Other places, such as Caerleon, Newport, Barkley, Monmouth, and Trellech, obtained their supplies of iron, or at least the mine-ore, from this neighbourhood, the Forest miner having a certain status of his own, and constituting, with his partners or "verns," a guild of considerable local influence. {25c} The heraldic crest (p. 67) forming part of a mutilated brass of the fifteenth century, within the Clearwell Chapel of Newland Church, gives a graphic representation of the iron miner equipped for his work, if not actually engaged in it. He is represented as wearing a cap, and holding between his teeth a candle-_stick_, an appurtenance still in use amongst the miners about Coleford, as may be observed by examining the frontispiece to this volume, thus illustrating the primitive use and significance of the phrase candle-_stick_. With the small mattock in his right hand, he would loosen the fine mineral earth lodged in the cavity within which he worked, as occasion required, or else detach the metallic incrustations lining its sides. A light wooden mine hod, covered, probably, with hide, hangs at his back by a shoulder-strap, fastened to his belt. His attire is completed by a thick flannel frock and leathern breeches, tied with thongs below the knee. The feet most likely were bare. [Picture: Representation of Miners' and Smiths' Tools] [Picture: Representation of Iron Miners' Tools] Other contemporary representations of the mining implements in use at this time in the Forest occur at Abbenhall, where the west side of the church tower, and also the font, exhibit panels carved with hammers, shovels, &c. Some persons of considerable experience have concluded that the ore was washed ere placed in the forge. The mounds of deep red earth that occur in some parts of the Forest are supposed to establish this practice. If ever such was the custom, no other trace of it appears, and it is quite unknown now. In parts of South Wales, water may be used with advantage, but were it applied to the mineral here, much would be washed away, because of its finely divided state. An interval of two centuries and upwards intervenes at this point. No data for determining the state of the Dean Forest iron works again occurs until the reign of Elizabeth. For the mean time, however, there seems every probability that operations went on without intermission, although some decline had apparently taken place. Perhaps the dissolution of the monasteries interrupted the works at Flaxley and Tintern, by causing the discharge of the old hands and the employment of unskilled operatives in their stead.