THE Forest of Dean accent is alive and well - and a big drawback to getting a good job, says a Review reader.
While Cinderford councillors say the old way of speaking is fast disappearing and want the dialect recorded for posterity on a plaque in the town centre, a Lydbrook woman believes local youngsters leave school delighting to speak in Forest accents.
"Pupils seem to leave school saying 'im' and 'er' never pronounce 'aitches' and delight in Forest slang," she writes.
"I just hope that the teachers here in the Forest of Dean take note of Beryl Bainbridge's remarks on regional speech... when they go out into the big world, people can't understand the accent and it's a big drawback for getting a good job."
But the Review found little evidence to support the claim.
Mr Rob Ball, business manager of the Forest Jobcentres, said no-one had ever mentioned a Forest accent as a drawback.
"We find work for quite a lot of people who go towards Gloucester but it doesn't seem to be a problem," he said.
But a Gloucester employer said she avoided the broadest Forest accents. "When people have to meet the public a broad Forest accent is to be avoided. Our customers come from a wide area and not all of them appreciate regional accents," she said.
Cinderford Town Council clerk, Lynda Thomas, said it was generally agreed the old Forest accent was on the wane. "That's why the council had the idea for a plaque in dialect to be erected in the Triangle," she said.
Mr Goff Davies, head of careers at Lakers School, Five Acres, near Coleford, said in his many years advising pupils seeking work he could not remember a single incident in which a Forest accent had held a pupil back.
"A high percentage tend to find jobs in the area in which case it doesn't matter, but I would like to think it no longer makes the slightest difference. There is certainly no evidence to support it," he said.