A Ramble around Brierley

Once upon a long time ago a truck, carrying a piano, was making its way along the road between The Pludds and Brierley. It came down the hill and round this bend with undue haste and the piano fell off.  We may suppose that the piano was never quite the same again, and ever since then the site of this catastrophe has been known as 'Piano Corner'. 

Our short ramble began on the left of this photo, where there's room to park several cars.  From there, a path runs beside Greathough Brook which, since 2018, has been the site of the Forest of Dean's very own bever enclosure.  This ambitious project got off to a shaky start when one of the original bevers caught an infectious disease, then a replacement died. However, judging by the obvious amount of bever activity in the valley, the present pair appear to be living happily. 

When the enclosure was first created it looked rather unsightly, but after 5 years it's blending in nicely. As well as keeping inquisitive folk like me at bay, the fence is boar-proof. 

Bevers are great tree-fellers.  This activity looks fresh, so presumably the residents are alive and well. 

This just has to be a bever dam.  According to the helpful notice (above) bevers dam the stream when the water flow is low - which presumably happens frequently during the summer - to provide a habitat to their liking. 

On the opposite side of the path lie the remains of the Favourite Free Mine - one of dozens of Free Mines that once existed in the Forest. My walk book Exploring Historic Dean mentions that there was once a carving here of St Piran, the patron saint of Cornish Miners.

It was created by Vanilla Beer in 1976 but had deteriorated badly when Exploring Historic Dean was published in 2009. I could find no trace of it

This little bridge once carried the Severn & Wye Railway over a much older tramroad. Both have now passed into history, but the railway line has become a lovely cycle track and walkway. Turning right would have taken us down to Lydbrook, but we wanted to go left.  Unfortunately, in the 1970s the Forestry Commission decided (for safety reasons) to fill in the steep-sided cutting that led to Mierystock Tunnel with 30,000 tonnes of colliery waste, rather than erect a safety fence.  Consequently, the cycle track now diverts to cross the busy A4136 on the brow of a hill - hardly the safest of arrangements. 

www.forgottenrelics.co.uk/tunnels/mierystock.html

Back in 2005 these fine gentlemen decided to do something about it, securing a lottery grant to clear the cutting.  The work was completed in 2008 and hopes must have been high that Mierystock Tunnel would soon reopen.  Unfortunately, since then there has been little progress, though - according to the Mierystock Tunnel Society's Facebook page - funding is now coming in and Forest England are lending their support. They certainly have my support too, though I doubt that there much of use that this old woman can contribute.

I thought it would be fun to explore the cutting, so made my way along the old track bed, as far as this fence.  It would, of course, would have been highly irresponsible to continue, would it not?

Well perhaps if I had passed through the fence, then that would explain how I might have taken this photo... but I'm admitting to nothing!

Back on the trail, we crossed the busy A4136 and made our way to this rather lovely unnamed pond. It's not marked on old Ordinance Survey maps, so I presume that it was formed when the coal mine over Mierystock Tunnel was cleared.

Beside the pond there's an impressive memorial to a mining disaster that had a happy ending. Back in 1949 miners in Waterloo Colliery accidentally broke into some old flooded mine workings. The water burst into their own mine, trapping 188 men and the colliery cat.  Thankfully, every one of them was rescued.

After scrambling up a bank at the end of the pond, a broad track took us back to Brierley, where we recrossed the A4136. From there, we followed a lovely woodland path back down to the bever enclosure and Piano Corner.

For a walk of just 3 miles, this one certainly had plenty to see. For my next post I'm planning to take in the other end of Mierystock (or Mirystock) Tunnel, on one of my favourite forest walks.