THE rich history of the Forest of Dean from the Celts and Romans to the present was celebrated through a fortnight of Heritage Open Days.

Forest MP Matt Bishop (right) with Cllr Graham Morgan at the Cinderford Memorabilia Day.
Forest MP Matt Bishop (right) with Cllr Graham Morgan at the Cinderford Memorabilia Day. (© Mark Turner)

The initiative gave the public the opportunity to look around buildings that are not normally open to the public but included a wide range of walks, talks and exhibitions.

Forest of Dean Brass finished the day with a free public performamce.
Forest of Dean Brass finished the day with a free public performamce. (© Forest Review)

Heritage Open Days in the Forest is organised and funded by the Coleford Area Partnership and runs for 10 days every September as part of a national programme of events.

Pauline Watkins and Jennifer Lewis at the grave of Gypsy Petulengro at Viney Hill Church.
Pauline Watkins and Jennifer Lewis at the grave of Gypsy Petulengro at Viney Hill Church. (© Forest Review)

The theme for the National Heritage Open Days was routes, networks, connections and all the events.

Nicola Jones with a photo album from The Wesley Players' 1987 panto Ali Baba in which she appeared.
Nicola Jones with a photo album from The Wesley Players' 1987 panto Ali Baba in which she appeared. (© Forest Review)

Among the events last weekend were the Cinderford Memorabilia Day at the offices of Cinderford Town Council which draws on the growing archive of material and artefacts related to the town and wider Forest which is collected and stored by the town council.

Cinderford Town councillor Mark Turnerr with a Dilke Hospital road sign that is now in the town archive.
Cinderford Town councillor Mark Turner with a Dilke Hospital road sign that is now in the town archive. (© Forest Review)

It includes bound copies of both The Forester and the Forest of Dean and Wye Valley Review which between them cover 150 years of local history.

Just up the road, at St Stephen’s Church, The Wesley Players put on a display of photographs, programmes and costumes from their 70 years of treading the boards and put on a couple of scenes.

A scene from The Wesley Players' production of Puss in Boots
A scene from The Wesley Players' production of Puss in Boots (© Forest Review)

Lynne Teague, from the Players, said: “We’ve done scenes from Puss in Boots which was this year’s panto and from Snow White which we will doing next year.

Robin Phelps, one of the authors of the popular Roadsiders Forest humour books at the Cinderford memorabilia day.
Robin Phelps, one of the authors of the popular Roadsiders Forest humour books at the Cinderford memorabilia day. (© Forest Review)

“Next year is our 70th anniversary and we’re going to be putting on the show at The Wesley for the first time in many years which we are looking forward to.”

The flugelhorn featured in one of the pieces played by Forest of Dean Brass.
The flugelhorn featured in one of the pieces played by Forest of Dean Brass. (© Forest Review)

At Viney Hill Church there was a display about Gypsy Petulengro, who is buried in the churchyard and whose funeral attracted 1,000.

Xavier Petulengro was more glamorously titled the ‘King of the Gypsies and was a popular figure through the 1930s and 1940s because of his books, newspaper columns and radio broadcasts

His traditional Romany funeral in 1957 created national interest and was filmed by the British Pathe newsreel which is available on YouTube.

Among the other events was a rare opportunity to see the on-going repairs to Gunns Mill near Mitcheldean, a 17th century charcoal-fired blast furnace.