The Forest of Dean in Gloucestershire - royal larder or people's larder? The Charter of the Forests, a lesser-known but wider-ranging companion to the Magna Carta, confirmed any "freemen" or commoners could help themselves to many of the resources of forests across England. Within 500 years, those subsisting in the woods were declared illegal squatters as aristocrats and the Crown tried to fence them out and grab all the iron ore, coal, timber and land. Successive waves of tenacious, described […]
The Forest Of Dean - Meet at Hopewell Colliery, Speech House Rd., Coleford. Come with us on a Bank Holiday day trip to the historic Forest of Dean. Ian Wright, who was brought up the forest, will talk about the life and times of the Warren James. In the early 19th century James became a spokesman for the foresters in their struggle to protect their traditional way of life from the imposition of enclosures and industrial capitalism. The forest riots of 1831 led to Warren's arrest and […]
Warren James was a man who was caught up in the social unrest that swept through the Forest of Dean in 1831, and who emerged as spokesman for the Foresters in their struggle to protect their ancient rights and way of life. The Forest Riots of 1831 were about insecurity, fear, poverty and starvation as a result of enclosures, enforced wage labour or unemployment. The Foresters fought to resist the twin onslaught from the Crown, who owned the Forest, and from businessmen who sought industrial […]
This Autumn sees three new pamphlets added to the Bristol Radical Pamphleteer series as well as two 2nd editions. They are: #1 Cry Freedom, Cry Seven Stars: Thomas Clarkson In Bristol, 1787 - 2nd Edition by Mark Steeds. This is a major re-working of the pamphlet that was published to help raise money for the Seven Stars Plaque. Now re-published it celebrates the unveiling of the plaque and launches a new challenge - to make the Seven Stars the first ever pub with UNESCO World Heritage status. #6 […]
Was Warren James Right To Protest? Friday 13th August, 7pm, Coleford Baptist Church. £3 In 1831 Warren James led 3000 Foresters to tear down the enclosures that prevented their livelihood.... In 2010 300 people gathered at Hopewell Colliery at an event to remember Warren James and this history... A talk by Simon Sandall historian, lecturer and author. The free-miners of Dean and the defence of Forest custom during the seventeenth century ‘I want to say a few words about the history of protest in […]
Those of you who missed the excellent Warren James day in the Forest of Dean last weekend and those who were there and want to relive it might be interested in the following link: Keep an eye open for photos etc. from the event.
An event in the Forest of Dean on the 6th June 2010.
