Monument Mine

Monument Mine is situated in the Cannop Valley in the Forest of Dean. The Forest was once highly industrial and the whole area is riddled with old shafts and adits.
Some adits are still worked, or at least owned by Freeminers. To be a freeminer you have to be born in the Forest of Dean.

Monument mine is relatively recent, but as far as i can see is not currently being worked. There are also the remains of older workings around, so I've posted a few of them as well.

Apologies in advance for the poor quality photos which were taken with my reserve camera. It's very sensitive to shake, and as i'd done about 15 miles on the mountain bike before i got there, then there's quite a lot of that.

Main Adit

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General view of the site


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Digger

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Looking away from the adit towards the screens

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Upturned trucks

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We can do it!

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Memorial to miners killed in accident at nearby Union Colliery

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Ancient Tramway - you can still see the holes where the rails were attached


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Nearby disused shaft - very deep

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Some info about the site here, but I think it's out of date

http://www.minersadvice.co.uk/monument_pit.htm

Great stuff, btbm. I'd read about the Forest of Dean adits some time ago, but didn't realise that some were still being worked, or were even accessible. Cheers for that...very interesting to see.

Yeah neat. Fantastic part of the world the Forest of Dean. Good to read a report from there. Thank you Borntobemild.

b

Like this place, it looks great. In the first picture, is that a metal door on the front of it? This is an area I haven't been to as yet, but would love to have a look around sometime. Like the memorial in the trees.

Cheers,

Sal

Sal - yes it is a metal door (padlocked!).

I think the mine is dormant rather than derelict. First time i went there (about 5 years ago), there were three blokes working the mine. I had a little chat with them and they said they generally only worked weekends and summer evenings. The coal is high quality anthracite and is much prized by steam railways, their main market.

Two of them were approaching retirement though, and i'm guessing it's not that profitable, and damned hard work.

It's a great area to visit. You can cycle around a lot of it on the disused mineral railways. I've got a few more photos of other mines that i'll post up when i've got them sorted out.