Cinderford
Cinderford is a small
town in
Gloucestershire,
England, with a population of 8,116 people (2001 census). The town lies on the eastern fringe of the
Forest of Dean. The town only came into existence in the
19th Century, due to the rapid expansions of the
coal mines. There is a visual clue to Cinderford's origins in that the style and layout of the town (long rows of identical
terraced housing) is very similar to many of the Welsh Valley towns that also grew up on the back of coal mining. When the mines closed in the
1950s, Cinderford suffered worse than
Coleford, the other main town of the Forest, because it had few other industries to fall back on. Today Cinderford has some light and heavy industry, but generally the town is not doing as well economically as the older towns in the west of the Forest, and unemployment in the town is quite high.
Primary Education
Cinderford has two
Primary Schools,
St. Whites Primary School based on St. Whites Road, and
Forest View Primary School based on Latimer Road.
Forest View Primary School is an amalgamation of the
Latimer Junior School and the
Bilson Infants' School (formerly on Station Street), on the Latimer Road campus of the former.
Secondary Education
Cinderford has a single, relatively small
Secondary School on Causeway Road, currently called
Heywood Community School but previously known as
The Heywood School. The School existed as
Double View Secondary Modern School on a previous campus, on Woodville Road, but was re-named at the time of the move to the Causeway Road campus, in the early 1970s. The School offers education to
GCSE level, but
Further Education at
A-level or equivalent is not offered.
Tertiary Education
There is no Further or Higher Education presence in Cinderford, but a rumoured link with the
University of the West of England (UWE) has been suggested as the force behind a planned campus as part of the
Northern Arc Re-generation project, to revitalise former brownfield land in the
Steam-Mills area, which extends towards
Nailbridge from the northern edge of Cinderford.
Cinderford's High Street and Belle Vue Road lie on the A4151, which links with the
A48 (Gloucester-Chepstow road) to the east.
In former times, Cinderford had a railway station, but this was axed as part of the
Beeching cuts of the 1960s
Cinderford is served by a regular bus service to Gloucester and Coleford, however, the bus station was dismantled in the late 1980s and no longer exists.
The closest airports are in Staverton (between Gloucester and Cheltenham) and in Bristol.
Cinderford has no known cycle lanes.
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Cinderford Town Rugby Club*
Cinderford Town Football Club*
Jimmy Young, Sir
*
James Atkins lead singer with the pop band
EMF*
Zac Foley bassist with the pop band
EMF*
Derry Brownson keyboards and samples with the pop band
EMF*
Mark Decloedt drummer with the pop band
EMF* Ross Hawkins, BBC News Correspondent, is an alumnus of The Heywood School
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Historic Photos
