Dear "Cousin" Jeff

My head hurts when I try to get the detail on "cousin"!

James is my great grandfather's brother. It appears there were 3 brothers who went to New Zealand: Henry, Sidney and Richard.

I think it was Harriett who married a Pace.

I am struck by the fecundity of the family around this time. Ten kids is a lot for anyone.

Could you let me know if I can access the parish records online?

Also, do you have any old pictures of Barnhill or any idea of the housing? On google maps they are semi-detached from this century. I wonder about the kind of life a miner with a large family would have survived at this time. Did a lot of people from the Forest of Dean emigrate to New Zealand around 1900? So many questions. If I did visit the area, do you where would be best to visit in terms of getting an impression of the lives people would have led?

Carl

Dear "Cousin" Carl.

don't worry about that revelation, if we go back far enough I think most Dean Foresters are probably "related" to some degree... it was a remote # secluded area with not a lot to do after dark... Which leads me to thank you for introducing me to a great "new" word. Yes, fecundity (wow!) wasn't too rare in those days, it surprised me too when I started looking up my tree but in fact large families were quite normal for the working classes in the days before family planning etc, especially as that could mean more earners. I mentioned my paternal grandmother, a Lydbrook Taylor, to our surprise she was the youngest of eleven, spread across 26 years, her father was one of eight, etc... Not saying such large families were the norm, but I don't think they were that unusual either.

# Less so now, but for centuries the Dean was a remote place, William the Conqueror made it as far as Gloucester, but like even the Romans before him, wasn't keen to risk climbing into the wild Forest area. As recently as the late 70s young Foresters were often met with hostility for being "backwoods roughnecks" when we went to the "big city" of Gloucester all of 15 miles away !.

I think you're right re Harriet & Pace(Page?), her name sounds familiar re my browsing across the Fox's Census returns.

This forum has seen countless examples of Foresters travelling many miles to find work in other mining areas (or the associated metalworking industries; initially across Britain, and then across the world to the USA, NZ etc as those territories were found to also have raw mineral deposits. Some families returned, many stayed, hence the forum routinely receives many queries from t'other side of the world.

Until last year the FoD Parish Records were only available online via the transcripts on this website. If anyone thinks they may be in error, the site’s admin staff can be asked to check the original PR, which I think are usually in photographic form as the originals are held at Gloucester Archives and such like. Last year Gloster Archives linked-up with Ancestry, so photo images of the actual PRs can now be seen and downloaded from that site.

Re the housing at Barnhill and Broadwell, originally it would be wooden cabins built by the woodmen/quarrymen/miners themselves, which by the 1800s had become cottages using locally-quarried stone, then (post War) brickbuilt 2 storey semi’s etc built by developers, the British Land Society, or local authority “council”; the British History site as mentioned in my earlier post details this, certainly no tower blocks of flats etc in the Forest !. The various old Ordnance Survey maps give an idea of the “random” nature of the Forest’s towns, during the Industrial Revolution of the 1800s the Forest’s desirable mineral wealth caused an explosion in population, often without any civic planning as such, hence it's rather random appearance especially in the older villages..
See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broadwell,_Forest_of_Dean

Regarding the British History website, it's a truly excellent resource but can seem a little disjointed in it's layout, so for any given section it's best to word-search the text for, in this case, "Broadwell".
The section best describing Broadwell's housing can be found about 2/3 down the "Settlement" page; search here
http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/glos/vol5/pp300-325
Also search this page
http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/glos/vol5/pp117-138#h3-0003

For old photos this site has an excellent Gallery section worth browsing, plus the Sungreen site I’ve already mentioned, these will give you a good idea of the topography and townships of the FoD, plus Google Streetview etc. Also the excellent old photos books by Humphrey Phelps, but these tend to feature people and workplaces rather than general housing.
Also see https://www.francisfrith.com/broadwell,christchurch,gloucestershire

This forum has been operating for many years now, so it’s highly likely that any general questions you may have eg "NZ migrants" or "Dean tourism", have already been answered; please just use the forum search facility, some examples are below. To get an idea about the way our ancestors lived in the past there are some well-known books that you can probably find in your local library, or buy online, (think of authors such as Winifred Foley, Joyce Latham, Phelps and Dennis Potter), and when you do visit make sure you go to the Dean Heritage museum at Soudley.

Hoping this helps, Jeff

PS In case you've not already found out, be warned that most internet searches for "Broadwell" will take you to the very different village of the same name in the Cotswolds end of our beautiful and varied county.

For general info such as tourism and books see the links section of this site, which has several great pages including;
http://www.forest-of-dean.net/joomla/index.php/links/20-books
http://www.forest-of-dean.net/joomla/index.php/links/23-forest-people

Prior threads which should help you re the above queries include:

(Books)
http://www.forum.forest-of-dean.net/index.php?id=39806
http://www.forest-of-dean.net/fodmembers/index.php?id=46782

(Visiting)
http://www.forest-of-dean.net/fodmembers/index.php?id=41340
http://www.forum.forest-of-dean.net/index.php?mode=entry&id=33227

(Emigration to NZ etc)
http://www.forum.forest-of-dean.net/index.php?id=31551
http://www.forum.forest-of-dean.net/index.php?id=25374

and so on...

Carl, my Forest forebears came to Aotearoa in 1860, so perhaps this is not directly comparable to your family's 1900 situation.

However, there were 10 siblings in my great grandfather's family (including him) and five came here and five stayed in Britain (as far as I know; at least I haven't been able to find any records of any of the other five coming here).

Great grandfather was an iron miner, and had a limited future if he stayed in the Forest - as far as I can work out his father would have been a tenant farmer, so there would be little to inherit.

Great grandfather certainly brought his younger 16 year old sister out after him, but what influence he had on the others I do not know. I imagine they would not have come had his opinion been unfavourable!

In comparison with what I have been able to read about in Forest sources, he was able to buy and develop a small freehold farm here (Saltwater Creek, North Canterbury) with a two storey house, and to give his children a reasonable start in life. I think this would have been true for other Foresters who came out here about the same time - what things would have been like in 1900 I am not sure - at least the 1880 depression was over by then, and the Land Wars were finished so your family would not have arrived here at a time a serious conflict. However, a lot of Foresters came to NZ in the 19th Century as you will discover on this forum.

I note that you want to visit Coleford (which is where my Great grandmother came from [Coalway Lane]). We visited the Forest in 2004 from NZ, and I was bowled over by the beauty of the place. Our visit was a bit spoiled by lack of understanding on my part, and when you are this far away it makes it difficult to get a second chance. So I would urge you to find out as much as you can before you go, to make the best use of your time. Example - I thought great grandfather's family came from St Briavels, so we went there as well as Coleford for great grandmother. Unfortunately they came from the parish of St Briavels rather the village of the same name. So the trip to St Briavels village was a waste of time in one sense, because of ignorance/confusion on my part. Now I would plan a completely different itinerary!

Best wishes, John

Hi

So due to lock down I'm sat at home researching my family tree.

Henry John Fox (1845-1917) was my great great grandfather.

I have discovered quite a bit from this excellent source and hope I can add a photo or two in the future.

If/When we can get out of the house again I'll be planning a trip to the Cotswolds and Coleford.
We now live in Cambridgeshire so it's not too far for a little holiday.

We'll be trying to get photos of graves and burial sites the Fox family.

@Carl
Did you get to Coleford and if so did you get any further information that could be helpful?

You and I may be related!