2 shaft had reached a depth of 155 yards and No. 1 was down to 142 yards, with 2,500 gallons of water being pumped from them every minute.  In the drift the main 'dipple', or roadway, was 70 yards into the coal.  It was found that the seam was of consistant quality and that the roof above was good.  A pair of levels had been driven off the main dipple and the haulage arrangements were approaching completion.  It was hoped that the first truck of coal from the drift would be dispatched in February.  Maclean in making a speech at the annual Gale Dinner at the Speech House Hotel referred to himself at this period as being more in the profession of 'hewer of stone and drawer of water', indicating some of the difficulties being experienced!
A newspaper report of february 1909 shows what a hazardous job shaft sinking could be.  A young man was killed when the tub in which he was being brought up the shaft turned over and he fell 150 feet to his death.  The following month the accident was repeated and another young man was precipitated to his death.  In early May the electric pumps in the shaft broke down and, although they were soon repaired, the steam pumps were also overcome and the shafts were flooded.  The Crown's May report shows that the No. 1 shaft was down to 165 yards and the No. 2 to 167 yards.  The main dipple in the drift had been pushed on a further 60 yards and both the levels were in good coal.  The output of the drift was around 150 tons per day and by September it had reached 230 tons.  At this time No. 1 shaft was down 192 yards and the depth in No. 2 was 183 yards.
On 25 November 1909 the Coleford High Delf seam was struck in the No. 1, or Deep Pit, at a depth of 204 yards.  The shaft was then sunk a further four yards and the coal proved to be 4' 9" thick.  No. 1 shaft was known as the Deep Pit as it was on the side where the coal measures dipped deeper, while the other shaft on the upper side, where the coal was rising towards the surface, was called the Land Pit.  No. 2 shaft at 203 yards was also in the coal by January 1910, when they were pumping 2,200 gallons per minute on average.  The drift at this time had been driven 187 yards and three levels went off on the north and three to the south.  Production, however, was still around 230 tons per day due to a problem with water.
The pits were flooded again in April after the pumps had broken down once more, but the water problem in the drift had been overcome and output had risen to 250 tons per day.  In June it was reported that they had been dealing with 3,000 gallons of water per minute but that the total was now down to 2,000 gallons.  By October the shafts were again dry and the first of the permenant steam driven pumps was being installed at pit bottom.  It was located in a room built off a heading which had been driven to unite the two shafts, and where it was intended that two pumps would be situated.  The room had a capacity of about 800 cubic yards and tenders for its excavation had been saught in May, to ease its digging the colliery company supplied Flottman air drills.  In another room across the heading two electrically powered pumps were to be placed.  The output from the drift in October had further increased to a total of 350 tons per day, of which 60 were consumed in the boilers at the pithead.
Further water problems were encountered in December 1910 when both the pits and the drift were innundated and they were not completely drained until February 1911.  By May of that year a heading had been driven a distance of 35 yards from the bottom of No. 2 shaft.  Production at the drift was shown to have increased to 440 tons per day, the figures fir the previous two months being 8,547 tons in March and 10,148 tons in April.
The heading from the bottom of No. 2 shaft not only encountered water problems, which were to bedevil Cannop throughout its life, but also met some minor geological difficulties.  In an endeavour to reduce the flow of water into the workings trials were carried out to find out where it was coming from.  It was found that by improving the surface drainage in some areas, several miles from the colliery, and by stopping the passage of water down swallow holes, the amount of water pumped dropped, especially during wet periods.  Several stream beds around the colliery were concreted over in an attempt to stop seepage through the ground, and again this made a difference to the volume of water pumped.
Ironically, despite the constant ingress below the surface, the only source of fresh water at Cannop for the colliers to fill their water bottles was a spring contained in a small hut just inside the colliery entrance off the New Road.
By November 1911 two compressed air coal cutting machines had been installed and were working in the pits.  The drift was producing 420 tons per day, the lower total being due to a strike in September and a lock-out in October from which production was just recovering.  The reason for the strike was the employment of 17 non-unionists and the lock-out of 400 workmen was brought about when the men refused to discharge their 'checkweighman'.  The position of checkweighman was extremely important as it was his job to weigh all the tubs of coal brought to the surface and record the weight against the team of colliers who had filled the tub, (on to which was chalked their mark) thereby determining their wages.  He also checked the tubs to make sure that they were not partially filled with rock or other waste materials.  A checkweighman had therefore to be someone whom the men trusted and he was elected to the position by the workforce.
On the surface the erection of the screening plant, capable of handling 1,000 tons of coal in 16 hours, to take the output from the pits had commenced and these were virtually ready for use in February 1912.  In April that year No. 1 shaft was being fitted out with its cages and their rope guides ready to commence winding coal.  All the temporary sinking plant had been removed from the shaft and the opportunity was being taken to overhaul the winding engine.  In August 1912, 380 tons per day were being brought up the shaft and, in November, the peak output of the drift and pits was 880 tons in one day.  It was also around this time that work commenced on the colliery's office block, for which extra land was leased from the Crown.  The building was to be of brick with a red tiled roof and to cost around £1,000 and, once again, in an attempt to blend it into the surroundings, it was decided to surround the offices with ornamental trees and shrubs.
With coal now being produced from the pits, six years after sinking commenced, the Crown became less interested in the proceedings at Cannop.  They were happy that their loan was being repaid and decided to dispense with the quarterly reports, but until all the money had been repaid they kept up periodical surveys, commencing in October 1913.
 This report gives the output from the pits as 580 tons per day.  There was no coal being produced from the drift as once again water had broken in and flooded the workings, although by this time it had been de-watered and the roadways had been recovered.  An attempt was made to drain the water from the coal on the west side of the drift by re-opening the Furnace Level, but this met with considerable difficulty and was abandoned.  By January 1914 the drift was again in production, 250 tons a day being produced.  This figure remained reasonably constant until March 1915 when it was decided to run down the drift and concentrate production at the pits, whose output at this time was averaging 1,000 tons per day.  Indeed in early October 1914 Cannop had taken the Forest colliery record by first producing 1,000 tons in a day.
By July 1915, however, the output had declined to 650 tons due to men being called to the colours and the ensueing shortage of labour.  Work on closing down the drift continued, with the pillars of coal left as roof supports being worked back towards the mouth of the drift.  Work finally stopped here in February 1916 and all men employed in the drift were transferred to the pits.  By April 1916 the workings on the north and north-western sides of the main colliery had reached the boundary of the gale and so pillaring was also going on here.  Throughout 1916 the average output was 750 tons per day.
An accident occured during July 1917 when four men involved in the pillaring operation were caught by a roof fall.  Luckily two of them were on the safe side of the fall and escaped injury.  The other two, however, who were brothers by the names of Thomas and James Burnett, were trapped.  Thomas was trapped by his legs on the surface side of the fall but James was cut off.  All the colliery officials were summoned to the scene, together with a doctor, and after two hours Thomas was released unhurt.  During this period a conversation was held with James and work subsequently commenced to extricate him.  The rescuers did not want to clear the fall in case it brought more of the roof down and so it was decided to dig a road out in the coal around the fall.  Four and a half yards were dug out by pick and shovel in four hours and James was brought out after six and a half hours imprisonment.  One of his first remarks was reported as being 'Thats the first time I've ever had to be dug out.'  The withdrawl of the pillars was completed in this area in early 1918.
In 1917 the Cannop Colliery Co. acquired the New Mill Engine gale from Mr. W. D. Meredith.  The gale had previously been part of Speech House Hill Colliery and had been surrendered to the Crown in 1905 by Henry Crawshay & Co.  Mr. Meredith had applied for a re-grant in 1916 and it was acquired by Cannop to consolidate their area.  Also in 1917 an application was made to the Crown for an extension of tip space.  The spoil from the colliery was tipped to the south of the site, on the opposite side of the Wimberry branch, in an area of marshy ground.  The original Crown license for the tip space stated that the height of the tip was not to go above the 'level of the passenger line from Speech House Road to Cinderford.'
The colliery continued through the 1920s with increasing production until the figure of 1,400 to at least 1,500 tons per day was reached by the workforce of about 1,040 men and boys.  An official report stated that there was accommodation for approximately 150 wagons at Cannop, the daily output from which exceeded this capacity.  The increased output from this and other Forest collieries placed a strain on the Joint Committee who were unable to find sufficient storage space for the empty wagons and often had to put a stop on the flow of all empties to the S & W.  Consequently at a meeting in February 1929 it was decided to increase the siding space at Cannop.  At this time the sidings were usually cleared three times a day but, owing to the gradient on which they were situated, only 15 empties could be propelled in at a time.  This apparently meant eight trips from the colliery gate to the empty wagon sidings, and even in good weather this was a difficult task for the best of drivers.  According to a report, on the first trip to Cannop the empties were left, and loaded wagons collected from the sidings just inside the gate, but these sidings were usually so full that the balance of empties was stored on Woodbine siding until later in the day.  As the Joint Committee obviously felt that Woodbine siding had become vital to colliery traffic it wsa decided to require the colliery company to lease it for £60 per annum under a private siding agreement of 22nd October 1930.  Therefore it seems the desire for 'increased' siding space was simply met by making the colliery pay for the privlege of using the existing arrangements (works which they had financed).  Furthermore the agreement allowed the GW and LMS to continue to use it for stabling empty 'Macaws' and 'Mites' for timber traffic loading at Speech House Road, where the yard accommodation was very limited, 'but not to the prejudice of the Licensees' traffic'!
It was subsequently used as an overflow for loaded wagons, especially when the colliery was 'at a stand'.  If the loaded wagon road was full and there was nowhere to put the loaded wagons, which in turn meant that no more trucks could be filled at the screens, the colliery came to a stop.  When this occured the weighman at the colliery would telephone Speech House Road to request a clearance.  The next available locomotive would then be dispatched to move wagons out of the loaded sidings and into 'Woodbine' where they would be kept until a train was made up.  Trains would also be made up in 'Woodbine' if there were too many wagons to be pulled out of the colliery in one go, wagons being put into the siding in two or three lots.
The next major change to the appearance of the surface buildings was the construction of the canteen and pit-head baths in 1929.  before construction began a ballot was taken amongst the men as to whether the facilities were required.  This showed that most men were in favour, and in fact a small sum was stopped from their pay each week to contribute to the new facilities.
By 1929 the underground water problems had been taken in hand, after the peak of 1,104 million gallons in 1928, and the coal seams were being pumped dry considerably ahead of the coal face.  This meant that the coal being won was dry which enabled the installation of a pneumatic dry cleaning plant to separate the coal from the shale and dust.  This plant was installed around 1930/31.
In 1933 new headframes were built over the shafts, the reinforced concrete replacements being erected around the old timber ones.  It is said that in the changeover from the old to the new headframes that not a single production shift was lost.  The fitting of the new wheels and the changeover of the winding ropes being done on a Sunday, which was the maintenance and dirt winding day.
In December 1934 and November 1935 coal was being wound at over 510 tons a shift and, while 3-shift winding was being worked from 1936-40 production in 1937 totalled 402,784 tons and in 1940, 349,353 tons.  The 1937 total was the highest ever achieved.
Cannop's problem with water appears to have reversed as it January 1935 it seems that there was not enough water to feed the boilers!  The company wrote to the Crown requesting permission to dam the Cannop Brook to a depth of 4 feet to provide a reservoir.  This was granted and a concrete-lined pond was built.  The water pumped from the colliery now came into this pond after passing either through the boilers or the baths.
Before reaching the pond the water passed through the 'sprays'.  These were fountains of water which allowed all the sediment and other matter in the water to settle out before the still warm water was piped under the road and down a concrete spillway the length of the pond to enter at its upper end.  The slightly warm nature of the water made the pond an attractive bathing place to locals and, in consequence, it became known as the 'Cannop Lido'!
In 1938 the Cannop Coal Co. had a miner brush with the Joint Committee when a 300 yard stretch of railway subsided between Serridge Junction and Miery Stock.  The subsidence was blamed on the colliery workings, the area in question having been worked under between 1926 and 1934 at a depth of 450 yards.
The Woodbine siding agreement was terminated on 31st July 1940 as, with the fall in output, it was no longer required, although the Joint Committee retained it for the storage of empties in order that extra wagons could be supplied at short notice.
The final major change at Cannop concerned the management with the formation of the National Coal Board in 1947.  Cannop, like the other major collieries in the Forest, was nationalised and control passed from the hands of the Maclean family to the Government.  For the men it meant little difference except that one ex-Cannop collier recalls that his first pay packet from the NCB was 12/6d short - the first time this had ever happened!
The colliery continued under the management of the NCB until final closure in September 1960, with the last traffic being worked out of the sidings on 31st November.  It has been said that a vast acreage of coal remained untouched, but it was undoubtedly the high cost of pumping water from the colliery which forced its closure.