Flaxley
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Flaxley is a small settlement in the Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire, located in between the larger villages of Westbury-on-Severn and Mitcheldean at the foot of the Vale of Castiard. The most significant feature of the village is Flaxley Abbey which dates back the 12th Century and is now a private residence, although the summer village fetes are still held here. An 18th century resident of the Abbey was Mary Pope, who gave her name to Popes Hill, a habited hill to the south west of the village. Other buildings of note are the Church of St Mary the Virgin, and tiny Flaxley School which closed as a school in 1901 and more recently has been refurbished and is now used as a community village hall. Flaxley is in the parish of Westbury-on-Severn.
Flaxley was once a major industrial centre. The Forest of Dean was an important medieval ironworking region, and the earliest forge in Flaxley is recorded in the 12th century. The Westbury brook was the site of five water mills, and at Guns Mill by Flaxley was one the main gun foundries of the English Civil War era. A blast furnace was built there in 1629.
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