Hello,
Just wondering if anyone can help?
I’ve heard a story about someone drowning in a small pond in the wood at Buckshaft.
The pond is past the farm, through a field And then follows a small path before opening out a little and turning right. You then come to a junction of paths. To get to the pond you turn left and then left again. It’s not a large pond.
I have no concrete information about the drowning, just a story passed down through family.
Thank you.

Do you know roughly when this was or anything about the person?

It's likely to have been reported in the newspapers so a search of the archive might give something. An initial search I did gave nothing but some more info might help.

--
Peter

Perhaps this refers to Soudley Ponds, by all accounts a well-known angling and swimming location. It can be easily found on Streetmap by searching Buckshaft Road. If so, there are several fatalities reported in the newspapers,

1932 Cyril James WATTS, 15, of Nag’s Head Place, Cinderford

1934 Richard Leslie George HAWKINS, 20, butcher’s assistant of Cinderford

1938 Frank Edward MORSE, 46

1939 Edith Emma Curtis, 59, 6 Buckshaft Road, Ruspidge

1941 Clara Beatrice HILLMAN, 61, of 46 Church Road, Cinderford

Could be Mike. But there is a small pond close to Abbots Wood that I'm guessing is the one the OP is referring to. But the story could have come from a drowning at Soudley Ponds.

The Abbots Wood pond is shown on this map

https://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/#zoom=17&lat=51.80857&lon=-2.49792&layers=1...

There's also another pond further south, must be a man made one from it's shape, which is another possibility.

--
Peter

A lad named Eric Evan Embling drowned in what was named, as I remember, Yellowstone Pond in 1920. This may not be the pond described in the original post as this is a small, oval, brick lined pond used to collect water which was piped to the greenhouses at Abbotswood House and is situated up the track on the Cinderford side of what were the grounds of the Abbots House.

It is, however, a known drowning incident in the general area.

His burial record in the parish records on this site

Record_ID: 66539
Entry_Number: 488
Year: 1920
Month: Aug
Day: 21
Surname: EMBLING
Forenames: Eric Evan
Residence: Ruspidge
Age_at_death: 6
Officiating_Minister: F W Baldwin
Event: Burial
Cause_of_death:
Memoranda: C/1/11
Notes:
Register_Reference: P85/1 IN 1/15
Page_No: 61
Parish_Chapel: Cinderford St John

I have a transcript of the inquest.

Edit to add:- I submitted this transcript to this site some time ago and it can be viewed in 'Downloads and Articles' in the Resources Section, it is entitled 'Eric Embling Ruspidge Inquest 1920'.
This is the small oval pond on the O.S. map posted up by Peter.