Welcome to the English Bicknor web site. To navigate the site please use the links above.
This web site is sponsored by the English Bicknor Parish Council as a means of communicating with everyone in the Parish and to inform visitors of its many attractions both as a holiday destination and a place to live.
If you have any comments on the site or wish for any item to be included please email to:
info@englishbicknor.org.uk
The Parish
Situated on the westerly edge of the Forest of Dean and lying within the Wye Valley Area of Outstanding Natural beauty, the villages of English Bicknor and Symonds Yat Rock are steeped in the history of this fascinating area and offer the residents and visitors a vast range of activities and landscapes.
The Forest is one of the original Royal Forests comprising some 27000 acres of woodland and provides through a network of Forest paths and visitor centres, a chance to explore both its beauty and history.
Apart from a forested area to the West, by the river, the parish consists mainly of farmland at a height of up to 200 metres. The nearest large centres are Coleford, Ross-on-Wye and Monmouth.
The river Wye separates English Bicknor in Gloucestershire from Welsh Bicknor which is now in Herefordshire. The name ‘Bicknor‘ may mean ‘Bica’s Ridge’ or just that the settlements are ‘over and above the river’
Over the last twenty-five years more than 13 km of cave passages have been opened up. Among the finds in the passage were a tooth from a hippopotamus and one from a mammoth. Nearer the surface, archaeological digs have revealed domestic and industrial sites from Roman days through to the middle ages. Coal mining in small privately owned drift mines continued well into the last century.
Part of the parish is owned and managed by the Forestry Commission and there are way marked paths through the woodland. From time to time timber is felled and the thinned or cleared spaces soon attract wild life and flowers. In May many parts are unforgettably carpeted with bluebells.
One great attraction is Symonds Yat Rock from which the breath-taking vista takes in the meandering river Wye and the distant Herefordshire and Welsh hills. Since 1984 volunteers from RSPB have monitored the peregrine falcons which nest there. In 1989 fifty-eight species of birds were identified at the Rock, including buzzards, ravens, hawfinches, coal tits, goldcrests and woodpeckers. There is also a large refreshment cabin and picnic site and a camp site close by at Christchurch.
Farming here, like everywhere else, has changed. Sheep now predominate, with some beef cattle and horses for leisure pursuits.