I'm currently looking at a maternal line in my family, the Edwards family. My 3x great uncle was John Edwards (1840-1924), and was born, lived and died in the Forest.

The 1881 Census shows his family apparently living 'at' the Cinderford Iron Works, at least in terms of the column on the enumeration form with the heading "Road, Street and Number or Name of House". His occupation is described as "engine fitter, iron works".

If you want to look at the actual Census page, then the full reference is:

Class RG11
Piece 2523
Folio 21
Page 36
GSU Roll 1341609

Separately, the parish baptism register entry on this website dated 1846 for his brother, Thomas Edwards, shows that his father (also Thomas, my 3x great-grandfather) was an engineer and the "residence" is described as "Cinderford Iron Works". The full reference for this is:

Reference P85 IN 1/1
Page 15
Parish Chapel Cinderford St John
Soundex E363

Any enlightenment on this question would be most welcome!

Many thanks, Jane

If you look at the census pages before and after the entry for John EDWARDS (Schedule No. 154) they all give similar information. This starts with Schedule No. 117, “Near Cinderford Iron Works, Tyler’s Row”, and ends with Schedule No. 169 “Near Cinderford Iron Works”. Since 50 or more Schedules were involved it makes me wonder if they all meant “Near Cinderford Iron Works”.

Tyler’s Row has been discussed before,

http://forum.forest-of-dean.net/index.php?id=45092

Many thanks for this Mike.

I guess it's more than possible that the Census enumerator got bored with writing "near Cinderford Iron Works" and started missing off the "near".

Nevertheless, if John Edwards' job was as an engine fitter or anything else to do with steam engines at the foundry, then I can imagine he would have needed to have lived close at hand.

I may be a clean-handed office worker myself, but my Dad has owned steam traction engines for many years, and I've spent enough time around them to know the amount of time and effort they need to be kept working, even for just a few hours. The Forest of Dean connection is on my Mum's side of the family, but even my Dad was impressed when I showed him the various records of my 3x great grandfather which show his occupation as "engineer". (My husband, however, is less impressed that this ancestor was born in Wales, given the rugby "thing"!)