Ruins in Cotmeadows, Lydbrook (General)

by Jefff , West London, Middlesex, Wednesday, July 10, 2019, 03:18 (1965 days ago) @ Caron

Hard and very sad times indeed !

I know even less about TB than I do about the hills around Lydbrook, so not a lot haha, but I do know my Dad was born nr Lydbrook in Joys Green and was asthmatic as a child, I wonder if this was related to the damp you mention. As a result his mum wouldn't allow him to go down the pit as his dad and uncles etc all did. His dad died fairly young with the usual miner's breathing problems. Unfortunately for Dad his first wife died from TB, aged just 23, she was from Longhope.

Re Hangerberry or Ankerbury, Anchorberry etc, this has been mentioned a few times on the forum, so I've just searched the forum hoping for an explanation as to the origins of the name. Sadly I've found none, apart from the usual references to the difficulties the educated folk like ministers, census officials and mapmakers would have had trying to understand and transcribe the Forest dialect. Interestly, with reference to your mentioning how damp the area was, my general internet search for "ankerberry" found an old book entitled "Our native ferns, or, A history of the British species and their varieties", by Edward Joseph Lowe, 1825-1900. The book states

Glandulosa, Moore — First discovered in a boggy portion of Ankerbury Hill, near Lydbrook, in the Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire, and subsequently near Windermere...

Anyway, thanks for your insight into the area, and good luck with your search for those elusive photos.
J