Forest of Dean District Council as a merger of the East Dean Rural District, Lydney Rural District, Newent Rural District and West Dean Rural District, and from Gloucester Rural District the parishes of Newnham and Westbury-on-Severn. Forest of Dean District Council carries out a variety of district council functions including: Forest of Dean District Council Forest of Dean District Council is the local authority for Forest of Dean District. Forest of Dean District is located in West Gloucestershire in the South West of England region. Its council is based in Coleford. Other towns in the district include Cinderford, Newent and Tidenham. Forest of Dean District
Forest of Dean century, squatters established roughly-built hamlets around the fringes of the Crown forest demesne. By about 1800, these settlements were well established at Berry Hill and Parkend. The Forest of Dean, with its huge iron ore reserves and ready supply of timber, had been of national importance in the production of iron, using charcoal, for hundreds of years. Despite the abundance of coal, it was not used to produce coke for smelting and local ironmasters were reluctant to invest in new technology, but in the last decade of the 18th century coke-fired furnaces at Cinderford, Whitecliff and Parkend Ironworks were built