Ancestry trip to FOD (General)

by Jefff , West London, Middlesex, Wednesday, April 11, 2012, 06:08 (4612 days ago) @ unknown

Hi Charlotte,
re driving on the "right" side (compared to the US that is), I take my RHD car over to Europe regularly and as has been said earlier, generally it's much easier than you might think. However you must concentrate, yes the stats prove that accidents occur most when driver's not fully alert, such as first thing in the morning after an overnight stop. It's so easy to swing out onto the wrong side if there's no other traffic about. In that respect I suspect it's easier if you have a hire car, just as with the US we drive so the driver is sat in the middle of the road next to oncoming traffic and the frontpassengers on the roadside.
Don't forget the Forest is essentially a very small area when driving, so as long as you have a good OS map you'll never be far from where you want to be. Although the forested woodlands cover many hundreds of acres, and you can certainly get lost in them if walking or cycling, you cannot enter them by car as the forestry roads/tracks have gated access. The "main" public roads need some care though as they are often very windy & narrow especially compared to the States. My dear dad taught me to drive, he spent his life driving buses locally. He told me to always stay close to the roadside verge especially if it's a narrow road as you don't know what's coming around the next oncoming corner or how fast/wide they'll be. That said in some areas, particularly if it's hot summers day, you will often find sheep sitting right on the roadside, but don't worry they're used to traffic and let you pass them with a few inches to spare and don't generally "spook". A good (?!) example is the steep winding hill upwards past Cannop towards Coleford if driving from Speech House. Similarly at night or very early morning you may see deer etc in the roads. It's also fair to say the locals drive a lot faster than tourists tend to expect, as they know all the bends etc plus aren't looking at the scenery.

Given the relatively small size of the area I wouldn't recommend B&Bing on an adhoc unplanned basis, as you can spend a lot of time looking, finding and "booking-in" and so missingout on the tourism part of your day. Contact the Tourist Offices in advance to plan and even book. Nowadays the area is very much a tourism one, so if you visit in prime holiday time eg August Bank Holiday it will be very busy everywhere. I would recommend visiting just before or after the British summer school holidays which run from mid July to the end of August. These holidays often attract rain as well as tourist crowds, whereas the early September weeks particularly can be much better and far less traffic/crowds too. If it were me I'd probably use somewhere like the Speech House as a base for the Forest holiday, then maybe Ross On Wye if you're considering covering the Wye Valley area to the west of the Forest "proper". This naturally leads you "up" into Herefordshire and the Brecon Beacons, or "down" into nearby Monmouth and South Wales etc. Ross is an attractive town on the River and has a fair few Hotels etc. If you look at the early (1920s onwards) motoring Tourist Guides Ross was considered "the" place to stop, the Wye Valley was moreorless where "tourism" was invented in the 1800s. By the 50s or so the Littledean Guest House (recently renovated I believe) was handy for the Eastern side of the Forest, although to be honest the nearby town of Cinderford (which I love as my hometown) isn't exactly picturesque... .

This earlier post may hopefully help you wrt possible places to visit etc, the Heritage Museum being the obvious choice.

http://www.forum.forest-of-dean.net/index.php?id=33227

I do hope some of this is usefull. Its good to see you're doing the right thing by planning it in advance.

Have a great trip !