Forest of Dean (UK Parliament constituency) Forest of Dean (UK Parliament constituency) Forest of Dean is a parliamentary constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2005 by Mark Harper, a Conservative. 1885-1918: The Sessional Divisions of Coleford, Lydney, Newent, and Newnham. 1918-1950: The Urban Districts of Awre, Coleford, Newnham, and Westbury-on-Severn, the Rural Districts of East Dean and United Parishes, Lydney, Newent, and West Dean, and part of the Rural District of Gloucester. 1997-2010: The District of Forest of Dean, and the Borough of Tewkesbury wards of Haw Bridge and Highnam. 2010-present: The District of Forest of Dean, and the Borough
Forest of Dean Coalfield of ownership and history, allowing the unique privilege to continue intact. The last of the big gales closed in 1965 and today only a handful of small collieries are still operating. The Forest of Dean Coalfield formed during Upper Carboniferous times, when the area was a nearshore-intertidal environment of semi-marine estuaries and swamps. The area today is a raised basin plateau of Paleozoic rocks folded in the Variscan Orogeny. It occurs in a raised asymmetrical syncline with a steeper eastern limb that surfaces in the area of Staple Edge and the Soudley Valley producing the steeply dipping strata. An unusual