Forest of Dean areas but the focus has been to capitalise on the scenery and to create jobs from tourist attractions and the leisure sector. Significant numbers of residents work outside the area, commuting to Gloucester, Cheltenham, Bristol, Newport and Cardiff. For hundreds of years, mining in the Forest of Dean Coalfield has been regulated through a system of freemining. This, and other forms of self-governance, coupled with the Forest's geographic isolation between the rivers Severn and Wye, has given rise to a strong sense of cultural identity in those from the area, who are collectively known as 'Foresters'. The ancient rights were
Forest of Dean Railway feet measured between the outer faces of the vertical flanges, is generally assumed. The Whimsey branch was built about 1823, and Whimsey later became an important focal point for private tramroads running northwards. By 1826 the Bullo Pill Railway was almost at a standstill and Edward Protheroe, a prominent coal-owner in the Parkend area and chairman of the S&WR, purchased the whole concern, including the Great Bilson colliery, selling the railway to a new company he formed, the "Forest of Dean Railway" Company, of which he was the chairman. An Act was obtained on 5 May 1826 authorising the new