THERE will soon be two female freeminers if Vi Wilkes' application is approved by the Deputy Gaveller.

Vi is best known in Cinderford for running Vi's Fish & Chips in Market Street for 32 years, until 2006. The shop is now The Chippy Cinderford.

In the 1970s, she and her husband Peter Morgan, who died several years ago, ran Pete's Place in Steam Mills – said to be the Forest's first nightclub.

However, from 1965 to 1968 she worked underground at New Found Out Colliery in Coleford for freeminer Mr Morgan, whom she later married. She was born in the Dilke hospital, which further qualifies her for freeminer status.

"I left school when I was 15, worked in a factory for four months, and then I went down the mine," Vi recalled. "People used to say I was the only woman working down the pit at the time, though there may have been others, I don't know."

She was encouraged to apply to become a freeminer by Elaine Morman, who recently became the first female to hold the title.

"I've known Elaine since she was a little girl and I thought 'if she can be a freeminer so can I'," said Vi.

"I can't see myself going down the pit now. It was hard work but I did enjoy the job at the time.

"I have thought about it over the years and I don't want to make a big song and a dance about being a female freeminer, but I know what I did."

Elaine made history when she, with help from Forest MP Mark Harper, managed to overrule a 19th-century law that stated freeminers had to be male.

"There is still opposition, but it's only from a small percentage of freeminers," Elaine said.

"I went to visit Vi and asked her if she would apply after I became a freeminer because it would be good to have female freeminers in both iron and coal.

"Vi is the only woman I know to have worked in a coal mine – if there are others, and they were born within the Hundred of St Briavels, they should apply too."