I wonder whethet anyone with more knowledge of the Forest of Dean can help with a puzzle for me. Last weekend, we photographed a level at Oakwood bottom grid ref SO 60005 06292. It is clearly marked on Victorian map 1922 as Oakwood Mill Deep Iron Level.
However, Tony Oldhams excellent book, The Mines of the Forest of Dean, gives the location as being 100 yds from the Miners Arms in Bream, Grid ref SO 59570 05730, which is some 700 mtrs away as the crow flies. I'd like to post a couple of pics, but want to ensure that I have the right place. Are they one and the same?

Thanks

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Yes they are indeed one and the same. The level emerges just by the hairpin in the road and is collapsed some distance inside (never been in there). The main entrance to the mine is at the place quoted by Mr Oldham.

It used to be a dirty horrible slither down a 45 degree slope down to a chamber with 2 inflatable dolls in it. However the council widened the main road a few years ago and had to shore up various areas of the mine. So a new entrance was dug in the same place as the old but big enough to get serious bits of kit in there and to put in shuttering and then to pump in concrete.

It's now only visitable by special permission from FoDCCAG and there has to be someone qualified to use a safety lamp down there with the party due to the vast amount of bad air created by the rotting woodwork. Someone did some work in the escape shaft and found that the safety lamp went out about 20ft below the surface.

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That's really helpful, thanks. The undergrowth around the adit on the hairpin has recently been cleared and it's now more visible than it's been for years. I can now post the pices in the right place. Cheers

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If you cross over the road roughly where the sharp corner sign is in your last picture you'll find a public footpath that is an old tramroad leading to the Oakwood Mill Land Level which is the collapsed adit that accessed the mines in Noxon Park. I think it's in a field about here SO595065 or it could be here SO597064.
If you follow the tram road on you can see the old stone block for the rails and further on you can find filled in free mines and the China Engine mine shaft SO592067

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Thanks Crickleymal. Yes, we know that (presently very wet) path very well as we use the caravan at the site above China Engine Pit. The woods alongside are full of old workings and shafts, many of which are still accessible

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