Local History
The Forest of Dean Local History Society
70 YEARS: 1948 - 2018
After World War II, interest in local history grew all around the country. In 1948 the Gloucestershire Rural Community Council established a Local History Committee, one of the aims of which was to establish a local history society for the Forest of Dean. Key to this was the help and inspiration of Ian Durham of the Bristol University Extra-Mural Department. He was appointed in 1946 to be the University's resident tutor in West Gloucestershire and because of his great interest in the history of the Forest and the enthusiasm of the people he met there, he became the leading light in establishing the Forest of Dean Local History Society. Ian worked very closely with Tom Bright of the Dean Forest Guardian, who reported every development in the newspaper.
The Guardian of 16 April 1948 reported: "At a meeting at Coleford last Monday attended by people from all over the Forest, it was unanimously resolved to form a Forest of Dean Local History Society. Mr. I.L. Durham MA of Newland was elected Secretary and a small committee consisting of the Rev. R.J. Mansfield, Messrs. A.J. Machen, S.D. Morgan, C.Hart, V.G. Hudson and T. Bright was appointed...It was decided that the area to be covered will be roughly that between the Severn, the Wye and the Leadon, though, of course, membership will be open to people interested in Forest history who live outside that area”. The next newspaper report noted: "Viscount Bledisloe was persuaded to accept the Presidency of the Society”, an office which he continued to hold until his death in 1952. The Society attracted about 100 members in its first couple of years.
In its early years the Society undertook a lot of hands-on archaeology, excavating a bronze age barrow at Tidenham Chase, a camp at Littledean and many other sites. Additionally, a full programme of talks and visits was developed. We still have the membership cards from 1950 to the current date showing the full range of activities.
When the Dean Heritage Centre was established in 1979 by one of our now Vice Presidents, Ian Standing, the Society worked closely with the museum.
For 30 years our journal, The New Regard, has showcased the results of research by our members. The name comes from an old term under Forest Law – a Regarder was a senior officer of the Forest.
The Society continued to grow, having over 250 members at the time of its 50th anniversary. Now there are 330 members, mostly local but some living as far away as New Zealand.
We have undertaken some large projects, including the erection of the Miners’ Memorial at the New Fancy site. In 2003 the Society obtained a grant of £11,737 from the Local Heritage Initiative. This was used to facilitate a number of different elements which made up the Miners’ Memorial Project: the sculpture, which represents 3 elements of profound importance to Forest miners – coal, iron and wood, the Roll of Honour CD, the Roll of Honour Memorial Volumes and the Mines Trails Walks. The project remembers the over 600 men who died because of accidents at work in the local mines and quarries.
The Miners’ Memorial
In 2007, at the same site, work began on the Geomap, which is an amalgam of two maps. Firstly it is a geology map of the Forest of Dean which the public can walk on, constructed using the actual rocks found in different geological layers. Secondly, it is an industrial history map showing the location of 102 collieries, 35 iron mines and 49 stone quarries, as well as the main railway lines and three tramroads.
Society members learning about the Geomap
The remnants of the New Fancy Colliery, from which coal was mined until 1944, may also be seen. In 2016 the Society placed a new commemorative stone to permanently mark the site of the shaft 2.
The Society continues to offer members and non-members a very full programme, with events in every month of the year. This year being our 70th anniversary we have an even more packed agenda than usual, culminating in a dinner for 70+ people hosted by our President, Baroness Royall of Blaisdon.
For more information visit www.forestofdeanhistory.org.uk
Mary Sullivan - Chairman, FODLHS
Fact-finding fun at your fingertips! Exploring Gloucestershire with Know Your Place…
Great news for researchers! Know Your Place West of England now offers free online access to an impressive array of maps and linked information for Gloucestershire. In addition to the historic Ordnance Survey, you can now see for the first time excellent digital images of earlier maps preserved at Gloucestershire Archives.
Our tithe and enclosure maps were uploaded to KYP just before Christmas and now there’s even more.
Interested in Gloucester? You can browse the 1780 survey by Hall and Pinnell, the earliest detailed plan of the city. It includes the names of streets, shows buildings, layout of gardens, trees, hedges, lines of fortification, and land surrounding the city such as Kingsholm Close, Barton Hill and Llanthony Priory (GA catalogue reference for the original plan is GL65.51(3)). As with all maps on KYP, you can compare two side by side, so try viewing the 1780 plan alongside the 1852 plan of Gloucester made for the Local Board of Health in 1852 (GA ref GBR/L10/1/2):
KYP screen grab shows Gloucester in 1780 on the left, and 1852 on the right. You can drag the vertical line backwards and forwards to reveal more or less of each map.
Is Cheltenham more your area of interest? Then you’ll enjoy dipping into the 1855 ‘Old Town Survey’. This large-scale plan was drawn up for the Improvement Commissioners (predecessors of Cheltenham Borough Council). Surveyor Henry Dangerfield reported that it would cover over 1,100 acres and some 6,500 houses and would show water courses and sewers. It cost just over £1,215. The amount of detail makes it a fascinating record. The original sheets were still being used regularly for reference by the Borough Engineer into the 1990s (GA ref CBR/B2/9/5/1).
Other maps available show the towns of Tewkesbury, 1825 (GA ref TBR/A18/1), Stroud, 1835 (GA ref D1180/10/40) and the township of East Dean, 1856 (GA ref DA40/560).
For the Forest of Dean, you can see details for 5 areas or ‘walks’ mapped in 1834 for a report on the issue of squatters and others who had established themselves on Crown lands in the Forest over a long period of years. The Walks (Worcester, Parkend, Blakeney Littledean and Ruardean) are colour-coded to show different types of property, encroachments and enclosures (GA ref Q/RGf/1/4-8).
Screen grab shows the KYP spyglass feature. You can use this as a virtual window through one layer - in this case the first edition Ordnance Survey - to reveal an earlier hand-drawn map of a Forest Walk.
And for the southern area of Gloucestershire there are three plans made in 1835 by the Court of Sewers. The Court of Sewers was responsible for maintaining river courses and drainage in the southern part of what was then within the county of Gloucestershire (the ‘Lower Level’). The plans straddle modern county boundaries, covering the parishes of Shirehampton, Kings Weston, Lawrence Weston, Stowick, Compton Greenfield, Redwick and Northwick, Tockington, Almondsbury, Olveston, Aust, Elberton, Littleton, Oldbury, Rockhampton, Hill, Ham and parts of Hinton and Hamfallow, Slimbridge, Awre, Arlingham, Westbury on Severn, Moreton Valence, Standish, Longney and Haresfield (GA ref D272/9/1-3).
But KYP is not just maps. The ‘Information Layers’ hold masses of linked archaeological data from the County Council’s historic environment record. And everyone can contribute to the ‘community’ layer. Hundreds of images have been added to this layer so far by groups and individuals. It’s really easy to share your photos and other information this way - just follow the step by step guide at http://www.kypwest.org.uk/map-top-tips/preparing-records-community-layer/.
First edition OS for Cheltenham with green symbols marking the ‘Community Layer’
Click on a symbol and an image and description pops up. Here you can see a contribution from the Jet Age Museum collection:
The website at http://www.kypwest.org.uk has top tips to help you make the most of the whole resource so it’s always worth starting there first.
We hope you enjoy discovering and sharing more about Your Place!
The Gloucester Theatre Company
PACIFISTS AND PROTESTERS, THE LOST STORY OF RESISTANCE TO WORLD WAR ONE is an exciting theatre production that commemorates the 100th anniversary of the end of World War One.
The two part presentation features a first-half performance of a new play A DANGEROUS WOMAN by Alexander J. Gifford (shortlisted for the Adrian Pagan New Writing Award followed by a devised presentation, inspired by the words of poets, pacifists and other protesters.
A DANGEROUS WOMAN tells the incredible story of Alice Wheeldon, a Suffragette and single-mother, who sheltered young men avoiding conscription. On the basis of fabricated evidence, Alice was imprisoned for "attempting to poison the Prime Minister", though she was later cleared of all charges. Alice's story is a powerful human drama, which exposes just how far the British Government was prepared to go to silence objection to the war.
The production has received support from the Heritage Lottery and explores a largely forgotten aspect of the history of WW1 - namely that many people opposed it on the basis that it was a unnecessary "politician's war", which could have been avoided through peaceful means.
PACIFISTS AND PROTESTERS will tour venues in Stroud, Bristol and Cheltenham 9-17 Feb 2018.
https://www.facebook.com/gloucestertheatrecompany/
To book tickets please go to: www.thegloucestertheatrecompany.co.uk
The Gloucester Theatre Company
Sydney Savory Buckman
One of Gloucestershire’s forgotten celebrities is Sydney Savory Buckman of Cheltenham, arguably the foremost geologist of the Victorian era. His constantly evolving ideas upset the geological establishment, who thought their subject was set in stone. For much of his life he scraped a living by selling fossils and writing freelance articles for the newspapers.
I first encountered him because of his interest in rational dress, rational being the Victorian buzzword for anything right-thinking people should adopt. In this case it meant the divided skirt, a euphemism for women’s trousers.
Sydney Buckman espoused it because it meant his wife and four daughters could accompany him and his four sons on their bikes on fossil-hunting expeditions in the Cotswolds.
Buckman’s family fossil-hunting somewhere in the Cotswolds. He was the photographer.
He set up the Western Rational Dress Club, of which Lady Harberton, the champion of rational dress, who spent the summer at Great Malvern, became president.
His skill as a journalist ensured it got widespread publicity. Among the people who responded was J. D. Ainsworth, who had just established the Yoroshi Wheel Club in South London. Together they dreamed up the idea of a rational dress cycle ride from London to Oxford.
It was a dreadful day. The last ladies arrived for an 8.30pm dinner at 3.30am the next morning.
if you would like to find out more about the history of the rational dress movement Don Chapman's book, Wearing the Trousers: Fashion, Freedom and the Rise of the Modern Woman, is available from Amberley Publishing.
Stroud Voices
Stroud Local Oral History
Recording old stories in and about the five valleys, Stroud
Stroud Local Oral History is a non-commercial audio archive project to record Stroud memories from people living in the area. It started as a project within the now departed “Stroud FM” and continues with the co-operation of local history groups in the wider Stroud District Council area. The intention is to document the minutiae of life in the old days, arbitrarily set as "before 1970". The stories are mostly about the wider Stroud District.
The current archive extends to some 40 hours/1500 clips from 130 people. Each audio clip is about 2 minutes long. The archive is lodged with Gloucestershire Archives (reference number D13666) & Museum in the Park, Stroud.
We are still collecting and welcome contributions. We are able to visit people at home and normally the conversation lasts about an hour. It is always nice to have a family member present too. CDs of their contributions are given to contributors, as a thank you.
If you are interested in having your story collected ring 01453 821436 and leave a message or email stories@stroudvoices.co.uk
To find out more and hear the recorded stories visit www.stroudvoices.co.uk
C I Brown (aka Mr Red)
Romance Of The Clouds
For more information visit www.jetagemuseum.org
Domesday Book Afternoon
On Saturday 17th February 2pm—4.15pm in the Chapter House at Gloucester Cathedral
Two talks on how Exeter Cathedral’s EXON project has enhanced our knowledge of the great survey of England ordered by William the Conqueror whilst at Gloucester over Christmas in 1085.
Dr Frank Thorn and Dr Chris Lewis have been members of the project to examine 500 plus pages of the original 1086 Domesday survey held in Exeter Cathedral's archives.
In 2011 “Exon Domesday” was removed from its 19th-century binding so that digital photography and detailed study could begin. Since then a major research project by a team from King’s College, London and the University of Oxford, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, has been uncovering the document’s secrets.
Tickets £5.00 (tea and biscuits included in the cost) from
The Friends’ Office, 11a College Green, GLOUCESTER GL1 2LX
Open on Tuesday and Thursday mornings; or online at www.fogc.co.uk
telephone enquiries: 01452 522419