Place:East Dean, Gloucestershire, England

source: Family History Library Catalog

the following text is based on an article in Wikipedia

East Dean was a township, and later a civil parish, in Gloucestershire, England. It was created as a township in 1844 and abolished as a civil parish in 1953. Its former area is now part of the Forest of Dean District.

The Forest of Dean was an extra parochial area in the St. Briavels Hundred of Gloucestershire. It was without the usual parish structure until the East Dean and West Dean townships were formed in 1844. For poor relief, East Dean was grouped into the Westbury on Severn Poor Law Union and was included in the Westbury on Severn rural sanitary district. Following the Local Government Act 1894, East Dean became a civil parish in the East Dean and United Parishes Rural District, which was renamed East Dean Rural District in 1935.

The population of the parish increased from 12,629 in 1881 to 15,010 in 1931 and dropped to 14,152 in 1951 (UK census figures). It occupied an area of 12,487 acres (50.53 km2) in 1881 and 12,860 acres (52.0 km2) in 1951.

In 1935 a new civil parish of Lydbrook was created from part of the East Dean area and transferred to West Dean Rural District.

In 1953 East Dean civil parish was abolished and split to create the new parishes of

• Cinderford,
• Drybrook and
• Ruspidge.

Part of the former area was transferred to the existing parishes of

• Awre,
• Littledean and
• Mitcheldean.

From 1953 until 1974 the whole area of the original parish was in the East Dean Rural District. Since 1974 it is within the Forest of Dean District.

Registration Districts

Westbury-on-Severn (1837 - 1937)
Forest of Dean (1937 - 1953)
Forest of Dean (1953 - 2006) (as one of the parishes above)
Gloucestershire (2006 - ) (as one of the parishes above)

Research Tips

• Gloucestershire Archives in Gloucester is where paper and microfilm copies of all records for this part of Gloucestershire are stored.
• It will be noted that there are no church register sources for East Dean parish. Since people were in the area prior to 1844, it is probable that baptisms, marriages and burials will have been registered at Littledean or Mitcheldean or in other parishes which made up the East Dean and United Parishes Rural District.

Online sources which may also be helpful:

• Volume 5, Chapter 3 of the Victoria County History of Gloucestershire found in the website British History Online expands on the subjects of freemining and foresters throughout the Hundred of St Briavels. The chapter includes maps of the various communities and their relationships to one another.
• GENUKI gives pointers to other archive sources as well as providing some details on each parish in the county. The emphasis here is on ecclesiastical parishes (useful before 1837)
• A listing of all the Registration Districts in England and Wales since their introduction in 1837 and tables of the parishes that were part of each district and the time period covered with detailed notes on changes of parish name, mergers, etc. Respect the copyright on this material.
• The FamilySearch Wiki for Gloucestershire provides a similar but not identical series of webpages to that provided by GENUKI
• A Vision of Britain through Time has a group of pages of statistical facts for almost every parish in the county