A Picnic In The Forest

The Forest Of Dean – Meet at Hopewell Colliery, Speech House Rd., Coleford.

Come with us on a Bank Holiday day trip to the historic Forest of Dean. Ian Wright, who was brought up the forest, will talk about the life and times of the Warren James. In the early 19th century James became a spokesman for the foresters in their struggle to protect their traditional way of life from the imposition of enclosures and industrial capitalism. The forest riots of 1831 led to Warren’s arrest and transportation. Traditional free mining and commoner rights still exist in the forest today.

Robin Morgan, a working free miner, will talk about his life as a free miner and take groups (children included) into his coal mine at Hopewell.

Listen to this talk:

• Download Robin Morgan’s talk (31 mins, 5.3mb mp3 file)

The price for entry to the mine is £4 for adults and £3 for those under 14 years old.

Finally a walk through ancient woodland and pre-Roman iron ore mine workings at Puzzle Wood.