Work at Crump Meadow was started around 1829 by Edward
Protheroe.
It was in that year that he was granted a license by the Crown to
remove
a winding and pumping engine from his Protection Colliery and to
re-erect
it at Crump Meadow. It seems, however, that coal was not reached
in the shafts until 1839.
The 1841 Coal Awards confirmed Edward Protheroe as being entitled to
the gales which formed Crump Meadow viz:- Crump Meadow Engine Pit;
Crump’s
Resolution; Crump’s Regulation; Gainall Deep Engine and
Newcastle.
One source at this time states that Gainall Crump Meadow was producing
70 tons a week whilst another gives the information that there was one
shaft 235 yards deep with a condensing engine, 36 inch double, which
both
pumped and wound; and a new pit in the process of being sunk which was
to have a powerful pumping engine erected over it. By 1847 Crump
Meadow is given as being worked by Aaron Goold & Co. The output
figures
for the years 1841-6 were:
1841 11,725 tons
1842 27,833
1843 32,106
1844 33,214
1845 36,174
1846 35,442
Aaron Goold was Protheroes agent and it is possible that the colliery
was worked under his name for Protheroe. Nicholl’s History of the
Forest of Dean, published in 1858, gives the production of Crump Meadow
in 1856 as being 41,507 tons. Protheroe died in 1857 but it is
possible
that he had already sold his interest in the colliery to the Goold
family.
In March 1859 an advertisement appeared in the Gloucester Journal
for ‘the Bilson & Crump Meadow Coal Depot’ situate at Llantony
Wharf,
Gloucester docks. This was on the Great Western Railways
Gloucester
docks branch and thus there was direct broad gauge communication from
the
colliery to the wharf. The agent at the wharf was a Mr. Lawrence
and the coal prices in the yard, or delivered within a one mile radius
were:
In Yard Delivered
Best 12s 3d 13s 0d
Starkey 11s 6d 12s 3d
Good Seconds 11s 3d 12s 0d
Thirds 10s 0d 11s 0d
Rubbles 8s 9d 9s 6d
Lime Coal 5s 6d 6s 6d
A note of 1866 in the Mining Journal gives the output as being
12,000 tons per month with markets in Hereford, Gloucester, Stroud,
Cheltenham
and Bridgewater. Second quality coal sold for 8/6 at the pits and
was said to be a really useful coal for home purposes. The better
quality coal from the Rockey vein fetched a somewhat higher price.
The ownership of the colliery appears to have passed in prior to 1870
to Alfred and Thomas Goold who were the brothers of Aaron
Crump Meadow was connected to the Severn & Wye upon the opening
of the Mineral Loop to this point in April 1872. The siding was a
trailing connection with the line falling towards the colliery.
This
meant that all loaded wagons had to be hauled back by four horses and
as
a result a large proportion of the Crump Meadow traffic was passing to
the Great Western at Bilson. This situation remained unaltered
until
in 1882 a new siding was built, under a Crown license dated 8 August,
to
the Severn & Wye Bilson branch (see Volume 2, page 000). This
meant that empties could be put into the colliery off the Mineral Loop
and then worked by gravity through the screens and out onto the Bilson
branch. The sidings at the colliery could accommodate 50 wagons
with
all marshalling being done either at Serridge Junction or Lydney.
In 1874 a change of ownership took place. It had been known
within
the district for some time that Messrs. Goold Brothers had been
attempting
to sell the colliery. A moiety in the colliery had been left by
Aaron
Goold to his family and this was to be sold by his trustees, his
brothers
Alfred and Thomas, together with another share which they had acquired
since his death, in order to close the trust estate and pay out the
children
of their deceased brother. The profits for the year ending
December
1873 were put at £38,192 13s. 0d. and the property was valued at
£150,169. In that month an agreement was signed with a
Robert
Alan McLean under which the Goolds were to receive £110,000,
partially
in shares and partially in debentures. A deposit of £5,000
was paid by McLean who was acting on behalf of a group wishing to form
a limited company. On the 7th April 1874 the Bilson and Crump
Meadow
Collieries Co. Ltd. was incorporated with a capital of £100,000
in
10,000 £10 shares. This was just sufficient to pay off the
Goolds , who recieved £75,000 in cash, £25,000 in ordinary
shares and £30,000 in 6% debentures. In return the Goolds
were
to find the working capital with Alfred Goold remaining as manager at a
salary of £650 per year until the debentures were paid off.
The subscribers behind the new company were mainly from the Swansea
area
and chief amongst them was a John Crow Richardson who was later to
become
heavily involved in the Foxes Bridge Colliery which was also in the
hands
of the Goolds.
The new company appears to have soon been in trouble and in November
1876 a new company, the New Bilson, Crump Meadow, Foxes Bridge and
Central
Collieries Ltd., was incorporated to purchase the collieries mentioned
in its title for the sum of £30,000. It was also to borrow
£30,000 to pay off the debentures in the Bilson and Crump Meadow
Collieries Co. Ltd.. An interesting clause was that the Directors
of the new company ‘may from time to time purchase shares in the Bilson
and Crump Meadow Collieries Co.. Whatever the reasons behind
these
manoevers the new company was voluntarily wound up in April 1877.
In December 1879 an action was brought in the High Court Chancery
Division
by Caroline Margaret Goold, a widow (of Aaron?, or Tom? 2 May
1883
death of Margaret Goold, eldest daughter of the late F. W. Goold of
Bilson
House), on behalf of herself and the other debenture holders against
the
Bilson and Crump Meadow Collieries Co. Ltd.. As a result a
receiver
was put in charge of the company which continued to trade whilst a
purchaser
was being saught. In May 1881 it was reported that for the year
1880
the Bilson & Crump Meadow Collieries Co. Ltd. had made a small
loss.
The 6th annual report of the Directors to the shareholders showed that
the output was 85,143 tons which realised £32,288 14s. 1d., or an
average of 7s 67/8d., against a total expediture of £32,699 10s.
4d., a loss of £410 16s. 3d.
In May 1883 the Bilson & Crump Meadow Collieries Co. were applying
for concessions in the coal rate on the Severn & Wye to enable them
to ship the bulk of their coal at Lydney rather than at Bullo. To
support their application they pointed out that the cost of sending
coal,
over the Great Western, to Bullo was 10d. per ton whereas to Lydney it
was 1/4d. per ton. The difference in the two rates was reduced
slightly
in that the shipping rate to Bullo was 2d. higher and with advantages
of
accessibility at Lydney to vessels on all tides the difference was
reduced
by a further 2d. This left a total difference of 2d. and this
concession
was probably granted as a wharf was let to the Company at Lydney Basin
for the sum of £100 per year. Another financial arrangement
with the S & W was reached in July 1883 when it was agreed that for
the sum of 4d. per wagon the railway would shunt all empty wagons for
the
colliery at Bilson Junction.
At a Severn & Wye directors meeting in July 1884 it was reported
that the Bilson & Crump Meadow Collieries Co. had sold their
colliery,
without notice, on the first of the month. Apparently the
colliery
company’s explanation of this was not sufficient to reassure the S
&
W that the traffic charges would be paid and the General Manager
considered
it necessary to stop all traffic. He agreed to let it continue
after
receiving a guarantee from the receiver and the new managing director
for
all tolls incurred during May and June. In October 1884 it was
reported
that the Bilson & Crump Meadow Collieries Co. Ltd. had now been
registered
as the Lydney & Crump Meadow Collieries Co. Ltd. which was a new
company,
formed with a very small capital. The new managing director was
Joseph
Hale.
In November 1885 the new company were attempting to deduct from their
payments to the Great Western the 4d. per wagon paid for shunting
performed
by the Severn & Wye at Bilson. The S & W stated that, as
the work was in substitution of that which the colliery company would
otherwise
have to do, they could see no reason for the deduction of the
money.
The matter continued to be discussed until January 1888 when the
colliery
company agreed not to ask the Great Western for the 4d. per wagon paid
to the Severn & Wye. On the other hand the Great Western were
going to allow the 4d. thereby effectively cutting their rate.
The output for the colliery in 1885 was 80,746 tons from Crump Meadow
and 10,656 tons from the Bilson Colliery.
In June 1890 the Lydney & Crump Meadow Colliery Co. were requesting
permission from the Crown to work the barriers of coal between the
Crump
Meadow and Bilson gales, having already been granted the facility to
work
those between Crump Meadow and Churchway in 1885 and for those between
Crump Meadow and the Nelson gale in 1874. With regards to the
latest
request the Crown insisted that, as water was likely to be encountered
in the workings of Bilson, new pumping plant, capable of dealing with
600
gallons per minute, should be installed first. It seems that the
colliery company already had this in hand as in April they had been
proposing
to install a Hawthorn Davey horizontal compound differential condensing
engine, together with two plunger pumps, which would lift 600 gallons
per
minute. This new pumping plant would replace the method then in
use
which was to wind the water up the shaft in tanks. Whether the
Hawthorn
Davey engine was installed is unknown but in February 1891 Messrs.
Harveys
of Hayle, Cornwall, were in correspondence with Joseph Hale in regard
to
a 60 inch Cornish pumping engine which was to be supplied.
The colliery ran into problems in 1903 when on 21 December water broke
into the 20 inch seam. It was believed that the source of this
water
was the old Cinderford iron furnaces pond at Cinderford Bridge.
This
was now used to serve Ruspidge Mill but the miller there, Mr. Bright,
refused
to lower the level of the pond to see if it made any difference.
The question had first arisen in 1901 and the Crump Meadow management
stated
that since March of that year it had cost about £2,000 to deal
with
the water believed to be from the pond.
Not only were water difficulties hampering Crump Meadow but the
colliery
was also running out of workable coal. In January 1904 they
applied
to the Crown for a 1d. reduction in royalties which would bring them
down
to 2d. per ton. The reason for the request was that the water
question
had made part of the colliery unworkable and as the remaining coal was
mainly in thin seams it was too expensive to work. The provision
of coal cutting machinery was being considered to work the Lowery seam,
which was only 14 inches thick, and it was hoped that this would
prolong
the life of the colliery by several years. It was agreed by the
Crown
that the royalty should be reduced from 25 March 1904.
Coal winning at Crump Meadow was also hampered by geological
difficulties.
Running through the colliery was the Crump Meadow Fault which had a
‘downthrow’
of up to fifty feet and as a result none of the Brazilly seam had been
worked to the south of it. The 1908 Potts Mining Register
gives
a total employed at Crump Meadow as being 481 below ground and 92
above.
In 1907 the company bought some new areas of coal in the form of two
of the new ‘deep’ gales, the North Western United (Arthur &
Edward)
and the Northern United. To acquire these it was necessary to
raise
an additional £30,000 by a new share and debenture issue.
A report produced in 1914 gave the coal reserves of the Lydney &
Crump Meadow Company as equivalent to a surface area of 3,325 acres,
2,789
of which were unworked. This latter area included the North
Western
United and the Northern United gales. The company at this time
were
seeking help from the Crown to develop the Northern United gale which
they
had held since 1907. It was intended that to work the gale the
middle
pit at Crump Meadow would be ‘rimed out’, or enlarged, and also it was
to be sunk deeper. The same report also reveals that the company
had a railway wagon fleet of 507 whilst the markets for the coal
produced
were mainly industrial, steel works, tinplate works and copper works
with
some going to gas works and some as ocean going ship bunkering.
In
the latter category the Lydney & Crump Meadow Co. had been quite
active
in inducing ship owners at Newport and Cardiff to use their coal.
An order for 9,500 tons was being shipped from Sharpness for the
purpose
of cement making in London. Bristol Gas Works took about 7,000
tons
per year, Guest Keen & Nettlefolds (GKN) took 400 tons per week for
their works at Dowlais. Some of this coal undoubtably came from
Crump
Meadow whilst the rest would be supplied from Arthur & Edward which
was by this date in production.
By July 1920 nearly all of the coal had been worked out and
consequently
the Crown reduced the dead rent from £250 to £50 per year
from
20 June. In September 1928 it was stated that the company had
sustained
heavy losses for many years and that immediate action had to be taken
to
improve the situation. Work had ceased in the No Coal seam and it
was pointed out that the site of the three Crump Meadow shafts was such
that they practically drained the whole of the water over a
considerable
area on the land side, much to the benifit of the collieries in the
deep.
Pumping costs were heavy and it was hoped that a scheme of relief could
be divised, possibly with contributions from the Crown, so that the
development
of the Northern United deep gale would not be jeopardised.
Although
obviously hoping that some scheme would be put forward to prolong the
life
of the colliery the Lydney & Crump Meadow Collieries Co. Ltd.
tendered
the surrender of the Crump Meadow, Bilson and other gales held on 7
September
1928 to take effect on 8 March 1929.
Urgent talks then took place and on 8 September the surrender notices
were temporarily withdrawn in the hope that an amalgamation of the
Crump
Meadow and Foxes Bridge collieries could be arranged. This
proposal
fell through although it did prolong the surrender of the gales by six
months. In December the notice that pumping would stop at Crump
Meadow
in March 1929 was given, and in May 1929 three months notice of
cessation
of pumping on the Old Fire Engine No.2, Whimsey No.2 and Setting Sun
No.2
gales was given. The Old Fire Engine gale had been acquired in
January
1926 with the thought of winning some of the Northern United coal
through
it. Another strong reason for its purchase was to protect Crump
Meadow
from water. A tremendous quantity was being pumped at Old Fire
Engine,
approximately 25,000 gallons per hour. This amount could not be
dealt
with at Crump Meadow should pumping stop on Old Fire Engine as the
capacity
of 30,000 gallons per hour was already being handled.
Work on dismantling the colliery began in the middle of 1929 but was
postponed in June in an attempt to find a way to avert the trouble
which
would ensue for other concerns, such as Foxes Bridge, if pumping ceased
in September. The Managing Director of the company, Mr. C. A. J.
Hale, stated: ‘My Directors have explored every possible avenue open to
them before taking the decision to close down, and with the object of
avoiding
that, warmly supported the amalgamation of the house coal collieries
which
appears to be the only practicable method of saving the situation . .
.’
‘. . . Until then we will keep the pit open, although because of the
falling
off in demand for coal and the dimensions of our own stocks, it will
probably
not be possible to work every day.’ Work was, however, to finally
stop on 17 July 1929.
In connection with the amalgamation question it was reported in the
Dean Forest Mercury in August 1929 that 19 million tons of coal could
be
won through amalgamation. It was, however, not to be.
On 8 September 1929 the Victory, Churchway, Nelson, Bilson, Crump
Meadow,
Old Fire Engine No. 2, Whimsey No. 2, and Setting Sun No. 2 gales were
surrendered to the Crown, together with the land and some cottages held
in connection with them. The Company kept some land at Bilson,
including
Bilson House, where its offices were situated and from where the
management
of the companys other interests, including the Arthur & Edward
Colliery
at Lydbrook (Volume 3, page 000), was handled.
By 27 September the dam, a concrete barrier, to hold back the water
which would accumulate in the workings was almost complete. The
purpose
of this was to protect the adjoining concerns and the work was
completed
in early October and pumping ceased on the 5th of that month.
The Cornish pumping engine was being dismantled on the 7 November and
all the plant and machinery was auctioned on the 14th and 15th.
Within
a year the water had flooded the underground workings to a depth of
about
sixty-three feet.
The closure meant that about 150 men lost their jobs. This
comparatively
small number shows that the colliery had been in decline for some
time.
The men were reasonably lucky as, together with about 750 men from
Foxes
Bridge, which closed the following year, that the development of the
Northern
United gale took place and most found jobs at that concern from 1933
onwards.
The Northern United gale, situated a few miles further north, was one
of the gales amalgamated under the 1904 Mines Act. Originally it
was held by the Lydney & Crump Meadow Company who contemplated
development
work right through the 1920s and indeed did some work at the old New
Bowson
shafts. These had been abandoned in 1879 and were not in a
particularly
good condition. It was probably the cost of the development work
which stopped the work and the gale was sold to H. Crawshay & Co.
in
1931 for the sum of £27,000.
12 November 1859 Gloucester Journal FATAL ACCIDENT
On Monday last an adjourned inquest was held at Bilson on William
Elton,
aged 34, who had been killed at the Crump Meadow Pit belonging to Mr.
Goold.
The deceased was employed to draw the water from the pit during the
night.
He went to work at his usual time on Tuesday night week, but had not
commenced
work, and he was afterwards found at the bottom of the shaft dashed
almost
to pieces. No one witnessed the accident but as the weather was
very
boisterous it is supposed that the deceased was blown down the pit.
4 September 1874 application made by Alfred Goold & Tom Goold as owners of Crump Meadow to work barriers in the Rocky & Churchway High Delf between Crump Meadow and Nelson.
23 December 1879 High Court Chancery Division. Between
Caroline
Margaret Goold, widow, on behalf of herself and all Debenture holders
of
the defendant co. and the Bilson & Crump Meadow Colliery Co.
Samuel Wilkinson Woods appointed receiver, John Lawson Whatley
appointed
trade manager and Arnold Thomas working manager.
20 December 1880 Bilson & Crump Meadow Collieries Co. Ltd. late A. Goold & Co.
4 January 1881 Had bought Churchway (above) and Nelson (below) gales.
18 July 1884 Agreement with receivers to sell whole of property to Mr. Hayes on behalf of the Debenture holders. Lydney & Crump Meadow incorporated 17 September 1884.
9 November 1888 The last of the huge hempen ropes, formerly used at collieries has ceased to do duty at Crump Meadow and has been replaced by wire ropes.
2 July 1897 Outing to Manchester - 480 souls.
19 August 1898 Crump Meadow third outing - to Bristol.
29 December 1899 Accident, tub etc. down shaft.
5 February 1909 Dean Forest Mercury Report of a shot firing accident.
22 August 1913 Dean Forest Mercury Mishap at Crump Meadow. No.
1 or Upcast shaft which in working is in balance with the Central shaft
used by the men. Cage with cart coming up wedged 70 yards from surface,
tub fell out, took with it stone walling from an old coffer dam put in
at time of sinking. Men out immediately through Crump Meadow No. 3 and
Duck Pits.
Coal winning suspended Monday & Tuesday but Central shaft rendered
safe on Wednesday.