I noticed a memorial stone opposite the Speech House the other day. The stone, erected in 1957, records the supposed centre of the Forest as well as commemorating Viscount Bledisloe’s 50 years service as a Forest of Dean verderer. The verderers were ‘esquires or gentlemen of good account, ability, wise and discreet men, well learned in the laws of the forest’. Their judicial powers were removed at the end of the 19th Century, but the verderers still have an influential role in ‘keeping an eye’ on what is going on in the Forest, and the appointment is in recognition of their service to the Forest. When Queen Elizabeth II visited that year as part of a “getting to know her kingdom’ tour of the region, the Speech House reception committee was headed by Viscount Bledisloe.

The Speech House has links with another famous forest character, Sir Charles Dilke, who, having been implicated in a scandal that shocked Victorian England, achieved some sort of redemption by retiring from London political life to commit himself to the people of the forest as the local MP. Dilke was an important figure in late nineteenth century politics with progressive views that did not go down too well with the Liberal party leadership. He had no hope of advancement to a ministerial position, but he was able to become a popular Forest representative in parliament with his progressive views.

These radical views fitted well with the mood of the forest at the time, and he would use the Speech House as his forest headquarters (except during a severe winter, when the roads in the forest highlands were impassible in the snow and he would have to use the Victoria Hotel in lowland Newnham on Severn instead). The recent decommissioning of the Dilke Hospital, which was set in the open forest between Cinderford and the Speech House has sadly removed the last feature commemorating his life in the forest.

The Viscount Bledisloe of the memorial stone was Charles Bathurst of Lydney Park, who, as well as becoming a junior minister of state at Westminster, was appointed Governor General of New Zealand, and is remembered in New Zealand and Lydney. He held the position of President of Lydney Rugby Club for 70 years, and through his work in New Zealand the Bledisloe Cup, in his memory, is awarded to the winner of the regular Australia v New Zealand challenge matches

In Lydney St Mary’s church you can see the Bathurst Chapel where a stained glass window commemorates the Viscount’s time in New Zealand.

The Lydney – New Zealand link remains strong, and players from both clubs have travelled half way around the world to visit and sometimes play for their linked club.