East Dean 1851 Census - Cinderford School and Coopers Tump (General)

by Jefff , West London, Middlesex, Thursday, April 03, 2014, 17:13 (3888 days ago) @ Daffodil

Hi,
thanks for your kind words, it's my pleasure. Also for saying you're in the exact area, Ruspidge, a great help for us to know when replying (we often get posters from t'other side of the country and even world). I was born in Cinderford and lived there til the 1980s, family still there, so I found it quite a shock to find it was not shown on early c1800 maps of the area unlike say Littledean and Flaxley which to me at the time seemed "unimportant"... Hence the address placenames vary thro the Census's as often it was the Census officials who gave an area it's name on the form, hence they use the "official" local Government/Parish names such as Woodside, East Dean before the term Cinderfod comes along later in the 1800s - all very confusing to me until I started using this great forum a few years back, it seemed the people were moving when in fact it was the placenames changing ! Unfortunately the use of "East Dean" on the later Census' isn't helpful, as this was rather a large area not just Cinderford; a better source of info for those people's birthplaces etc is perhaps the Parish Records where available. The best method to familarise yourself with the old places and names is to use old maps where possible.

Re the school registers, I don't know but doubt they still exist from that long ago. I suggest the best place to search would be Gloucester Archives, don't forget to try all variations of John & Johns & John's, as hits vary accordingly.
http://ww3.gloucestershire.gov.uk/DServe/DServe.exe?dsqApp=Archive&dsqDb=Catalog&am...
and http://www.gloucestershire.gov.uk/archives/article/103152/Gloucestershire-Archives

Luckily for you a good start for all FoD Local History is nearyou at Cinderford Library aka "Local Studies", altho I expect you've tried there.
The Gage Library at Soudley Heritage centre is also worth asking.
http://www.deanheritagecentre.com/museum/aboutthegagelibrary.htm

To be absolutely honest I don't know where Baptisms etc took place before St Johns was built, I presume at Littledean Church which is centuries older ?. Before this time(c1800) this side of the plateau of the "inner/high" Forest (ie above Littledean Hill from Littledean/Flaxley side) was relatively uninhabited, certainly in the Cinderford area, until the Industrial Revolution took off and an influx of miners and metalworkers started arriving in numbers. Again the British History website is a great reference source in this respect.
http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=23266#s2

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UPDATE:
From the above online archives sites I can only find one reference at Gloster Archive, namely
"D2186/40 Cinderford: plans and elevations of St. John's School 1858"

And the following booklet held at Cinderford Library that may be of interest
"Cinderford Local Studies Centre, Title: Short history of St John the evangelist parish church, Cinderford
Compiler Smith, Sheila c1984, 28 pages."