Dymock is a village and civil parish in the Forest of Dean district of Gloucestershire, England, about four miles south of

Ledbury Ledbury is a market town and civil parish in the county of Herefordshire, England, lying east of Hereford, and west of the Malvern Hills. It has a significant number of timber-framed structures, in particular along Church Lane and High Street ...

. In 2014 the parish had an estimated population of 1,205. Dymock is the origin of the Dymock Red, a cider apple, and

Stinking Bishop cheese Stinking Bishop is a washed-rind cheese produced since 1972 by Charles Martell and Son at Hunts Court Farm, Dymock, Gloucestershire, in the west of England. It is made from the milk of Gloucester cattle. History By 1972, just 68 Gloucester bre ...

History

In the village of Dymock there are several interesting buildings which include cruck beam cottages; "The White House", which was the birthplace of John Kyrle, the "Man of Ross", in 1637; Ann Cam School of 1825 and St Mary's Church, a patchwork history in brick and stone with Anglo-Norman origins. Nearby stands the only remaining village pub, which was purchased by Parish Council to help preserve a thriving village. The pub is rented and run by a landlord and supported by a local fundraising and social committee "Friends of the Beauchamp Arms" (FOBA). The Beauchamp Arms, Dymock - geograph

Dymock was served by the Hereford & Gloucester Canal, opened in 1845; this closed in 1881 and the section between

and Gloucester converted into a railway line, a branch line of the

Great Western Railway The Great Western Railway (GWR) was a British railway company that linked London with the southwest, west and West Midlands of England and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, received its enabling Act of Parliament on 31 August 1835 and ran ...

, though a stretch between Dymock and Newent was by-passed as it was decided not to take the line through the 2,192 yard

Oxenhall Tunnel Oxenhall is a village and civil parish north west of Gloucester, in the Forest of Dean district, in the county of Gloucestershire, England. In 2011 the parish had a population of 243. The parish touches Dymock, Gorsley and Kilcot, Kempley, Newent ...

. Dymock railway station was on this line which closed in 1959, but the canal (including the tunnel), is now being restored. Dymock is the ancestral home of the

Dymoke The Dymoke family of the Manor of Scrivelsby in the parish of Horncastle in Lincolnshire holds the feudal hereditary office of King's Champion. The functions of the Champion are to ride into Westminster Hall at the coronation banquet and challe ...

family who are the Royal Champions of England. It is thought that the Dymokes first lived at Knight's Green, an area just outside the village of Dymock.

Governance

The village falls in the ' Bromesberrow and Dymock'

electoral ward A ward is a local authority area, typically used for electoral purposes. In some countries, wards are usually named after neighbourhoods, thoroughfares, parishes, landmarks, geographical features and in some cases historical figures connected to t ...

. This ward starts in the north at ''Dymock'' and ends in the south at Kempley. The ward total population taken at the 2011 census was 1,901.

Popular culture

Dymock gave its name to a school of Romanesque sculpture first described in the book ''The Dymock School of Sculpture'' by Eric Gethyn-Jones (1979). The school is noted for its use of stepped volute capitals and its stylised "tree of life" motif on tympana. A lead tablet inscribed with an elaborate 17th-century curse against a woman called Sarah Ellis was found in a home in Wilton Place. It is preserved in Gloucester's museum collection as "The Dymock Curse". It was the eponymous home of the Dymock poets from the period 1911–1914. The homes of Wilfrid Wilson Gibson, Lascelles Abercrombie and the American-born

Robert Frost Robert Lee Frost (March26, 1874January29, 1963) was an American poet. His work was initially published in England before it was published in the United States. Known for his realistic depictions of rural life and his command of American colloq ...

can still be seen there. Dymock is renowned for its wild daffodils in the spring, and these were probably the inspiration for the line "Two roads diverged in a yellow wood" in Frost's poem '' The Road Not Taken'', which was a gentle satire on his great friend, and fellow Dymock Poet, Edward Thomas. In 2011 the village featured on '' Countryfile'', where the Dymock poets were looked into in more detail.

Daffodil Way

The Daffodil Way is a circular walk through the ′Golden Triangle', best in late February and March when wild daffodil (''

Narcissus pseudonarcissus ''Narcissus pseudonarcissus'' (commonly known as wild daffodil or Lent lily) (Welsh: Cennin Pedr) is a perennial flowering plant. This species has pale yellow tepals, with a darker central trumpet. The long, narrow leaves are slightly greyis ...

'') are flowering in the fields around Dymock and Kempley.

References

;Bibliography * * *

External links

Dymock Community Web SiteDymock Family Web Site (England, U.S.A., and Canada. With extensive information on the Royal ChampionsPhotos of Dymock and surrounding area on geograph.org.uk
{{authority control Civil parishes in Gloucestershire Forest of Dean Romanesque architecture in England Villages in Gloucestershire