Lydbrook Colliery

Overview

A Forest of Dean colliery at Upper Lydbrook made up of three gales, Lydbrook Deep Level, Birchen Grove and Pluds', driven from 1862 by Theophilus Creswick and passed through a tangle of owners and lessees until British Red Ash Collieries closed it in 1917.

History

Lydbrook Colliery, at Upper Lydbrook in the Forest of Dean, comprised three gales: Lydbrook Deep Level, first galed in 1816 and re-granted in 1852, Birchen Grove, granted in 1842, and Pluds', granted in 1843. Their early history is so tangled in mortgages and sub-leases that at one point even the Crown's solicitors could not tell who owned them. Theophilus Creswick drove Scotts Level 550 yards further but found only old workings, then pushed the Lydbrook Deep Level 240 yards into coal between 1862 and 1866. The Lydbrook Deep Level Collieries Co. Ltd, formed in 1866 to work all three gales, was wound up in 1870.

Richard Thomas was working the Deep Level in 1880, and the Lydbrook Colliery Co., formed in 1883, built a bridge in 1885 to carry tubs from the level over the Severn and Wye Railway to a siding; a Crown rise in rents and royalties that year, upheld at arbitration, was said to have ruined the partners. The gales, 301 acres above water level working the Coleford High Delf, three to four feet thick, were auctioned in 1891 and bought by Richard Thomas and Co. Ltd for £1,500, who sank Pluds' pit in 1892-93 to the Coleford High Delf at 394 feet. It employed 398 in 1905 but still proved hard to make pay, and passed in 1912 to the British Red Ash Collieries Co. Ltd, which closed it in 1917. The gales were surrendered to the Crown about 1922-23. Little remains, part of the site is built over, and the bricked-up entrances of Scotts and the Deep Level may survive.

Geology

The Yorkley and Coleford High Delf seams of the Pennant group (middle Upper Coal Measures); the Coleford High Delf here three to four feet thick.

Workings

Two adit levels, Scotts Level and the Lydbrook Deep Level, and Pluds' shaft (1892-93); a tub bridge of 1885 over the Severn and Wye Railway to sidings at Upper Lydbrook.

Closure

Closed by the British Red Ash Collieries Co. Ltd in 1917; the gales were assigned on and probably surrendered to the Crown in 1922-23.

What remains

Little remains; part of the site is built over.

The bricked-up entrances of Scotts Level and the Lydbrook Deep Level may survive.

Related mines

• Arthur and Edward Colliery — Physical link and shared plan: men trapped at Arthur and Edward in 1949 were rescued through the old Pluds' shaft of Lydbrook Colliery, and one BGS abandonment plan covers both.

Recorded claims

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

• Lydbrook Colliery comprised the Lydbrook Deep Level, Birchen Grove and Pluds' gales. ^1,2
• Theophilus Creswick began work on Scotts and Lydbrook Deep Levels in 1862. ^1,2
• In 1891 the three gales were auctioned and bought by Richard Thomas and Co. Ltd for £1,500. ²
• Pluds' shaft, sunk in 1892-93, reached the Coleford High Delf seam at 394 feet. ¹
• Lydbrook Deep Level employed 398 people in 1905. ³
• Lydbrook Colliery was closed by the British Red Ash Collieries Co. Ltd in 1917. ¹
• A combined BGS abandonment plan covers Arthur and Edward, Worral Hill and Lydbrook Deep in the Coleford High Delf. ⁴

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) Lydbrook Colliery (Forest of Dean Local History Society) — Forest of Dean Local History Society
2. (secondary) Lydbrook Deep Level (Lightmoor, Forest of Dean coal) — Lightmoor Press
3. (primary) Lydbrook Deep Level — Durham Mining Museum
4. (primary) BGS / Mining Remediation Authority mine plan 21847304: Arthur and Edward (Waterloo), Worral Hill (Lydbrook Deep), Coleford High Delf, abandoned 1959 — British Geological Survey

Record created: 23 October 2026 · Last researched: 23 October 2026