Working freeminer coal colliery open to the public with guided underground tours, museum, and café in the Forest of Dean.
Hopewell Colliery is a small working coal mine situated near Coleford in the Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire, operated under the ancient freemining tradition unique to the Hundred of St Briavels. The gale was held by James and Robert Morrell from 1822, and by 1836 Thomas and James Bennett were applying to erect a steam engine at what was then known as Hope-Well Pit. The mine was open in 1863 and connected to the Severn and Wye Railway's Milkwall Branch, with sidings at Fetterhill laid in 1875 serving several local collieries.
Output reached 4,331 tons in 1880. By 1909 the colliery was offered for sale; by 1913 it was held by the Parkend Deep Navigation Collieries Co. Ltd, which used it to protect its other interests from flooding. Ownership passed to Mapleford Colliery Ltd in 1928.
The mine subsequently revived under freeminer working and today operates as a publicly accessible working colliery run by Rich Daniels, a qualified freeminer. Visitors may take guided underground tours, follow the route of the drainage adit driven in the 1820s, and walk the course of a former tramroad back to the surface museum and café.
The Hopewell Colliery occupies a site near Coleford in the Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire, embedded within a coalfield whose freemining tradition stretches back at least to the reign of Edward I (1272–1307). The freemining right — granting those born within the ancient Hundred of St Briavels who had worked for a year and a day in a local mine the right to open their own gale — was formally enshrined in the Dean Forest (Mines) Act 1838. The colliery worked the Coleford High Delf Seam at the base of the Pennant Group, middle Upper Coal Measures, at a depth of approximately 45 metres.
The gale at Hopewell was held by James and Robert Morrell from 1822. By 1836, Thomas and James Bennett, presumably lessees, were applying to erect a steam engine at the site, which was by then referred to as Hope-Well Pit. A headframe was subsequently installed to accompany the steam winding arrangement. The mine was operating in 1863, and a connection was made with the Severn and Wye Railway's Milkwall Branch (later renamed the Coleford Branch). Sidings at Fetterhill, laid in 1875, served Hopewell Engine Colliery alongside several neighbouring workings including Dark Hill. Production in 1880 reached 4,331 tons of coal. In 1889–90 a dispute arose with the Severn and Wye Railway over underground workings causing damage to the railway line.
By 1909 the colliery was advertised for sale. By 1913 the Parkend Deep Navigation Collieries Co. Ltd had taken ownership and was using the mine not for active coal extraction but simply to protect its interests in neighbouring workings from flooding. In 1928 the colliery was transferred to the Mapleford Colliery Ltd, though whether further working was undertaken at that time is unclear in the consulted sources.
The mine subsequently passed into freeminer hands and revived as a small working colliery. The guided underground tour passes down New Road Adit, following a previously worked coal face only eighteen inches high, before returning to the surface via a drainage adit engineered in the 1820s — attributed in some accounts to David Mushet. The surface route back to the visitor facilities follows the course of the former Howler Slade tramway. Surface remains visible at the site include an old headframe, a pithead wheel, and an abandoned mine train. A museum and café adjoin the working pithead. Hopewell is currently managed by Rich Daniels, a Forest of Dean freeminer, and stands as one of only a handful of working coal mines remaining accessible in Britain and the only one routinely open to the public.
