We are starting to have walks around the district, and have found two varieties of sheep, white and spotted. Also now have a lot of photos to choose from, so can pick the better image instead of the only one.
We have made contact with Huntley's Butcher shop, and have enjoyed their steaks, and lamb chops.

I am having fun trying to research the history of this area, and have found a book called 'The Verderers and Forest Laws of Dean' by Cyril Hart, written in 1971. He was elected a Verderer in 1952 and holds the office till he dies. His book explains how the area of originally about 100,000 acres, has been administered as a Royal hunting area and forest, so the deer were considered game, unless a local killed one. The same idea applied to land and trees, unless the people were called Free Miners and were mining iron ore and smelting it with charcoal. The present Forest appears to be the centre-west 10,000 acres, because land was gradually given by the King, to people he wanted to reward for various reasons. Huntley is on the southern border of Botloe Hundred, and present Longhope, Bulley and Churcham are in Westbury Hundred, both under the Sheriff of Gloucester.
Recorded history appears to begin in 1282, when surviving records of a vert (court hearing) record misdeeds by about 1000 people over the previous 12 years. The Rector of Huntley gets a mention because he occupied a parcel of land and built a house. However the Welsh War of 1282 stayed proceedings and the King offered protection to all those who fought. This included the Chief Justice, who got killed, and his papers were locked away. Villages and hamlets developed where iron ore was mined. By 1700 the forest was also regarded as a source of ship timbers.
So in 2003 we have a different history to explore.

May God smile on you today,
Elizabeth