Dean Heritage Centre
Encyclopedia
The Dean Heritage Centre is located in the pretty valley of Soudley
, Gloucestershire
, England
in the Forest of Dean
and exists to record and preserve the unique social and industrial history of the area and its people. The centre comprises the museum itself, a millpond and waterwheel, forester's cottage with garden and animals, art and craft exhibitions and workshops, and trails around the surrounding woodland. In addition, there are picnic tables, barbecue hearths, an adventure playground, a gift shop selling local produce and the Heritage Kitchen, a restaurant providing home-made food.
and iron mining, forestry
, timber
, stone working and clock making
that have shaped the history, landscape and culture of the Forest. Among the more noteworthy artefacts in the museum's collection are an 1830s Lightmoor Colliery beam engine
, Thomas Sopwith's
1838 geological model of the Dean Forest, and the Voyce collection of eighteenth and nineteenth century longcase clocks.
The Dean Heritage Museum Trust is a registered charity formed in 1979 in response to public concern that the heritage of the Forest of Dean was disappearing. The trust bought a former corn mill Camp Mill and opened a museum there in 1983. The museum underwent a major refurbishment paid for by the Heritage Lottery Fund
and completed in 2003.
and Edwardian period style. Like many Forest cottages of the time, it is a two-up, two-down, with, on the ground floor, a well-appointed sitting room with a harmonium, Victorian chaise-longue and a collection of period china, and a kitchen with an authentic cast-iron range.
Upstairs there can be found two bedrooms, a children’s room, and a master bedroom which also contains a cot. The bedrooms do not have wardrobes, but, as houses of the period would, instead contain chests to store clothing. Outside there is a wash-house containing a copper for washing clothes, along with a washing dolly and mangle.
Behind the house lies the garden. It is planted with vegetables of authentic period varieties, and is also home to animals which would traditionally have been kept by the Foresters. These include chickens to provide eggs, and Gloucestershire Old Spot pigs which were kept for their meat, and grazed under the trees on fallen apples. They were also released into the Forest to feed on acorns during the late summer, a right dating from medieval times known as pannage
. Two ferrets are also kept in the garden; these traditionally were used (and still are) by Foresters to catch rabbits for the table.
camp, sited in a forest clearing with a stone-and-turf-built hut constructed as they have been for centuries. Whole families would have camped in the Forest for months at a time during the summer in order to provide the constant supervision necessary to keep several burns maintained at one time. The Heritage Centre maintains the tradition by conducting twice-yearly charcoal burns. These are built in the traditional turf and earth method, whereby the wood is stacked tightly together in a dome, then covered in turf and earth to starve the fire of oxygen, ensuring that the wood dries out at a high temperature, but not burned. The charcoal produced would in the past have been used to achieve the high temperatures necessary to smelt the iron ore mined in the Forest. Nowadays, however, it is sold mainly for barbecue
s.
Dave Harvey. The right to mine for coal was granted by Edward II to any man born within the Forest of Dean’s traditional boundaries (known as the Hundred of St Briavels) who has worked underground for a year and a day.
, and also possesses an impressive collection of historic maps dating back to the eighteenth century, along with the papers of many significant local figures from the last two centuries.
Soudley
Soudley is a small but thriving village north of Lydney, west Gloucestershire, England.Nearby attractions include Dean Heritage Centre, Soudley Ponds and the Blaize Bailey viewpoint....
, Gloucestershire
Gloucestershire
Gloucestershire is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn, and the entire Forest of Dean....
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
in the Forest of Dean
Forest of Dean
The Forest of Dean is a geographical, historical and cultural region in the western part of the county of Gloucestershire, England. The forest is a roughly triangular plateau bounded by the River Wye to the west and north, the River Severn to the south, and the City of Gloucester to the east.The...
and exists to record and preserve the unique social and industrial history of the area and its people. The centre comprises the museum itself, a millpond and waterwheel, forester's cottage with garden and animals, art and craft exhibitions and workshops, and trails around the surrounding woodland. In addition, there are picnic tables, barbecue hearths, an adventure playground, a gift shop selling local produce and the Heritage Kitchen, a restaurant providing home-made food.
The Museum
The museum itself comprises five galleries telling the history of the Forest of Dean from the earliest geological and fossil records to the present day. They display a wide variety of artefacts from industries such as coalCoal mining
The goal of coal mining is to obtain coal from the ground. Coal is valued for its energy content, and since the 1880s has been widely used to generate electricity. Steel and cement industries use coal as a fuel for extraction of iron from iron ore and for cement production. In the United States,...
and iron mining, forestry
Forestry
Forestry is the interdisciplinary profession embracing the science, art, and craft of creating, managing, using, and conserving forests and associated resources in a sustainable manner to meet desired goals, needs, and values for human benefit. Forestry is practiced in plantations and natural stands...
, timber
Timber
Timber may refer to:* Timber, a term common in the United Kingdom and Australia for wood materials * Timber, Oregon, an unincorporated community in the U.S...
, stone working and clock making
Clock
A clock is an instrument used to indicate, keep, and co-ordinate time. The word clock is derived ultimately from the Celtic words clagan and clocca meaning "bell". A silent instrument missing such a mechanism has traditionally been known as a timepiece...
that have shaped the history, landscape and culture of the Forest. Among the more noteworthy artefacts in the museum's collection are an 1830s Lightmoor Colliery beam engine
Beam engine
A beam engine is a type of steam engine where a pivoted overhead beam is used to apply the force from a vertical piston to a vertical connecting rod. This configuration, with the engine directly driving a pump, was first used by Thomas Newcomen around 1705 to remove water from mines in Cornwall...
, Thomas Sopwith's
Thomas Sopwith (geologist)
Thomas Sopwith was an English mining engineer born in Newcastle-upon-Tyne.Son of a cabinet maker, Sopwith maintained links with the family furniture and joinery business throughout his life. However, he soon became an illustrator of antiquities, then took up land and mineral surveying, and...
1838 geological model of the Dean Forest, and the Voyce collection of eighteenth and nineteenth century longcase clocks.
The Dean Heritage Museum Trust is a registered charity formed in 1979 in response to public concern that the heritage of the Forest of Dean was disappearing. The trust bought a former corn mill Camp Mill and opened a museum there in 1983. The museum underwent a major refurbishment paid for by the Heritage Lottery Fund
Heritage Lottery Fund
The Heritage Lottery Fund is a fund established in the United Kingdom under the National Lottery etc. Act 1993. The Fund opened for applications in 1994. It uses money raised through the National Lottery to transform and sustain the UK’s heritage...
and completed in 2003.
Foresters' cottage, garden and animals
The museum grounds are home to a reconstructed early-twentieth century Forester’s cottage, which was moved stone by stone from its original location. The cottage is furnished and decorated in authentic VictorianVictorian decorative arts
Victorian decorative arts refers to the style of decorative arts during the Victorian era. The Victorian era is known for its eclectic revival and interpretation of historic styles and the introduction of cross-cultural influences from the middle east and Asia in furniture, fittings, and Interior...
and Edwardian period style. Like many Forest cottages of the time, it is a two-up, two-down, with, on the ground floor, a well-appointed sitting room with a harmonium, Victorian chaise-longue and a collection of period china, and a kitchen with an authentic cast-iron range.
Upstairs there can be found two bedrooms, a children’s room, and a master bedroom which also contains a cot. The bedrooms do not have wardrobes, but, as houses of the period would, instead contain chests to store clothing. Outside there is a wash-house containing a copper for washing clothes, along with a washing dolly and mangle.
Behind the house lies the garden. It is planted with vegetables of authentic period varieties, and is also home to animals which would traditionally have been kept by the Foresters. These include chickens to provide eggs, and Gloucestershire Old Spot pigs which were kept for their meat, and grazed under the trees on fallen apples. They were also released into the Forest to feed on acorns during the late summer, a right dating from medieval times known as pannage
Pannage
Pannage is the practice of turning out domestic pigs in a wood or forest, in order that they may feed on fallen acorns, beechmast, chestnuts or other nuts. Historically, it was a right or privilege granted to local people on common land or in royal forests...
. Two ferrets are also kept in the garden; these traditionally were used (and still are) by Foresters to catch rabbits for the table.
Charcoal burners’ camp
Also on the site is the charcoal burners’Charcoal
Charcoal is the dark grey residue consisting of carbon, and any remaining ash, obtained by removing water and other volatile constituents from animal and vegetation substances. Charcoal is usually produced by slow pyrolysis, the heating of wood or other substances in the absence of oxygen...
camp, sited in a forest clearing with a stone-and-turf-built hut constructed as they have been for centuries. Whole families would have camped in the Forest for months at a time during the summer in order to provide the constant supervision necessary to keep several burns maintained at one time. The Heritage Centre maintains the tradition by conducting twice-yearly charcoal burns. These are built in the traditional turf and earth method, whereby the wood is stacked tightly together in a dome, then covered in turf and earth to starve the fire of oxygen, ensuring that the wood dries out at a high temperature, but not burned. The charcoal produced would in the past have been used to achieve the high temperatures necessary to smelt the iron ore mined in the Forest. Nowadays, however, it is sold mainly for barbecue
Barbecue
Barbecue or barbeque , used chiefly in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, New Zealand and Australia is a method and apparatus for cooking meat, poultry and occasionally fish with the heat and hot smoke of a fire, smoking wood, or hot coals of...
s.
Freemine entrance
The five densely-wooded acres of the Heritage Centre also feature Harvey’s Folly, a replica of a freemine entrance built for the centre by the Forest’s ambassador, retired freeminerFreeminer
Freeminer is an ancient title given to a coal or iron miners in the Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire, England, who have earned the right to mine personal plots, known as gales.-History of Freemining:...
Dave Harvey. The right to mine for coal was granted by Edward II to any man born within the Forest of Dean’s traditional boundaries (known as the Hundred of St Briavels) who has worked underground for a year and a day.
The Gage Library
Opened in 1995, the Gage Library provides a centre of local history resources for the Forest of Dean. It houses a major bequest from Laurie Gage, an antiquarian book dealer and philanthropist with a great personal interest in the area, who died in 1994. The Library contains over 1,500 volumes covering the history, geography and natural history the Forest of Dean and Wye ValleyWye Valley
The Wye Valley Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty is an internationally important protected landscape straddling the border between England and Wales. It is one of the most dramatic and scenic landscape areas in southern Britain....
, and also possesses an impressive collection of historic maps dating back to the eighteenth century, along with the papers of many significant local figures from the last two centuries.