Place:Cinderford, Gloucestershire, England

source: Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names

source: Family History Library Catalog

the text in this section is copied from an article in Wikipedia

Cinderford is a town and civil parish on the eastern fringe of the Forest of Dean in Gloucestershire, England, which had a population of 8,494 at the 2011 census.

The town came into existence in the 19th century, following the rapid expansion of Cinderford Ironworks and the Forest of Dean Coalfield. Cinderford's origins can be seen in the style and layout of the town, with long rows of identical terraced housing similar to those found in the mining villages of the South Wales Valleys. The decline of the coal industry in the 1950s and 1960s affected Cinderford as most of the male population was employed in mining.

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Cinderford was an extraparochial area within East Dean Rural District until 1953 when the parish of East Dean was broken up with neighbouring communities receiving parts. With the abolition of East Dean parish Cinderford became a civil parish of 3,925 acres and a population of almost 7,000.

Although located geographically in St. Briavels Hundred, the area of Cinderford was too dependent on the township of East Dean to be a part of the hundred.

A 19th Century Description

A Vision of Britain through Time provides the following description of Cinderford from John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales of 1870-72:

"CINDERFORD, a chapelry in Forest of Dean, Gloucester; 3½ miles WNW of Newnham town and [railway] station. It has a post office under Newnham. Population, 3,180. Here are extensive iron-works. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Gloucester and Bristol. Value: £300. Patron: the Crown. The church is modern, cruciform, and in the early English style. There are Baptist and Methodist chapels."

Registration Districts

• Westbury-on-Severn Registration District (1837 - 1937) (as part of East Dean parish)
• Forest of Dean Registration District (1937 - 1953) (as part of East Dean parish)
• Forest of Dean Registration District (1953 - 2006)
• Gloucestershire Registration District (2006 - )

Research Tips

• Gloucestershire Archives in Gloucester is where paper and microfilm copies of all records for this part of Gloucestershire are stored.

Online sources which may also be helpful:

• Volume 5, Chapter 3 of the Victoria County History of Gloucestershire found in the website British History Online expands on the subjects of free-mining and foresters throughout the Hundred of St Briavels. The first section of this chapter, entitled "Settlement" deals with the communities of Cinderford and Ruspidge. A map of the immediate area can be found a considerable way into the article (no page numbers within a chapter online).
• GENUKI gives pointers to other archive sources as well as providing some details on each parish in the county. The emphasis here is on ecclesiastical parishes (useful before 1837)
• A listing of all the Registration Districts in England and Wales since their introduction in 1837 and tables of the parishes that were part of each district and the time period covered with detailed notes on changes of parish name, mergers, etc. Respect the copyright on this material.
• The FamilySearch Wiki for Gloucestershire provides a similar but not identical series of webpages to that provided by GENUKI
• A Vision of Britain through Time has a group of pages of statistical facts for almost every parish in the county