with the forest forges, yielded a rental of 34 pounds the same year.
{25a}

To the Edwardian period, that has now, by the aid of the numerous records
already quoted, been so minutely substantiated, must be assigned the most
prosperous era of the Forest of Dean iron works. A large portion of such
success is to be traced to the celebrity at this date of the great fair
in Gloucester. It began annually on the eve of St. John Baptist's day,
and continued for the five days following. Agricultural implements were
in much request at it, and even noblemen are said to have attended. {25b}

Other places, such as Caerleon, Newport, Barkley, Monmouth, and Trellech,
obtained their supplies of iron, or at least the mine-ore, from this
neighbourhood, the Forest miner having a certain status of his own, and
constituting, with his partners or "verns," a guild of considerable local
influence. {25c}

The heraldic crest (p. 67) forming part of a mutilated brass of the
fifteenth century, within the Clearwell Chapel of Newland Church, gives a
graphic representation of the iron miner equipped for his work, if not
actually engaged in it. He is represented as wearing a cap, and holding
between his teeth a candle-_stick_, an appurtenance still in use amongst
the miners about Coleford, as may be observed by examining the
frontispiece to this volume, thus illustrating the primitive use and
significance of the phrase candle-_stick_. With the small mattock in his
right hand, he would loosen the fine mineral earth lodged in the cavity
within which he worked, as occasion required, or else detach the metallic
incrustations lining its sides. A light wooden mine hod, covered,
probably, with hide, hangs at his back by a shoulder-strap, fastened to
his belt. His attire is completed by a thick flannel frock and leathern
breeches, tied with thongs below the knee. The feet most likely were
bare.

[Picture: Representation of Miners' and Smiths' Tools]

[Picture: Representation of Iron Miners' Tools]

Other contemporary representations of the mining implements in use at
this time in the Forest occur at Abbenhall, where the west side of the
church tower, and also the font, exhibit panels carved with hammers,
shovels, &c.

Some persons of considerable experience have concluded that the ore was
washed ere placed in the forge. The mounds of deep red earth that occur
in some parts of the Forest are supposed to establish this pr