Forest of Dean areas but the focus has been to capitalise on the scenery and to create jobs from tourist attractions and the leisure sector. Significant numbers of residents work outside the area, commuting to Gloucester, Cheltenham, Bristol, Newport and Cardiff. For hundreds of years, mining in the Forest of Dean Coalfield has been regulated through a system of freemining. This, and other forms of self-governance, coupled with the Forest's geographic isolation between the rivers Severn and Wye, has given rise to a strong sense of cultural identity in those from the area, who are collectively known as 'Foresters'. The ancient rights were
Forest of Dean Coalfield feature of the Forest of Dean Coalfield is that its edges are almost entirely exposed at the surface. Mining in the coalfield has always been hampered by the excessive amount of water encountered underground - trapped by the basin-shaped strata. Water drains into the basin by general percolation and, more directly, via surface watercourses. For much of their length, streams in the area run over impervious clay deposits, but, where valleys cut through the rim of the basin, carboniferous limestone and sandstone are exposed, allowing water to penetrate underground via swallow holes, cracks, and fissures. Water also enters the basin