TWO Forest of Dean historians have achie­ved top places in the annual county-wide search for the best published article on local history in 2016.

Forest Local History Society vice-president Keith Walker and longtime member Cherry Lewis are among 10 researchers selected by the judges for the Bryan Jerrard Award.

The final placings will be announced at the Gloucestershire Local History Society’s annual Local History Day to be held in Gloucester next month.

Mr Walker’s work plots the growth in road-making in the Forest by the Office of Woods following the demise of turnpike roads, while Cherry Lewis diligently researched the role played by the industrialist David Mushet in the creation of the first ever geological map of the Forest coalfield. Both articles were published in the Forest Society’s annual journal, The New Regard.

The award is named after Bryan Jerrard who served as chairman of the Gloucestershire Rural Community Council’s Local History Committee — now replaced by the GLHA — between 1978 and 1998.

Previous Forest winners include Eric Nicholls and Roger Deeks who researched and published the story of the Forest soldier and the memorial gates at St Stephen’s Church, Cinderford.