Addis Hill Colliery

Overview

A Forest of Dean gale on the eastern side of the coalfield near Cinderford, confirmed to the free miner James Cowmeadow by the awards of 1841 although he had been working it before that. It took the Coleford High Delf Seam and possibly the Brazilly, and was served by a tramroad connection to the Whimsey branch of the Forest of Dean Railway. After 1873 it was absorbed into Haywood Colliery and its coal raised through the Haywood Pit. Work seems to have stopped by 1893; Albert Schofield bought the colliery in 1900, John Walby the gale in 1915, and a final phase under Ivo Baldwin ran from 1931 to 1935, after which the gale was surrendered to the Crown. The official 1880 list of collieries at work returns it as "Addle Hill Level".

History

The gale was confirmed upon James Cowmeadow, a free miner of Cinderford, by the awards of 1841, although he had been working it before then without its having been granted to him. There appears to have been no production between 1841 and 1845, and then 2,074 tons in 1846. Cowmeadow had died by April 1848 and the gale probably passed to his widow Elizabeth, as another of his gales — Cinderford Bridge Pit — did; when she disposed of it is not known. After 1873 Addis Hill formed part of Haywood Colliery, worked by the Littledean Woodside Coal Company, which was incorporated that February specifically to acquire the Haywood and Addis Hill collieries with a capital of £25,000 in 5,000 five-pound shares. Edwin Crawshay was chairman with 500 shares; Samuel Wilkinson Woods, Henry Richards Lückes and Francis Nash held five each and George Morgan, George Frederick Morgan and Thomas Smith one apiece. Crawshay was at the same time trying to acquire the Richard Whites gale to extend the ground — he did not succeed until 1876 — and did add Smith’s Delight, a strip of coal fifty-eight chains long and one chain wide on the deep side of Haywood Pit, to win the Coleford High Delf. The company borrowed from the Standard Building Society, the sum proved insufficient, and it went into liquidation in 1882 and was wound up voluntarily in February 1884. Crawshay carried the works on until 1885, when the building society itself was wound up; facing the loss of his colliery he induced friends to find the capital, and they formed the Haywood Colliery Co. Ltd with Edwin Morgan as secretary. It is Henry Crawshay & Co. that the official 1880 list of collieries at work names against "Addle Hill Level, Cinderford". Work appears to have stopped by 1893. Albert Schofield bought the colliery in 1900 and had sidings at Churchway on the Forest of Dean branch in use by 1908; Addis Hill still seems to have been worked through the Haywood Level at that date, with a shaft on the Fairplay Iron Mine drainage adit also in use. Work ceased about 1910 and was resumed after John Walby bought the gale in 1915. The last phase of activity was Ivo Baldwin’s, from 1931 to 1935, after which the gale was surrendered to the Crown.

Geology

The Coleford High Delf Seam of the Pennant Group, here between one foot six inches and six feet six inches thick, and possibly the Brazilly Seam of the Supra-Pennant Group above it. This is the eastern side of the Forest of Dean basin above Cinderford, where the same seams that were worked by level in the west lie deeper and were reached through neighbouring pits — which is why Addis Hill’s later coal came up someone else’s shaft.

Geological setting: Sedimentary Beds and Seams (well documented example)

Workings

A level rather than a shaft, in the ordinary Forest of Dean way, with a tramroad connection to the Whimsey branch tramroad of the Forest of Dean Railway. From 1873 the coal was raised through the Haywood Pit rather than at Addis Hill itself, and by 1908 the working was through the Haywood Level, with a shaft on the drainage adit of the Fairplay Iron Mine also in use — three different ways in and out of one gale over thirty-five years, none of them its own.

Closure

Addis Hill stopped and restarted repeatedly: work appears to have stopped by 1893, resumed under Albert Schofield from 1900, ceased about 1910, resumed after John Walby bought the gale in 1915, and ran a final time under Ivo Baldwin from 1931 to 1935. The gale was then surrendered to the Crown — the formal end of a claim that had run since before 1841.

What remains

Nothing has been identified on the ground. The gale ground lies on the wooded slopes above Cinderford, and the Whimsey branch tramroad that served it has long gone.

Nothing specific to the colliery has been identified.

Nearby mines

• All Profit Colliery — 1.2 km SW
• Northern United Colliery — 2.2 km SW
• Trafalgar Colliery — 2.6 km SE, Forest of Dean
• Lightmoor Colliery — 2.8 km SE, Forest of Dean
• Foxes Bridge Colliery — 3.2 km SW

Straight-line distance, within 15 km. Show on the map.

Recorded claims

Individual factual claims, each attached to the source(s) that support it below. Where sources disagree, both are kept.

• The official list of collieries at work in 1880 returns the pit as "Addle Hill Level, Cinderford, H. Craweshay and Co." — the name and spelling under which this record was queued, although the local histories call the colliery Addis Hill. ¹
• The gale was confirmed upon James Cowmeadow, a free miner of Cinderford, by the awards of 1841, although he had been working it beforehand without its having been granted to him; there appears to have been no production between 1841 and 1845, and 2,074 tons in 1846. ^2,3
• The colliery worked the Coleford High Delf Seam of the Pennant Group, 1 ft 6 in to 6 ft 6 in thick, and possibly the Brazilly Seam of the Supra-Pennant Group, and was served by a tramroad connection to the Whimsey branch tramroad of the Forest of Dean Railway. ²
• The Littledean Woodside Coal Co. was incorporated in February 1873 to acquire the Haywood and Addis Hill collieries with a capital of £25,000 in 5,000 £5 shares, Edwin Crawshay as chairman holding 500 of them; it went into liquidation in 1882 and was wound up voluntarily in February 1884. ³
• Work appears to have stopped by 1893; Albert Schofield bought the colliery in 1900 and had sidings at Churchway in use by 1908, Addis Hill still being worked through the Haywood Level with a shaft on the Fairplay Iron Mine drainage adit also in use. Work ceased about 1910, resumed after John Walby bought the gale in 1915, and ended with Ivo Baldwin’s activity of 1931–1935, after which the gale was surrendered to the Crown. ²

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) List of coal mines UK 1880 — Coalmining History Resource Centre
2. (secondary) Addis Hill Colliery — Forest of Dean Local History Society
3. (secondary) Addis Hill — Forest of Dean Coal Mining — Lightmoor Press
4. (secondary) A History of the County of Gloucester: Volume 5, Bledisloe Hundred, St Briavels Hundred, the Forest of Dean — Industry — Victoria County History / British History Online

Record created: 6 September 2026 · Last researched: 6 September 2026