Trafalgar Colliery

Overview

A Forest of Dean colliery on Serridge Hill near Brierley, notable for installing the first recorded use of electric power underground in a British mine in 1882, until a sudden flood in 1919 led to its neighbours Lightmoor and Foxes Bridge buying it up to protect their own workings.

History

Trafalgar Colliery's mining gale was granted to Cornelius Brain in 1842, though full-scale operations did not begin until around 1860; coal from the adjacent Rose-in-Hand gale was also worked from there from 1867. The colliery reached the Churchway High Delf seam at 586 feet via two shafts served by a single winding engine, and by 1870 was one of the larger Forest pits, employing 800 men and boys. It was notable for genuine technical firsts: lit by gas, and in 1882 it installed electric pumps underground — the first recorded use of electric power in a mine anywhere. Production reached 88,794 tons in 1880 and around 500 tons a day by 1906. At the start of 1919, Trafalgar's main dip roadway was suddenly and unexpectedly flooded; a serious inrush of blackdamp followed attempts to get relief pumps working, making it too dangerous for men to continue in the area, and the colliery had to be closed within days while the whole of the workings were reventilated. No fatalities are recorded from the incident itself, but the flooding proved sufficiently threatening to neighbouring workings that the managements of Lightmoor and Foxes Bridge Collieries bought Trafalgar specifically to protect their own mines from it. Trafalgar itself closed for good in 1925.

Workings

Two shafts served by a single winding engine, reaching the Churchway High Delf seam at 586 feet; the colliery installed electric underground pumps in 1882, the earliest recorded use of electric power in a mine.

Closure

The main dip roadway flooded suddenly in 1919, with a dangerous inrush of blackdamp forcing the colliery's temporary closure for reventilation; the incident led Lightmoor's and Foxes Bridge's managements to buy the colliery to protect their own workings, and Trafalgar itself closed permanently in 1925.

Related mines

• Lightmoor Colliery — Trafalgar's 1919 flooding threatened Lightmoor's own workings badly enough that Lightmoor's (and Foxes Bridge's) management bought Trafalgar outright to control the water, rather than simply because the two collieries were neighbours.

Recorded claims

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

• The gale was granted to Cornelius Brain in 1842; the colliery reached the Churchway High Delf seam at 586 feet via two shafts served by a single winding engine, and by 1870 employed 800 men and boys. ¹
• Trafalgar installed electric pumps underground in 1882, the first recorded use of electric power in a mine. ¹
• At the start of 1919 the main dip roadway flooded suddenly and unexpectedly; a serious inrush of blackdamp followed attempts to get relief pumps working, and the colliery had to be closed within days for the whole of the workings to be reventilated. ¹
• The 1919 flooding threatened neighbouring workings badly enough that the managements of Lightmoor and Foxes Bridge Collieries bought Trafalgar specifically to protect their own mines from it; Trafalgar itself closed in 1925. ¹
• A narrow-gauge tramway connected Trafalgar to the Great Western Railway's Forest of Dean Branch at Bilson, with a later connection, from 1872, to the Severn and Wye Railway. ²

Photographs & further reading

Images

Sources

1. (primary) Trafalgar Colliery — Forest of Dean Local History Society — Forest of Dean Local History Society
2. (secondary) Forest of Dean Coal Mining (Trafalgar) — Forest of Dean Local History Society (lightmoor.co.uk)

Record created: 2 September 2026 · Last researched: 2 September 2026