Trying to find out if there was ever a place called Colliers Strand or similar in Cinderford. Any help would be great. It's mentioned in the 1861 census. I think it might be near the modern Parragate as something like that is mentioned on the same census page. Thanks

There is a road called Colliers Field not far from the modern Parragate. It’s on the other side of Station Road near to the site of the old Leather Pit. Maps from 1883 onwards show buildings there in enclosures. Later maps show the road did not assume its present form until perhaps the 1950s or afterwards.

Colliers field is a modern road which came about when the old grammar school (later the technical college) was removed and a lot of the area was built on. I went to the technical college in 1972 so was sometime after that but not sure when.

I don't think that Parragate existed in 1861. Looking at maps it doesn't seem to appear until the 1930s or thereabouts.

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Peter

Actually, there is a bit of what became Parragate on earlier maps but it's not named. Not far away is the (unused) Parragon pit. Maybe that's the area.

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Peter

Need to have a closer look as I was born n bred in Parragate (named after the Paragon pit as mentioned) but don't recognise this at all. Odd ?

Hi Tim, welcome to the forum.
Please bear with me on this post, as I don't know how well you know Cinderford (we often have forum visitors from all across the world!).

In general I agree entirely with Peter's post. There were a few Victorian houses on what's now known as Parragate Road (running "above" and parallel with what became known as Station Street), but the northern offshoots which are now within Parragate were just a few isolated short terraces of cottages, now mostly demolished I believe.
The easternmost row of 4? cottages is underneath my mum's semi-detached house on modern Parragate which runs north from Parragate Road near Bilson School. Our house was built a year before we moved-in, in 1963, most of the housing around there is definitely post 1900s if not later. If you look at this map "our" very short row is north of the stream near Bilson School (the stream's now under Parragate Road). When we were kids our back gate opened onto marshy rough ground we called the Green, nowadays it's housing culdesac Cedardean which was built in the 1990s.
(See this 1900 map, we were/are above the "n" in "Green", east of the old Paragon workings).
https://maps.nls.uk/view/109725358

The longer row of houses shown running "vertically" to the western edge of the school are located on what's now known as Parragate Road. Like my short row, some of them are marked on the earlier OS maps c1880.

The word "Strand" as in road/place is derived from Old English Strond, meaning the edge of a river (hence the Strand overlooking the Severn at Westbury, or the one in London on the Thames before the Embankment was built.)

So I guess Colliers Strand could be a rather romantic name for the longer row of cottages shown here, overlooking the stream; before the stream was culverted below ground. Now not technically a Strand, this road eventually connected to the main road coming down from the junction of Wesley Road and the High Street, this road would eventually be named Parragate Road.

Wotyereckon ???

Altho this 1922 map doesn't show the stream anymore, it still doesn't use the name Parragate Road either... The maps have only just caught-on to labelling Station Street as such, as the station wasn't completed when the 1900 map was surveyed.
https://maps.nls.uk/view/109725361

Of course the best way to find out is to try and interpret the Census forms, as Tim has already done. It's annoying that my mum still has the Deeds to her house, which mention the old cottages it was built over, I wonder if they mention the "posh" haha Strand ?.
Perhaps oddly, I've never looked at the older census forms myself .... yet. I also need to see those deeds for myself.

Hope this helps you Tim.

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Peter - the "Tec" college was still much as you knew it when I left in 1980, and looked like the photos in this link. It closed as a college in 1985, but I think still stood for some years after, as said earlier Colliers Field housing is rather more recent than that. The original red standstone frontage and main EDGS-era entrance on Station Street is still intact and is still being used as offices by the local council.
https://www.sungreen.co.uk/EDGS/EDGS_Buildings_1980.html