COLEFORD Bowling Club will not be folding, despite being forced to move from the place they've called home for the past 90-years.

Landowners, the Angus Buchanan Trust, have refused to extend their lease at the Buchanan Fields in Victoria Road.

The club is now preparing to base itself at the Bells Hotel & Forest of Dean Golf and Bowls Club in Lord's Hill, Coleford, this season.

They will share facilities with the Royal Forest of Dean Bowling Club, but will continue to run and play matches as Coleford Bowling Club.

Coleford Bowling Club chairman Frank Melhuish said: "We've been talking to the people at Bells and have agreed to go there for a year initially.

"They've been very helpful.

"We would love to stay where we are but they will not give us a lease."

The competitive bowls season gets going in May, by which time Coleford Bowling Club should be established in their new home.

Mr Melhuish envisages that most of Coleford's club fixtures will be played on Sundays.

Bells manager Benn Jackson says the golf and bowls complex can easily accommodate the Coleford club.

"We're happpy to give them a home for as long as they want," he said.

Bells Hotel boasts a county standard bowling green which has its own patio seating area and a brand new south facing balcony overlooking it. The well maintained green has six rinks.

The hotel also has its own short mat bowls centre with four full-size short mats and a viewing gallery.