Nelson and the Forest of Dean

My last post, "The Trafalgar Walk", set me wondering why a colliery in the Forest of Dean might be named after Horatio Nelson's famous sea victory.  A trawl through the Internet failed to come up with an answer, so I'm suggesting one of my own. If I'm wrong then perhaps someone will be kind enough to correct me.  Here goes...

It's hard for us to imagine the enormous surge in national pride that followed Nelson's defeat of the French and Spanish navies at Trafalgar in 1805.  Not only did it confirm Britain's naval supremacy, it also thwarted for ever Napoleon's plans to expand his empire by invading Britain.  

37 years later, in 1842, Cornelius Brain was granted permission for his colliery, but work didn't start for another 18 years.  My guess is that Mr Brain needed to raise money for his new venture, and what better way than to tap into the nation's pride by naming it Trafalgar? In my homeland of Cornwall, copper and tin mines were often given names to encourage investors - Wheel Prosper, Wheel Fortune... I  wonder whether it actually made any difference?

However, Trafalgar Colliery isn't the only link with Nelson in the Forest of Dean. In 1802 Nelson visited the Forest to assess its ability to provide timber for shipbuilding. I was amazed to discover that 6000 trees were required to build Nelson's flagship, HMS Victory. So Nelson's fleet of 27 ships at Trafalgar would have required the felling of some 160,000 trees. Wow!  Nelson estimated that the Forest of Dean had the potential to grow 920,000 oak trees, which would produce 9,200 loads of ship timber every year. But there was a huge problem; the forest was, in Nelson's opinion, being grossly mis-managed. He wrote:

"The state of the forest at this moment is deplorable... Vast droves of hogs are allowed to go into the woods in the autumn, and if any fortunate acorn escapes their search and takes root, flocks of sheep are allowed to go into the Forest and they bite off the tender shoots."

Nelson also took a dim view of the Forest's Free Miners, accusing them of taking Crown Land for themselves: 

"A sett of people called forest free miners... consider themselves as having a right to dig for coal in any part they please."

How satisfying it is that, despite Nelson's protestations, 121 years later oak trees, free miners and sheep still proliferate in the Forest. So do the hogs (bore), but that's another story.

The government took Nelson's report seriously, and in 1808 passed The Forest of Dean (Timber) Act, paving the way for the planting of 11,000 acres of trees.

This HMS Victory Plaque, commemorates an oak tree that was planted in 1808.  In 2004 the tree was felled and its wood used to refurbish part of HMS Victory, in preparation for the bicentennial celebrations of Trafalgar. 

To mark that bicentennial year a grove of 200 oak trees were planted nearby. Here's me, trying (unsuccessfully) to look casual,  with a couple of 'Nelson' oak trees behind me.

At about the same time a whole avenue of oak trees was planted on the track that leads to Nelson Grove. Were he around, I hope that Nelson would be pleased with their progress... despite the sheep and hogs!