No-one knows what Warren James looked like. The Free Miner, born in a squat shack near Whitemead Park, led the Forest of Dean uprising against enclosures in 1831. The rebellion began on June 8, 1831 when a crowd of Foresters ignored the reading of the Riot Act and began demolishing enclosures between Bream and Parkend.

They believed the enclosures had done their job in protecting saplings and were no longer lawful. Thousands of local people joined in to restore their rights to common land. James was eventually arrested and taken to Gloucester Gaol. Found guilty for ignoring the Riot Act, his initial death sentence was reduced to transportation to Van Diemen’s Land, now called Tasmania.

Organisers of the Warren James Day on June 8 have now used the power of AI to come up with his likeness. On boarding the ship for the long and dangerous voyage, all convicts had their appearance noted. Warren James was described as being a short five feet three inches, with a dark complexion, round head, black to grey hair, a long sloping forehead, hazel eyes, sharp nose, large mouth and medium chin. Organiser Ian Wright fed this information into Chat GBT and using its powerful AI technology it produced this image.

Ian said: “There are thousands of people related to the James family and it will be interesting to learn what they think of this incredible image. It helps bring the story to life."

Despite receiving a free pardon, Warren James never returned to the Forest and he died, aged 49, “for want of medical attention”.

To remember these events an afternoon of music, drama, talks and poems is planned for Sunday, June 8 2-5pm in Parkend Working Men’s Club.

The free event will feature poems read by Keith Morgan, Mark George and Roger Drury, a short film produced for the Australian project ‘Conviction Politics’, an eccentric drama by Roger Drury, talks by Ian Wright, Steven Carter and Owen Adams; music by Clinton Mann and Jon Davis; new stories by Maggie Clutterbuck and Cheryl Mayo and a reminder of the more recent events of Hands Off Our Forest including a film of the campaign that forced the government to back down.

One of the organisers Jason Griffiths says: “We have a packed programme of creative works that will be fun as well as bringing to life the spirit of Warren James and Foresters from 1831.”