Edwin Owen NOCK d. 05 May 1911 (General)
I hope members have some ideas about how I might research the mystery of my great grandfather's death. Edwin Owen Nock was a miller at Heath Mill, Wombourne, Staffs. He died at age 48 on "5th May 1911 at Abbotswood, Cinderford, East Dean.Cause of death: epileptiform fit, heart failure certified by AH Cresswell LMSSA Informant RVB Best present at the death Abbotwood, Cinderford East Dean, registered 16 May 1911." He was interred at Wombourne.
There is no information in the family about his death, including why he was so far from home. I have been unable to determine why he was at Cinderford, whether Abbotwood was a private home, and who RVB Best and AH Cresswell were.
Anyhting you can suggest will be much appreciated. Many thanks.
Brenda
Cinderford - background
by slowhands 
, proud of his ancient Dean Forest roots, Monday, June 11, 2007, 20:57 (6376 days ago) @ Brenda L. Smith
LMSSA - is the hint that Cresswell was the Doctor certifting death.
Abbotswood is in area to the south of Cinderford -Buckshaft/ Ruspidge / St Whites. I believe that there was a House / mansion there assosciated with the Crawshay ironmaster family ( 1871 Edwin Crawshay is living there).
< the BP filling station on High St is known as Abbotswood Garage >
There was a corn mill in the area of Cinderford Bridge - just down from St Whites - I think it was called Brights mill. this all ties in the general area
So perhaps he was visiting the area and lodging with the Best family (?).
Close by - The Dean Heritage museum in Soudley was formerly a Corn mill.
You mention Wombourne, and given the Crawshay Iron master connection, is there a Black Country industrial connection here ?
in 1901, a BEST family lives in Pembroke St Cinderford
1901
Ernest H Best abt 1868 Anerley, Surrey, England Head East Dean Gloucestershire
Emily Best abt 1862 Barnet, Hertfordshire, England Wife East Dean Gloucestershire
Lilian B Best abt 1896 Horsham, Surrey, England Daughter East Dean Gloucestershire
Marguerite Best abt 1893 Islington, London, England Daughter East Dean Gloucestershire
Roselind A Best abt 1900 Cinderford, Gloucestershire, England Daughter East Dean Gloucestershire
Victoria M L Best abt 1898 Cinderford, Monmouthshire, Wales Daughter East Dean Gloucestershire
Cinderford - background
Thank you for this background information.
The geography is helpful, and I will look further into the Abbotswood reference.
Your mention of Edwin in the 1871 census is intriguing as Edwin Owen was a child of 8 living in his birthplace of chetwynd, Newport then. Perhpas this is an uncle.
I speculate that Edwin Owen was at Cinderford on business, and the corn mill information is helpful. I doubt an iron manufacture connection, although another, apparently unrelated Nock family lived round Rowley Regis and did fine metal production.
Does anyone have information on local newspapers that might have reported his death?
Brenda
Abbotswood (house) location
by slowhands , proud of his ancient Dean Forest roots, Tuesday, June 12, 2007, 12:41 (6376 days ago) @ Brenda L. Smith
Abbotswood, Ruspidge, Cinderford
www.old-maps.co.uk
co ords 36550 212500
Abbotswood Estate & House, Crawshay Family, Cinderford area
by Jefff , West London, Middlesex, Thursday, April 10, 2014, 19:54 (3882 days ago) @ slowhands
Recently I wondered why the Garage at the Lower Bilson end of Cinderford is called Abbotswood, despite it being located below a large forest inclosure called Haywood/Heywood ?.
It seems that in the past moreorless the whole woodland across what is now Cinderford was Abbots Wood, I guess named due to it's proximity to far-older Flaxley Abbey ?
"Encroachment and building also occurred in Abbots wood, an estate on the east side of the Forest acquired by William Crawshay from the Crawley-Boeveys in 1836, and titles to property there were not secured until 1872 when commoning rights on the estate were extinguished. The Crown, which had released its remaining rights in the estate to Henry Crawshay in 1869, purchased back most of the land in 1899.
With the expansion of the mining and ironworking industries in the early 19th century many new cottages were built in the Forest. By 1841 there were 1,873 dwellings there, 1,770 being on Crown land and the remainder on the Abbots wood estate in the Cinderford bridge, Ruspidge, and Soudley areas."
"In 1811 the population of the extraparochial area, presumably including Abbots wood but not extraparochial land on Littledean hill later forming the parish of Hinder's Lane and Dockham, was 4,073. Between 1811 and 1881 the extraparochial area saw a more than fivefold increase in its population and, whereas in the later 18th century the north-west side of the Forest had been more heavily populated than other places, new villages and hamlets sprang up elsewhere and Cinderford, on the east side, became a town."
"William Crawshay, who worked mines there from the late 1820s and purchased the Abbots wood estate in 1836, owned two rows of cottages near Buckshaft mine in 1838. The Crawshays provided other dwellings, including c.1864 Forest Lodge, a large house off St. White's Road. Abbotswood, the principal house in Ruspidge, stood in grounds higher up to the east and dated from a rebuilding of the 1840s for the Crawshays. Henry Crawshay lived there in 1851 and his son Edwin until the late 1870s. A chapel was added soon after the house became a Church of England temperance home in 1907 and the house was remodelled after 1917 for A. J. Morgan(d.1936), a partner in the Crawshays' mining business. Abbotswood, which became a convent and nursing home in 1939, was demolished after 1960 but an entrance lodge dating from the 1870s survived as part of a housing estate in 1992."
Much more here
From: 'Forest of Dean: Settlement', A History of the County of Gloucester: Volume 5: Bledisloe Hundred, St. Briavels Hundred, The Forest of Dean (1996), pp. 300-325.
URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=23266
Date accessed: 10 April 2014.
Also see this post for photos etc of the House http://forum.forest-of-dean.net/index.php?id=43763
UPDATE: Just found this mini-history of Abbot's Wood, the rest of the website is strongly recommended too !
http://deanforestmiscellany.info/myContents/FODM_AbbotsWood.shtml