Forest of Dean Local History Society
By walking the Mines Trails you can discover for yourself the silent memorials to the men who struggled and sometimes died in their efforts to extract the black gold and the mineral wealth from the rock strata beneath the Forest. For three hundred years or more, mining was at the heart of the Forest of Dean. With its pitheads, tramroads, railways and trackways it had fashioned a unique environment embedded within the wooded hills of its natural landscape.
Apart from a handful of free miners, mining ceased in the Forest forty years ago. But evidence of mining still remains, hidden by grass and bracken.
It is still possible to make out the contours of the pits and adits of many of the old coal and iron mines, as well as more definite evidence in places. The Mine Trail leaflets were jointly produced with the Ramblers Association as part of the FODLHS 'Memorial to Victims of Mining in the Forest of Dean' project.