Moseley Green mines and railway tunnel July 08

[crickleymal]

Moseley Green is in the Forset of Dean between Parkend and Blakeney. There's a cracking pub there called The Rising Sun where the caving club meet on Wednesdays. I was leading a few friends on a walk around there looking at a few mining sites and the old rail tunnel there which I believe was on the Mineral Loop line from Whitecroft.

Again these shots were taken on a point and shoot and it was nearly dusk so the quality isn't brilliant.

Brick Pit Colliery.
Tony Oldham's book Mines of the Forest of Dean wrongly identifies this as Oldcroft Colliery.

I have no idea what this small tunnel is, it doesn't go far, could be a flue maybe.

Down near the railway line we found some more modern levels

A bit of ventilation ducting

Moseley Green Tunnel
We think this might have been a water chute

It's pretty foggy inside. This is a partially burnt structure supporting the tunnel where the road runs across

And just to add interest to our walk, fifteen minutes after we turned off the railway some scrotes drove up and torched the car they arrived in.

 

[smiffy]

Hiya mate...nice up around there ain't it??
I live about 10 minutes drive from here and grew up mooching the area...
The thing you thought was a water chute was a coal shute from a little 'freemine' that was up on the bank many years ago .it led down onto the old railway line where the coal was loaded into a pick up truck...I first went to this site when I was about 12 and there was an old truck left below the shute on the line in those days....further down the line towards Whitecroft were a lot more freemines but they have all closed now.....The timber structure inside the tunnel was put in around 1960 to help support the roof cos the tunnel is a relatively 'shallow' one............some kids set fire to the staging about 15/20 years ago and it was a real devil for the fire brigade to put out............The little 'sheds' in front of the tunnel were built by the Ministry of Supply in 1940 ish as a guard hut and small canteen for the men working there storing ammunition in the tunnel.....this only lasted a few months though because further up the track (on through the tunnel) was one of the biggest above ground ammo dumps in the UK and the blocking of the tunnel to store more ammo was making the operation of the big dump at Acorn Patch a hassle so the tunnel was emptied and brought back into use.........The whole mineral line was abandoned completely by about 1956 because by then all the collieries that it served were closed and the Acorn Patch Depot was finally empty.......yes... it did take aover 10 years to shift all the ammo so you can tell how much was stored there........There's not much left at Acorn Patch now (always known in the Forest of Dean as 'Akam Patch') just a bit of concrete here and there but lots of stuff like ammo boxs and mortar shell racks etc has been dug up over the years by folk with metal detectors like me hahahah !.............
Oh yeah forgot to say that the 2 shafts at Brick Colliery were only capped a few years ago............

 

[crickleymal]

Thanks for that. We were wondering exactly what that chute was. It didn't seem right for a water chute.

 

[borntobemild]

I had a wander round Brick Pit when i was in the area last month. As Smiffy says, there has been a lot of 'tidying up' done over the last couple of years. Wish I'd been there earlier. It's very overgrown so I didn't take any photos. Intend to go back in the winter when it will be easier to see what's what.

Rising Sun looks like a lovely pub. Always intend to go there but never give myself enough time.

Smiffy is a mine of information about the Forest. Sorry about that.

 

[Foxylady]

Smiffy is a mine of information about the Forest. Sorry about that.

At least he isn't the pits!

Love these sites. It's interesting seeing all the bits of clues dotted about in, around and under the undergrowth. Looks like it was a nice walk and explore (apart from the idiots with the car :icon_evil ). Cheers

 

[BigLoada]

I love stuff like this. Rural locarions with industrial aretefacts waiting to be discovered! And if its a mine its even better

Its really interesting this and thansk Smiffy for the added info. I keep forgetting about the colmines down that way, as well as the ones in Kent. Always good to see mining stuff from the South.

 

[smiffy]

I................ I keep forgetting about the colmines down that way, as well as the ones in Kent. Always good to see mining stuff from the South.

Forest of Dean was a big coal field at one time .........peaked around 1940 ish really ...last big colliery closed 1965............also don't forget that Bristol and Somerset , (Radstock , Midsomer Norton area etc ) had some really serious collieries...they all closed roughly around the same sorta time the Dean was worked out .....

 

[crickleymal]

I had a wander round Brick Pit when i was in the area last month. As Smiffy says, there has been a lot of 'tidying up' done over the last couple of years.

We're lucky now. The previous gaveller of the Forest had a policy that if it's out of use for more than a couple of years it gets levelled.