Introduction.
Settlement in the Forest of Dean woodland, known as the Royal Demesne, was vigorously resisted by the Crown prior to the Industrial Revolution, with only limited housing alongside sanctioned industrial activity permitted. However, the demand for labour created by these enterprises inevitably drew in illegal settlers, who lived nearby in makeshift wooden cabins.
Occupation of, what is now, Parkend is recorded as far back as the early-1600s, although surprisingly little is known about the village’s earliest days. Recent research has, however, shown the existence of at least fifty documented references to Parkend (including its variants; Parke End, Park-End, etc) which pre-date the arrival of the Industrial Revolution in the Forest. They demonstrate that Parkend, while not officially recognised as a hamlet, was a recognisable place; and sufficiently so to be used in church records and legal documents. This article draws together original research and information gathered from a number of publications, to paint a picture of the village’s formative years.
Pre-occupation Activity.
The earliest evidence of human activity in Parkend dates to around 300AD. In 1852 a hoard of over 900 Roman coins, dating from 211AD to 296AD, was found near the site of the present-day village shop. A lack of any other archaeological remains, however, suggests that the Romans probably didn’t settle here in any sort of permanent sense. The coins were all of a very low denomination and, in his book, The Story of Parkend, Ralph Anstis speculates that they may have been for paying labourers wages; perhaps charcoal makers or iron smelters. We must now wait almost a millennium before we can glimpse any documented activity in what is now the village of Parkend.
The land immediately south of Parkend is particularly fertile and, unlike much of the Forest, the topsoil lies in a thick layer, making it ideal for agriculture. Despite the Forest being relatively unexplored prior to the Industrial Revolution, this was not something that escaped the attention of the authorities and, according to the booklet Whitemead Park a Short History, the area was enclosed, on behalf of the Crown, by the Deputy Constable of the Forest, Walter de Snappe, in the mid-1200s.
The enclosure incorporated a large swathe of land, bordered to the north by, what is now, Fountain Way and stretching south almost as far as Whitecroft. It included land below St Paul’s Church to the east, and westwards towards Bream Road. In 1278 the enclosure was recorded as being called Wistemede, but by the 1500s, the spelling had settled to become Whitemead Park. This was long before the village existed and Whitemead Park was designated a detached part of Newland Parish. It was its location, at one end of this park, which would eventually give rise to the village name Parkend.
For 350 years Whitemead Park was leased by the Crown to various dignitaries, although the Crown directly appointed keepers of the park between 1464 and 1502. Some contemporary references to Whitemead Park describe it as a royal hunting enclosure, and this may have been the case historically, but from at least the mid-1600s it seems to have been used primarily for agriculture, with the main lodge occupied as a farmhouse. Much reduced in size, the park survives to the present day as a holiday and leisure facility, still bearing the same name.
​Early Occupation.
In the early-1600s, King James I formed a contract with the Earl of Pembroke to establish four blast furnaces and three forges in the Forest of Dean. The Earl then commissioned Thomas Hacket to build them in 1612. One of the furnaces and a separate forge were situated near to Whitemead Park. Anstis suggests that we can take this point to be “the beginning of the tiny hamlet that was to have such an unusual history”. This would seem an entirely reasonable position to take, and one given added weight by the first known mention of the village’s name, which appears in a 1616 reference to an ‘ironworks at Parke end’.
The furnace and forge were surveyed in 1635. The report refers to their location specifically as Parke-end, and provides a fascinating record of the village’s earliest days.
“Parke-end furnace; Repayred by the present farmers about 4 yeares since [1631]… The furnace bodye and the bindeinge beames thereof crackt and insufficient to worke… A house enioyed by the founder. A cottage adioyninge thereunto. A cabbin for the bridgeserver, 18 foot longe, 11 foot brodwe built of tymber and covered with boards. A cabin adioynuinge to the furnace for the furnace keeper. A faire house 3 storyes highe, tyled, the ends built with stone and the rest with tymber, 50 foot longe, 16 foot broad, with a crosse building in it 16 foot square, with 2 stables of timber belongeinge thereunto, in repaire. A small cottage now enioyed by William Wayte. The myne kilne decayed in the inside, and the pigs of iron taken from the draughts thereof. The repaire of the defects in this furnace (according to an estimate thereof made) will cost about threescore pounds”.
“Parke-end forge; Consisting of two hammers, 3 fyneryes and 1 chaferie which were generally repayred and parte new made about 2 yeares since [1633]… One house built of stone for the colekeeper 23 foot longe and 17 foot broad, tyled and conteyns 4 roomes. One house built for the fyner 16 foot longe 15 foot broad and covered with boards. One house for the hammerman lately repaired. Two cottages enioyed by the fyners. One little cottage adioyninge to the forge for the carpenter to worke in.”
These works later came to be known as the First King’s Ironworks. Although their location is not precisely known, Anstis suggests the furnace was located near to where the cycle path crosses Cannop Road and the forge was located some way downstream; between the bridge by the Jehovah's Witnesses church and Parkend Bridge, near the Fountain Inn. Together, the furnace and forge incorporated eleven officially sanctioned workers’ cottages, some of them quite large. More workers would also have illegally settled close by, in order to meet the demands of the works for such things as timber felling and charcoal production. We can presume then, that Parkend would have been a sizeable settlement at this time.
In an attempt to raise funds, Charles I withdrew the ironwork’s lease in 1640 and, instead, leased virtually the whole Forest to Sir John Wyntour. Included in the arrangement were all the Crown ironworks, and pretty much all the resources of the Forest, including valuable cinders (required for the production of new iron), stone, mineral rights, and all the trees – except those required for ship building. Wyntour soon set about demolishing the Forest and, seeing their rights and privileges removed, the Foresters petitioned Parliament. In 1642 Parliament agreed to revoke Wyntour’s lease, but events were overtaken by the Civil War which erupted just a few months later. To prevent them supplying the King with cannonballs and other weaponry, both the furnace and the forge at Parkend were destroyed by Parliamentary forces in 1644.
Following the abolition of the monarchy in 1649, the Government assumed ownership of Whitemead Park and sold it, although the sale was opposed by local inhabitants who claimed Whitemead had never been formally ‘imparked’ and was simply an enclosure made for the use of the Crown and its lessees as a cattle pound for the Forest.
The Civil War had severely disrupted administration of the Forest; huge amounts of timber had been removed without being replanted and illegal settlers had moved in, causing further damage by building timber cabins and clearing areas for animals to graze. The war also had a devastating effect on iron production and, in his book The Iron Industry of the Forest of Dean, John Meredith writes that there is no record of any iron making anywhere in the Forest between 1650 and mid-1653. It would seem, however, that attempts were being made to establish a privately owned ironworks on Whitemead Park as, in 1651, seven years after the First King’s Ironworks were destroyed, there’s an account of eight cottages being built there, at least some of which were occupied by people working at an iron furnace at Parkend.
The Government was keen to re-establish control over the Forest and see a return of the lucrative ironworks. In 1653 Major John Wade was appointed as the Government’s chief administrator of the Forest and, in 1654, he built a new ironwork’s furnace at Parkend, probably a short distance downstream from its predecessor. The Second King's Ironworks, as it later came to be known, was traditional in form, but its greater height (28 feet) resulted in improved performance. It was soon followed by the erection of forges and a casting works. We can presume that some of the earlier workers’ cottages would also have been rebuilt, or perhaps new ones constructed, to accommodate the workers there. An early incarnation of York Lodge, which sits on a hillside on the western fringe of Parkend, may also have been built at this time. Little is known of its early history, but it is thought that a predecessor to the current building was built as the ironmaster’s residence.
Wade’s ironworks at Parkend were a remarkable success; achieving an output of twenty-one tons per week. It supplied the Navy with shot, nails and castings, while private buyers were found for raw iron and chimney backs. Wade was reappointed, with even greater powers, in 1656 and was responsible for the first major clearance of illegal settlers in the Forest. The eight ironworkers’ cottages that had been built on Whitemead Park were also deemed to be illegal encroachments. It is presumed that they were demolished, although there is strong evidence to suggest that one, located close to Parkend Bridge, survived and was later incorporated into a cottage which went on to become the Fountain Inn.
Having cleared the area of settlers, Wade then set about enclosing and replanting large areas of the Forest, but was unable to prevent commoners repeatedly breaking down the fences. Disillusioned by the lack of governmental support, he left his post in 1660. Two years later, royal commissioners stated that, during his clearance, Wade had demolished as many as 400 cabins or cottages and that only five remained in the whole Forest. This figure seems unrealistically low, not least because the needs of sanctioned agricultural and industrial activity in the Forest simply could not have been met without the help of additional workers.
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Being a Royal forest, control of the Dean, including its ironworks, passed to Charles II at the restoration of the monarchy in 1660. Sir John Wyntour was again leased much of the Forest, and resumed his demolition of it.
Another early mention of Parkend (and Parkend’s spelt as one word too) appears in this record from 1661, and relates to the burial of ‘Margaret, the daughter of Robert Morgan, from Parkend’. Possibly Robert Morgan may have been one of the workers at the new ironworks, but the entry is interesting for a number of reasons. Not only does it confirm Parkend to be a recognised placename, it shows it to be occupied by residents other than just workmen.
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The Crown refused to recognise the sale of Whitemead Park and took it back; leasing it instead to Lord Herbert (later the Duke of Beaufort) in 1662. A forge, similar to that which had been destroyed during the civil war, was also rebuilt in 1662, further increasing the population of Parkend. Wyntour’s destruction of the Forest continued until 1667, when the king terminated the lease of Parkend furnace and removed Wyntour’s concession, although it seems the ironwork's forge apparently continued in operation.
It is reported that, by this time, there were only around 200 trees left standing in the whole forest and in response the Government passed The Dean Forest Reafforestation Act of 1668. Its main provision was the enclosure of 11,000 acres for replanting, but it also radically reorganised the Forest’s administration. The Forest was divided into six ‘Walks’, each with a keeper and lodge for him to live in. York Lodge, thought to have been originally constructed as the ironmaster’s residence, was rebuilt as the keeper’s lodge overseeing the Parkend area, known at the time as York Walk.
The enclosure of large areas resulted in Foresters being denied access, depriving them of their ancient grazing and mining rights, and leading to serious discontent. In 1668 an angry mob from the Parkend area completely destroyed York Lodge and, in renewed objection to Whitemead Park’s status as a Crown-owned park, repeatedly pulled down its fences so that no profit could be gained from it. As part of the Forest’s reorganisation, four pounds were also built, in which to impound domesticated animals caught grazing in the enclosed areas. One was located on the edge of Parkend, almost directly opposite the junction to Bream, and it too was the subject of such attacks.
York Lodge was quickly rebuilt and occupied, but in 1674 the Crown closed the forge at Parkend. It, together with the disused furnace and all the employee’s houses, were sold for demolition. A Government commission was established in 1680 to again clear the Forest of illegal settlers and it would appear that, for a time at least, the only residences in Parkend were York Lodge, the main lodge in Whitemead Park and, possibly, a solitary cottage near Parkend Bridge; thought to be one of the eight mid-1600s cottages built on Whitemead Park, and subsequently incorporated into the Fountain inn.
Guil and Anna Budden are mentioned in a series of Newland Parish records, beginning with one from June 1717, which refers to the burial of their daughter, Maria. In June 1718, there’s also a burial record for their son, Thomas, and in April 1725 there’s a burial record for another daughter, called Sara. Although it isn’t known exactly where the family lived, all three records list their residence as Parkend, demonstrating that, despite this period being a lull in the village's evolution, Parkend was still a recognised placename.
By at least 1751, Whitemead Park had been divided into two farms. The main lodge was used as one farmhouse, and another was built on the other side of Cannop Brook. These farms would have attracted workers to the area and a report commissioned in 1752 stated there were 19 illegal encroachment cottages in Parkend Walk (a larger area than that covered by the village).
The 1759 will of Mary Dunn, of ‘Parke End Lodge’, possibly an alternative name for York Lodge, also makes a reference to Ann and William Budding of Parke End. It is also known that the solitary cottage near to Parkend Bridge was occupied by at least c1767, when it was apparently extended.
This section of a 1776 map shows the western farm on Whitemead Park and lists it as being rented by at that time by Thomas Barrow. The cottage, which would go on to become the Fountain Inn, is shown (apparently already extended) above the mark IV, and is listed in the map's schedule as a cottage, garden and mead (meadow). The land shown below the cottage is divided into fields and, remarkably, almost 300 years after they were constructed the boundaries of these fields can still be discerned as banks and ditches in the forest floor.
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The other farm on Whitemead Park, on the east side of Cannop Brook, was rented by Sarah James. Sarah was from Tidenham, Gloucestershire, where she and her husband Richard had been married in 1749. He was a coalminer and died at Parkend in 1767. Richard’s will is significant, as it begins “I Richard James of Parkend…….”. As their farm was inside Whitemead Park, this might be taken as an indication that the placename Parkend was, by now, being used to indicate a place which included Whitemead Park, and not simply an area on its fringes.
The map of Sarah's farm also shows the position of coal mines on the eastern edge of Whitemead Park which are marked ‘coals have been got’; probably an indication that they were already worked-out by 1767. The mines are bell-pits, an early form of mining, and their remains are still clearly visible in the woods below Parkend Church. They’ve never been conclusively dated, and may even be medieval, although it’s more likely that they date to the 1600s and were used to supply houses associated with the King’s Ironworks. Iron there was produced using charcoal, made from wood, but coal was used to heat domestic homes. Indeed it is known that coal from the Forest of Dean was used in domestic hearths during Roman times. The presence of these mines is significant as they demonstrate the existence of an early coal mining population also living in the locality.
At the time of his death, in 1780, the cottage which went on to become the Fountain Inn was owned by John Worgan. It passed to his wife, Mary, who sold it to John Keare in 1785. John is described as a coalminer and already living in Parkend; presumably in an encroachment cottage, which were again beginning to spring up across the Forest.
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Concerned about the increasing number of illegal encroachments, the Government commissioned yet another survey in 1787, titled the Driver Brothers’ Survey. It makes no mention of Parkend as a settlement or a place, but does show half a dozen encroachment cottages in or around what we know today as Parkend.
The cottage by Parkend Bridge, which went on to become the Fountain Inn, is also described in the survey as an encroachment cottage, and therefore an illegal dwelling. Now occupied by John Kear's son, James, it's described as having been encroached c1767. This is the oldest documented date for it's existence, although part of the cellar in the current building is certainly older than this, and thought to be the remains of one of eight mid-1600s workmen’s cottages built on Whitemead Park.
On the southern edge of the village, there is shown a group of turf-roofed cottages, one of which was occupied by Warren and Anne James. Warren’s mother, Sarah, ran one of the two farms on Whitemead Park, while his wife was the cousin of James Kear (their fathers were brothers) who lived in the cottage by Parkend Bridge. In 1831, one of Warren and Anne’s sons, also called Warren, would go on to become a folk hero, leading around 3000 Foresters in open revolt against the Crown, and tearing down 60 miles of enclosure fencing in an attempt to restore the Foresters’ traditional rights and way of life.
Next to Warren and Anne, another turf-roofed cottage was occupied by Warren James senior’s brother, Jeptha James, and his wife Mary. Mary died in 1849, aged 91, which was a remarkable age for the time.
Parkend’s existence as a village was still very much in the balance at this point, but its chances of survival were boosted with the arrival of another ironworks; the third to be built there. Both the earlier ironworks required massive amounts of timber, in the form of charcoal, to operate, but the advent of blast furnaces powered by coke (made from coal) removed the threat of deforestation. Parkend, with its ready supply of coal, was once again seen as an ideal location for the production of iron and Parkend Ironworks was constructed in 1799. It was one of three ironworks built, almost simultaneously, in the Forest and stood near to where the village shop is now located. The furnaces are long gone, but modern-day visitors can get a good idea of their scale from the engine-house, which survives to the present day.
Good quality timber was, however, still in demand for ship-building and in 1802 Lord Nelson visited the Forest to inspect its condition. He was greatly alarmed by what he saw and, in response to this and similar reports, Parliament passed the Dean Forest (Timber) Act in 1808. The act reinforced the Government’s authority to clear and enclose 11,000 acres of the Forest. All but a few acres of Whitemead Park were also taken over for reafforestation and, in readiness for this, the farmhouse on the eastern side of the park was demolished in 1809. At the same time, the farmhouse on the western side of Cannop Brook was rebuilt as both the administrative centre for the whole Forest of Dean and the residence of the Deputy Surveyor – ironically something which may actually have acted to deter large-scale residential expansion of Parkend during the 1800s.
The new ironworks got off to a difficult start, largely due to technical difficulties associated with the local ore and coke. It was, nevertheless, a major factor in the Severn & Wye Railway Company’s decision to build a horse-drawn tramway through the village in 1810. Several branch-lines were soon added, including one to Milkwall, built in 1812.
Interestingly, an 1812 map, by Thomas Budgen, shows the main lodge on Whitemead Park as being called Parkend House - another indication that the placename of Parkend had, by now, evolved from being the description of an area at the end of the park, to be a place which encompassed it.
The forceable removal of illegal settlers continued into the early-19th century, although the demand for industrial labour was now putting pressure on the authorities to turn a blind eye in some cases. A clearance took place in 1813, but it appears that only the encroachment cottages on the fringes of Parkend were removed, including those occupied by the James’ families, while those in the centre were allowed to remain. It would be another twenty-five years before the Crown finally conceded freehold status to the Forest’s surviving settlements, but this was undoubtedly a tipping point in the village’s journey to establish itself. Difficult times lay ahead; there were still no pubs, school, or church, but Parkend was now well and truly on the map. Over the next 100 years it would go on to reach a level of industrialisation which, on the basis of the quiet little village that exists today, is almost unimaginable to modern-day visitors.
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Further investigation;
York Lodge.
Fountain Way.
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One of the mid-1700s field boundaries, still visible in the woods behind the Fountain Inn.
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