‘Change your hearts or you will lose your Inns and you will deserve to have lost them. But when you have lost your Inns drown your empty selves, for you will have lost the last of England.’

This is a sad lament by Hilaire Belloc, a literary figure of the first half of the 20th century, a Frenchman who became the most sentimental of nostalgic writers about the wonderful English past which has been destroyed.

If the demise of English pubs was a warning of his a century ago, how much more would he be distraught at the demise of the many pubs that have occurred since his mournful lament?

The closure of pubs has been a feature of English rural life for many years, before Belloc’s time, and continuing to the present day. In the nineteenth century there were many beer houses on St Briavels Common, and in many towns and village you will see on private houses a West Country Ales Castle sign, signifying that this was once a pub. The Crown, my old local during my St Briavels days, still sports the castle sign although it folded soon after I left the village, which I’m sure must have been a sheer coincidence.

30 years ago my wife and I conducted a tour of the 137 pubs that there were in the Forest then. The total is now less than a hundred.

We have seen the swan song of Swan Inns at Alvington (now a tea shop), Brierley and Pillowell. The exotically named ‘Help Me Through the World’ is no longer there in Coleford to assist people who need this advice. The ‘Silent Whistle’ by the railway line at Oakle Street is now really silent. My old local, the Crown at St Briavels, managed by the genial Pritchards, is no longer serving illegal drinks after closing time, or indeed at any time at all.

There has been a cull of Forest pubs named after trees, including The Apple Tree at Minsterworth, the Yew Tree at Blakeney and the Royal Oak at Whitecroft. Several riverside pubs are no more, including the Old Severn Bridge at Purton, the Old Ferry at Beachley and the Red Hart at Awre. As a welcome note of optimism to this catalogue of closures, it is great to note that an energetic group of volunteers are working to restore the Brockweir Inn by the River Wye.

Cinderford’s industrial history is commemorated in the names of its former pubs, the Forge Hammer, The Old Engine, The Railway and The Bridge. There are some culled pubs which had names which are grammatical sentences. At

the Travellers Rest, at Stowe, (between Clearwell and St Briavels), travellers often rested until the early hours. Help Me through the World was a pub in Coleford, and there was the Live and Let Live at Woodcroft.

The Cross Keys at Tutshill, was where commuters from the Forest to Cardiff or Bristol would gather on their way home, served by the genial landlord Brian Harris, who has been a cup final winner with Everton. This pub, and many more, have now closed.

Many happy memories of Forest pubs which are no more.