These photos taken in winter after a snowfall show the extent of the spoil heaps at the Princess Royal Colliery. Bowsan Road runs from left to right across the pictures. Princess Royal Colliery is out of the pictures to the right about 100 yards (meters) down the hill (Whitecroft Rd.). The mining waste was conveyed across the Whitecroft Rd and up to the top of the tip. Local people would scavenge the slopes for coal. The winding engine was located close to the road and would often vent a cloud of steam across the road.

Thanks to Ann Davis for the following : In 1956 when I lived in Parkend Road and my dad was a miner below ground I was one of the scavengers. On several occasions my boyfriend and myself picked the coal from the top of the tip shown in this photo,and carried the coal back to parkend road, also what was obvious as well, was the coal quantity was higher at a certain time of the day suggesting the miners knew who to help in a bit of charity now and then

John Wilcox added (March 2008): "I was looking at these pictures today and would suggest they were taken in the 1960s/1970s because there is no gear on the top of the newest tip, left of main photo. Also,the large wood that existed in the 1950s between Whitecroft Rd and the Parkend Rd Square has been felled but with no particular sign of re growth. There are also signs of the excavations that took place when spoil was being taken for the construction of Llanwern Steel Works at the top/side of the two older tips. For the record, the tips are on the same side of Whitecroft Rd as was the colliery. The short lived attempt to reopen use of the 'Saunders Green' tip shortly before the Princess Royal closure, presumably because the newest tip was 'slipping' into the railway sidings did involve crossing the road bridge across Whitecroft Rd".

---

If you wish to comment on this page please click this link: COMMENTS .
The Comments page will open in a new Tab to allow you to easily switch between this page and the comments page.

WANTED: Old photos, old postcards, ephemera and memories of the Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire. U.K.- please click the COMMENTS Link above to make contact.

---