Can anybody confirm the origins of the name Park End ? The obvious one is that it is at the park end but is this correct ? Did it perhaps get its name from the collieries, metal working that occur in the area possibly started by a family called Park, Parke, Parkes or Sparkes etc as the parish records show that they occurred in many places in the Forest of Dean area ? I would be very grateful to receive any comments on this subject. I have searched various articles both on this excellent website and elsewhere and they all seem to show rather like "topsy" it just appeared !!
Brian Parkes

I think the history goes :-

First - Whitemead Park

An island called Whitemead park, inclosed before 1283 and added to
Newland parish, remained in Crown ownership and was sometimes
accounted a part of the Forest demesne later.

From: 'Forest of Dean: Bounds of the forest',
A History of the County of Gloucester: Volume 5: Bledisloe Hundred,
St. Briavels Hundred, The Forest of Dean (1996), pp. 295-300.
URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=23265 Date accessed: 11 February 2009.

Then a settlement develops on the northern boundary of Whitemead Park - becomes known as Park End.

This has now corrupted to Parkend, as the village developed along with the iron / coal industry in the area from the 1800's.

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Ἀριστοτέλης A Gloster & Hereford Boy in the Forest of Dean ><((((*>