Lydney

Lydney is a small town and civil parish in the English county of Gloucestershire. It is located on the west bank of the River Severn, close to the Forest of Dean. The town lies on the A48 road, next to the Lydney Park gardens with its Roman temple in honour of Nodens.

Transport

The Severn Railway Bridge crossed just north of Lydney from Purton to Sharpness on the eastern bank. Built in the 1870s, it was damaged beyond repair by a pair of oil tanker barges in 1960. The barges hit Pier 17 bringing down two bowstring girders. There have been several plans to renew the link, most recently in the late 1990s as a millennium project.

Lydney railway station, which serves the town, is located on the Gloucester to Newport Line, with connections from the town centre by the Dean Forest Railway. Lydney Canal was once an important harbour for shipping timber, coal and iron from the Forest of Dean. It is now a harbour for pleasure craft.

Education

• Lydney Grammar School (1903–1973)
• Whitecross School 1973–present

Sport, recreation and arts

The town's rugby football club plays rugby union and is based at Regentsholme. The club had successful runs in the John Player Cup during the 1980s, including a match against Sale F.C. which was televised on the BBC's Rugby Special.

Cricket is also popular within Lydney, with the local side running three teams in various leagues, as well as having a popular social scene located within the club. Former Glamorgan captain and England opening batsman Steve James began his career at the club. Lydney was also the first English club of England wicket keeper Geraint Jones.

Lydney town has an outdoor swimming pool, the Bathurst Swimming Pool built in the 1920s, open in the summer months.

Lydney Town F.C. is based at the town's recreation ground.

Lydney Hockey Club (Field Hockey) and Lyndean Netball Club play their home games at Whitecross School.

Whitecross Leisure Centre^[1] is located at Whitecross School

Lydney Golf Club is a nine hole course located off Lakeside Avenue. The club is building a new course on a site located on the opposite side of the Lydney Bypass.^[2]

Lydney Twonkers Scrabble Club play their home games at the town's library. The Twonkers were Western Area Scrabble League champions in 2001 and 2005 and were twice runners-up in the National Scrabble Club Knockout Tournament in 1999^[3] and 2003.

Bathurst Park in the centre of the town (not to be confused with Lydney Park on the town's outskirts) is home to several senior and junior football and cricket teams.

Lydney Town Band operates as a non-competitive training band.

Tourism

• Norchard railway station is the home of the Dean Forest Railway^[4]
• Lydney Park is the site of a Romano-British Roman Temple and previously was an Iron Age hillfort. It also has gardens which are open to the public for a limited period each spring.

Twinned towns

• Bréhal, Manche, northwest France

Organisations

• 614 (Lydney) Squadron Air Training Corps
• 586 (Lydney) Sea Cadet Corps^[5]

Notable people

• Charles Bathurst, Governor-General of New Zealand later Viscount Bledisloe of Lydney
• Christopher Herbert, Bishop of St Albans
• Herbert Howells, composer
• Steve James, England cricketer and captain of Glamorgan CCC
• Sir William Winter, Vice-Admiral of Queen Elizabeth I
• Nicholas Clapp, BBC award-winning journalist^[6]

History

• British Iron Age - promontory fort established at Lydney Park.
• Early Roman period - the fort is used for iron ore mining.
• Late Roman period - a Roman temple to Nodens is built on the site of the fort.
• 1588 - Vice-Admiral of England Sir William Winter was granted the manor of Lydney in recognition of his services against the Spanish Armada.^[7]
• 1723 - the Winter family sold their Lydney estate to the Bathurst family^[7]
• In 1810, docks were constructed to capitalise on the town's location, close to the River Severn. The River Lyd flows through the town and into the Severn.
• 1935 - the title of Viscount Bledisloe of Lydney was created and awarded to Charles Bathurst upon his retirement as Governor-General of New Zealand
• August 31, 1962 - the Beatles play Lydney Town Hall^[8][9]
• 1964 - the Lydney Murder, a significant case in the history of the use of entomology to assist criminal investigations.^[10][11][12] On 28 June 1964 a body was found in woods near Bracknell. By studying the maggots found on the body, forensic entomologist Professor Keith Simpson was able to establish a date of death as around 16 June 1964. Missing persons records for that date lead the police to believe that the body was that of Peter Thomas who had gone missing from his home in Lydney. Fingerprints confirmed the identification. William Brittle, a business partner of Peter Thomas was convicted of the murder. The Lydney Murder was the subject of an episode of the Discovery Channel documentary; "Crime Museum UK with Martin Kemp"

References

External links

• Information from the Royal Forest of Dean website.
• Lydney RFC - Official site
• Lydney Cricket Club - Official site
• Lydney Hockey Club - Official site
• Lydney Grammar School - History site
• Whitecross School - Official site
• Dean Forest Railway
• Whitecross Leisure Centre
• 614 (Lydney) Squadron ATC
• Historic pictures of the Lydney and area.
• British History page for Lydney
• Roman-Britain.org page for Lydney Park Temple Complex
• Photos of Lydney and area on Geograph