Edward Ashcroft born +/- 1858 Birthplace, Forest of Dean (General)

by Jefff , West London, Middlesex, Tuesday, October 02, 2012, 16:05 (4438 days ago) @ aitch2oh

Hi and welcome to his great forum and website. In case you haven't done so yet, please don't forget to checkout the rest of the website, apart from an immense database of Parish Records and a friendly helpfull forum theres so much to see and all searchable, such as old photos, old documents, wills, inquests, e-books, maps and so on.
Re your Ashcroft query, yes it does sound like possibly travellors, altho there has always been a lot of movement between the Forest and Merthyr etc thro the iron & coal industries.
If you search this forum for prior threads (in case someone else is also researching "your" line) you'll find the following which may be relevant, the first of which I see mentions besom makers.
http://www.forum.forest-of-dean.net/index.php?id=30623

PS Ooops, a few seconds ago there were no replies and now I see the we're "fighting" to reply, were you guys enjoying your afternoon cuppa too ? :-)
I'll leave you in their morethancapable hands, good luck with your researches !