Oliver Burch's Game Fishing Monthly Report - November 2024

November was here already and the days had become short and dark. Since we moved our home to the estuary side of town, on the edge of the flats known as the New Grounds, we have become used to the mewing of gulls as a constant backdrop to domestic life. Most mornings at dawn or dusk the wild geese fly over, talking to each other as they come and go with the tides from the Severn sands. The birds remind us that the salt water is not far away. For a while the continuing autumn warmth seemed strange. My wife is the one who looks after the gardening in our household, and she has been seeing a mix of her plants flowering again. At the beginning of the month she showed me hollyhocks, geraniums, broom, all putting out new growth and new buds. The goldfish in my pond were then still feeding happily every day. I remembered I saw just one early morning frost in a forest hollow during September, and none at all during October.

During these dry days the main River Wye came into what most anglers would call excellent condition, running clear and the level falling off. However, results were quite modest, both for the grayling fishers at the top end and those after barbel and chub lower down. On the final day of October, AD from Monmouth reported a very fine grayling of 48cm taken in a brace from Craig Llyn. WD from North Nibley had a dozen small grayling on nymphs at Gromaine and Upper Llanstephan. He mentioned that 10 canoes and 3 paddleboards came through during his day, although that is quite in accordance with the agreement with riparian owners, the salmon season being over.  DA from Warsash reported that the gate near the sawmill parking at the lower end of Doldowlod is broken off its hinges and therefore difficult to pass and leave secure. Most of the barbel fishers in Herefordshire and Gloucestershire had to content themselves with a handful of fish, but specimens of 9 and 10 pounds were included in the catches.      

On the first day of November, again a remarkably warm one, but with ubiquitous low cloud cover to exclude the light, I drove up to Herefordshire to fish the Lugg. Trotting is the decreed method here once we are into winter time and so it would be a matter of camping in the mud amidst dying sedges and the debris of earlier floods to run a float down one of the more open swims. The Lugg was still high, greenish in colour, swirling and sucking as it raced through trailing willow branches. In fact there were still a few willow flies bumbling about and even the occasional rising grayling, but there was no question of fly-fishing or wading on this day. Instead, after a few out of season trout at the head of the swim, the float took a steady toll of grayling lying deep underneath overhanging brambles on the near bank. Some of them were good fish.

Here I was on the flatlands of the Lugg, which has left its Welsh hills for good to meander down towards the Wye at Hereford. This landscape is prone to flooding; the dead leaves and sticks from the last spate caught in fences and gates were a witness to that, along with the grassy flood banks running across the pastures on either side. As the darkness of the afternoon came seeping in early, the mallard came flying low and calling across the sky. I remembered winter days when I used to work on cleaning wild streams like this in Herefordshire with farmer Tony Norman; a time would come when he would look at his watch and declare that he should be getting on. We knew quite well that he had a flight pond on his land and wanted to be waiting ready for a duck or two at dusk. Later I had a day here on the Lugg flats with my son who had acquired a new centre pin reel he wanted to try out. Grayling were biting again as his bright orange-tipped float ran down between beds of flags dying back. Otherwise, all the landscape colours had faded to greys and browns. We saw not a soul on the meadows, although there was a great white egret haunting the willow copses

It turned out that we would never see the sun at all during the first 10 days of November; instead the high pressure had left us with a ubiquitous grey cloud covering the sky, warm air temperatures but low levels of light. The coarse fishing on the main Wye was still ticking over with a few barbel and chub taken. RE from Cwmbran reported 8 chub from Holme Lacy 3 and Lechmere’s Ley.  SE from Abergavenny with a friend had 7 grayling from the Irfon at Melyn Cildu, one on a Duck’s Dun and the rest on nymphs. Several out of season salmon had reached the top of this tributary and one grabbed a nymph, subsequently to be lost. AP from Wirral had 8 grayling shotts on nymphs at Abernant. MH from Swansea had 6 grayling to 16 inches at Gromaine and Upper Llanstephan using pink and purple bugs, and made some efforts to straighten the camera gauge sign which we all rely on so much. (A subsequent flood pushed it over again). PT from Kidderminster had 20 grayling and 4 chub while trotting the Lugg at Eyton.   

By the time we reached Guy Fawkes Night the low cloud had turned into a thick, wet fog, with the temperature remaining above 10 degrees even at night. PA from Bristol blanked at Skenfrith and found some EA staff busy cutting up a tree which had lodged on the bridge there. I have seen that happen more than once. For some reason that particular bridge, which was built in 1820, traps debris with great efficiency. The parapet on one side is missing and there is a story that it was taken down during World War 2 to enable RAF transporters, presumably headed for the military depot at Pontrilas, to cross it. AP from Wirral fished at Eyton for 20 grayling to 12 inches. AH from Witney was on the main Wye at the Creel, “…leaden skies and a wild day,” and caught a barbel of 5 pounds 9 ounces and 17 chub to 4.5 pounds. FS from Banstead had a chub and half a dozen grayling from Abernant. Regular angler AG from Harleston in Norfolk had a good day at Doldowlod taking 18 grayling to 16 inches. AW from Salisbury took 9 grayling from the Lugg at Lyepole trotting maggots with a split cane rod: “A perfect day, thanks WUF.” CT from Cardiff accounted for 12 grayling from the River Taff Fiddler’s Elbow to Abercynon section using a Pink Shrimp.

We read some mixed reports about the Middle Hill Court beat on the lower Wye. On the 6th CH from Bridport caught 25 chub on what he described as a nice autumn day and “…the guns were out,” so it was noisy. They rear and shoot a lot of pheasants on the Hill Court estate and some afternoons sound like Sealed Knot battle re-enactments. On the following day with a friend CH reported two barbel to 7 pounds 2 ounces and 20 chub. By contrast, IH from Swinstead cancelled two booked days at Middle Hill Court due to a described “lack of facilities” and “lack of fishable swims.” I am not sure what was expected from this rural estate and a winter river of steep muddy banks. CM from Keynsham fishing Middle Hill Court on the 11th with two friends sprang to the beat’s defence in his later report, describing lots of access provided by keeper Stefan with cut steps and ropes. He does recommend anglers to bring a dog spike as well as additional ropes. They caught 7 barbel and 5 chub. A week later CD from Devon took 8 barbel and 16 chub at Middle Hill Court and had this to say about the beat: “…loads of swims to fish from. You have to tread carefully in some, but this is the UK, river banks are grassy, muddy, and it gets wet. This is a stunning stretch of the Wye.” 

AW from Salisbury fished the upper river at Gromaine and Lower Llanstephan, catching 9 grayling from 9-12 inches with the trotting rod. He added a warning about the steep track leading down to the river and the fishing hut, with a very restricted turning space at the bottom. I would suggest that there is not a need for a 4WD as such, but you do need some decent ground clearance on your vehicle here. This is no place to try parking a Ferrari! If you are lucky enough to have such a car, you can always park a few hundred yards back just off the main road by the suspension bridge. As others before him, AG from Harleston had some detailed information about attempts to access the Severn Arms beat 1 on the Ithon: “Access to most of this beat is impossible…not a lot to have a go at.” He did manage 7 grayling to 16 inches on the 100 yards or so of river he could reach. CP from Brecon caught 11 grayling trotting at the Rectory, while AN from Mountain Ash had 13 from Abernant. DH from Ormskirk had a grayling and 24 chub from the Creel: “Wall to wall chub taking on maggot feeder. Great sport.”

On the 13th we had the welcome news from the Foundation that the crayfish plague on the upper Wye had now subsided to the extent that closed beats could be re-opened. This gets us back on to the Irfon and the Arrow for the remainder of the grayling season. The skies were clearer now, leading to sunny days but much colder nights and early mornings. GM from Shrewsbury caught 18 grayling at Dolgau. DM from Camberley had just the one grayling but 27 chub at Middle Ballingham and Fownhope No 8. AT from Basingstoke found himself fishing alone at How Caple Court, so he baited up 6 swims and fished them in rotation. He reported 6 chub for his day. NT from Bognor Regis had 10 chub from the Creel on the 14th, a warm and bright day, while PB from Churchdown with a friend were fishing dry flies at Llangoed and Lower Llanstephan. They caught 24 grayling to 15 inches and never needed tungsten to plumb the depths.

CD from Devon found a frost when he arrived at Middle Hill Court on the 15th, but experienced sunshine later and reported 7 barbel to 10 pounds and 13 chub to 6 pounds. NT from Bognor Regis fished at the Creel and caught a barbel of 4 pounds 8 ounces and 10 chub between 3 and 5 pounds. AB from Bodenham caught 20 grayling trotting at Lyepole, enjoyed himself tremendously, and wondered whether the WUF could sign up any more Lugg beats. Well, any new sign-ups for Lugg fisheries will certainly have my approval and we have had a few of them in the past, including Bodenham itself. Mortimer’s Cross is much missed, along with the Mill at Mortimer’s Cross. Notoriously, the once lovely autumn beat at Dayhouse Farm has been destroyed by the owner. AH from Southampton with a friend fished at Foy Bridge and as one of them is disabled asked if a coarse fishing beat with easier access could be recommended. Allyson at the Foundation suggested Lower Carrots and Luggsmouth, which has a long, constructed walk-way not far above the river level. WD from North Nibley with a friend had 5 grayling at Ty Newydd and again reported large numbers of canoes launching from the inlet of the Bachawy stream. At this time of the year, that is quite within the terms of the agreement made with canoeists – but see below for news of what seems to be a renewed attempt to open up unrestricted canoeing on a free-roaming basis.

On the evening of 15th November I drove over the Black Mountains pass to Talgarth for the WUF AGM. Feeling in need of a break, I stopped on the way for a coffee from the flask. With the car lights switched off, I was just in time to see the so-called Beaver Moon rising slowly over the rim of Waun Fach until it cleared and became a giant, completely full, a great silver disc casting its glare into the valley woods. It looked enormous and inevitably put me in mind of sewin fishing nights in the past. Not that moonlit nights are very good for sea trout fishing, muggy darkness under clouds being more suitable for success in that dark art, but there was something invigorating about being out in the river alone on a bright night even if a cold mist followed later and the sea trout weren’t taking. Sewin fishing these days is a shadow of what it used to be, just as the 2024 rod catch from the Wye is the worst result recorded in modern times. 

Walking back to the car, the super-moon was riding even higher over the mountain. There was much to ponder on the road home. Later I tried to write down for my own benefit what might be reliably summarised about the situation from an angler’s perspective. One thing is for sure: in the case of migratory fish, we have big problems on all our rivers. There is no unimpeachably accurate source for salmon rod catches, but the WUF’s figure for the Wye this year stands at 197. The Usk catch is more difficult but Guy Mawle has a system for estimating the minimum and maximum annual figure and has come up with 41-82 for 2024. Until we have a figure from NRW catch returns (admitted by all to be an unreliable measure) we will not know with any certainty about the sea trout rivers further west, but anecdotally at least I am assured the sewin fishing has been very bad again. Anecdotally again, or working from my own and client’s results and reading the catch reports of others in order to compare the results of the last couple of years against those of 10 or 15 years ago, I have the following impressions:

Salmon fishing Wye and Usk systems: very poor and much reason for concern.

Brown trout fishing main Usk: still excellent and holding its own.

Brown trout fishing upper Usk tributaries: poor, reason for concern

Brown trout fishing main upper Wye: some deterioration

Grayling fishing main upper Wye: deterioration, reason for concern.

Brown trout fishing Irfon: some deterioration.

Grayling fishing Irfon: considerable deterioration except for a few big fish top end, reason for concern.

Brown trout and grayling fishing Ithon: continues poor as always, a few big grayling high up the system.

Brown trout fishing Lugg: continues excellent

Grayling fishing Lugg: continues excellent.

Brown trout fishing Arrow: some deterioration

Grayling fishing Arrow: some deterioration

Brown trout fishing main stem Monnow: drastic decline, reason for concern

Grayling fishing main Monnow: apparently deteriorating

Brown trout fishing upper Monnow tributaries: still good and holding its own

Coarse fishing, barbel and chub, middle and lower Wye: truly excellent and probably improving

To repeat, this is no more than an impression and not all of it backed up by the science. Was the game fishing so much better 15 years ago or were we just slightly better anglers in our younger and more vigorous days?  It's an open question.  

Winter arrived with a shock on the night of the 18th/19th. The Indian summer suddenly ended as the temperature fell to zero and either sleet or snow fell all night and all next morning. Fishing was more or less at a halt, but on the 22nd GM from Lutterworth sent in an enthusiastic report from Lyepole on the Lugg. He had arrived in an air temperature of 3 degrees and with 3 inches of snow lying on the ground. These conditions with the river at 0.51 metres on the Byton gauge were hardly reasons for optimism, but he caught 21 grayling: “Wonderful day’s fishing on an idyllic stretch of river.” That was the last successful fishing for quite a while as drenching rain followed. Storm Bert came stealing around our shores for another day and night before it hit, and when it arrived it moved very slowly across our region. Air temperatures climbed once more into double figures, but the rains and strong winds once the storm arrived were continuous. Rivers everywhere rose even higher; even the little Forest of Dean streams were flooding beyond their banks. The morning of Sunday 24th came as a further shock, with floods now developing everywhere, red warnings from the EA, another 24 hours of rain due and a very strong gale blowing. One tends to think of flooding as a problem for low-lying areas near rivers only. In practice, a dip in the road and a drain blocked with fallen leaves is enough to cause chaos. Such pools began to appear all over the landscape, even on the A48 where cars became trapped on higher sections. Roads were turning into rivers. Hollows filled up while drain grids on the sloping sections erupted with pulsing fountains. I really miss my old Landrover and its ground clearance at times like these. A short early morning drive to Woolaston with wipers going at full speed had to be abandoned due to flooded roads while a friend with a Range Rover met us halfway instead. Once back home he found his farm kitchen filling with liquid mud due to a blocked ditch uphill. Back in the town centre, water from the Cannop Brook, confusingly known here as the River Lyd or the Newerne Stream, reached the bottom of the main street and began to seep into the offices of Lloyds Bank and surrounding shops. The council houses in Forest Road and 19th century villas on Station Road began to flood as the river spread out over the sports fields and some of the outlying farm land. There was a rush to get the cattle off the New Grounds to the higher parts of the estate. We began to worry about our own cottage which occupies a level not very much higher. The road leading up the valley towards Parkend and Coleford had been invaded by the river and cars were stranded up to their windscreens. As the evening came on and with rain still falling, we watched the water rising in the town’s main street, flooding its shops one by one until it topped the river bridge and we realised that for now the community was cut in half. There was a real risk that the bridge would be destroyed by the current.

For most of the year the little Newerne Stream is a seemingly harmless feature as it passes in two branches through our town. Half a mile upstream in the Forest it used to power three forges and a dozen wheels for the iron industry with associated mill ponds and leats, and it still fills a small 18th century canal which once moved boats laden with iron bars to the Pill, which later became the port. A tin-plate works followed, one of the largest in the world at the time, and the source of the town’s wealth. The industry is all gone now, and what remains in the forest upstream is a maze of overgrown bog through which the stream threads its way, full of biting mosquitoes in summer, an impassable mess of brown water, mud and fallen trees in winter. The 19th century heritage railway line to the upper valley remains, restored now and working in steam to transport tourists. The little river is full of trout and anglers fish on the WUF section in the woods.

In this time of flood I gave some thought to the two big reservoirs upstream in the Forest. Here two more dams built during the 1820s for the former iron works at Parkend have been declared defective and are due for remedial works. Meanwhile a fishing syndicate member reported that the 18 inch drain on our own Forest Pool a few miles away was unable to void the water flooding into the valley and the level of the lake was rising towards the path and top of the 19th century dam there. For now I couldn’t think of a thing we could do about that, although the dam carries a road and buried service lines.

At the end of the day the mayor sent round a message thanking the emergency services and everybody who had worked to save property and keep people safe. The future of the bridge was at that stage still uncertain. After the local drama, there was some time to look around at what had happened in the region. There had been several deaths due to flooding and fallen trees. The railway line to Newport was closed as were a number of major and minor roads including the main road into Gloucester. Flood alerts were scattered all over the map of Wales and western England. Wales and particularly the Valleys seem to have suffered worse than anywhere else. Of the main rivers, the Wye was already flooding at Hereford and Ross, and the Usk was flooding at Abergavenny. We could no doubt expect the mighty Severn to be causing us trouble in a couple of days as it gathered waters from North Wales and the West Midlands.

Next morning was clear and cold, Storm Bert having wandered away to trouble northern counties. The sun was shining on miles of shallow water lying on the New Grounds. In town the flood had obviously passed its peak, and the water was no longer battering at the parapet of the bridge, but swirling through the top of the arch. However, large cracks had appeared in the stone work. The mayor, formerly a neighbour of ours known for her fancy cakes, was inspecting the damage with engineers and the road was closed to traffic. Staff were swabbing out the muddy floors of the Bank, Kemal’s Restaurant, the Factory Shop, the hairdresser and the chippie. Word came from the Forest that the level of our fishing pool had now dropped enough to expose the outlet channel and there was no damage to the dam. The thick colour was slowly leaving the water. A couple of days later, while they were still mopping up in town, I visited our Forest pool on a frosty morning and caught a couple of hefty rainbows with an intermediate line and a Black Lure.

I have only just been made aware of a public consultation launched by DEFRA and the Welsh Government on a proposed reform of existing regulations (2013) for designated coastal and inland bathing sites. Why is this needed? “There have been changes to how and where people use bathing sites since the Regulations were introduced…It is the government’s intention to pursue an increase in the designation of safe bathing water sites.”

As an angler, you may not think too much of all this. After all, our interests and those of swimmers are more or less the same these days, aren’t they? We all care that the water should be clean, we are all protesting about pollution, and surely we can put up with the odd wild swimmer coming through the beat? I seem to remember that in my youth we swam where we could and when we could if the weather was warm and nobody seemed to mind about it. What need of organised bathing sites? Still, the way of the modern world is seemingly always to organise everything and make a mess in the process. And as always the devil is in the detail. Of the proposed reforms in the consultation, “Wider Reform no 1” entails: “Clarification and expansion of the definition of bathers to include other water users. Bathers is currently understood by its common meaning as swimmers only. We are seeking views on whether a wider range of water users should be considered, and if so, what other types of users should be included and how their needs can be balanced against current users.” There follows a list of other potential users including canoeists, paddle-boarders, small boats, rowers, wind-surfers etc. Anglers are included in this list of options (although in most cases they already have purchased the right of access).

I have a strong sense that the hand of the canoe unions can be detected here, and that this is a continuation of their relentless efforts to obtain freedom-to-roam paddling access everywhere. Currently designated bathing sites (which may involve 100 plus swimmers during the bathing season) are mostly on the coast, but they can and will be opened in fresh waters with all sorts of implications for the environment and the local authorities who will have to manage them. Once a large group of canoeists have free and legal access to the top of a presently unnavigable waterway such as the Upper Wye or Usk, they will almost certainly expand through the rest of the system. DEFRA have stated that they are anxious to hear views from businesses, farmers, landowners, NGOs and water companies, but make no mention of contacting riparian owners and anglers, in other words those most interested who already have control of the banks and access to the waters based on existing law. One wonders for the reason for that omission, given that there is only 6 weeks for consultation? It seems to me that anglers and fishery owners should have their say on this matter and if you share my concerns I would encourage you to fill in the online consultation document before the period expires on 24th December. Here is the link: Bathing Water Consultation

Way back in the dog-days of August and long before the first rains of autumn arrived, there wasn’t very much to be doing with the fishing and it was rather a dull time for me. Too hot for the salmon and little enough water for the trout, even in the tributaries. From other waters we were excluded due to the crayfish plague. On one of these hot afternoons I walked round our Forest Pool. In warm water the rainbow trout were cruising slowly in a rather lackadaisical sort of way, and I had more sense than to bother them with a fly rod. The syndicate would leave restocking until October. The exception was a koi carp which somebody has introduced without asking us and which seemed to be zipping around and full of beans. It is growing larger every month. The goldfish in my pond were equally fond of the sunshine during these summer months.

Instead I killed time with a walk under the shady trees in the neighbouring valley of the Blackpool Brook and on the way back to the car almost stumbled over a semi-circular stone doorway let into the bank. This doesn’t lead to a hobbit’s dwelling but is the entry to a free miner’s gale which was once registered in the name of our old friend John Hodges. I had forgotten it was there. John was secretary of the Free Miners Association at the time and his gale, which re-opened the old Morse’s Level entrance of 1831, was intended to reach parts of the Yorkley and High Delf coal seams left behind by Morse and the nearby Howbeach deep mine, which itself closed in 1926.

Forest of Dean geology which includes folds of sandstone, both Green Pennant and Gloucester Red, limestone, millstone grit, quartz, ironstone and coal is complicated. Men have been digging beneath the Forest floor since the time of the Romans, resulting in a maze of workings, ancient and modern, existing and collapsed. The tramlines and the gate are in place at Morse’s Level but the gale has not been worked at all since John’s time with it, 25 years or more past. Nearby the Blackpool Brook runs through a huge cast iron pipe designed to prevent it draining into the workings. John has left the Forest now and is said to be retired in Spain, but I don’t think he ever made much money from his enterprise. Like most free miners, he got into the game in a spirit of adventure, added to what seems to me to be a rather laudable determination to reaffirm ancient rights.

After 1838, an Act of Parliament enshrined many of the old free mining rights, but also made it possible for an approved free miner with a gale to rent his coal rights to a “foreigner.” This opened the way for outsiders with serious amounts of money to invest, and famous names of venture capitalism such as the Crawshay family from South Wales came in to sink modern deep mines with steam power and pit winding engines. These 19th century adventurers had some exciting times, and the names of the big Forest of Dean pits expressed the spirit of the age: Speculation; Strip and At It; Waterloo; Trafalgar; Euroclydon; Gentlemen Colliers; New Fancy. The steam railways followed and a whole network of lines supplanting the old horse drawn tramways was built through the Forest to serve the collieries.

Despite the investment and the enthusiasm, Forest coal was hard to get and the quality not of the best. Seams were narrow and most of the deep pits were wet, needing constant pumping. The boom turned out to be short-lived and coal mining in the Dean declined through the early 20th century when better coal could be had cheaper from elsewhere. The last deep mine shift came up in the cage from Northern United Colliery on Christmas Eve 1965. Dr Beeching had already closed the railways.

For some 20 years during our family’s time at Danby Lodge we had a free mine working in our outer paddock, the entrance being off the drive about 200 yards from the house. It was a simple drift mine with tramway rails leading underground at about 20 degrees, the trams of coal being wound uphill by a winch driven off the back axle of an old Ford Popular. The reason for its location was clear enough; our potable well by the kitchen door at the front of the Lodge was 75 feet deep to the water and half way down you could see the gleaming coal seam, not much more than 2 feet thick. This was the Yorkley Seam.

I am reminded, by the way, that the well and its winding gear was not the only water supply available to the remote house on the hill. Various rainwater cisterns fed from the roof of the house were also scattered around in the garden, these surface pools being full of duckweed, three different species of newts, water beetles, corixae and other creatures fascinating to the young. Pumped up by hand to tanks in the attic, this greenish and malodorous water eventually filled baths and hand basins for the inhabitants. Oddly enough, considering my grandmother’s religious tendencies (you would think cleanliness would have been next to godliness), we were always adjured to save water, which meant not more than about 3 inches in the bath. You always ended the bath feeling somewhat less clean than before you started. The toilet arrangements, one inside, one outside, consisted basically of buckets, to be emptied in a pit behind the stables. Lighting when daylight failed was by paraffin and wax candles. Without any external services but a mile long telephone line, it wasn’t what you could call a modern home, but the family survived in it for more than 30 years.

Our family were only renting Danby Lodge and its attached paddocks and fields from the Forestry Commission, effectively the Crown, and so we were of course not entitled to a share of the mine. Nevertheless it was no trouble to us, being worked by a couple of local guys at weekends. The powdery coal which it produced was of poor quality, but a power station would take it and a lorry came down the mile of track every couple of weeks to collect a few tons. The gale was closed about 1970, I think, and all that is left is a mound covered with bracken and brambles concealing the entrance and the old tram rails. Just beyond that has arrived something relatively new and looking somehow quite out of place in the middle of the Forest – a mobile phone mast!

Incidentally, while we were tenants at Danby Lodge we did have some rights, the main one being a much used possibility to pick up for firewood any fallen timber in the attached Walk, locally known as Cockshoot Woods, but under no circumstances to cut any living tree or bush. We used to lash fallen branches to the back bumper of Dad’s old Wolseley and drag them home for splitting up with sledge hammer and wedges before sawing pieces to length. This annual operation went on for weeks in order to provide a winter firewood supply. We also had the right of pannage, meaning the right to drive out our pigs in the autumn to help themselves to fallen acorns and mast. Unfortunately we had not a single pig to our name and the styes along with the chicken runs at Danby had been grown up with nettles for many years. But I can remember some in the village of Yorkley would still keep pigs into the 1950s, drive them out to fatten under the oaks during the autumn and kill them at Christmas. Foresters were fond of their pigs, having invested much in them. The last witchcraft trial in Gloucestershire (Cinderford 1906) involved a “wise woman” Ellen Hayward who was accused of casting a spell to sicken a neighbour’s pig. Thankfully the magistrates threw the case out.  

Today we have I think just a couple of free mines of the old type still working, including one in the valley of the Cannop Brook, so that at least the tradition of getting coal from the Forest is kept up. The gaveller and other officials are still appointed and the ancient courts still meet annually at the Speech House. The modern world brought new problems for authorities to solve, one being that it is difficult to be born in the Hundred of St Briavel’s these days – there is no maternity hospital! Also, and reasonably enough, women have now successfully claimed the right of free-mining. Fossil fuels aren’t exactly in fashion at the moment although some foresters still like a coal fire at home. Miners in the big pit times were never wealthy men, but they all had a free coal allowance. Forest villages used to be shrouded in smoke on still winter days. About forty years ago there was a proposal to begin open-cast mining of the hill below Yorkley village, which would have stripped the surface off the wooded slopes down to the Cannop valley. Unsurprisingly, this was rejected on environmental grounds early in the planning process. As already described, the coal from the Dean is not of high quality. In fact today no remaining UK mine produces coal of suitable quality for steam engines, which means that the Dean’s heritage steam railway must run on imported anthracite.

Here is another U-tube clip from Lyn Davies, fishing for grayling on the Wye this time and made in early November. Incidentally you can get a day ticket for GPAIAC, known more shortly as the Builth Town Water, from Conti’s Newsagents in the main street:

Tight lines and season’s greetings!     

Oliver Burch 

Wye Valley Fishing