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The Forest of Dene can be found to the west of Gloucestershire, England and is in a fairly triangular shape with the River Wye and the River Severn occupying the remaining two sides of the area. The region is considered to be an ancient English forest and covers an area of 110 kilometers square. The region is filled with a mixture of woodlands and was one the royal hunting grounds back in 1066 A.D. and is considered to be one of the largest remaining Crown Forests in the whole of England.
The area itself has a rich history of forestry as well as features coal mines which can be dated back as far as 8000 B.C. The Forest of Dene is considered not only to be a Crown Forest but also serves as a government district of which house the tows of Newent, Lydney, Cinderford as well as the Administrative town of Coleford.
There is substantial evidence that the Forest of Dene was inhabited back as far as the Mesolithic Era and megalithic monuments can be found in several areas of the forest. A number of Bronze Age artifacts have been uncovered throughout various locations of the forest and even several Iron Age forest have been unearthed in the Forest of Dene
The Roman Empire also made use of the natural resources which can be found within the Forest of Dene back in 50 A.D. and was governed by the town of Ariconium. A medieval rebuild of an ancient Roman road through the forest can still be found today near Soudley. By 370 A.D. a Roman Temple for the god Nodens was built in the region and the area has been protected from hunting ever since.
After the Roman Era, the area’s history became a bit cloudy over the next couple of centuries but evidence suggests that the region was under the control of the Welsh Kingdom under Gwent and of Ergyng. After which the Vikings would make several trips into the region until the 11th century when it fell under the control of the Wessex Kingdom and became the personal hunting grounds of various Saxon kings as well as Norman kings.
In 1929, Flaxey Abbey was built in the forest after the king had given miners from Hundred of St Briavels the right to mine the area as well as the right to pass the mining rights down their lineage
During the 18th century though, a number of squatter establishments along the edges of the Forrest of Dene sprung up and have since been established under the names of Parkend as well as Berry Hill. Furthermore, with the oncoming industrial revolution of the 19th century and the forest being known for its richness in coal and iron, the forest became a large industrial complex in which several deep mines were excavated as well as a number of quarries for production of homes and structures for the workers and offices.
By 1946, most of the coal mines were shut down with only a few remaining that were small. A few of these still remain open to the public but with the decline of need for coal, the offices of the older coal mines were soon replaced with some high technology industries.
