Forest of Dean FHT Forum

Back to the forum index

Linear

Hi all,
Thank you so much for you assistance in the past with my Stockam and Preddy families. I am planning my visit to England in mid July. My brother in law lives near London and has offered to take me around the Forest of Dean and also around Somerset so I can explore the areas where my ancestors came from.

The Dean Forest area sounds so inviting but I was wondering if you had any suggestions regarding particular places of interest? During the mid to late 1800’s my ancestors resided in Lea Bailey, Ruardean, Cinderford, the Pludds, Lydbrook and Worral Hill areas. They were baptized, married and buried at The Lea, Holy Trinity at Drybrook, Ruardean Chapel, and Holy Jesus in Lydbrook. They were coal miners but I don’t know which colliery they worked at.

I am particularly interested in visiting the villages and churches where my ancestors lived and received religious sacraments. I wondered if there is any difficulty accessing these areas by car? Will I need a guide or will I be able to go inside the churches without any problem?

Thank you,
Donna

6200 views

Hi again Donna,
it's nice to read your kind comments re your Forum experiences. It's great to hear you'll be visiting the Forest, we do hope you have a good time. Of course it depends on your driver and your itinary especially wrt visiting Zummerzet, but as a Forest exile who's lived in West London for many years may I suggest the most pleasant and easily most scenic route from London to the Forest is the M40, A40 via Oxford, much more scenic than the boring and only marginally quicker M4 motorway. The old A40 over the Cotswolds has some lovely views, instead of following it into Cheltenham veer left at Andoversford onto the A436 to drop (more nice views) down to Brockworth & Gloucester, a few minutes around the bypass then rejoin the A40 towards "your" top side of the Forest via Huntley.

We had some similar enquiries last year wrt visiting the Forest, may I suggest these prior threads will contain the most likely suggestions and hints with many links to the appropriate websites etc. You don't mention how long you intend visiting, please if possible be prepared to linger awhile. All the places you mention are readily accessible by car, a good map of the area will be wise, but please note if you visit at prime tourist holiday times then traffic will of course be higher.

http://www.forum.forest-of-dean.net/index.php?id=33227
http://www.forum.forest-of-dean.net/index.php?id=36291

While visiting Drybrook's "Forest Church" (Holy Trinity) on the side of Harrow Hill, please consider approaching it from Mitcheldean side and you'll drive up & over the adjacent Plump Hill. This way you can easily pull into the layby at the Point and enjoy far-reaching views out across the Severn towards Gloster and the Cotswold Hills beyond, from here it's only a few minutes drive to the Church. If you first approach the Forest from Gloster/A40 it's the natural route from Huntley.
http://satnavandcider.wordpress.com/2012/08/27/plump-hill-view-of-the-severn/
http://www.forest-of-dean.net/gallery/fod_variety_1/pages/page_79.html

Re entering the Churches, sadly very few if any still have the traditional open door policy due to thefts or vandalism. Also due to falling attendances even some of the larger Churches such as you mention are not in use all the time; sometimes one Minister shares their duties around a few Churchs & Chapels within a group parish area, so don't assume all Churches will have their own Ministers living nearby. I'm confident you'll be warmly welcomed as a visitor altho' prior planning and probably phoning the relevant Minister in advance is worthwhile to ensure you can gain access, they may also prepare the way if searching for family graves. Clearly a summer Saturday will probably be busy with Weddings, maybe try a Sunday afternoon between Services, or even a weekday when a Church may be open for the Flower Arrangers & Brass Cleaners (such as my mother) but still nice and quiet for you. A small donation to their ever-increasing upkeep costs will no doubt help but is in no way considered necessary for entry. You mention Ruardean Chapel, I'm unsure whether you mean the Parish Church of St Johns which is still very much in-use, or one of the many smaller "Independent" Chapels which the Forest was once full of but many have now closed or been converted into housing.

Most if not all Churches in current use have websites which are readily found online, most Church of England ones are on the "Church Near You" website. Clearly advance emails can only be a good idea, especially as the details may be outofdate.

The Lea Church
http://www.achurchnearyou.com/the-lea-st-john-the-baptist/
http://www.theleaparishcouncil.org.uk/home

Ruardean Church
http://www.achurchnearyou.com/ruardean-st-john-the-baptist/
http://www.visitforestofdean.co.uk/discover/About%20Us/t-1581%7C/i-4425-Ruardean_Church...

Lydbrook Church
http://www.achurchnearyou.com/lydbrook-holy-jesus/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holy_Jesus'_Church,_Lydbrook

Holy Trinity Drybrook, aka "Forest Church"
http://www.achurchnearyou.com/drybrook-holy-trinity/
http://www.forestchurch.org.uk/

Of course you can find many more sites carrying old and new photos and so on, eg
http://www.forest-of-dean.net/gallery/churches/

---------

You mention your ancestors were miners but not sure exactly where, sadly many of us don't know for certain which pit our ancestors worked at due to a general lack of official records, plus in the early days there were dozens of small pits and even in recent times miners routinely walked miles to and from work. As we've discussed in the past my grandfather and forefathers were also from the Pludds area, the main pit there was the Waterloo aka "Arthur & Edward" Colliery at Lydbrook. However nowadays there's very little if anything to be seen above ground of any of these pits, even the spoil heaps have been landscaped into green beauty spots, New Fancy View being a prime example and well worth a visit as one of the above threads mentions.
http://www.forestry.gov.uk/forestry/englandgloucestershirenoforestforestofdeannewfancy

Near that is the Beechenhurst Picnic site, also a "reclaimed" colliery site, just yards from the old Speech House the traditional "centre" of the Forest. This site can get very busy indeed and, in my opinion, is scenically not a patch on New Fancy. However it does have a good Tourist Visitor Centre for visitor leaflets etc plus it is handy for parking and walking the Scupture Trail.

If you want to visit a Forest mine the only one still accessible for visitors is the small drift colliery at Hopewell, between Speech House and Lydbrook.
http://www.hopewellcolliery.com/
http://www.aditnow.co.uk/album/Hopewell-Colliery-Visit/
(Yes Clearwell caves are well-worth visiting as prior threads but not a true mine in the modern sense)

Anyhow, hopefully this and the lengthy prior threads have covered most of your queries, altho please post again as & when you'd like more information.

Enjoy your visit to the Vurrest !

6299 views

From our perspective visiting the Forest once only from New Zealand in 2004.

1. Allow as much time as you can and then double it! It is an extremely beautiful area, even without the genealogical interest.
2. We had no luck getting into any of the churches associated with our family. They were locked. Perhaps a letter ahead of time to the minister may let you make an appointment for entry.
3. If you are looking for graves, much time can be saved if you are able to locate your ancestors' burial places/plots before you go. Walking up and down rows and rows of graves isn't conducive to a good temper for the rest of your visit!
4. I had done insufficient research before we went to the Forest. I blush to say that I didn't make a conscious distinction between the Parish of St Briavels and the village of St Briavels, so we went to look at the village. I found out later that none of my family lived there - we should have gone to several other sites in the PARISH.
5. One of the members on this site was able to identify the address where my great grandmother's family were living during the 1841 Census. We still had some difficulty in finding it because the landmark house my directions were based upon had been demolished to make way for a housing development. However, two grumpy men going to play golf on a Sunday morning put me right (with a singular lack of grace!). It was lovely to look at one of the places my family lived in before coming to NZ in 1860.
6. We stayed locally in a B & B which meant we could toddle around in our rental car from dawn to dusk without having to get home to Oxford or London or...
7. We carried a picnic lunch with us, and one of the places we stopped to eat was the castle at St Briavels (it is opposite the church where none of my family are buried...). Lovely place to visit, and the views down to the Wye Valley are super.
8. I agree with Jefff's suggestions about the A40 from Oxford. The Cotswolds are a beautiful part of England.

5698 views

Thanks for all the help guys. My brother in law lives outside London and has arranged for us to spend a week in the Forest of Dean and Somerset area. We will be staying at a Bed and Breakfast. Thanks so much for the information about the churches. I plan to email them right away. I leave from the USA in mid July. I believe he has our visit to begin around the 22nd. I will be in England for 3 weeks and am so excited about my trip. I have never been there before.

Jefff when I looked back at my records about the Ruardean Chapel I had overlooked the name of the church listed as Bible Christian. Would that one still be in existance?

Thanks for all the links!

I'll be sure to let you know how my adventure turns out..

5659 views

Hi all,
thanks JH for your visit recollections, I do hope you enjoyed your visit despite the problems, it sounds like you did. Yes it's very sad the Churches have to be locked, I recall this subject being keenly debated within my mother's Church circles - however literally nothing is sacred these days, especially with the recent rise in precious metal thefts, not long ago someone scaled the roof of Cinderford Bilson Chapel to steal the one small bell...

Re Ruardean Chapel I suspect Slowhands can answer this far better than I can, I believe Ruardean is very much his neck of the woods. Indeed it was only when starting my FH research a few years ago I realised there were such considerable numbers of non-Conformist Chapels about the Forest, sadly my school RE studies only included C of E, unlike nowadays I'm pleased to say. This may help us:

"BIBLE CHRISTIANS AND UNITED METHODISTS.
The Bible Christian movement apparently reached the Forest at Drybrook from Monmouth in 1823 and was introduced to many communities by a mission established in 1826. The mission, conducted by two preachers holding open-air and cottage services, gained early converts in and around Drybrook and also spread beyond the Forest. Its first chapel within the Forest was Bethel, built at Drybrook in 1836 and opened in 1837. Later that year Bible Christian societies at Drybrook, Edge Hills, Soudley, and High Beech had memberships of 17, 15, 6, and 3 respectively. The High Beech meeting lapsed soon afterwards but that at Soudley grew and in 1846 it built a small chapel on Bradley hill near Upper Soudley. The chapel, a square stone building, was called Zion. The Edge Hills society dwindled in the later 1840s and lapsed before 1856. It was represented in 1851 by a congregation of c. 14 attending morning services on Quarry hill near Drybrook. At that time Bethel had afternoon and evening congregations of up to c. 110 and Zion morning and evening congregations of c. 60 and their respective Sunday schools taught more than 50 and 30 children.
By 1850 the mission had visited many places on the eastern and southern sides of the Forest and had established small societies at Bream, Lea Bailey, and Yorkley Slade. Services were held at Bream from 1841 and the society, led by Henry Jones, built a chapel on the Parkend road at Bream's Eaves in 1851. At Ruspidge, where the mission resumed its work in 1856, a small chapel was built in 1857. Such successes enabled the mission to become a separate circuit in 1858. The following year the Bream's Eaves chapel was rebuilt to include a schoolroom, the new building being retained as a schoolroom in 1906 when another chapel was built alongside it. (fn. 86) Also in 1859 the Drybrook society built a larger chapel on a site some way south-east of Bethel. Called Providence, it opened in 1860 and housed a schoolroom on its lower floor. New schoolrooms were built next to it in 1899. Bethel was converted as a house.
In the later 19th century Bible Christians opened chapels in five more places within the Forest. At Yorkley Slade, where the cause was revived by Henry Jones in 1858, a chapel was built in 1862. It became part of the Methodist Church in 1932 and a large schoolroom was added to it in 1955. It closed in 1992. At Lea Bailey, which the mission reached in 1847, open-air meetings were held at the Dancing green. Later, services at Red House, just within Weston under Penyard (Herefs.), drew a congregation from the north of the Forest and adjoining parts of Herefordshire and continued intermittently for some time after 1869, when a chapel called Bethel was built to the south-east at Bailey Lane End. The chapel was rebuilt in 1930 and became part of the Methodist Church in 1932. In 1869 also a small chapel was built on the south-western side of the Forest at Clements End, where preaching had begun in 1856. Apart from their chapels the Bible Christians had several preaching stations in the Forest in the 1860s but only one, at Ruardean Woodside, in 1875. In that year the total membership of their eight chapels, including one newly opened at Cinderford, was 166, with Drybrook (44) and Bream's Eaves (43) attracting the largest numbers. The Cinderford chapel, at Flaxley Meend, closed in 1879 but the society was revived in 1884. It held services and a Sunday school at Zion, the Wesleyan Methodists' chapel in lower High Street, which it purchased the following year. The Bible Christians had little success in Cinderford and in 1917 their successors, the United Methodists, sold Zion to the Y.M.C.A. The Bible Christian cause at Ruardean Woodside was renewed several times before 1881, when a handful of people built a chapel at Knights Hill, to the west. The chapel, called Zion, became part of the Methodist Church in 1932 but closed in 1973 and was a house in 1992.
The fortunes of the Forest's Bible Christians fluctuated considerably and several missions were organized to reverse a decline in congregations. Most chapels continued to attract small congregations and underwent little change but the larger societies increased their accommodation. In one advance after 1907 when the Bible Christians joined with other denominations to form the United Methodist Church, a small iron chapel was built at Plump Hill in 1913. It became part of the Methodist Church in 1932 but closed in 1972 and was used as a store in 1992. Of the Forest's eight Bible Christian chapels which passed to the Methodist Church formed in 1932 that on Bradley hill, to which a brick schoolroom had been added in 1914, closed c. 1988 and became part of the Dean Heritage museum in the early 1990s. After the closure of the Ruspidge chapel in 1992 only the chapels at Bailey Lane End, Bream's Eaves (Parkend Road), Clements End, and Drybrook were in use."

From: 'Forest of Dean: Protestant nonconformity', A History of the County of Gloucester: Volume 5: Bledisloe Hundred, St. Briavels Hundred, The Forest of Dean (1996), pp. 396-404.
URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=23273 Date accessed: 19 June 2013.

So I suspect the Ruardean Chapel you refer to is the one at Ruardean Woodside, do the above dates fit with your PRs ?. If so it's now a private house, see this photo.
http://www.forest-of-dean.net/gallery/churches/pages/page_50.html

I have no idea if Burials occurred or were/are marked at these Chapels, sorry.

6128 views

Donna, just another minor hint on driving in England. Will you be driving yourself? If so, you will encounter a mystery to American drivers - the dreaded roundabout... We met an American couple in Edinburgh who had taken their rental car back because of sheer terror induced by roundabouts...

First, KEEP CALM.

Second, try to work out which lane to be in well ahead of entering the roundabout. If there is a lot of traffic it can be difficult to see from the road markings which lane relates to which exit, so work it out early. If you have a satellite navigation system, you should be OK, cos most of them will tell you which lane to be in.

Third, if you find yourself in the wrong lane, try signalling your desire to shift lanes. In our experience, English drivers always recognised a colonial klutz and opened a gap to let us in (that would NEVER happen in NZ).

Fourth, if that doesn't work, KEEP CALM and simply keep going around the roundabout until you find the right exit! The English have no laws on how many times you can circulate around a roundabout...

Finally, (and this may not be relevant to an American driver), in our first trip to the UK, we tried to navigate using maps and road signs, concentrating on place names. Bad move. On our second trip, we concentrated solely on route numbers (like Jefff said - the A40). Once we made that mind shift, we never got lost or panicked...

Sorry if this sounds patronising or teaching a grandmother to suck eggses, but we have heard of lots of Americans who find driving in England somewhat of a challenge!

5671 views

Thanks for the heads up!
I know I would find it quite challenging that's for sure.(chuckle) Forturnately my brother in law lives in England and will be escorting me.

5655 views

Donna,
fear not you'll be fine, probably the only roundabouts of any note you'll see are on the Gloucester bypass dual-carriageway, and if in doubt just go round again, but as you say you have your own guide so just sit back and enjoy the view under clear blue skies... As JH says it's wise to follow the Road Numbers rather than place names, and know what general direction you want (eg Gloucester or West bound).

In the UK the main "trunk" routes have very old origins and all radiate out from London and generally head towards major cities and seaports; so the A40 (or M40 where its Motorway standard) goes eventually to Fishguard in west Wales, for the Irish ferry, so conveniently to and past the Forest.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A40_road

To get to Somerset from the Forest I suggest follow the scenic River Wye down the A466 from the Monmouth area past Tintern Abbey to Chepstow, then the A48 eastwards across the "old" Severn Bridge towards "London". The Tolls only apply driving into Wales, not out !. Then the M5 South past Bristol to Somerset.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Severn_Bridge

Hopefully you can watch this video in the USA, it's part of a BBC series of roadtrips actor Richard Wilson took around Britain in classic cars, in this episode the WyeDean area altho sadly the beginning of the programme is missing. Richard visits the little Hopewell Colliery that I mentioned earlier, I hope it's still open for visits altho I do know it's a small business so prior enquiries/booking is recommended.
UPDATE Oct 2017: sadly longterm owner and freeminer Robin Morgan passed-away last year, but the pit is still open for visits, see
http://www.hopewellcolliery.com/
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/jan/29/one-of-a-kind-tributes-to-uks-oldest-wo...

If it's closed but you do fancy going underground, hopefully to cool on a hot summer's day!, Clearwell Caves as mentioned in the earlier threads is the place altho best visited away from the busier weekends etc. Nowadays it seems more like a walkthro cave system than a "conventional" mine, but it's origins go back many centuries as a source of mined mineral ores including iron and ochres.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clearwell_Caves

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8BAlSfaZ8Bs

Bon voyage !

5730 views

Jefff, Thanks for the suggestions about the most scenic routes. Yes I was able to see the video. Beautiful countryside! I was excited to see the coal mines too. There was a link to another you tube video which was just music and landscape inside the forest. Wonderful! I also enjoyed viewing the photo gallery of churches!
Our conversations have raised more questions. One thing always leads to another you know. Ha ha They still have to do with planning my vacation since I want to make sure I am going to the correct locations.
1. I now am questioning whether I have jumped to the wrong conclusion about the churches from the baptism records after reading that excerpt you sent. I used the Parish Records section of this website to obtain the baptism records for Edward and Esther Stockham’s children and later Edward and Jane Stockham’s children. Only one Baptism occurring at Ruardean Chapel makes reference to the Bible Christian Church. This was for Alice Ellen baptized 15 Sep 1872. The baptisms for the other children list Drybrook only, nothing about Bible Christian and they don’t say Holy Trinity either. I assumed that they occurred at Holy Trinity Church, now I am questioning if they do or not.
Edward and Esther’ oldest child was baptized in Lea (so stated in the record). The next 2 were baptised in Drybrook when they lived in Little Dean Woodside and Cinderford. Edward and Jane’s 2 girls were born when they lived in Ruardean, but only Alice has the notation about Bible Christian Church. The other child Florence 1874 lists Drybrook only and memoranda states “privately”. So do you think Drybrook means Holy Trinity?
2. Also I wanted to ask how does one go about finding where their ancestors are buried? JH brought up some good points. I guess I assumed they would be buried in the church yard where the burial occurred but now I wonder. One of the children, Florence, died at 5 months and burial was at Drybrook. Under memoranda it states ”Name is annotated Upper Yd 2 Row 6 Gr” Does that mean she is buried at Holy Trinity in Drybrook church yard?
I have used “Find a Grave” to help locate ancestors in the States, but I have no idea how to do it in England. Edward Stockham lived on Walker’s lane in Ruardean when he died. His burial was at Drybrook 17 May 1891. How can I find out where he is buried?
Thank you

5636 views

Hi Donna,
yes more answers just give more questions don't they, but hey "a trouble shared is a trouble doubled" and all that.. ;-)
Main thing is always do as much advance preparation as you can, whatever the task.

1. There are other members who can far better answer these questions than I can. However here goes for starters. Re your various PRs, unlike you I don't have the full PR details in front of me, although I suspect they are within your earlier posts ?. Whatever, it MAY be easier if you posted them all again on a new thread then we could analyse and comment on each one hopefully without any confusion/ambiguity ?.
The thoughts of other users would be appreciated here, please ??

Do you hope to visit all relevant Chapels, or just those with possible family burials ? That said, even if you mean all of them in truth it can only be a handfull of possible sites to visit and all within a relatively small area. To be honest until 3 years ago when I started my own FH research, and mostly remotely having moved from the Forest 30 years ago, I had no appreciation of the seemingly huge number and variety of Chapels that were there. In my experience places of our family & friends' worship, Baptism, Marriage & Burial were always "standard" C of E (Church of England) Churches; "chapel" was a word from the past for me, often associated with old movies about the Welsh Valleys etc. I knew there was a Methodist (Wesley) and Baptist(Hall) "church" in my home town of Cinderford, but always believed them to be a variation of CofE that I knew at our St Stephens.
So when I see the word Chapel used in the PRs, I don't think this word should be taken too literally as a descriptive noun (rightly or wrongly I always thought of a Chapel as a "small" Church!), for my ancestors' PRs this "Chapel" invariably refers to one of the C of E Churches, so if Drybrook then it would be Holy Trinity, if my mum's family it's All Saints at Longhope, and so on. I do hope this makes sense and is at least part helping.... tricky to interprete your query and express my thinking.

I suggest for PRs that you're unsure about, maybe compare it's date with the following excellent webspage which gives a good timeline of the various main (ie CofE) Churches in the Forest, so you can decide whether the suspected Church was even built at the time the PR took place.
http://www.fweb.org.uk/local-history/13-Churches

When it come to the Non Conformist PRs, such as the Bible Christians, then the British History website I referenced above is "the" most accurate and detailed online history of the country I've found, it's taken from an official set of reference books running to many large volumes, enough to fill a large bookcase at our local reference library. If in doubt thats THE place to look.

You mention Baptisms at "Drybrook" for people living in "Littledean Woodside" & "Cinderford". To recap what I think you've learnt, Littledean (a village just outside/below the high inner Forest "proper") dates back far earlier than the towns within the less accessible "inner" Forest such as Cinderford and Drybrook. So when the oldest part of Cinderford first "grew" in the early 1800s, it was initially called Woodside or Littledean Woodside, eventually becoming known as the "new" town of Cinderford. This is on the extreme East of the Forest. It was a huge surprise to this Son of Cinderford, nowadays signifcantly larger than Littldean, to find no mention of Cinderford on maps c1800 which clearly show Littledean and nearby Flaxley (Abbey). The first CofE Church in Cinderford was St Johns. Several years before this was built the first CofE Church within the "inner" Forest area was Holy Trinity at Harrow(Harry) Hill near Drybrook, people from far and wide travelled to use it every Sabbath, even walking thro' the woods from the likes of Cinderford over a mile away. Hence historically and traditionally it's become known as "The Forest Church" although others were of course built in subsequent years as the population boomed.
If you travel to the far western side of the Forest near ancient St Briavels as JH visited, near there is equally ancient Newland Church which is called "The Cathedral of The Forest"; or a few miles to the north and you'll find another very old Church, Ruardean (St Johns) which is only 15 minutes drive from Drybrook. These and Littledean Church are all on the edge of the Forest, more attractive & more easily accessible areas to inhabit and cultivate in medieval times when agriculture was king, long before the inner Forest "proper" was opened up to industry and the resultant worker influx who needed places of Worship closer to their homes.
Hope that helped set the scene albeit slightly off at a tangent.

You mention a "private baptism", is this a query ?. Sometimes they were private as the parents were perhaps trying to hide something embarrassing from their neighbours.. it was I think more normal to hold Baptisms as part of a routine Sunday Service so in front of the whole Congregation so most of that village or Parish, unlike Marriages and Funeral/Burials which are perhaps more of a family invitation nature, certainly nowadays.
(My answer to your Part 2 follows below)

5993 views

2. Re where people are buried, yes usually a person would have been buried within the Churchyard of their own Parish Church at which the Funeral Service took place and as named on the PR. Most if not all of the CofE Churches had their own adjoining cemetaries aka Churchyards, certainly Drybrook Holy Trinity and Ruardean do. Ruardean I know is still in use, this recent survey map etc may well help you.
http://www.forum.forest-of-dean.net/index.php?id=33052
http://www.forest-of-dean.net/downloads/Miscellaneous/Ruardean_Churchyard_Burial_Layout...

If you search this website and forum for "Ruardean churchyard" etc you'll find other items and threads referring to the memorials within the Churchyard which may hopefully be of interest to you, ditto regarding other Churchyards in your tree.

eg for Drybrook this thread should interest you, similar questions to yours and an overhead photo of Drybrook Holy Trinity Church and Churchyard too !, it's great when technology works ! :-)
It looks very much like "Janger" aka Janet is worthwhile you sending a direct email to, I do hope she's still active on the forum altho apparently she's not visited for a month or two.
http://www.forum.forest-of-dean.net/index.php?id=29816

Also on this site is this layout information & photos regarding burials and memorial transcriptions at Ruardean Congregational Churchyard. I'm uncertain at this point where this is, but if not already done so I suggest you browse it in case your ancestors are listed.
http://www.forest-of-dean.net/?Memorial_Inscriptions_Ruardean_Congregational

Unfortunately space restrictions within Church graveyards means that older graves are sometimes disturbed to make way for new ones, or if the Churchyard is full then burials occur further away. Nowadays I believe, for example, most if not all Cinderford Burials are at the municipal Yew Tree Brake Cemetary on the edge of town, usually after a Service at the person's own Church within Cinderford itself.
I do not know what happened for the smaller nonconformist Chapels, if they did have burial grounds one wonders what happened to them if the Chapel was subsequently converted to housing as has often happened ??.
See this thread ref a Ruardean Chapel..!
http://www.forum.forest-of-dean.net/index.php?id=22555

Or perhaps the small Non Conformist Chapels would use "non-consecrated" ? sections of other established cemetaries in the area, again other members can answer these points better than me, please. For the main Churches such as Drybrook Holy Trinity I would hope that contacting them in advance will provide answers in this respect, one hopes they will have copies of any available burial plans. Past surveys for some local Churches are available on cd from GlosFHS, other forum members may be able to access these if you enquire ?. As you say some PRs quote Reference numbers at the bottom, these are indeed often guides to identify location of specific grave plots within the graveyard of the Church to which the Burial PR refers, but whether anyone still knows what these notes mean is another question, there was no common "British Standard" approach to this. Availability & accuracy of such plans will vary between Churches. Sadly the upkeep of Churches is a very expensive business and some Churchyards are not always in a good state and become overgrown etc, also Memorials become weathered and eventually unreadable, or even breakup, so perhaps best be prepared for a difficult hunt.

There are "Find a Grave" type websites for the UK but I've not yet found any with references to FoD Churches within them, I think they're more suited to the Cities with their much bigger municipal cemetaries. Here is the cd I mentioned;
http://gfhs.org.uk/products-page/cddvd/monumental-inscription-2003-2/

You mention finding the Grave of Edward Stockham, this is the relevant PR:

Record_ID: 93501
Entry_Number: 410
Year: 1891
Month: May
Day: 17
Surname: STOCKHAM
Forenames: Edward
Residence: Ruardean
Age_at_death: 50
Officiating_Minister: G.H. Kirkham Curate
Event: Burial
Cause_of_death:
Memoranda:
Notes:
Register_Reference: P109 IN 1/13
Page_No: 52
Parish_Chapel: Drybrook
Soundex: S325

I'm sure this PR is clearly a Burial which took place, probably after a Funeral Service, at the "main" CofE Church in Drybrook, namely Holy Trinity on Harry Hill. If it had been at a NonConformist Chapel I'm sure it would clearly state so. However I'd be gratefull if Slowhands or anyone else more qualified than I could please confirm this belief ?
There are no notes to indicate where the grave might be within the graveyard.

I'm afraid its geting late so must be off, I do hope this helps if only a little(but hopefully more), and look forward to chatting again tomorrow.

Jeff.

5802 views

Thank you

we have discussed some of this before :-

Locations http://www.forum.forest-of-dean.net/index.php?mode=entry&id=39765

Name is annotated Upper Yd 2 Row 6 Gr

Holy Trinity ( aka Forest Church) , Upper burial section, 2nd Row, 6th Grave
- where you count from is a challenge ? but I suspect the most northerly and westerly point is row 1, grave 1 but not always - sorry

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

5606 views

The original churchyard at Holy Trinity Church, Drybrook was surveyed and the memorial inscriptions recorded in the late 1980's. There was no record of any STOCKHAM grave memorials, their graves evidently unmarked.

There was one PREDDY memorial recorded. The memorial inscription was recorded as:- In loving memory of / John Preddy, / who died April 30th 1882 / aged 67 years. / Also of Diana*, / the beloved wife of the above / who died Nov. 1st 1877 / aged 62 years. / Also of Mary Ann, / their daughter / who died July 5th 1854 / aged 14 years & 4 mon. / Also of Emma, / their second daughter / the beloved wife of / William Critchley, / who died May 9th 1896 / aged 51 years. / The Lord is my shepherd: I shall not want. / Also of William Critchley, / who died May 30th 1920 / aged 78 years.
*recorded as Diana but BMD and parish records as Dinah. The various details can no doubt be cross-checked against the parish records on this site.

Unfortunately at Holy Trinity, in order to re-use the available burial space, many old grave memorials were removed in the late 1970's and placed against the boundary walls. No record was made of their original locations. This situation was later made worse when the memorials/headstones were stacked in piles at various locations within the churchyard to allow the boundary walls to be repaired. Some were used for other purposes, some apparently lost or damaged, and most are inaccessible for viewing. The PREDDY headstone is one of those now "lost".

In the churchyard extension to the west of the church, in which burials commenced in 1954, there is one PREDDY headstone. It may be of interest. The memorial inscription reads:-
In / loving memory / of / Frank Preddy / born 11th February 1891 / died 7th June 1976 / also / Beatrice Maud Preddy / born 17th Dec. 1895 / died 1st Jan. 1980 / re-united.
On the grave there is also a cremation tablet memorial commemorating their daughter Dorlouise Annie (Dorrie) HALE (formerly Preddy) who died 26th February 1985 aged 57 years.

I can describe how to locate this particular grave within the various rows of graves in the churchyard if you wish.

5748 views

Birth Index from FreeBMD

Surname First name(s) District Vol Page
------------------------------------------
Births Sep 1874 (>99%)
------------------------------------------
Stockham Florence Westbury S. 6a 237

There can be several reasons for private baptisms. I think the reason was that she was not expected to survive. Her burial on 2nd January 1875 suggests this was the case.

5575 views

Thank you everyone for your help. I have much to read over and digest before my adventure. I am sure I will be asking a few more questions before it is time to leave. I really appreciate your quick responses to my many questions.
Till next time,
Donna

5536 views

Private baptisms were usually if a child was thought to be near to death before they had had chance to be taken to church to be baptised, but there can be other reasons, e.g. in the days when non-conformist and RC church baptisms were not not recognised by the state. In the latter case, the family might baptise the child themselves rather than take him or her to an Anglican church or might take them to their own denomination to be baptised. Usually though if the latter applied the church or chapel would have kept a record. (I knew a grandma who baptised her grandchildren herself, only twenty-thirty years ago, without telling her daughter she had done it because the daughter did not follow a religion and had therefore not baptised the children. I don't know whether the daughter ever found out that this had taken place!!! I am constantly in the dilemma of wondering whether to ask the daughter or to let sleeping dogs lie! I saw the daughter a month ago and was on the verge of asking her and then decided against it! The grandma died a decade or so ago!!!!!)

5068 views

RSS Feed of thread

powered by my little forum