Of all these sections of inquiry, the only one which the Commissioners found they could at this time bring to a close was that having reference to St. Briavel’s Court, respecting which it appeared in evidence that out of the 402 suits brought into it during the last twelve months, all but five were for debts mostly under £5, to recover which a charge of £6 or £7 might be incurred.
The prison attached to the Court is thus described:—“There is only one window, which is 1 foot wide, and in a recess. It does not open. The size of the room is 16½ feet by 17½ feet; 13 feet high; three corners cut off. In one corner is the doorway, 2½ feet broad, but no door, leading into the passage about 6 feet long, out of which the privy opens. There is a door at the outer end of the passage, and in it a hole which is considered necessary for air. The floor and ceiling are of wood, and in the former are several crevices and holes. There is a space between the ceiling of the parlour beneath and the floor of the prison-room above, which is so filled with fleas and dust that in summer time it cannot be got rid of by any cleanliness. The privy is a dark winding recess, about 6 feet from front to back, taken out of the solid castle walls. It leads to a hole going down to the bottom
of the building, which is always inaccessible for cleaning, but which till six years ago had a drain from it into the moat; the air draws up through it into the passage and room. There is no water within the prisoners’ liberty, and they are therefore obliged to get some person to fetch it for them. The Courtroom is in a bad state.”
In consideration of these facts, the Commissioners in their Report upon it, which was published 7th July, very properly declared that the said Court was an evil, and required remodelling altogether, and they suggested its conversion into a Court of Requests, in which the strict forms of law might be dispensed with, parties appearing and being examined in person, without the intervention of professional agents. Its Commissioners might comprise the Constable of the Castle of St. Briavel’s, the verderers of the Forest, the magistrates of the neighbourhood, and about thirty other persons, any two of whom, under the presidency of one of the former, should form a Court, and decide cases of debt from 10s. to £10, with power to direct payment of the debt by
instalments, or levies upon goods on failure of payment, there being no imprisonment of the person except for fraud, which should then take place in the county gaol at Little Dean, where, or at Coleford, the Court should meet the first Monday in every month. Such was the purport of the Report the Commissioners made to Parliament on the 7th July in this year.
The Fourth Annual Report of the Commissioners of Woods, &c., dated the 28th of August, 1832, states that Messrs. Hill had obtained the permission of the Crown, under a lease for thirty-one years, and a rental of £25, to remove all that they could find of the slag, cinders, and refuse of the ancient ironworks; thus resuming an occupation which had been discontinued for many years. The new Fancy Pits were now furnished with two engines and we also find that for a time timber ceased to be supplied from this Forest to the Royal Dockyards.
The Dean Forest Commissioners resumed their sittings the next year (1833) on the 12th of April at Newnham, and proceeded to hear further evidence “as to the rights and privileges claimed by free miners;” but the only
important occurrence which ensued was the presentation of a “Memorial,” by Mr. Mushet, on behalf of parties not free miners, specifying the claims which such proprietors and occupiers of coal and iron mines in the Forest had to the support of Government in maintaining their position in the district. The Memorial states that “foreigners” had possessed coal and iron mines time out of mind, as appeared by the case of several gentlemen and freeholders of the parish of Newland, who, as long since as the year 1675, claimed the right to open certain works without any objection being made by the free miners, a liberty which, whenever it was acted upon, seems always to have benefited the public; that none of the documents of the Mine Law Court appear to exclude foreigners from working the mines; on the contrary, the Resolutions of that Court, passed 1775, establish such a right, allowing the free miner to sell or bequeath his property in the mines to any persons he may think proper; that the old gale-books contain the names of many persons not free miners, which, with similar testimony from Messrs. Tovey, James, &c., showed such to have been the uniform practice for sixty years; that the foreigners have always carried on their works with the full knowledge and authority of the Crown; that the free miners do not possess the necessary capital for carrying on the works, in which the foreigners have invested £700,000; and, lastly, that the Crown has gained several thousand pounds per annum in consequence. Twenty-one persons signed this Memorial, as also the representatives of the Forest of Dean and the Cinderford Iron Companies.