LOCAL teachers received a history lesson on a tour of the Forest aimed at helping them to build the area’s heritage and culture into the school curriculum.

Staff from the Foresters’ Forest landscape partnership programme organised the whistle-stop minibus tour of the Forest for 19 teachers from 12 local primary and secondary schools.

The tour included places such as the recently restored Scarr Bandstand, Darkhill Ironworks, Titanic Steelworks and Woorgreens and Crabtree Hill.

Foresters’ Forest programme manager, Sue Middleton, said: “We really want to help local teachers to get involved with our projects and to use the Forest as a giant resource for learning.

“We had inspiring talks from some of the 38 project leaders, including the BatNav project at Clearwell Caves, Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust’s conservation grazing at Crabtree Hill and Forest oral histories at the Dean Heritage Centre.

“Reading the Forest read a Leonard Clark poem aloud to encourage creative writing in the woodland. An underground tour courtesy of Hopewell Colliery was much appreciated on such a hot day and a tasty lunch was provided at the colliery café.    

“It was an opportunity to build on the success and example set by Lydbrook School to include Forest of Dean history and culture into the school curriculum. Participating teachers saw some of the teaching opportunities that will inspire our next generation of Foresters with our natural, built and cultural heritage.

“The day was a roaring success and was summed up by teachers who told us there were so many local areas they didn’t know about, and that they wouldn’t have known about otherwise.

“Awareness of built, natural and cultural heritage in the Forest of Dean for the next generation of Foresters is looking bright.”