Dr. M.L.Bangara
was born at Mangalore in South India in 1881. After qualifying as a
doctor at Edinburgh University he moved to Cinderford in 1915
working in his own practice and at the Dilke Memorial Hospital.

In addition to his work as a doctor, he was an active member of
the community and a leading light in a variety of local
organisations including the Freemasons, Cinderford Horticultural
Society, Dickens Fellowship, Excelsior Band and Cinderford Male
Voice Choir.

Dr Bangara died of complications following influenza shortly
after his 46th birthday in 1927. The 'In Memoriam' pamphlet
published later that year shows the very considerable affection and
respect in which he was held in Cinderford.

Dr R.Natha Nanda
One of the mourners at Dr
Bangara's funeral in 1927 was his colleague Dr R.N.Nanda of St
Briavels. Like Dr Bangara, R.Natha Nanda qualified in Scotland.
According to Kelly's Directory, he succeeded Dr Moyle in practice at
Humphrey's Lodge, St Briavels, and also as medical officer and
public vaccination officer for the St Briavels district, in about
1922. He continued to practice in St Briavels at least until the
mid-1940s.

I suspect that children from Horsepool Bottom would have been eductaed in Abenhall. < someone else may knon better ! >

In 1833 a Sunday school supported by voluntary contributions and teaching 20 children was begun in Abenhall (Footnote 92) and in 1846 the parish had two dame schools with 20 and 6 day and 29 and 7 Sunday pupils respectively. (Footnote 93) A school built west of the church near the Littledean-Mitcheldean road in 1850 housed a day school, which in 1875, as Abenhall C. of E. school, had a daily attendance of 30 and was supported by voluntary contributions and pence. It was then owned and controlled by Henrietta Davies (Footnote 94) and later it was supported by the Barton family. The school, which had an average attendance of 50 in 1885 and 23 in 1902, (Footnote 95) became in 1903 one of the first to be closed by the county education committee, the children being transferred to schools at Mitcheldean and Plump Hill. (Footnote 96) The building continued in use as a Sunday school and was apparently given to the parish by the representatives of Katherine Barton in 1913. It served as a parish room for many years (Footnote 97) but was unused in 1988.
In 1930 the county education committee opened a senior school for Mitcheldean and adjoining parishes in new buildings in the north of Abenhall. (Footnote 98) The school, the average attendance at which was 181 by 1938, (Footnote 99) became a secondary modern school under the 1944 Educ ation Act and at a reorganization of Forest of Dean secondary education in 1985 was made a comprehensive school called Dene Magna school. New buildings had been added to the site in 1961 and 1980, and in 1988 there were 568 pupils on the roll, drawn from a wide area including Westbury-on-Severn and Ruardean. (Footnote 1)

From: 'Abenhall', A History of the County of Gloucester: Volume V: Bledisloe Hundred, St. Briavels Hundred, The Forest of Dean (1996), pp. 93-101. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.asp?compid=23253. Date accessed: 22 June 2005.