EMBARRASSED tourism chiefs in the Forest may have some explaining to do to the people of Cinderford, after they described the Freeminer tribute statue in the town as a 'war memorial'.

They made the gaffe in the 2014 Wye Valley and Forest of Dean Visitors Guide, which is produced by the Tourism Association, in conjunction with the Forest of Dean District Council – which has been actively promoting the new guide this week, following its publication, and its appearance on the Tourist Association website as a download.

Under the towns section in the guide, which extols the virtues of the different towns in and around the area, Cinderford is described with the words: "Look out for the war memorial, a statue of a local Freeminer."

The statue, modelled by the inimitable Dave Harvey and created by master sculptor Antony Dufort, stands in The Triangle, in the centre of Cinderford, just a few yards from the real war memorial – a stone column which has a statue of a soldier on top.

On hearing the news, in between bouts of uncontrollable laughter, Dave Harvey commented: "What have they done? I'm not that old, cheeky so-and-so's! I was born in 1938 and while I can remember the end of the war, I was just a young boy. How they've managed to mix up the Miners' tribute statue with the soldier on the war memorial is anyone's guess. But I'm definitely the one with the pickaxe."

Dave remembers working with the sculptor on the creation of the tribute statue: "It took so long, I had to pose for over 250 hours, live, as he didn't work from photographs. I thought he was very good, until he did a statue of Maggie Thatcher after, and then we fell out."

The visitor guide is available free from tourist information centres, the district council offices, by post, or as a pdf download. Hard copies of the guide also feature a fold-out map of the area.

A spokesperson for the district said the work was contracted out so they were not quite sure where the error occurred.