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Newnham on Severn

Civil parishes in GloucestershireForest of DeanPopulated places on the River SevernUse British English from March 2015Villages in Gloucestershire
St Peters Church, Newnham geograph.org.uk 210626
St Peters Church, Newnham geograph.org.uk 210626

Newnham or Newnham on Severn is a village in west Gloucestershire, England. It lies in the Royal Forest of Dean, on the west bank of the River Severn, approximately 10 miles south-west of Gloucester and three miles southeast of Cinderford. It is on the A48 road between Gloucester and Chepstow, Monmouthshire, Wales. The village has a parish council. A parish church was established in the 14th century (although there had been a chapel of ease since 1018), and in 1366 a new church building was built on the high ground of the village as the old one faced erosion from the river. The new building has itself been damaged by a gunpowder explosion in 1644 during the English Civil War and a fire in 1881, but is still in use. The Ancient Romans built three roads through the location, where they forded the River Severn. The Anglo-Saxons established a permanent settlement, the Normans built a motte-and-bailey fortification for defence, and in medieval times it became a major port with links around Great Britain and Ireland. In 1171, Henry II of England staged an invasion of Ireland from Newnham. One account claimed that he set sail with 400 ships and 5,000 men, which suggests its importance as a port. For a time Newnham was the most successful Gloucestershire town west of the Severn. Its role as a port and trading hub declined, however, rapidly with the 1827 opening of the Gloucester and Sharpness Canal. In 1810, an early attempt at a Severn tunnel began construction just south of Newnham. Work was abandoned after flooding in 1812. Matron Eva Luckes of The London Hospital lived in Newnham.The scenic Gloucester to Newport railway line goes through a tunnel here. Newnham railway station opened in 1851 and closed in 1964.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Newnham on Severn (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Newnham on Severn
High Street, Forest of Dean Newnham

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N 51.803 ° E -2.45 °
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High Street
GL14 1AA Forest of Dean, Newnham
England, United Kingdom
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St Peters Church, Newnham geograph.org.uk 210626
St Peters Church, Newnham geograph.org.uk 210626
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Severn tunnel (1810)
Severn tunnel (1810)

The Severn tunnel of 1810 was an unsuccessful plan for a tramroad tunnel beneath the River Severn. The tunnel was to cross the river at Arlingham Passage, at a location between Newnham on Severn and Bullo Pill on the west bank, to the promontory near Arlingham on the east.The intention was to take coal from the expanding Forest of Dean collieries. The proprietors of the Bullo Pill Railway Co. had already, in September 1809, completed the Haie Hill tunnel. They acquired the rights to an existing ferry crossing at Newnham Ferry and began construction of the tunnel, from the West bank. This tunnel was to carry road traffic and horse-drawn coal wagons on the tramroad. The bore was to be 13 ft high and 12 ft wide. This tramroad would have been built to match that already constructed onshore, as a four-foot gauge plateway with L-section cast iron rails. Work began and the tunnel was extended well under the river. On Friday 13 November 1812 water broke into the tunnel. The tunnel was immediately flooded, and the workmen all managed to escape. Unlike the flooding of the later Severn Tunnel, this flooding was too much for the rudimentary pumps of the day and so work was abandoned.In 1845, the engineer James Walker prepared a report, River Severn and South Wales Railway, on Brunel's plans for railway bridges across the River Severn. These bridges were to cross from nearby on the Arlingham promontory. Walker's report formed evidence for why the bridge plans were rejected, mostly on the grounds of their effect on shipping. A comment in the report though considered the tunnel plans to be sound and for the rock strata at this location to be amenable to tunneling. This positive report was sufficient to cause Brunel to again consider the crossing the river, this time by tunnel, and he is thought to have consulted with Vignoles on the subject. Brunel would later consider a bridge with a massive 1,100 ft span at this same point. Some masonry work, including a portion of tunnel lining, can still be seen in a field near Bullo today.

Littledean Camp

Littledean Camp is in fact a castle overlooking the village of Littledean in Gloucestershire, England, notable for its unique early Norman design. Originally known as "Littledean Roman Camp" or just "Roman Camp" whilst once thought to have had Roman origins (as reflected in older Ordnance Survey maps), 20th century archaeology has shown that the castle was built in the 11th century following the Norman invasion of 1066. The castle was positioned on high ground overlooking the Severn valley and the town of Littledean. In addition to protecting the local villages, the castle was probably intended to operate with the castles at Glasshouse Woods and Howle Hill Camp as a screen to protect the city of Gloucester from military threats from Wales.Today, only the outer wall earthworks remain and be clearly seen. Trees are growing throughout the remains of the Castle, and due to its listing as a scheduled monument, the site is not maintained. However, the collection of trees that cover the earthworks stand out from the surrounding fields, allowing this hilltop site (elevation ~600m) to be clearly seen from many miles away.The castle itself is circular and relatively small, some 60 ft in diameter, with an inner and an outer bailey, the latter protected by a very tall vallum wall. The outer wall has surviving earthworks 12 ft high; originally it would have been 15 ft tall. Uniquely for a castle of this period the outer wall has a motte integrated into the design, rather than located at the centre of the castle; this was probably designed to act as a combination of look-out tower and keep. The entrance to the castle was from the south.Littledean castle was not occupied for long and by the time of the Anarchy in the middle of the 12th century had already been abandoned for several years, being referred to as the "Old Castle of Dean".

Pope's Hill
Pope's Hill

Pope's Hill is a hill and a small village situated in the east of the Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire within the parish of Littledean. The hill is 12 miles south west of Gloucester and 3 miles east of Cinderford. The small village of Flaxley lies in the valley to the immediate north. Pope's Hill is said to have got its name from Mary Pope, who used to reside in Flaxley Abbey in the 18th century and walked over the hill as a young girl. She is buried in Flaxley churchyard. A principal road runs over the hill starting from the A4151 just east of Littledean and rejoins the A4151 further east at the Greyhound Inn. The A4151 runs along the southern flank of the hill. A steep section of road on the Flaxley side, Joey's Pitch, is notorious for being impassable in ice and snow. There are numerous other small roads and tracks linking the houses and smallholdings which are scattered across the hill. Rising to the west is Chestnuts Enclosure, an area of Forestry Commission woodland, and to the north, Welshbury Hill which has Iron Age workings. The Greyhound Inn was a popular pub beside the busy main road until its closure in 2016 following a robbery and subsequent fire. It was noted for its large concrete and plaster model dinosaur in the pub garden (known as "Horace") Built by local craftsman Bill Taylor whilst refurbishing the pub interior. The White House Hotel is located at the summit. Pope's Hill offers extensive views of the Severn Vale, Gloucester, Cheltenham, as far north as Bredon Hill and as far south as the hills above Bath. The entire Cotswold Edge is also visible, and May Hill dominates the view to the north. A small chapel close to the Greyhound Inn is now a private house.