I WOULD like to publicly thank those persons who are supplying me with information on the issue of women becoming freeminers in the Forest of Dean. All will be revealed as soon as I have the full picture.
So far it reminds me of Harry Beddington's old Forest saying 'The bigger the muddle, the more thou const 'ide' and it certainly is a learning curve for me at this moment.
I thought Ms Mormon's use of aggressive words in her last letter were uncalled for. To use the word 'crush' for example, shows that she really has no concept on what it was like to labour in a productive mine in the Forest of Dean where roof falls were all too common and men were maimed and killed. Eric Morris must have witnessed such incidents, as did my grandfather, who told me of more than one harrowing incident in his 50 years in the Forest pits.
If Ms Mormon was working for her father underground when she was a girl, then he was breaking the law by employing her in such a capacity.
After 1989 it transpires, the Sex Equality Act enabled women to work underground in a mine. Fair enough; why shouldn't they have an equal right to develop Black Lung Disease in the coal mines, or the equal curse of Interstitial Lung Disease in the iron mines.
John Belcher
Joyford Hill