East Dean 1851 Census - Cinderford - Little Dean Walk ? (General)

by Jefff , West London, Middlesex, Friday, April 04, 2014, 02:39 (3881 days ago) @ Daffodil

About 1670 to allow proper management of the Royal Forest and ensure adequate supplies of fully-grown oak etc for Navy shipbuilding rather than charcoal-burning, the Forest was divided into areas called Walks. This was to guard the Forest against fires, and particularly to prevent incroachment (settlers building cabin homes, then perhaps damaging the woods or felling & taking wood illegally). Each Walk could now be patrolled and managed by a Keeper, reporting to the Constable at St Briavel's castle. The Keepers lived in specially-built Lodges, sited in high places to command good views across the Walk. Over the following centuries the names varied slightly, as did the areas and number of Lodges. The detailed history below describes this, note it mentions Latimer Walk and Littledean Walk. You'll probably already know of Latimer ref the School/leisure centre etc on top of Littledean Hill/Edgehill towards Collafield etc, indeed the most recent Latimer Lodge still stands up there.
I haven't heard of Littledean Walk until today, so only know what's stated here, I wonder if it was the early name for Latimer Walk ??. The old OS Maps show a Littledean Walk but this extends quite a distance, coincidentally given the earlier post it seems to stretch right across the top of Cinderford from Littledean Hill to near Forest Church at Harrow Hill, Also note this link shows Gunn's Mills as being part of Littledean Walk in 1752, this is t'other side of Edgehill/Littledean Hill from Cinderford down near Flaxley, so clearly this was quite a large area and not helpfull in defining your ancestor's address, sorry. Perhaps in 1841 it was the name of a lane or road near Cinderford Bridge, perhaps the start of the long Littledean Walk ??

http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=23266
Particularly "Table II: Cottages and Encroachments on Crown Lands 1752-1834"