Princess Louise Iron Mine Forest of Dean.
………Although the Forest of Dean is relatively well known as a former coalfield not many folk are aware that at one time it was Iron Ore that ruled in the area long before King Coal staked his claim. Princess Louise was one of the deep iron ore mines established sometime around the early 1800s……history is a little sketchy but it has been said the shaft was over 500’ deep. The mine probably closed when the bottom fell out of the ‘home produced’ Iron Ore market between 1880 to roughly 1920-ish….. mainly due to the 2 reasons of……..
A: the easy reserves of ore throughout the country had generally been worked…. ……….(For ‘easy’ read ‘shallow –ish’….that is somewhere above 600 deep feet or so…not cos they were faint hearted in those days…..simply because they weren’t mechanically able to deal with the general quantities of water usually encountered below that sort of level in the ‘usual’ ironstone strata)...
B: Iron Ore was being won and imported in considerable quantities from newly established Spanish ore mines at a much reduced price to what we here in the British Isles could produce it for. (Nothing changes there then!…we show ‘em how to do it…they beat us at our own game…)
Princess Louise was part of a whole complex of Iron mines in this small area which included the China Bottom Mine (which my Great Granddad started work in as a 10 year old and which was always known as ‘Cheney Bottom’ by us kids growing up in the area and a favorite playing place), the Ebbw Vale Shaft (probably named after where its owners came from???), New Dunn Mine, Clearwell/Old Ham/Old Bow Mines (parts of which are known nowadays as Clearwell Caves and are open to the public), the Noxon Park Mines, Oakwood Mill Deep Level, Easter Mine, Sling Pit and British Pit.
……..All of these mines were more or less closed by the First World War, then re-opened for the duration of that war, then most were closed again quickly afterwards…..
The exception was the Old Ham / New Dunn Mine complex which was re-opened yet again during the Second World War. This was in an effort to feed some of the demand for Iron Ore that the war had obviously created. Financially and physically however the effort was a bit of a washout because by the time the pit was shut again in 1946 more iron and steel had been put down the mine in the form or rails and supports and tubs etc than had been mined! When I worked at the engineering firm that occupied the New Dunn site in 1978 one old fella who still worked there had been employed in the pit during the WW2 period and he recalled coming up the shaft in the cage for the last time.
The Princess Louise Mine has a brick lined shaft which is approx 20 feet or so in diameter…..I can’t find any details as to the cage arrangements but seeing the size of the shaft I have to guess there may have been 2 cages operating side by side. The shaft is flooded to within about 40 feet or so of the top so how deep it actually is now is anyone’s guess……..looking down into the very murky water you certainly wouldn’t wanna jump down in there to find out though……..Around the shaft are the various remains of walls and buildings all steadily disappearing into the undergrowth, also to one side towers the remains of a large stone retaining wall.
Just along the bank from this iron mine lie the remains of a typical Forest of Dean Free Mine. I’ve included a few photos of this site out of general interest and also to show how close the iron and coal mines were….literally yards apart…….both underground and on the surface………. This is a really typical layout of a free mine….2 collapsed ‘drifts’
(entrances/ roads/adits etc!)….only a matter of 30 feet or so apart……..a wrecked galvanized steel hut….a few bits of rail lying about and a simple wharf that once loaded the coal away to a ready market…….I remember this particular pit working in the early 1970s…… (yeah….I’m that old!)
Should any of you like to visit the Forest of Dean for a mooch at the mines etc be aware that the Coal Authority are very busy in the Forest of Dean filling and capping every single shaft (large or small) that they can find but…….. for the foreseeable future the Princess Louise may be safe…….being an iron ore mine shaft the Coal Authority isn’t really interested in it….but…….that’s not to say that Forest Enterprise / The Forestry Commission hasn’t got some destructive plan in mind though…………..
On to the photos………….
The first view you get of the shaft……
A good size hole in the ground….
A very good size hole in the ground……
Some deep….dark….murky water…..wanna jump?
the retaining wall…….
One of the older drifts on this hillside……
my bushy tailed GSD decides to inspect the old stone lined drift……..
a nice set of rail partings rusting away……
a long disused miners cabin………….
one of the collapsed entrances to the derelict free mine………….
last one…my GSD doing her best to look like she’s a werewolf deep in the old drift…….
Hope you like.............
………Although the Forest of Dean is relatively well known as a former coalfield not many folk are aware that at one time it was Iron Ore that ruled in the area long before King Coal staked his claim. Princess Louise was one of the deep iron ore mines established sometime around the early 1800s……history is a little sketchy but it has been said the shaft was over 500’ deep. The mine probably closed when the bottom fell out of the ‘home produced’ Iron Ore market between 1880 to roughly 1920-ish….. mainly due to the 2 reasons of……..
A: the easy reserves of ore throughout the country had generally been worked…. ……….(For ‘easy’ read ‘shallow –ish’….that is somewhere above 600 deep feet or so…not cos they were faint hearted in those days…..simply because they weren’t mechanically able to deal with the general quantities of water usually encountered below that sort of level in the ‘usual’ ironstone strata)...
B: Iron Ore was being won and imported in considerable quantities from newly established Spanish ore mines at a much reduced price to what we here in the British Isles could produce it for. (Nothing changes there then!…we show ‘em how to do it…they beat us at our own game…)
Princess Louise was part of a whole complex of Iron mines in this small area which included the China Bottom Mine (which my Great Granddad started work in as a 10 year old and which was always known as ‘Cheney Bottom’ by us kids growing up in the area and a favorite playing place), the Ebbw Vale Shaft (probably named after where its owners came from???), New Dunn Mine, Clearwell/Old Ham/Old Bow Mines (parts of which are known nowadays as Clearwell Caves and are open to the public), the Noxon Park Mines, Oakwood Mill Deep Level, Easter Mine, Sling Pit and British Pit.
……..All of these mines were more or less closed by the First World War, then re-opened for the duration of that war, then most were closed again quickly afterwards…..
The exception was the Old Ham / New Dunn Mine complex which was re-opened yet again during the Second World War. This was in an effort to feed some of the demand for Iron Ore that the war had obviously created. Financially and physically however the effort was a bit of a washout because by the time the pit was shut again in 1946 more iron and steel had been put down the mine in the form or rails and supports and tubs etc than had been mined! When I worked at the engineering firm that occupied the New Dunn site in 1978 one old fella who still worked there had been employed in the pit during the WW2 period and he recalled coming up the shaft in the cage for the last time.
The Princess Louise Mine has a brick lined shaft which is approx 20 feet or so in diameter…..I can’t find any details as to the cage arrangements but seeing the size of the shaft I have to guess there may have been 2 cages operating side by side. The shaft is flooded to within about 40 feet or so of the top so how deep it actually is now is anyone’s guess……..looking down into the very murky water you certainly wouldn’t wanna jump down in there to find out though……..Around the shaft are the various remains of walls and buildings all steadily disappearing into the undergrowth, also to one side towers the remains of a large stone retaining wall.
Just along the bank from this iron mine lie the remains of a typical Forest of Dean Free Mine. I’ve included a few photos of this site out of general interest and also to show how close the iron and coal mines were….literally yards apart…….both underground and on the surface………. This is a really typical layout of a free mine….2 collapsed ‘drifts’
(entrances/ roads/adits etc!)….only a matter of 30 feet or so apart……..a wrecked galvanized steel hut….a few bits of rail lying about and a simple wharf that once loaded the coal away to a ready market…….I remember this particular pit working in the early 1970s…… (yeah….I’m that old!)
Should any of you like to visit the Forest of Dean for a mooch at the mines etc be aware that the Coal Authority are very busy in the Forest of Dean filling and capping every single shaft (large or small) that they can find but…….. for the foreseeable future the Princess Louise may be safe…….being an iron ore mine shaft the Coal Authority isn’t really interested in it….but…….that’s not to say that Forest Enterprise / The Forestry Commission hasn’t got some destructive plan in mind though…………..
On to the photos………….
The first view you get of the shaft……
A good size hole in the ground….
A very good size hole in the ground……
Some deep….dark….murky water…..wanna jump?
the retaining wall…….
One of the older drifts on this hillside……
my bushy tailed GSD decides to inspect the old stone lined drift……..
a nice set of rail partings rusting away……
a long disused miners cabin………….
one of the collapsed entrances to the derelict free mine………….
last one…my GSD doing her best to look like she’s a werewolf deep in the old drift…….
Hope you like.............
