Drybrook is a village and

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. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...

in the

Forest of Dean The Forest of Dean is a geographical, historical and cultural region in the western part of the Counties of England, county of Gloucestershire, England. It forms a roughly triangle, triangular plateau bounded by the River Wye to the west and no ...

in west

Gloucestershire Gloucestershire ( , ; abbreviated Glos.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by Herefordshire to the north-west, Worcestershire to the north, Warwickshire to the north-east, Oxfordshire ...

, England.

Location

It lies in the north-west edge of the

Royal Forest A royal forest, occasionally known as a kingswood (), is an area of land with different definitions in England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland. The term ''forest'' in the ordinary modern understanding refers to an area of wooded land; however, the ...

, bordering with Herefordshire, about from

Cinderford Cinderford is a town and civil parish on the eastern fringe of the Forest of Dean in Gloucestershire, England. The population was 8,777 at the 2021 Census. The town came into existence in the 19th century, following the rapid expansion of the ...

, and about from Mitcheldean.

Population

In the 2001 census, Drybrook had a population of 2,855. This includes 1,391 men and 1,464 women. There are 1,146 households in the village. By the 2011 census the population had increased to 3,052.

Amenities

The village has a range of amenities, including a

chemist A chemist (from Greek ''chēm(ía)'' alchemy; replacing ''chymist'' from Medieval Latin ''alchemist'') is a graduated scientist trained in the study of chemistry, or an officially enrolled student in the field. Chemists study the composition of ...

, general stores,

hairdresser A hairdresser is a person whose occupation is to cut or style hair in order to change or maintain a person's image. This is achieved using a combination of hair coloring, haircutting, and hair texturing techniques. A hairdresser may also be re ...

fish and chips Fish and chips is a hot dish consisting of batter (cooking), battered and fried fish, served with French fries, chips. Often considered the national dish of the United Kingdom, fish and chips originated in England in the 19th century. Today, ...

shop, builder's merchant, doctor's surgery, nursery school,

primary school A primary school (in Ireland, India, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, South Africa, and Singapore), elementary school, or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary ...

, and a

bus A bus (contracted from omnibus, with variants multibus, motorbus, autobus, etc.) is a motor vehicle that carries significantly more passengers than an average car or van, but fewer than the average rail transport. It is most commonly used ...

service to

Gloucester Gloucester ( ) is a cathedral city, non-metropolitan district and the county town of Gloucestershire in the South West England, South West of England. Gloucester lies on the River Severn, between the Cotswolds to the east and the Forest of Dean ...

and surrounding areas. The nearest

secondary school A secondary school, high school, or senior school, is an institution that provides secondary education. Some secondary schools provide both ''lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper secondary education'' (ages 14 to 18), i.e., b ...

is Dene Magna School, which is in Mitcheldean. Drybrook has a rugby club, which is at the top of the High Street, and it also has a

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

club on Harrow Hill. Among the villages in the Forest of Dean, Drybrook has been voted one of the best villages to live in, for its scenery and leisure.

Education

Drybrook School, which is the village's only school, is a

for pupils of ages 4 years to 11 years. The nearest secondary school is Dene Magna Community School, which is in Abenhall, by Mitcheldean. Dene Magna Community School is about 1 mile from Drybrook.

Royal Forest

Drybrook is also known as a royal hunting ground, where the white

deer A deer (: deer) or true deer is a hoofed ruminant ungulate of the family Cervidae (informally the deer family). Cervidae is divided into subfamilies Cervinae (which includes, among others, muntjac, elk (wapiti), red deer, and fallow deer) ...

, and, according to legend a

black panther A black panther is the Melanism, melanistic colour variant of the leopard (''Panthera pardus'') and the jaguar (''Panthera onca''). Black panthers of both species have excess black pigments, but their typical Rosette (zoology), rosettes are al ...

roamed. Unfortunately, the white deer was killed after being hit down and then trophy hunters cut off its head, but the police have not caught the person responsible. Drybrook also had a good supply of

coal Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other Chemical element, elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal i ...

and

stone In geology, rock (or stone) is any naturally occurring solid mass or aggregate of minerals or mineraloid matter. It is categorized by the minerals included, its Chemical compound, chemical composition, and the way in which it is formed. Rocks ...

. As Drybrook grew, so did its boundary, and it grew to include a small village called Harrow Hill (or as most locals call it, Harry Hill). The village's first modern church, The Holy Trinity Church, was built on Harrow Hill in 1817. The church's location is on the way to Mitcheldean.

Mechanical Organ Museum

The Mechanical Organ Museum is situated at the north end of the village, on the road to Lea and

Ross-on-Wye Ross-on-Wye is a market town and civil parish in Herefordshire, England, near the border with Wales. It had a population estimated at 10,978 in 2021. It lies in the south-east of the county, on the River Wye and on the northern edge of the Fore ...

. It has been called "a unique collection of mechanical music spanning the last 150 years, hidden away on the edge of the Forest of Dean. Mechanical organs,

polyphon A Polyphon is a disc-playing music box. The machine was invented in 1870; it was first manufactured by the Polyphon Musikwerke, in Leipzig, Germany, full-scale production having started about 1896 and continuing into the early 20th century. Poly ...

s, pianola, automatic piano,

electronic organ An electric organ, also known as electronic organ, is an electronic keyboard instrument which was derived from the pump organ, harmonium, pipe organ and theatre organ. Originally designed to imitate their sound, or orchestral sounds, it has si ...

s &

musical box A music box (American English) or musical box (British English) is an automatic musical instrument in a box that produces Musical note, musical notes by using a set of pins placed on a revolving cylinder (geometry), cylinder or disc to pluck ...

es".

Climate

The

has been known for warm summers and cold winters. Some of the extremes that have been recorded in Drybrook are 36.6 °C in August 2003 European heat wave and -16 °C in January 2010. Snow and rain have also been a problem in the village: for example, in the winter of 2005, six inches of snow fell in a few hours, causing horrific traffic problems. And the Gloucestershire Floods of 2007 were also a major problem for the village. The averages are pretty much normal for Drybrook as they would be for most of the south of England, but in the winter it may change as Drybrook is on higher ground than other towns and cities in the surrounding area. For example, in January, the average high temperature in Drybrook is 3 °C while in

the average low temperature is 7 °C. Drybrook experiences an

oceanic climate An oceanic climate, also known as a marine climate or maritime climate, is the temperate climate sub-type in Köppen climate classification, Köppen classification represented as ''Cfb'', typical of west coasts in higher middle latitudes of co ...

(

Köppen climate classification The Köppen climate classification divides Earth climates into five main climate groups, with each group being divided based on patterns of seasonal precipitation and temperature. The five main groups are ''A'' (tropical), ''B'' (arid), ''C'' (te ...

''Cfb''). The information below is Gloucester's climate.

Severn and Wye Railway

Drybrook Road railway station railway station closed in 1943.

References

External links

photos of Drybrook and surrounding area on geograph

Drybrook RFC

Holy Trinity Church - Drybrook

Drybrook Band
{{authority control Forest of Dean Villages in Gloucestershire