What a wonderful place the Forest is! Seven members of the Selbyfamily descended on it last week staying at Whitemead as there were two small grandchildren with us. It was a lovely place to stay with lots of attractions nearby. We started off meeting at Tintern Old Station then on to Whitemead. The weather was beautiful making it possible to have picnics out every day. We went to Beechenhurst, Cannop Ponds, Mallards Pike (a seat there dedicated to a possible family member who I have to check out), New Fancy (fabulous views but a bit of a steep climb for Grandma!), lunch at Brockweir Community Shop where there was a play area for the children. This is near to the spiritual home at Hewelsfield. After this to St Briavels where the granddaughter had a lovely time in the castle and I was able to do a bit of family grave spotting finding a new grave for my records. On a break from the grandchildren we went to Lydney Park which was open for the first time this year and how beautiful the trees and flowers were (would recommend a visit). Going home to Bristol we rounded off the trip by stopping at Lydney Harbour.
This is a beautiful part of the world and I would recommend it to anyone researching family history in the area who has not actually been there.

Sheila

Yes it's a beautiful place, I often go there. I particularly like the old iron works at Easter when the egg hunt is on!

Thanks so much for sharing the highlights of your visit. My husband and I plan to visit the Forest for the first time in September, so will print out your post and use it to inform our itinerary!

M Symonds

That's great news MJ, we hope you enjoy a wonderfull visit ! Also well done for preparing well in advance, there's so much to see. You've chosen the perfect time to see the Forest at it's verdant best, traditionally the rain always stops as soon as the schoolkids go back at end of August, hence less daytripper crowds too...

In the past we've had many threads requesting advice & suggestions for visits, search "tourism" etc and they'll pop up, I think these will help you a lot for starters.

http://forum.forest-of-dean.net/index.php?id=36291
http://forum.forest-of-dean.net/index.php?id=33227

Hoping these help you, any more questions please ask,
Jeff

PS very glad to hear the Selbyfamily enjoyed a good trip too !

Hope you enjoy your trip. There are many more lovely places to visit. We were a bit restricted by our youngest grandchild needing a morning nap so didn't go to all the places we intended. However, we live near enough to visit for the day which we do from time to time though we only have one close relative living there now.
Sheila

We did go near the ironworks but decided not to stop as it was a bit late in the day. Maybe we will go next time we are in the Forest.
Sheila

I agree entirely with you, it's lovely too to see the River Wye and to cross backwards and forwards over it into Wales.

So glad you enjoyed your visit to the forest Sheila. You may remember we met in 2007 on a tour of Australia and actually shared a table at Raffles, Singapore for tea. If you ever visit the ironworks at Gorsty Knoll you may be interested to know that I was born there and my Grandparents lived in the house above the ironworks called the Marefold.

Hi Gill
I remember well us having tea at Raffles! We have just come back from Galicia, northern Spain with the same company. Unfortunately we had to sit for two days at Gatwick (with a nice hotel stay in the middle) as our plane was cancelled due to the French strike. As we were only going for 8 days it did put a bit of a dampner on the holiday.

Next time we are in the Forest we will look round Gorsty Knoll. We did miss out on the ironworks last time.
Enjoy looking at photos you put on Sungreen from time to time.

Sheila

Marefold is a lovely old house remember it well used walk past it on way down to Aarons Pound to play when I was a kiddie. My mother was born n Gorsty Knoll along with her sister and brothers her surname was Wintle. My Grand parents moved from the Knoll to Lower Plamers Flat and I loved it when we came to visit Gran. If we were good she would give us a few pence and we would visit Aunty Dorothy Beard at her shop sometimes Uncle Will came home as black as ace of spades. There was Miss Hughes that lived on the corner who had a dog that would run about on the top of the wall and bark until you had gone by. Mums cousin Bilk lived over the other side oh and Teddy Nelmes, Don Smith ,Mrs Adams and her Daughter ,Mrs Foley lived on up from Mareforld. Sadly all past on now the last of my mums siblins this year aged 94 Memories memories thank you.

Just to mention that anyone collecting loyalty card points for the supermarket chain starting with T ending O, you can exchange them via their Rewards scheme for Days Out vouchers which include entry to the excellent Dean Heritage Centre at Soudley. This effectively gives us 1/4 price entry. I've just obtained some coupons for this purpose, easy online transaction, received by post just three days later, they don't expire until end of January 2015.
Please visit this deserving museum and the Gage library(Wednesdays only).

http://www.deanheritagecentre.com/

PS please be assured I'm not in any way linked to the above supermarket, I'm just a tightfisted Vurrister trying to help others eke out their hardearned pennies !.

Your post mentioning many names brought back a lot of memories of my first seven years. As I said my grandparents Richard and Annie Fowler lived at the Marefold,which was a lovely old house surrounded by gardens and orchards. The taste of the greengages remain with me today and I know that quite a few people have memories of going "scrumping " for apples and being chased by Richard.
I was born at a house called Ivydean next door to the house where the Foley family lived with their family including Rex who became a great painter of forest scenes.
My father Fred was a fan of cricket, and I remember Ted Nelmes created a cricket pitch near his home and we all used it from time to time.
Many an afternoon was spent by Aaron s or herons pond, and with all the locals spreading their towels on the bank it felt like being at the seaside. I knew Bilk who was friends with my Dad and my best friend was Wendy Merry. We walked to school at Ellwood, stopping to plait rushes on the way. I had a very happy childhood and being so young was not really aware of the war except that my Dad was in the army and having blackouts at the window. Happy memories

Please visit the Forest? We're coming in three weeks time! Very much looking forward to a family half-term break at the end of October, and a bit of time for me to do some family history research too.

jefff - I collect points from the supermarket that begins and ends in "S" and their points can also be redeemed for a voucher for the Dean Heritage Centre. We had planned a trip there anyway, but always useful to be able to save on admission.

My only worry is that there's so much to see and do that five days won't be enough. Obviously if someone can arrange some nice autumn sunshine for our stay then that would be wonderful!