| FOREST OF DEAN CHURCHES. Very few people were living in the Forest of Dean in early Saxon times. After all it was a closed Forest (not necessarily full of trees), but a partially wooded area suitable for hunting of the game, deer and wild boar that lived therein. It had to be open grasslands sufficient so that riders and walkers could see and pursue the deer and other wild life available for sport. By the fifth century most, but not all individuals, would have adopted Christianity. By the late Saxon times the Forest was under the jurisdiction of the bishopric of Hereford. It remained thus until Gloucester got it's own Cathedral in 1540. Experts speculate that perhaps six churches surrounded the Forest of Dean in the 11th centuary, mostly built of wood. Most of the early churches were rebuilt in the later part of the 1100's following the Norman conquest. |