Coleford, Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire - Market Place - art postcard c.1980s

Please ask if you need any other information and I will do the best I can to answer.

Image may be low res for illustrative purposes - if you need a higher definition image then please contact me and I may be able to send one. No cards have been trimmed (unless stated).

------------------------------------------------

Postage & Packing:

Postage and packing charge should be showing for your location (contact if not sure).

No additional charges for more than one postcard. You can buy as many postcards from me as you like and you will just pay the fee above once. Please wait for combined invoice. (If buying postcards with other things such as books, please contact or wait for invoice before paying).

Payment Methods:

UK - PayPal, Cheque (from UK bank) or postal order

Outside UK: PayPal ONLY (unless otherwise stated) please.   NO non-UK currency checks or money orders (sorry).

NOTE: All postcards are sent in brand new stiffened envelopes which I have bought for the task. These are specially made to protect postcards and you may be able to re-use them. In addition there are other costs to sending so the above charge is not just for the stamp!

I will give a full refund if you are not fully satisfied with the postcard.

----------------------------------------------

Text from the free encyclopedia WIKIPEDIA may appear below to give a little background information (internal links may not  work) :

*************

Coleford is a small market town in the west of the Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire, England, two miles east of the Welsh border and close to the Wye Valley. It is the administrative centre of the Forest of Dean district. The population at the 2011 census was 8,359.^[1]

Coleford was originally a tithing in the north-east corner of Newland parish. The settlement grew up (as its name suggests) at a ford through which charcoal and iron ore were probably carried. By the mid 14th century hamlets called Coleford and Whitecliff had grown up along the road in the valley of Thurstan's brook. Coleford had eight or more houses in 1349 and was described as a street in 1364. It had a chapel by 1489. In 1642 the commander of a parliamentary garrison in Coleford started a market in the town because the nearest chartered market, in Monmouth, was under royalist control.^[2]

Coleford saw some action during the English Civil War. On 20 February 1643, Lord Herbert, the Earl of Worcester's eldest son, and the King's Lieutenant-General of South Wales, marched through Coleford heading for Gloucester, at the head of an army of 500 horse and 1500 foot. At Coleford their progress was impeded by a troop of Parliamentarians under Colonel Berrowe, aided by a disorderly group of country people. A skirmish ensued, during which the market-house was burnt, and Major-General Lawday, who commanded the foot, with two other officers, were shot dead from a window. Colonel Brett was then put in command of the foot, Lord John Somerset continuing at the head of the horse. The Royalists forced a passage through, after capturing Lieutenant-Colonel Winter, together with some other officers and soldiers, and so, putting the Parliamentarians to flight, marched unimpeded for Gloucester.^[3]

Following the restoration, a market was granted in 1661, and a new market house built in 1679. Much building took place within the town and by 1710 it was reckoned to have 160 houses. Among the older surviving buildings in the market place the Old White Hart Inn dates from the 17th century. In the late 18th century and the early 19th the town also expanded along its other streets and most of its older houses were rebuilt. The Angel inn, which had opened by the 1650s, was re-fronted or rebuilt around 1800. For many years it housed an excise office and in the mid 18th century it was the town's principal coaching inn and it was used for public meetings and assemblies. The number of public houses increased as the town grew in importance and in 1830 there were seven or eight inns, most of them in the market place, and a larger number of beerhouses.^[2]

The market house (or town hall) was rebuilt on a larger scale in 1866. Also in the market place was the church, which was rebuilt on an octagonal plan in 1820, but it proved too small for the growing congregation, and was pulled down in 1882, its tower being retained for a clock tower. A much larger church, St John the Evangelist's, was built on a hillside overlooking the town. This church was closed in 2016, and its building put up for sale. Expansion of the town continued in piecemeal fashion throughout the 20th centu