LOTTERY money is being ploughed into a scheme to kick-start the freemining industry back to life.

The Freemining project being funded by the Foresters’ Forest lottery funded Landscape Partnership programme is hoping to harness the experience of existing freeminers before the tradition dies out.

Although the requirement to work ‘for a year and a day’ underground is still part of the qualification to become a Freeminer, the organisers are developing an NVQ qualification which will run in parallel.

Foresters’ Forest programme manager Sue Middeleton said: “This would capitalise on the working experience of local freeminers as the Forest is now one of the locations in the country where any mines are still active.

“We are also exploring the use of a briquette machine which will create briquettes out of small coal, dust and wood biomass.

“This would be shared between mines on a co-operative basis to make them much more profitable.”

Clearwell Caves is now actively looking for young people, aged 18 plus who are interested in becoming mining trainees.

Although the caves were originally a source of both iron ore and ochre, these days it is the colourful ochre that is mined by owner Jonathan Wright for use as artists pigment.

As the knowledge of where to find the ochre and how to extract it resides solely with Jonathan, he would like to pass on his mining skills to the next generation.

There will be a taster session for potential trainees in February 2016.

There will also be an ‘Open Day’ event at Hopewell Colliery when adults of any age can get first hand practical experience of what it is like to work as a Freeminer nowadays.

There is also an opportunity for local families to tell their stories about their forefathers who have worked in the Forest, either in the iron mines or the coal mines.

This information can contribute to new displays of mining history either at Clearwell Caves or Hopewell Colliery.

If you are interested in finding out more about freemining and the training opportunities, please contact Jonathan Wright at Clearwell Caves (email: [email protected] Tel: 01594 832535) or Rich Daniels at Hopewell Colliery (email: [email protected] Tel: 07717750689).