Gorsley is a small village in the

Forest of Dean The Forest of Dean is a geographical, historical and cultural region in the western part of the county of Gloucestershire, England. It forms a roughly triangular plateau bounded by the River Wye to the west and northwest, Herefordshire to the n ...

district of

Gloucestershire Gloucestershire ( abbreviated Glos) is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn and the entire Forest of Dean. The county town is the city of Gl ...

, forming part of the

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authority ...

Gorsley and Kilcot Gorsley and Kilcot is a civil parish forming part of the district of the Forest of Dean in the English county of Gloucestershire. The single parish of Gorsley and Kilcot came into being in 2000; until then it had been part of Newent civil parish ...

in the South West England. Nearby

Gorsley Common Gorsley Common is a village in Herefordshire, west of Gorsley and Kilcot and east of Linton Linton may refer to: Places Australia * Linton, Victoria Canada * Linton, Ontario * Linton, Quebec United Kingdom England * Linton, Cambridgeshire ...

and

Little Gorsley Little is a synonym for small size and may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Little'' (album), 1990 debut album of Vic Chesnutt * ''Little'' (film), 2019 American comedy film *The Littles, a series of children's novels by American author John P ...

are both in Herefordshire.

Location and amenities

Gorsley is west of

Newent Newent (; originally called "Noent") is a market town and civil parish about 10½ miles (17 km) north-west of Gloucester, England. Its population was 5,073 at the 2001 census, rising to 5,207 in 2011, The population was 6,777 at the 2021 Census. ...

, east of

Ross-on-Wye Ross-on-Wye (Welsh: ''Rhosan ar Wy'') is a market town in England, near the border with Wales. It had a population of 10,582 according to the 2011 census, estimated at 11,309 in 2019. It lies in south-eastern Herefordshire, on the River Wye and ...

and about 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 ...

. The village is near junction 3 of the M50, one of the first

motorway A controlled-access highway is a type of highway that has been designed for high-speed vehicular traffic, with all traffic flow—ingress and egress—regulated. Common English terms are freeway, motorway and expressway. Other similar terms i ...

s built in

Britain Britain most often refers to: * The United Kingdom, a sovereign state in Europe comprising the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland and many smaller islands * Great Britain, the largest island in the United King ...

in 1960. The

slip road In the field of road transport, an interchange (American English) or a grade-separated junction (British English) is a road junction that uses grade separations to allow for the movement of traffic between two or more roadways or highways, using ...

s on the junction end in right angled turns which often surprise motorists used to the more gradual, modern junction designs. The

Anglican Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of th ...

church parish is combined with

Cliffords Mesne Cliffords Mesne is an English village in Gloucestershire, two miles (3.2 km) south-west of the town of Newent. It became the home of the autobiographical author Winifred Foley from the mid-1970s, after the success of her first book of Gloucesters ...

. A stone Baptist chapel opened in 1852. Gorsley limestone is named for the area. Stone from area quarries were used to build

Victorian era In the history of the United Kingdom and the British Empire, the Victorian era was the period of Queen Victoria's reign, from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. The era followed the Georgian period and preceded the Edwardia ...

buildings. Victorian maps show a number of

quarries A quarry is a type of open-pit mine in which dimension stone, rock, construction aggregate, riprap, sand, gravel, or slate is excavated from the ground. The operation of quarries is regulated in some jurisdictions to reduce their environ ...

and

lime kilns A lime kiln is a kiln used for the calcination of limestone ( calcium carbonate) to produce the form of lime called quicklime (calcium oxide). The chemical equation for this reaction is : CaCO3 + heat → CaO + CO2 This reaction can take pla ...

in the area. The village pub is The Roadmaker, originally named The New Inn. It is owned and run by four ex-British Army

Ghurka The Gurkhas or Gorkhas (), with endonym Gorkhali ), are soldiers native to the Indian subcontinent, Indian Subcontinent, chiefly residing within Nepal and some parts of Northeast India. The Gurkha units are composed of Nepalis and Indian Go ...

soldiers.

Gallery

File:Village Hall, Gorsley - geograph.org.uk - 58282.jpg, Gorsley Village Hall - September 2005 File:Gorsley Post Office - geograph.org.uk - 444964.jpg, Gorsley Post Office File:View to Gorsley Common - geograph.org.uk - 1763059.jpg, :View to Gorsley Common File:Quiz night in Gorsley Village Hall - geograph.org.uk - 1073282.jpg, Quiz night in Gorsley Village Hall, 2008 File:View to Linton ridge from Gorsley Common - geograph.org.uk - 1804493.jpg, View to Linton ridge from Gorsley Common

References

External links

The Gorsley Village web siteBBC Hereford & Worcester - Gorsley Flower Festival photosGorsley Chapel
Villages in Gloucestershire Forest of Dean {{Gloucestershire-geo-stub