AROUND 30 people attended a recent virtual meeting which explored Gloucestershire’s archive of historical photographs, led by local historian John Putley, of Gloucestershire Archives.

On Wednesday, February 26 between 1pm and 2pm, 35 people, including Gloucestershire residents and organisers, watched on as John explored a selection of photographs in an event called “Snap! Old photographs of Gloucestershire in the Archives”.

The talk explored various areas of the entire county and was divided into bite-sized but highly informative sections. As explained before the event, the archives hold around 94,300 photographs, so the talk attempted to cover a “few good subjects”. Segments included cars, carnivals, hay-making and the Green Cross Code man.

One highlight for the Forest of Dean was the segment on fishing, which featured photographs of fixed-engine fishing and lave-net fishing.

John said: “One of the most common forms of fishing was fixed-engine wears fishing or basket wears, found on the severn estuary downwards. They were funnel-like structures which faced upstream and could catch salmon down to shrimps.

“If you travelled on a train down to Lydney or Chepstow, you can still see a few remains of the uprights in the river, although there are no longer any official wears, sadly. From Lydney downwards lave-netting was practised.”

Another highlight for the Forest was during the exploration of mining. John discussed the Forest mines and told an amusing story of South Wales miners during the miner’s strike of 1981. The miners came to picket one of the free mines to discover nobody in attendance, as they did not work that day.

The segment featured a photograph of the Dean Forest Mining Act 1838. John said: “The Forest mines, the drift mines especially, were notoriously cramped and difficult to stand up where you worked.

“As well as drift mines, you had deep mines like Cannop Colliery which is now the site of the Forest of Dean Cycle Centre, and it was Forest of Dean’s largest mine. The mine itself opened in 1912 - which is quite late really.”

Gloucestershire Constabulary also featured in the talk. John explained to the group that Gloucestershire Constabulary is in fact the oldest constabulary in the country. It came to be at 1pm, Tuesday October 15, 1839, around an hour before the Wiltshire force.

The hour delved into much more than just the Forest of Dean however, and attendees watched on intrigued by John’s examination of quirky, interesting and sometimes mysterious photographs from throughout the larger county.

The talk will be uploaded to YouTube for the general public to watch for free, via the Gloucestershire Heritage Hub channel.

Events like this can be found via the Heritage Hub website, where you can also sign up for email updates and a newsletter.

You can find out more about Gloucestershire’s history by visiting the Heritage Hub website through Gloucestershire County Council. More information about the history of the Forest of Dean can be found via the Local History Society website.