www.gloucestershire.gov.uk

Clarence Row
Alvin Street, Gloucester, GL1 3DW
01452 425295

Extent 154 files
Archival history The records created by the Forestry Commission are public records. The Gloucestershire Record Office was designated an appropriate place for deposit of Forestry Commission records relating to the Forest of Dean in 1996, the records being held here on licence under section 4(1) of the Public Records Act 1958.

Accruals (7543, 7551, 7560, 7563, 7599, 7710)

Source of acquisition Additional documents deposited by the Forestry Commission, Crown Offices, Coleford, GL16 8BA per the Deputy Surveyor and Deputy Gaveller

Creators Forestry Commission

Arrangement Many of the documents listed below are part of continuing series of records. As a general rule of thumb, records post-dating the nationalisation of the coal industry in 1947 have been retained at the Crown Offices
Records within sections (particularly section 3/) have been arranged to group sequences of related documents together rather than in strict chronological sequence

Supplementary information
D5947/1/ Free miners, 1838-1997
D5947/2/ Awards, 1841
D5947/3/ Gales: applications, grants and transfers, 1811-1996
D5947/4/ Licences, 1847-1914
D5947/5/ Accounts, 1789-1982
D5947/6/ Correspondence, 1911-1933
D5947/7/ Maps and plans, 1835-1904
D5947/8/ Reports, 1861-1954
D5947/9/ Highmeadow estate, 1871-1942
D5947/10/ Other records, (1688) -1900
Appendix 1 List of gale titles, 1896-1996 available at Gloucestershire Record Office

Related information Searchers should also be aware that some Forestry Commission records relating to the Forest of Dean remain on deposit at the Public Record Office in classes F16 (17 volumes of the Verderers Court, 1662-1935), F28 (37 files, 1706-1946) and F20 (a miscellaneous class of 19th century records)
For further information see the following books by Cyril Hart: Royal Forest, Clarendon Press, 1966; The Verderers and the Forest Law of Dean, David and Charles, 1971; The Free Miners, British Publishing Co Ltd, 1953; The Industrial History of Dean, David and Charles, 1971
Also: Victoria County History of Gloucestershire volume V
D3921 (photocopy of Harleian manuscript 4850 in the British Library concerning records of the forest eyre, July 1634 and of the swanimote courts held for the Forest, 1634-1636)