Ancient Order of Forester's - Forest of Dean FHT Forum

Ancient Order of Forester's is one of oldest friendly societies, with its origins in Yorkshire. The family has found an old sash from this Order which our mother had noted in the past belonged to a member of my fathers family an Arthur Green. The only Arthur Green was my father and it certainly wasn't his. I think it might have belong to our grandfather Ernest Green who moved to Yorkley Slade around 1914 and remained there until late 1950's. Does anyone know if this society had a court around the FoD. Also attached was a badge from the Manchester Unity.

Many Thanks Gill

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? For Records

Burial at Viney Hill - 6 March 1956

Ernest GREEN - age 81

Residence: School House, Boulby Lincs

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Ancestry: Probate

GREEN Ernest of School House, Bonby Brigg, Lincolnshire died 2 March 1956.
Adminstration Lincoln 23 July to Ernest William GREEN, sugar factory clerk.
Effects:

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on line

'The London Gazette July 20 1897'

Page 4045

And' the following on the same subject from: (listed many names including)

No. 3178, of the Ancient Order of Foresters. Yorkley, Forest of Dean, Inhabitants and Sunday School Children of.

+ Lydney Rural District Council

Page 4044 is a letter from the President and Chairman of the Church of England Temperance Society - and signed by them on page 4045

F Cantuar, President
William Elbor President
Ernest R Cicestr, Chairman

The letter is addressed to 'Your Majesty' (60 years of her reign) and asking her to become Patron.

Temperance Movement

http://www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temperance_movement

If you click on the Australian cartoon on this wikipedia page - it shows a Man with just water on the table and this quote

Here Lieth a Temperance Man

A Noted temperance man lies here
The green tur o'er his head
No man e'er saw hom on his beer
Till after he was dead

+ another carton 1846 - The Drunkards Progress used by the Temperance Movement (9 steps - Step 1 : A glass with a friend, Step 2 : Glass to keep the cold out, Step 3 : A glass too much etc etc) - trying to read the rest of the quotes - am getting worried about myself!!!
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In 1891 my x Grandad : Wm WICKENDEN was running the Temperance Hotel in Blakeney (not sure if this meant - no booze was served!)

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Hi Gill,
you clearly know a fair bit about the Foresters so I presume you've seen their website ?. It's an interesting read and shows they're proud of their history, they have a museum at Southampton (wrt New Forest?).
Have you tried contacting them re your query ?
http://aoforestersheritage.com/index2.html

Yes, as MPG says, the Order were definitely active within the Dean - I recall seeing a few mentions of them on the Welsh Newspapers website while researching the Order of Druids a while back, I'll look them up again later.

Meanwhile this photo shows they were active in the Redbrook area c1948.
http://www.sungreen.co.uk/Redbrook/Redbrook-Carnival-1948.html

The same website carries transcripts of the parish magazine of St Peter's Newnham. The February 1882 issue had an article discussing the yearly accounts of the "Severn Side" Court at Newnham. It states a membership of 55.
http://www.sungreen.co.uk/Newnham/ParishMag_Feb1882.htm

More to follow..

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4243 views

The ever-rewarding Welsh Newspapers website carries a great many articles about the Ancient Order of Foresters, it was clearly very active throughout their area particularly South Wales. That said, a few of these articles relate to Orders in towns as far away as Glasgow, Norwich, Kings Lynn, Manchester, Gloucester, etc, as well as Courts existing throughout the British Empire. Please note this website "only" carries newspapers upto abt 1919, so not quite ideal as far as your query is concerned.

Just one example of things a little closer to home, from the Cardiff Weekly Mail of January 1884, starts
"The 101st quarterly meeting of the Monmouthshire District of the Ancient Order of Foresters was held at the Tredegar Junction Hotel, Pontllanfraith on Monday, when credentials were presented by 22 delegates from the 40 courts."
It goes on to mention this District had 4129 members in it's 40 courts.(Pontllanfraith is near Caerphilly).

Could this District have included the Western FoDean ???.

An article in the Aberystwyth Observer of 1900 reported the annual financial accounts for the Order for Great Britain and Ireland, which look very impressive, as is the membership of 666,667 members.
http://welshnewspapers.llgc.org.uk/en/page/view/3048475/ART15/order%20foresters%20dean

This is the only references to the Order within the Dean that I can find, having thoroughly searched using various local placenames including Yorkley & Newnham:

Cardiff Times, 22nd May 1880
"REDBROOK
The annual meeting of Court Friendship (No. 4,328), Ancient Order of Foresters, was held at Mr Jones's Bush Inn, Upper Redbrook. Court Friendship has 48 members, who had paid £37 1s 4d on account of the sickness of members, £10 on account of the death of a member's wife, £13 5s 1d for management, and £8 Is to the medical officer, during the year, leaving as the total worth of the court £250, of which £238 3s 10d forms the reserve fund. The brethren, headed by the Llanishen brass band, marched to church, where the Rev William Smith, the vicar of Newland, preached on "Industry in the present, and forethought for the future." After the service the members paraded the village, and then dined in a tent near the Bush Inn. The chair was occupied by Bro. Wm. Teague, of Monmouth, and the vice-chair by Bro. Evan Bennett."
http://welshnewspapers.llgc.org.uk/en/page/view/3420455/ART52/order%20foresters%20redbrook

A lengthy article about a three day meeting at Gloucester, from the Cardiff Weekly Mail of 10th August 1901, includes:
"FORESTERS' HIGH COURT
THE HIGH CHIEF RANGER AND MR CHAMBERLAIN
The annual session of the High Court of the Ancient Order of Foresters' Friendly Society was opened in the Shire-hall, Gloucester, on Monday. High Chief Ranger FC Workman (Gloucester) presided. The meeting was one of the largest in the history of the Order.
The High Chief Ranger in his inaugural address said the nineteenth century had been one in which their great Order and Friendly Societies generally had risen to great eminence........... Another matter taken in hand was that of a larger annual subscription to the National Lifeboat Institution, and as a result of their appeal upwards of £650 would be handed over............He was pleased to find that their courts still continued to pay the contributions of those of their brethren who had been compelled to stay in South Africa on account of the war. The Plymouth executive council were the first to suggest this payment, and, as Foresters, they were the first to agree to it. They thought it necessary that their Order should send its full representation to the National Conference.............
The Foresters' High Court at Gloucester on Tuesday passed a vote of condolence with the King on the death of the Empress Frederick. For the High Court of 1903 Sheffield was selected by a large majority on the first round over King's Lynn and Swansea, with little opposition..........." http://welshnewspapers.llgc.org.uk/en/page/view/3374973/ART118/gloucester%20foresters

Sadly no mention is made of the Dean Forest or its Court(s), this being the annual meeting for the whole GB society.

So, sorry Gill, not as many local hits as I'd hoped.

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I suspect a search of our local papers will be more forthcoming, either the DF Mercury by visiting Cinderford library if you can, or the Gloster Citizen etc using the British Newspapers Archive website; all these cover the 1950s that you mention. I'm not a subscriber so can only give brief hints from the BNA's free search, it give several hits from the Citizen but these are mainly national-level meetings as above, but do include

“... LONGHOPE. Anniversary.--The eighteeenth anniversary of Court Hope, No. 3,057, the Ancient Order of Foresters, was celebrated at ... ”
Saturday 15 July 1876 , Gloucester Journal

"... MITCHELDEAN. Foresters' Gala Day — The Loyal Forest of Dean Court of Foresters held its fifteenth anniversary yesterday in fine weather. The Court, which is 120 strong, ...
Saturday 21 August 1889 , Gloucester Citizen

“... LONGHOPE. Ancient Order of Foresters. On Friday evening the audit of accounts for the year 1889 of Court No. 3,057, and the juvenile ... ”
Monday 13 January 1890 , Gloucester Citizen.

“... LONGHOPE. Foresters' Funeral.— The picturesque little churchyard at Huntley presented an unusual appearance Sunday, when members Court ... ”
Tuesday 18 March 1890 , Gloucester Citizen

"ANNUAL SUPPER AT NEWENT. The annual supper of Court Robin Hood 3,435 of the Ancient....."
2 February 1892, Gloucester Citizen
(Newent Court is reported many times after this time, including "Annual" Summer Fete/Sports Days in 1911,1912 etc.

The Citizen also reports on a 1902 district meeting at Newnham, and another at Cinderford in April 1897. Also in Hereford etc. It's to be hoped these articles may give more detail and even some member's names.
http://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/search/results?basicsearch=ancient%20order%20f...

If you haven't tried the BNA site I recommend it, as a newcomer you'll probably be offered a few free search/downloads, just for giving your email address, and no pestering emails afterwards ! I did this a few weeks ago and I found the Citizen's report of the Funeral of my Great grandfather, lifelong inhabitant of Longhope who died in 1935 aged 75. It was very nice to read a detailed report which included

"he was wellknown & highly esteemed by all who knew him..... a usefull cricketer....
He worked at the local saw mills# for nearly 50 years...
A member of the Ancient Order of Foresters' Court Hope Lodge for 67 years, having joined as a juvenile, and served as Chief Ranger. The Foresters' service was read by Mr John Constance before the Cortege left the house......to the Church.
Those representing the Ancient Order of Foresters were Mr J Constance, Mr J Davies, Mr E James, Mr H James, Mr F Acton, Mr Hook and Mr J Hancox....."

#Like much of the village he worked at James Constance & Son's Saw Mills in Longhope, a woodturner; his son & my dear Grampy was also a turner there, man & boy. He was also highly-regarded locally and another fine cricketer, they must have been disappointed in me ;-)

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I presume the "Foresters' Service" was/is a special private prayer, maybe written by the Order itself, it being apparently said independant of the Church service itself, I would love to know what it's words may have been ?

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So Gill and anyone else, I strongly recommend the local papers, they can be very rewarding. Apologies for hijacking your thread with my personal indulgence, I hope it helps give an insight into your Grandfather's likely involvement with the Foresters, from all I've read they were a very good Society indeed to be involved with.

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The British History website carries these brief mentions of the Foresters within the FoD;

Re Parkend, very near Yorkley
"Several friendly societies met at the Fountain in the mid 1850s and a branch of the Ancient Order of Foresters dined at another inn in 1863".

Re Lydbrook,
"A friendly society met at the Bell in 1808 and there were many societies, including branches of the Odd Fellows and the Ancient Order of Foresters, based on Lydbrook's inns in the mid 19th century. One of the largest, the Royal William Benefit Society formed in 1834, had 170 members in 1853. A friendly society for women was started in 1853."
From: 'Forest of Dean: Social life', A History of the County of Gloucester: Volume 5: Bledisloe Hundred, St. Briavels Hundred, The Forest of Dean (1996), pp. 381-389.
URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=23270
Date accessed: 06 March 2014.

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Finally Gill, does your sash look like these, it seems they were part of an exhibition in London last year. Clicking the photo will greatly-enlarge it, altho sadly no clues on the emblem as to where it's from. Lovely item though and no doubt you treasure yours, I know I would !
http://timethedeer.wordpress.com/2013/06/19/ancient-order-of-foresters-sashes/

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Many thanks for all the information I will work my way through all the references. Who knows what else I might find!

Yes it was the Ernest Green who died in Bonby , he moved to his son's Ernest William aka Bill , who also grew up in the Forest.

I will post any finding of interest.

Greatly appreciated,

Gill

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4231 views

I have been in contact with the Forester Heritage Trust and this is the reply.

"There were, as you note, a number of AOF Courts (branches) in the area of the Forest of Dean. Regrettably we do not have much by way of deposited material from them. Membership of the Foresters was in a particular Court, so that to dig deeper into any individual’s membership we really need to be able to locate them in a membership register, or Minute book. These were compiled and held locally and it is only a very small percentage that have been deposited with the Trust. Regrettably the majority have, over the years, disappeared.

As far as I can tell from the annual Foresters’ Directory over the period 1900 to 1950 there never was a Court based in Yorkley Slade, so the ancestor you believe to be a member must have belonged to a Court in one of the larger settlements. "

Has anyone got any of these minute / members books tucked away ? The Trust would sure like to hear from you and so would I if a Green was a member.

Forest of Dean FHT Forum

Ancient Order of Forester's (General)

Ancient Order of Forester's + Temperance Society

Ancient Order of Foresters, at Redbrook & Newnham.

Foresters' Courts in Welsh Newspapers site, Redbrook etc.

Foresters' Courts in Newent, Parkend, Lydbrook & Longhope.

Foresters' Courts in Newent, Parkend, Lydbrook & Longhope.

Foresters' Courts in Newent, Parkend, Lydbrook & Longhope.