Is "Narnia" another forum user ?. I'm afraid my efforts at searching the username database invariably don't seem to work properly, I'm probably driving it wrong !

Perhaps if you contact the site's Admin, they may like to see more of this DIBDEN tree etc, for forum reference purposes, I really don't know apart from that ?

Thanks, Jeff

Some time ago I received a fairly comprehensive family tree with references to DIBDENs of Brockweir. It was sent by 'Narnia' because of the Williams connection

Do you have any knowlwdge of this? I still have it on my computer in various forms, including a GEDCOM file.

Gordon

"At Brockweir an inn called the George, on the south side of the road to the river bank, was recorded from 1793 and had changed its name to the New Inn by 1840. (fn. 89) In 1840 the village had three other public houses, called, in connexion with its trade, the Ship, the Severn Trow, and the Bristol. There was then also a beerhouse called the Spout north of the village in a row of cottages that was later formed into a single dwelling called Spout House. (fn. 90) The Bristol was called the Sloop in 1844 when a friendly society met there. (fn. 91) By 1891 the New Inn and another called the Royal Arms were the only public houses in the village; (fn. 92) the latter closed after 1959, (fn. 93) leaving only the New Inn, which by 1994 had changed its name to the Brockweir inn."

No mention of a Black Lion. There was a Black Lion in Monmouth though.

There are some trees on Ancestry for Jane DIBDON and other websites etc.

British History on Line for Brockweir, mentions Edwin DIBDEN re: the Ferry

Hi and thanks M

Ref the Dibden family of Brockweir, this prior post includes one branch, from the

1881 Census of Ships in Bristol

Vessel: "Caerleon"

John DIBDEN M 56 M Hewelsfield Brockweir, Glouc, Master
Charles DIBDEN M 33 M Brockweir Hewelsfield, Glouc, A B
Alexander WILLIAMS M 47 M Brockweir Hewelsfield, Glouc, A B
Alexander DIBDEN U 16 M Brockweir Hewelsfield, Glouc, O S

http://forum.forest-of-dean.net/index.php?mode=thread&id=21793

These PRs relate;

Record_ID: 28073
Entry_Number: 68
Year: 1844
Month: May
Day: 26
Grooms_Surname: DIBDEN
Grooms_Forenames: John
Grooms_Age: 20
Groom_Condition: Batchelor [s
Grooms_Occupation: Waterman
Grooms_Residence: Brockwear Common[sic]
Grooms_Fathers_Surname: Dibden
Grooms_Fathers_Forenames: Thomas
Grooms_Fathers_Occupation: Waterman
Brides_Surname: HERBERT
Brides_Forenames: Elizabeth
Brides_Age: 20
Brides_Condition: Spinster
Brides_Occupation: [not stated]
Brides_Residence: Brockwear Common[sic]
Brides_Fathers_Surname: Herbert
Brides_Fathers_Forenames: John
Brides_Fathers_Occupation: [illegible]
Licence_or_Banns: Banns
Date_of_Banns: [not stated]
Signature_or_Mark: Both mark
Witness_1: Mark of Jacob Herbert
Witness_2: Mark of Ann Herbert
Other_Witnesses:
Officiating_Minister: J. J Barlow
Event: Marriage
Memoranda:
Notes:
Register_Reference: P175 IN 1/7
Page_Number: 34
Parish_Chapel: Hewelsfield
Soundex_Groom: D135
Soundex_Bride: H616

Record_ID: 31561
Entry_Number: 1015
Year: 1845
Month: Oct
Day: 12
Parents_Surname: DIBDEN
Child_Forenames: Charles John
Fathers_Forenames: John
Mothers_Forenames: Elizabeth
Mothers_Surname:
Residence: Brockweir Common
Occupation: Waterman
Officiating_Minister: J Hallifax
Event: Baptism
Memoranda:
Notes:
Register_Reference: P175 IN 1/4
Page_Number: 91
Parish_Chapel: Hewelsfield
Soundex: D135

Record_ID: 97618
Entry_Number: 199
Year: 1864
Month: May
Day: 8
Parents_Surname: DIBDEN
Child_Forenames: Alexander
Fathers_Forenames: John
Mothers_Forenames: Elizabeth
Mothers_Surname:
Residence: Brockweir
Occupation: Waterman
Officiating_Minister: Edwin Giles Rector
Event: Baptism
Memoranda:
Notes:
Register_Reference: P175 IN 1/8
Page_Number: 25
Parish_Chapel: Hewelsfield
Soundex: D135

Record_ID: 28257
Entry_Number: 252
Year: 1900
Month: Oct
Day: 24
Grooms_Surname: DIBDEN
Grooms_Forenames: Alexander
Grooms_Age: 36
Groom_Condition: Bachelor
Grooms_Occupation: Master Mariner
Grooms_Residence: Brockweir
Grooms_Fathers_Surname: Dibden
Grooms_Fathers_Forenames: John
Grooms_Fathers_Occupation: Master Mariner
Brides_Surname: STEEL
Brides_Forenames: Alice Harriet
Brides_Age: 23
Brides_Condition: Spinster
Brides_Occupation: Domestic Servant
Brides_Residence: Brockweir
Brides_Fathers_Surname: Steel
Brides_Fathers_Forenames: George
Brides_Fathers_Occupation: Shoeing Smith
Licence_or_Banns: [not stated]
Date_of_Banns: [not stated]
Signature_or_Mark: Both sign
Witness_1: Herbert[?] B[illegible]
Witness_2: Isabella Dibden
Other_Witnesses:
Officiating_Minister: Alfred Watson Hands
Event: Marriage
Memoranda:
Notes:
Register_Reference: P175 IN 1/7
Page_Number: 126
Parish_Chapel: Hewelsfield
Soundex_Groom: D135
Soundex_Bride: S340

--------------------------------

Ref Edwin Dibden being ferryman;

Record_ID: 97610
Entry_Number: 191
Year: 1864
Month: Jan
Day: 3
Parents_Surname: DIBDEN
Child_Forenames: Edwin
Fathers_Forenames: Philip
Mothers_Forenames: Susannah
Mothers_Surname:
Residence: Brockweir
Occupation: Waterman
Officiating_Minister: Edwin Giles Rector
Event: Baptism
Memoranda:
Notes:
Register_Reference: P175 IN 1/8
Page_Number: 24
Parish_Chapel: Hewelsfield
Soundex: D135

Baptism PR for brother James Philip was 1865, I cannot find any record of his parents' marriage but GlosBMD for both boys shows Susannah was nee Bowen.

Record_ID: 288438
Entry_Number: 128
Year: 1941
Month: Sep
Day: 18
Surname: DIBDEN
Forenames: Edwin
Residence: Triangle Stores Brockweir
Age_at_death: 76
Officiating_Minister: P G Howes Priest in charge
Event: Burial
Cause_of_death:
Memoranda:
Notes:
Register_Reference: P175 IN 1/12
Page_No: 16
Parish_Chapel: Hewelsfield
Soundex: D135

There are some trees on Ancestry for Jane DIBDON and other websites etc.

1871 Hewlesfield - mentions Alice DIBDEN running the New Inn

Hi and thanks M,

The GlosPubs website has a detailed page about the New Inn, sadly cannot give a direct link but search "Brockweir" only gives four hits to view; the Brockweir Country Inn aka the New Inn, the Royal Arms Inn and the Carpenters Arms near Hewelsfield. All these give lists of landlords taken from the Census' & Directories, for the New Inn it states; Henry Dibden, 1876, also a Butcher; Mrs Alice Dibden 1885-1892, she was the owner in 1891, George W Mayo in 1902, Mrs Ellen Dibden in 1903, 1906, and so on..

http://www.gloucestershirepubs.co.uk/AllGlosPubsDatabase/AllGlosPubs_view.php

This site's PRs show both Henry and Alice are popular Dibden names, I wonder if this Baptism is relevant wrt the above New Inn residents;

Record_ID: 31481
Entry_Number: 935
Year: 1840
Month: Aug
Day: 30
Parents_Surname: DIBDEN
Child_Forenames: Henry
Fathers_Forenames: John
Mothers_Forenames: Alice [?]
Mothers_Surname:
Residence: Brockwear
Occupation: Waterman
Officiating_Minister: Frederick Stonhouse Curate
Event: Baptism
Memoranda:
Notes:
Register_Reference: P175 IN 1/4
Page_Number: 81
Parish_Chapel: Hewelsfield
Soundex: D135

On the Forest of Dean Dean - there is a burial at Chapel Hill Monmouth - 8 March 1815 of a Richard EVANS aged 60
On the Gloucestershire Genealogical Database - Richard EVANS was aged 60 from Hewlesfield/Brockweir and a Malster.

? probably supplied all the many pubs.....

Forest of Dean records has:

Richard EVANS (probably his Son?) marrying Jane DIBDON at Hewlesfield 21 May 1801.

This couple had

Mary and Richard christened in 1803 at Hewlesfield and Jane 1806.

1813 - Richard (occupation: Malster) & Jane - daughter Ann - was christened at Tintern Monmouth - residence Brockweir -

There are some trees on Ancestry for Jane DIBDON and other websites etc.

British History on Line for Brockwier, mentions Edwin DIBDEN re: the Ferry

1871 Hewlesfield - mentions Alice DIBDEN running the New Inn

A guy on the Monmouth Facebook page bought some old deeds on ebay for a public house called The Black Lion, the date is 1801. It's been a while since I went to Brockweir so I'm not sure if a pub is still there. I found publicans in census but not that pub name, I just thought I'd post as somebody might know more of the history of the village.

Hi Fred, always good to read about an old pub, altho in this case there seems to be very little I can offer !. I've searched both Geoff Sandles' excellent Glos Pubs website, and my books, and cannot find any reference to it. However both these clearly rely on old census returns etc, and as you've found the Blacl Lion doesn't appear in them, or at least not under that name. Similarly the various history websites don't mention it, including the British History site, but they all do carry a common story abt Brockweir c1800, the Wiki entry says

"For centuries Brockweir had a thriving shipbuilding, fitting-out and repair industry. Brockweir was the highest point reached by a normal tide on the Wye, and a key transhipment point where the cargoes of sea-going ships of up to 90 tonnes were transferred onto barges to be sent upstream, and the products of Herefordshire and the Forest of Dean were sent back to Bristol and beyond. In 1587, one resident, John Gethin, was killed on his boat in the Bristol Channel in an affray with Bristol merchants.

According to some sources, in the early 19th century the village was thought to be one of the most lawless places in the country. Its reputation was earned by having about 16 public houses, to cater for the stevedores who were employed to load and unload the ships at the quayside. Only one narrow road led into the village, and goods were usually carried by donkeys or by water, with a ferry taking travellers to and from the Welsh bank of the Wye. In 1833 the Duke of Beaufort issued an edict for the Moravian Church to be set up in the village because of its lawless reputation, and the church was built on the site of a former cock fighting pit. The first minister was Lewis West, who drew congregations of up to 200 people. The minister described the life of its watermen as being centred on beerhouses, skittle alleys, and cockfighting, and said that it had the reputation of a "city of refuge" for lawless elements."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brockweir
http://overlookingthewye.org.uk/index.php/river-connections/brockweir-quay/brockweir-qu...
http://www.thebrockweirinn.co.uk/

So clearly Brockweir c1800 was a very different place than nowadays, hard to imagine !. However the arrival of the Church meant that by the time the first Census was taken in 1841 the village had been "cleaned-up", hence less pubs and cider houses. although it was still apparently a regular focus for the various Temperance Movements into the early 1900s. Nowadays I believe there's just one pub left in the village, the Brockweir Inn, which was called the New Inn, GlosPubs site shows this was trading since at least 1890. Near this is the oldest building in the village, the Malt House, which dates in part from the 15th century and probably formed part of a grange owned by Tintern Abbey.

Hoping this is of interest, thanks again. Hopefully wherever you are the sun is also shining, I cannot think of a better place to be this afternoon than supping a cool drink on the Wye !