Hi Sheila,
welcome to this great forum and website. Did you know both the forum and the website can be fully searched via their respective search "boxes" ?. Although Jones is a very common Forest name you may find a relevant priorthread in the forum. Also there is an Old Photos section which may well help you.

I am also a Jones and was born n bred in Bilson, Lower Cinderford. However I doubt that we are related, my Jones line stems from Lydbrook. To my surprise on joining the forum last year, I found statistically Jones is by the most common (I prefer "popular") Forest surname. This wasn't my impression when living in the Cinderford/eastern side of the Forest, so I'd concluded they're concentrated in the north/western side such as Lydbrook due to the high numbers from Wales settling around the Wye valley side during the Industrial Revolution, or indeed up into Herefordshire. That said, I've recently found many Jones' in the older part of town towards Cinderford Bridge & Ruspidge, so I was clearly moving in the wrong social circles !.

When you say "Union" Stores, where do you get this phrase from ?. Apologies as I'm under the weather at the mo, but (I think?) this is a new term to me, and I've been studying books & photos of Cinderford for a few years now.

Could this be anything to do with the Co-Operative Stores I wonder ?

I'll start digging thro my books and researches (sure there's some Edwins/Wallaces in there but...), only yesterday I was again wishing I had an index to all of Humphrey Phelps' marvelous "Old Photos" books !

Good luck Jeff

ps If you've not visited Cinderford I wouldn't go this time of year. My mother's still there and its VERY cold today, plus sadly it's a rather rundown town compared to the past, it was a lively place only 20 years back, but still great people tho' !!. Come the Spring and its an ideal place to tour the Forest from. ALSO Cinderford library carries the local Newspaper archives which may well help you, many delightful old adverts etc, please see this prior post.

http://www.forum.forest-of-dean.net/index.php?id=34114

Speak later, Jeff

Thanks for this info - I too appreciated the humour re relative occupation. Do you know if any photographs of this grocer store exist? I recently travelled from Somerset, where I live, to do a bit of research in Cinderford library but could not find any reference.

Sheila

Hi Slowhands, thanks for the comedy spot, def Forest humour there, wonder what would have happened if I'd tried such an entry in the 2011 Census...

Re "Royal Union Stores", I've read about Cinderford's shops being "taken over" & eventually dominated by the Co-op (itself a Union of sorts) since their start at Cinderford Bridge in the 1870s. However I've only seen the "ROYAL Union" name in reference to the pub at 8 High Street which closed around 1960 when the old Triangle was demolished.

However the 1902 Kelly's does also contain this possible pointer:
"JONES Alice S. (Miss), grocer & beer retailer & wine & spirit merchant"

The Easywell site list these former landlords of The Royal Union pub;

1856 J. Symonds
1885,1891, Mark Cole
1902,1903 Susan Cole (Mrs Susan Cole in 1902)
1919 Alice Cole (Mrs)
1927 William J. Jones
1939 William Noel Jones

http://www.gloucestershirecamra.org.uk/pubs/glospubs/new/AllGlosPubsDatabase/AllGlosPub...

It was clearly a substantial size building with a side entrance to a yard & stabling.

Do you know whether this pub was also a grocer's shop in some form ?. I don't recall seeing any photos of it which might prove this theory.

Is it possible Mrs Alice Cole was Miss Alice Jones, perhaps responsible for the off-sales side of the pub business & maybe a few groceries too ?. If so is she linked with Edwin's family ?

Just a thought.

Name: Wallace Ernest F Jones
Date of Registration: Apr-May-Jun 1894
Registration district: Westbury on Severn
Inferred County: Gloucestershire
Volume: 6a
Page: 235

Year: 1918
Month: Oct
Day: 10
Grooms_Surname: JONES
Grooms_Forenames: Wallace Ernest Frank
Grooms_Age: 24
Groom_Condition: Batchelor
Grooms_Occupation: Soldier
Grooms_Residence: High Street Cinderford
Grooms_Fathers_Surname: Jones
Grooms_Fathers_Forenames: Edwin
Grooms_Fathers_Occupation: Grocer
Brides_Surname: MERRIMAN
Brides_Forenames: Hilda
Brides_Age: 21
Brides_Condition: Spinster
Brides_Occupation:
Brides_Residence: Station Street Cinderford
Brides_Fathers_Surname: Merriman
Brides_Fathers_Forenames: John
Brides_Fathers_Occupation: Collier
Licence_or_Banns: Licence
Date_of_Banns:
Signature_or_Mark: Both sign
Witness_1: G Fellows
Witness_2: H Stanley Jones
Other_Witnesses:
Officiating_Minister: HM Biddell Vicar
Event: Marriage
Memoranda:
Notes:
Register_Reference: P85/2 IN 1/7
Page_Number: 61
Parish_Chapel: Cinderford St Stephen

Name: Wallace Ernest F Jones
Birth Date: 29 Mar 1894
Date of Registration: Apr-May-Jun 1971
Age at Death: 77
Registration district: Gloucester Rural
Inferred County: Gloucestershire
Volume: 7b
Page: 1192

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

Hello,

My Grandfather was Maurice (his birth name was Alfred Morris), Wallace was his older brother. Mabel married a 'Fellows' and I think she ran a shop in the lower end of Cinderford. Eva never married and ran the wool shop in The Triangle. My mother has said that Eva was apparently the first woman in Cinderford to ride a motorcycle! I do remember going to the wool with my grandmother when it was emptied.

I grew up in Cinderford and still have family living there, I've only just started to collate the family details and will hopefully be able to pass over details.
I have seen probate for Thomas (Union stores in Cinderford)as he left a sum of money to his wife Eleanor.

Hope this helps

Regards

Sue