Detached Part of Newland (General)

by Jefff , West London, Middlesex, Friday, February 01, 2019, 15:31 (2158 days ago) @ NElkins

Hi Norman,
I don't know what current situation is, altho I suspect the previously detached parts have all been "tidied-up" nowadays, in the same way as county boundaries have been smoothed-out with time.

As to "muddling where an ancestor lived", personally I couldn't say without having some idea as to what era you're thinking about.

What I do know from my personal experiences, I was born in the eastern side of the Forest (Cinderford), but still knew about Coleford & Monmouth from a fairly early age. I didn't hear of Newland until I started at secondary school at Berry Hill just 5 miles west of my home area, most of the school's pupils came from the Coleford area, and I heard it spoken of as an important old church aka "the Cathedral of the Forest". However it still wasn't until 30 years later c2010 when I heard mention of Newland again, when I started my family history researches and saw the Newland name appear on old census forms etc; I had no real knowledge or awareness of Newland as an area or district, it was just an old small village in my mind, altho' I knew full well about Coleford, Monmouth etc, having close relatives living there.

Seems to me that altho' Newland was clearly a commonly-used term for the western parts of the Forest in early times, but since abt the mid 1800s and the significant growth in size hence importance of Lane End (Coalway, Broadwell) and then Coleford, and Lydbrook a little further northeast, and of course Monmouth a few miles west, Newland itself as both a place and a name became less and less significant in terms of local government and social affairs and awareness.

Hope this helps Norman.
Please can I ask whereabouts in the world you are ? Asking not thro' nosiness, but because this helps us to best understand your queries ?

atb J.