EVERY day, twice a day, a little piece of the Forest of Dean becomes an island and this island is the subject of a Forest of Dean Local History Society talk on Saturday.

A spokesperson for the society said: “Every year thousands of local people crossing the Severn Bridge above Beachley glance down on the acre or so of barren rocks — the crumbling remains of a mysterious ancient building and a modern aid to navigation — and wonder what took place there in times gone by.

“Over the centuries the weather-beaten outpost has acquired no less than four names — St Tecla’s Island, St Twrog’s Island, Chapel Rock and Treacle Island. Naggingly, little is really known about its past, though after one particularly low tide over 100 years ago Severn river pilots are said to have identified stone coffins there.

“This Saturday, Glou­cestershire historian John Putley will explore the possibility that the chapel on the rock was once a place of pilgrimage. His widely anticipated talk to the history society is entitled ‘As sure as God’s in Gloucestershire’.

“Mr Putley will investigate all aspects of medieval pilgrimage from, as he puts it, ‘cancelling the milk and booking the tickets through to eating the food and buying souvenirs’.

“Mr Putley will explore some of the fabled pilgrim destinations in Gloucestershire and explain why, in medieval times, pilgrimage became big business. He asks why people travelled so many miles to visit a shrine, often at the risk of dying on the way, how they got there and what they hoped to achieve.”

Saturday’s talk is at 3pm at the West Dean Centre, in Bream, and is one of two organised by the society in March. At Blakeney Village Hall on Friday, March 24, Peter Strong will tell the story of a Monmouth murder ‘The Murder of Kymin Bet’, which occurred in 1828.