DEAN FOREST, an ancient forest and five chapelries in the districts of Westbury-on-Severn and Monmouth, and county of Gloucester. The forest lies on Offa's dyke, and on the Gloucester and Dean-Forest railway, between the rivers Severn and Wye, S of Mitcheldean, W of Newnham, N of Sydney, and E of Newland. It was formerly extra-parochial, but was formed by the act of 5 and 6 Vict.. 48, into the two townships of East Dean and West Dean, and by a subsequent act into four chapelries. It comprises 22, 522 acres; and was anciently divided into Herberts, Little Dean, Denby, Speech-House, Worcester, and York or Parkend walks. It belongs to the Crown; and has always been famous as a forest. Its surface is hilly and well-watered; its woods have yielded vast supplies of navy-timber; and its rocks are rich in ores, coal, and building-stones. About 14, 000 acres were woodland in the early portion of the reign of Charles I., but soon underwent great devastation; and about 11, 000 acres were re-planted before the end of the 17th century. The inhabitants were long a lawless people, possessing peculiar rites; but the entire territory, in many ways, has undergone great modern improvement; and a mineral railway into it from the South Wales, with branches, was formed in 1862. The real property of it in 1860 was £81, 357; of which £55, 950 were in mines, £654 in quarries, £810 in iron-works, and £327 in railways.-The five chapelries are St. John, St. Paul or Parkend, Trinity, Christ Church, and All Saints or Viney-Hill. St. John is in East Dean township; Christ Church, in West Dean township; and St. Paul and Trinity, partly in each township. Post town of St. John, Newnham; of St. Paul, Lydney; of Trinity, Mitcheldean, under Newnham of Christchurch, Coleford. Pop. of St. John, 4, 417; of St. Paul, 4, 937; of Trinity, 3, 218; of Christchurch, 1, 777. These four are vicarages in the dio. of G. and Bristol. Value of St. J., £300;* of each of the others, £150.* Patron of St. P., the Bishop; of each of the others, the Crown. See Viney-Hill. There are four dissenting chapels and eight Public schools.

(John Marius Wilson, Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-72))