X-Nico

11 unusual facts about Forest of Dean


A48 road

From Gloucester, the A48 runs through the villages of Minsterworth, Westbury-on-Severn, connects to a link road to Cinderford in the Forest of Dean then through Newnham, Blakeney and bypassing the town of Lydney (the bypass was built in the 1990s) on the west bank of the River Severn.

Foxwhelp

This is one of the oldest surviving varieties of cider apple; it is first mentioned in John Evelyn's Advertisements Concerning Cider in his work Pomona of 1664, in which it is commented that "cider for strength ... is best made of the Fox-whelp of the Forest of Dean, but which comes not to be drunk until two or three years old".

Lanner Falcon

Merret (1666) claimed that the "lanar" lived in Sherwood Forest and the Forest of Dean in England; such populations would seem to derive from escaped hunting birds of the nobility.

National Welsh Omnibus Services

National Welsh Omnibus Services was a bus company which operated in south-east Wales and in the Forest of Dean area of Gloucestershire from 1978 to 1992.

Preserved GWR Modified Hall Class locomotives

Sold to Jeremy Hosking, by 2008 it was at The Flour Mill workshops in the Forest of Dean receiving a thorough overhaul.

Sir Berkeley Guise, 2nd Baronet

He was appointed verderer and deputy warden of the Forest of Dean from 1801 to his death, Sheriff of Gloucester city in 1807 and Mayor of Gloucester in 1813.

St Briavels railway station

It was built in 1876 during the construction of the line on the Monmouthshire side of the River Wye at Bigsweir, and was intended to serve the nearby villages of St Briavels across the river in the Forest of Dean and Llandogo which is further down the Wye Valley.

Styre

The Styre or Stire, also known as the Forest Styre, was an old English variety of cider apple which was formerly common in the Forest of Dean.

The Hive, Worcester

A large paved forecourt leads to The Hive's main public entrance, a naturally-lit central atrium paved with stone from the Forest of Dean, with The Hub, a café and a spacious Children's Library all set around a staircase finished in Ash wood.

The Lancashire Steel Company

In descending proportional order these were from the Workington, Harrington, West Cumberland, Wigan, Weardale and Forest of Dean areas.

The Mayhill Hotel, Monmouth

The pub is situated between the roads leading to Wyesham and the Forest of Dean and as such claims it is the Last Pub in Wales.


Alvington, Gloucestershire

The Forest of Dean is represented in Parliament by Mark Harper MP (Conservative Party).

Coal Measures Group

In those coalfields to the south of the former Wales-Brabant High i.e. the South Wales, Bristol, Somerset, Forest of Dean and concealed Oxfordshire and Kent coalfields, the corresponding group is the South Wales Coal Measures Group.

Paul Marland

He served until 1997 when the seat was abolished by boundary changes, as a result he stood in the new Forest of Dean constituency, but was defeated by Labour's Diana Organ.

Soldiers of Gloucestershire Museum

Traditionally both regiments recruited from Gloucestershire and the surrounding areas including Cheltenham, Cirencester, Stroud, Tewkesbury, The Forest of Dean and from the city of Bristol.

Wales in the Roman era

There is also evidence of a preference for non-Christian devotion in parts of Britain, such as in the upper regions of the Severn Estuary in the 4th century, from the Forest of Dean east of the River Wye continuously around the coast of the estuary, up to and including Somerset.

Westbury-on-Severn

The village is served by three regular bus services, operated by Stagecoach: the 30 and 31 services between Coleford in the Forest of Dean and Gloucester and by the 23 service between Lydney and Gloucester.