> the story of a certain king in the Forest of Dean
>who requested the services of local coal miners to help tunnel under and into
>his castle to reclaim his property. After the successful undertaking the king
>rewarded the miners with free coal mining rights which last to the present day,
>providing the miners have been residents of the Forest of Dean for 101 days.
Ross,
This is a tale that has been distorted in the telling but still retains an
element of truth.
The Forest of Dean is one of a number of mining areas in England and Wales
which were governed by custom in the medieval period, pre-dating the Norman
Conquest of 1066. In the case of Dean the custom was based on iron but
later extended to coal. Other customary mining fields were in Derbyshire
(lead), north-east Wales (lead), parts of Yorkshire (lead), the liberty of
Tynedale in the northern Pennines (silver and lead), and the Stannaries of
Devon and Cornwall (tin). Custom in Dean, certain lead mining liberties in
Derbyshire, and the Stannaries was incorporated into statute law in the 19th
century and survives to this day.
The involvement of the Crown in the Forest of Dean was two fold. 1) the
forest was Crown demesne, ie. the king was the owner of the soil and the
minerals, and 2) the Crown was instumental in codifying customary law.
Mining law in the forest was codified as a 'Charter' of temp. Edward I, of
which only a 17th century copy survives. It is reputed to have been granted
as reward for the services of the miners during the wars with Scotland, in
particular their skills in undermining fortifications, hence the reference
to 'tunnelling' in the above account. The services of the miners had been
used prior to Edwards reign. As in 1233 when the sheriff of Wiltshire was
ordered to supply ten miners from the forest with the tools necessary to
demolish the house of G Basset at Festerne (PRO Cal Liberate R., I, 228).
Customary law in the forest is unique in having a restriction on mining by
'foreigners' - the requirement is that 'free' miners should be born within
the hundred of St Briavels, be aged 21 or over, and have worked in the mines
for a year and a day (not 101 days as above).
Peter
______________________________________________
Peter Claughton, Blaenpant Morfil, Rosebush, Clynderwen,
Pembrokeshire, Wales SA66 7RE.
Tel. 01437 532578; Fax. 01437 532921; Mobile 07831 427599
University of Exeter - Department of History
School of Historical, Political and Sociological Studies
E-mail: [log in to unmask]
Co-owner - mining-history e-mail discussion list.
See http://www.mailbase.ac.uk/lists/mining-history/ for details.
Mining History Pages - http://www.exeter.ac.uk/~pfclaugh/mhinf/
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