A great mini-mining experience in the opinion of our family.
This is one of the larger of the 1,500 or so freeminers mines in the Forest of Dean.
You get rigged up at the start with helmet and head torch following which you're taken on a short walk to the mine and then gradually around 200 feet under ground.
Our guide, a freeminer himself, provided a very interesting and entertaining commentary. He took into account the fact that we had young kids with us and explained in simple terms our our 5-year-old, how kids his age would have worked in the mine with their fathers, opening and closing ventilation doors to let the ponies through and to keep the fire that drives the ventilation.
We experienced the total darkness at the bottom of a mine and saw the hardworking conditions in which freeminers did (and still do) work underground.
All in, a fascinating, fun and informative visit. read more