The 1841 Coal Awards confirmed Speculation Level to James and Robert Morrell, both bankers of Oxford, as mortgagees in possession. It would appear that they carried out no work as in September 1846 the gale was forfieted to the Crown for non-working and the non-payments of the dead rents.
The Crown now advertised that the gale was availiable for re-grant and it was applied for by John Harris who was the galee of the Strip-and-at-it gale. He pointed out straight away that Speculation was not a very valuable gale but he wished to acquire it as it adjoined Strip-and-at-it. This statement was undoubtably a ploy in an attempt to gain concessions from the Crown on dead rents and royalties. The Speculation gale passed into the hands of Cornelius Brain, together with Harris's other interests, around 1847. In September 1853 the proprietors were noted as Timothy Bennett and Cornelius Brain when they were applying to the Crown for permission to erect an engine house. They stated that this was necessary as they were in the process of sinking a shaft and had gone as far as they could without steampower. Normally with Crown gale leases permission was automatically given for the construction of engine houses and other necessary buildings but in this case the proprietors wished to build their engine house within a certain distance of an enclosure fence. Thus the sanction of the Crown had to be saught as they were obviously keen to minimise the risk of fire and smoke damage to their trees. At the same time authorisation was saught to lay a branch tramroad to the Severn & Wye and also to construct a land sales wharf at Miery Stock.
In 1870 Speculation was leased to a Mr. Henry Harris but nothing else is known of this period. By 1873 the gale, together with New Mill Engine gale, was being leased by the Wye Colliery Co. the proprietors of which were Messrs. R. Thomas (of Lydney and Lydbrook tinplate works), W.S.Ogden, F.E.Jewesbury and the Gloucester Banking Co.. It seems that a Mr. Richard Haines was their manager or agent. In August 1873 the company applied for authorisation to construct sidings to connect the colliery with the Severn & Wye Railway's Lydbrook extension which was then under construction. It is probable that the siding was laid as shown on the 1877 S&W plans with a connection at either end. The coal was brought to the siding for loading via a tramway incline worked by 'a winding drum'. In August 1874  G.W. Keeling produced a set of plans of a proposed new arrangement 'at the Wye Colliery to enable them to load their coal and dispatch it without ascending an inclined plane as at present'. It is extremely doubtful, however, that these proposed works were ever carried out as they undoubtably involved the siding coming off the proposed, but never built, line from Whitegates to Miery Stock.
In December 1881 the Wye Colliery Co. was reformed as a limited company, with a capital of £40,000, to take over certain shares in Speculation, Rose-in-Hand and the whole of New Mill Engine Colliery gales.  The old company was said to be subject to a mprtgage to the Gloucestershire banking Co. for £5,000.  The subscribers to the company were; R. Thomas, S. Lysaght, W.S. Ogden, J. Lysaght, C. Ryland, R. Harries and Joshua Fellows.
The Wye Colliery Co. Ltd. surrendered their lease of Speculation at some point soon after 1883 as it was in that year that the company was dissolved.  At an Extraordinary General Meeting in September it was revealed that the existing mortgages largely exceeded the value of the property.  A provisional contract was drawn up between T.B. Brain and W. B. Brain and the Wye Colliery Co. Ltd. and the Trafalgar Colliery Co. for the sale of the property to the Trafalgar Co.  At the same time this latter company was itself reformed as a limited company.
 It is likely that the Trafalgar Co. were using only the pumping engine, a 14" x 48" beam engine, to assist with keeping Trafalgar free of water. At some time before 1898 the connection at the Serridge Junction end of Speculation Siding was removed. By this date the siding was used for unloading coal brought from Trafalgar to feed the boilers of the pump, the coal being taken down the incline from the siding.
When, in 1919, the Trafalgar Colliery Co. was purchased jointly by Henry Crawshay & Co. Ltd. and the Foxes Bridge Colliery Co. the Speculation gale was also transferred.
The gale was surrendered to the Crown in March 1926 following the closure of Trafalgar and the Joint Committee removed the connection to the siding in 1927.
On 28 June 1944 the gale was re-granted as Speculation No.2 to an E. Baldwin.