The Forest of Dean Miners' Association was a

trade union A trade union (labor union in American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers intent on "maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment", ch. I such as attaining better wages and benefits ( ...

for coal miners in the

Forest of Dean The Forest of Dean is a geographical, historical and cultural region in the western part of the county of Gloucestershire, England. It forms a roughly triangular plateau bounded by the River Wye to the west and northwest, Herefordshire to the n ...

area of

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. The union was founded in 1870, based in

Cinderford Cinderford is a town and civil parish on the eastern fringe of the Forest of Dean in Gloucestershire, England. The population was 8,777 at the 2021 Census. The town came into existence in the 19th century, following the rapid expansion of Cind ...

Gloucestershire Gloucestershire ( abbreviated Glos) is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn and the entire Forest of Dean. The county town is the city of Gl ...

. It initially prioritised calling for waste ground to be sold cheaply to miners so they could set up their own works, and for workers to be represented on the local

Board of Guardians Boards of guardians were ''ad hoc'' authorities that administered Poor Law in the United Kingdom from 1835 to 1930. England and Wales Boards of guardians were created by the Poor Law Amendment Act 1834, replacing the parish overseers of the poor ...

. A strike in 1871 at Parkend Colliery was successful in raising wages and led to the appointment of a checkweighman.Arthur Marsh and Victoria Ryan, ''Historical Directory of British Trade Unions'', vol.II, pp.218-219 The association became part of the

Amalgamated Association of Miners The Amalgamated Association of Miners (AAM) was formed in 1869 in Lancashire, at a time of increasing industrial conflict in the British coalfields. History The union was founded by Thomas Halliday and William Pickard, two miners' union agents who ...

(AAM) in 1872, but the AAM refused strike pay to local miners during a long dispute from 1874 to 1875, and so the union left and again became independent. This dispute was less successful, with only a concession of wage being reduced by 5% instead of 10%. From 1873 to 1877, the union published a weekly newspaper, the ''Forest of Dean Examiner''. In 1877, the general secretary, Timothy Mountjoy, was discharged, and the union became moribund until 1882, when it was reconstituted. The union later joined the

Miners' Federation of Great Britain The Miners' Federation of Great Britain (MFGB) was established after a meeting of local mining trade unions in Newport, Wales in 1888. The federation was formed to represent and co-ordinate the affairs of local and regional miners' unions in Engla ...

, and from 1894 until 1904, it participated in the loose South Western Counties Miners’ Federation with the

Bristol Miners' Association The Bristol Miners' Association was a trade union representing coal miners in Bristol and Bedminster in England. The union was founded in June 1889 with around 2,000 members. It recruited Northumberland miner William Whitefield as its first a ...

and the Somerset Miners' Association.

University of the West of England The University of the West of England (also known as UWE Bristol) is a public research university, located in and around Bristol, England. The institution was know as the Bristol Polytechnic in 1970; it received university status in 1992 and ...

,
Trade unions
, Bristol Historical Resource In 1940, faced with falling number of miners in the district, it merged into the South Wales Miners Federation. Henry Rowlinson served as agent and secretary of the union from the 1880s until 1917, when his support for

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

became unpopular. He was replaced by Jack Williams, soon to become a sympathiser of the

Communist Party of Great Britain The Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) was the largest communist organisation in Britain and was founded in 1920 through a merger of several smaller Marxist groups. Many miners joined the CPGB in the 1926 general strike. In 1930, the CPG ...

and prominent figure in the

National Minority Movement The National Minority Movement was a British organisation, established in 1924 by the Communist Party of Great Britain, which attempted to organise a radical presence within the existing trade unions. The organization was headed by longtime unio ...

, and the union began working frequently with the South Wales Miners Federation in supporting left-wing motions.Kevin Morgan, ''Roads to Freedom'', p.86

General Secretaries

:1870: Timothy Mountjoy :1877: ''Post vacant'' :1886:

George Henry Rowlinson George Henry Rowlinson (1852 – 23 May 1937) was a British trade unionist. Born in James Bridge in Staffordshire, Rowlinson began working at a coal mine at the age of seven, and was illiterate until his twenties. He then learned to read and ...

:1918:

Herbert Booth Herbert Henry Howard Booth (26 August 1862 – 25 September 1926) was a Salvation Army officer, the third son of five children to William and Catherine Booth (Mumford), who later went on to serve as an independent evangelist. He oversaw t ...

:1922: Jack Williams

References

{{National Union of Mineworkers (UK) Trade unions established in 1870 Mining trade unions National Union of Mineworkers (Great Britain) Politics of Gloucestershire Mining in Gloucestershire 1870 establishments in England Trade unions based in Gloucestershire

General Secretaries

See also

References