Crown Inn - Pubs & Old Photo websites & Books (General)

by Jefff , West London, Middlesex, Wednesday, May 08, 2013, 15:28 (4219 days ago) @ messerschmitt

Good afternoon Campbell,
thanks so much for your interesting reply, very informative indeed. As a lifelong lover of books and more recently local history I must say it sounds like you have my idea of a dream job, especially meeting so many interesting characters. Thanks too for being so kind to me when I was so clearly teaching you to suck eggs, apologies for foolishly assuming you were totally new to the area.
As you say, at least these posts have collected together various suggestions for reference sources which other readers may find helpfull. After posting I realised I had ommitted the Heritage Museum as a possible source of information, but no doubt you'll have tried that one too.

I'm afraid despite being born a Forester in 62 my knowledge of the area is not great as I moved from Cinderford to West London in the early 1980s, long before I got hooked by local history just three years back. So sadly I very much doubt I can help you further, in fact quite the opposite I suspect. My father was a son of Joys Green stretching back many generations, so he knew the local people & places very well indeed, I still have relatives in Ruardean altho sadly we've never been close. Hence my knowledge of the village is merely passing thro' enroute to my gran's home at Moorwood until about 1981. Dad spent most his working life at Edwards of Lydbrook, so I've started hunting for snippetts about local buses just as you appear to be for Hales icecreams. This led me to find another book at Cinderford library that might interest you, it has a few photos of Meek's buses in the Square at Ruardean, see this prior thread.
http://www.forum.forest-of-dean.net/index.php?id=36698

I can happily email you the relevant scans of my own copy of the above book ? That said I can't help thinking you'll already know the book possibly thro it's publishers ?. I've found there's a huge interest in old buses and I've found some very helpfull speciallist online forums, as you know there's undoubtedly going to be similar helpful websites and groups about ice cream vans. Re the above mentioned Bus Book by Colin Martin, I haven't yet read his book "Glostershire Goods Vehicles", I wonder if it includes icecream vans although if it does I suspect they'll be from the Gloster/Stroud area, may be worth visiting the library for tho ?.
https://prism.talis.com/gloucestershire/items/636669?query=colin+martin&resultsUri=...

I also wonder if the excellent Hale Family website will be any help ?.
http://www.forum.forest-of-dean.net/index.php?id=38690

Again thanks for the chat, very pleasant indeed while listening to the online commentary of Gloster County Cricket, I just wish I had a decent pub a short stroll away like you !!.

Jeff.