Thanks for the reference.
There was a tram line connecting the Frampton Cotterel site. It joined the
Thornbury branch line of the midland railway at Iron Acton. The line of
this can still be clearly made out. Iron Acton is the next village to
Frampton and the refernce to workings at Iron Acton could be reference to
the same site. I think that the iron workings at Iron Acton were all much
earlier (bell pits?) - Rudder refers to piles of spoil in the mid-late 18th
century.
The next village is Rangeworthy and I know of two shafts for Iron workings
but have come across little information on these (one is actually just on
land in the Parish of Iron Acton). There is also late nineteenth century
coal mine in Rangeworthy (either refered to as Rangeworthy or Old wood)-
Ansty refers to a shaft being sunk her by the Frampton Cotterell Iron
Company (Who held the lease) but there is no reference to Iron also being
worked on this site.
To link to an earlier thread, it is the Rangeworthy site that has the Adit
and shaft and it is possible that the Adit was being used for Iron working
rather than coal but there is no evidence to suggest this other than the
name of the company. Curiously the adit folows the dip of the strata but at
a level higher than the coal measures. It would therefore have been
necessary to work back horizontally to meet the seams if this was used to
work coal - is this approach also seen in other mines?
Regards
David
----- Original Message -----
From: Keith Ramsey <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Wednesday, October 17, 2001 2:00 PM
Subject: Frampton Cotterell Iron Mines
The article was in the "Evening Post" on 6 March 1997.
It mentions four mines (No1, No 2, Red Gin & Roden Acre) which were owned by
John Crossley until 1871, when he sold them to Brogden Brothers. They were
closed in 1875 due to problems with water and were later used as reservoirs
by
the West Gloucestershire Water Company. The article seems to have been
prompted by the fact that Bristol Water Company had recently been filled in
the shafts and planted trees over the site which is off Church Road in
Frampton Cotterell.
I can't confirm much of this, although I've got a few details from various
copies of Robert Hunt's "Mineral Statistics" which refers to the the
Frampton
mines as a whole.
Ownership details:-
1868: Frampton Haematite Co, manager H T Brooke
1870: Frampton Haematite Co, manager H T Brooke
1875: Brogden & Sons, manager Thomas Trevithick
Frampton Haematite Co also owned mines at Iron Acton, also managed by H T
Brooke.
In 1870 Brogden Brothers owned Frampton colliery
The amount of ore (brown haematite) produced, and its value, was as
follows:-
1865: 8,000.0 tons, £3,600
1868: 6,566.0 tons, £3,009
1870: 15.249.0 tons, £6,862
1875: 8,845.8 tons, £4,500
Keith Ramsey
School of Historical, Political and Sociological Studies
University of Exeter
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