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Blaisdon
Blaisdon maps
Historic maps of Blaisdon and the local area, hand-drawn by Ordnance Survey and Samuel Lewis. View all Blaisdon maps
Blaisdon photos
We have no photos of Blaisdon, although we do have photos of these nearby places:
Flaxley| Longhope| Huntley| Mitcheldean| Littledean| Newnham| Cinderford| Bulley| Soudley| Forest Of Dean| Newent| Weston Under Penyard| Highnam| Blakeney| Frampton On Severn| Upleadon| Parkend| Hartpury| Brampton Abbotts
Blaisdon area books
Displaying 1 of 13 books about Blaisdon and the local area. View all books for this area
You can read extracts and browse photos from these books.
Memories of Blaisdon
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Gloucestershire memories
Lion House Youth Hostel 1957
I stayed one night at this hostel in early April 1957. A friend and I had set out from our home town of Reading on a 5 night circular cycle trip - our first such trip. Mitcheldean was our second night's stop, the first being at the then Inglesham hostel north of Swindon. We then went on to hostels at Clifton-on-Teme near Worcester, Broome, Warwickshire and Charlbury, Oxfordshire before returning to Reading. We were only 14 at the time. I can remember little of the hostel at Mitcheldean but the pictures on this site strike a chord. I remember the yard and in the part of the building where we slept the two-tier bunk beds and the sheet sleeping bags we had to take to go between the blankets that were provided - the standard deal at the time. At the time of writing I have just revisited Mitcheldean for the first time since 1957. I could not recall the exact location of the... Read more
Working at Rank Xerox.
As a 16-year-old, I started work in the wages office of Rank Xerox. There were 6 of us in the office, the boss being Fred Pearce. The other colleagues were Roger Dymond, Mary Evans, Connie Waits, Jean Short and myself. The company used to make cine cameras and projectors and was just begininig to make photocopiers. We used the Kalamazoo system for the doing the wages (no computors in those days), everything was done by hand. We spent the week working out what bonuses the workers had made and transfering the data onto their clock cards. The day I liked the best was a Friday when the cash was delivered, the door locked, then we spent the morning making up the wage packets. In the afternoon I would have to go around to all the departments and hand out the wages. There was a small shoe shop in the village of Mitcheldean and I would love to go there and choose shoes. The owner was good enough to... Read more
My Time in Mitcheldean in The 60s
I met my first wife - she was from Mitcheldesn - she also worked for Ranks in the office, her name was June Cowmeadow. Her Father was a polisher at the same factory - Bert Cowmeadow - during the early 60s. I have such a lot of happy memories of the area trips to Cinderford and all through the Forest of Dean. I was living in Pontshill at the time and rode my Lambretta scooter to see my girlfriend. We both are now remarried and live in Perth, Western Australia.
School Holidays
This picture reminds me of wonderful school trips to the west of England from a school based in Oldham called Fittonhill Secondary. This hotel was our base for the weeks holiday and we went out daily on organised trips to Chepstow, Symonds Yat, Slimbridge Wildfowl Trust, Tintern Abbey among other glorious places. Living in a built-up area like Oldham this seemed heaven even as a 13-14 year old. I came on the trip three years running so it must have been magic. I found this site looking for the actual hotel thinking it would be nice to re-visit my youth and book a stay there but I can only assume that it no longer exists. The picture is just as I remember the hotel but would have loved to have seen a view of the gardens at the rear or even an interior picture. I have no pictures from those holidays sadly as cameras were not as easily purchased back then and as a teenager you don't think that one... Read more
Unlawater Hotel
This hotel was owned by my mother Patricia Woods till around 1959. Newnham was a busy place then. H G Zeal had a themometer factory in the High Street.
Above the hotel was a dairy farm run by A.Jones (Dean Forest farm).
As a matter of interest, the name Unlawater translates to River of Sorrows and was from a time back in history when Lady Padget lived there and a member of the family drowned in the river.
Best wishes,
Rai Woods. (Captain)
My First Home
My parents owned Unlawater House from 1963 until the 1970s. It was their first house when they were in their twenties and they ran it as a private children's home. I spent the first eight years of my life there and have great memories of lunches in the garden.
They re-roofed it within the first five years of purchase. The council bought some of the land along the road to widen the road as it kept flooding as a result of the Severn tidal wave; they did eventually rebuild the pretty red brick wall which runs along the perimeter.
There were some beautiful trees in the garden (many of which have since been taken down), and a superb monkey tree which we used to decorate with coloured lights at Christmas.
School Days
I never knew the Prankherds owned it as they were the head and headmaster at St Hilliards in Mickleton, dark secrets.
