Thomas Rosser b1811, Coalway (General)

by Jefff , West London, Middlesex, Monday, October 15, 2012, 02:17 (4213 days ago) @ unknown

Hi Martin and welcome to this great site and forum.

As you may well have found this site carries PRs for many Thomas Rossers, with four being born between 1809 and 1813 in the Coalway "area" for example !, so difficult to know which if any is yours.
Am I right in guessing you think he was born in Coalway from a Census form, or do you have more "accurate/reliable" info ?. Perhaps you have more family names ?.

Coleford is near the western edge of the Forest, towards the older places such as St Braivels & Monmouth at the Forest's edge on the River Wye. Pre 1800 or so the Forest's churches were all traditional ones dating from far earlier, they tended to be around the Forest's edge, at Littledean, Mitcheldean, Monmouth, Ruardean etc, as this was where the majority of the population were on the lower flatter farmland, not up in the "wild" Forest.
http://www.forest-of-dean.net/?About_the_Forest

This site contains many very usefull old maps of the FoD, suggest look at the one dated West 1787 to start
http://www.forest-of-dean.net/joomla/the-forest-of-dean/maps-of-the-forest

Coalway is nowadays within the extreme Eastern edge of Coleford, as is neighbouring Broadwell. I think it's named as it was literally on the "coal way" ie the route used to take coal out of the Forest's early mines to the Wye for shipment. Coalway itself had mines and quarries eg Bixlade and an early tramway, I think it was more "important" and definitely busier than the quiet "suburb" it seems now (my sister lives there). In early Census' Coalway is often referred to as Lane End, it was a mining hamlet on the road between nearby Coleford (smaller then) going east towards the centre of the Forest and the later bigger mines near Cannop/Speech House. This road then continues onto the "new" town of Cinderford before dropping off the wooded Forest plateau down to the ancient village of Littledean, which is on the eastern edge of the Forest and handy for the fertile lands adjoining the River Severn and it's ports at Westbury etc where the first "settlers" farmed since Domesday times.

This is THE reference to search for all things Dean history
http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=23255&strquery=coalway

This site has several photos from Coleford area, including Broadwell which is the adjacent neighbour of Coalway and was also called Lane End in the past.
http://www.forest-of-dean.net/gallery/coleford/

The Genuki site is great for getting to know a town from a Victorian viewpoint, please explore it from this link.
http://www.genuki.org.uk/big/eng/GLS/Coleford/index.html

Also worth reading are the old Trade Directories, there are several for Coleford area here (also look under West Dean district)
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cbennett/
The earliest for Coleford is from 1837, it shows a Thomas Rosser Stone Cutter, is he your man I wonder, perhaps at Bixlade nr Coalway ?. THAT SAID it is a VERY common name.

This site has some great old photos of the area and quarries.
http://www.forestprints.co.uk/coleford.htm

This great site (owned by prominent Dean author) includes some early Coleford mines etc
http://www.archive-images.co.uk/index.search.php?sid=6202&img=3

Here is an overhead photo of Bixlade area (now largely overgrown), look west to Coalway & Coleford.
http://www.wildlifetrusts.org/reserves/spion-kop-quarry

In case you're wondering Spion Kop was a famous Battle fought between the British Army and the Boers in South Africa, it's a very steep hill. Since then many references to the name have been made in late Victorian Britain, usually wrt steep slopes eg the "Kop End" at Anfield(Liverpool Football stadium, and others), or this Quarry, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Spion_Kop

Also see
http://www.coleford-online.co.uk/heritage/coleford-history-2/
http://www.royalforestofdean.info/forest-of-dean/coleford.shtml

I've emailed you more old photo references to Coalway area, sadly its almost 3am here and I must away, sorry.. hope this starts you off.

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Re Thomas b 1811, if you try the wondrous "Advanced search" function, this Marriage looks a good contender for Thos & Sarah, it was/is custom to wed at the bride's home parish church so not necessarily at Thomas's home at Coalway.
In those days as said earlier the only Churches were effectively around the edge, rather than inside, the Forest area. It's odd they would marry t'other side of the Forest and not the perhaps more likely choice of Newland or Bicknor, but ??.
That said, its possible the couple were trying to avoid their families, given the witnesses don't obviously appear to be family. However as said this PR is only a "possible" at the mo. Searching the witness' own background in the PRs or Census may help indicate whether this is your Thomas or not.

Record ID 8673
Entry Number 114
Year 1832
Month Apr
Day 12
Grooms Surname ROSSER
Grooms Forenames Thomas
Grooms Age
Groom Condition [not stated]
Grooms Occupation
Grooms Residence Hundred of St Briavels
Grooms Fathers Surname
Grooms Fathers Forenames
Grooms Fathers Occupation
Brides Surname HOWELL
Brides Forenames Sarah
Brides Age
Brides Condition [not stated]
Brides Occupation
Brides Residence Hundred of St Briavels
Brides Fathers Surname
Brides Fathers Forenames
Brides Fathers Occupation
Licence or Banns Banns
Date of Banns
Signature or Mark He signs she marks
Witness 1 A Cooper
Witness 2 Mary Cooper
Other Witnesses
Officiating Minister J A Harrison Officiating Minister
Event Marriage
Memoranda
Notes
Register Reference P110 IN 1/9
Page Number 38
Parish Chapel Littledean

Hope this helps to start with, atb Jeff.