The Culture, Lore, and People of the Forest

The Forest of Dean is not just a place — it is a character with its own rules, rhythms, and identity. Locals speak in a distinctive Forest dialect, shaped by miners, woodsmen, and centuries of close‑knit community. Outsiders are affectionately (and sometimes stubbornly) called “foreigners”, even if they’ve lived here for fifty years.

There’s an old Forest saying:
“If you haven’t left by eighteen, you never will. And if you have left, you’ll always return.”
The Forest has a pull — a gravity of memory, moss, and deep green quiet. Those born here carry its shadow in their bones; those who leave often feel the trees calling them back.

Historically, the area was governed as the Hundred of St Briavels, centred around the castle that once oversaw forest law, mining rights, and the lives of the people who worked these lands. That sense of old governance still lingers in the stone, the pathways, and the stories passed down through families.

Mystical, stubborn, and fiercely protective of its identity, the Forest of Dean is a place where history and folklore intertwine — a landscape that shapes its people as much as they shape it. 

Why This Forest Inspires My Artwork

The Forest of Dean is the heart of my creative world. Its ancient trees, shifting light, and quiet, watchful presence shape every piece I create. This is a land where myth and reality overlap so naturally that the boundary dissolves. You can stand on a footpath and feel the presence of something older than the path itself. You can look into the trees and imagine eyes looking back.

The Forest inspires me because it is a place of:
- resilience
- deep memory
- quiet magic
- ecological truth
- emotional gravity

Its wildlife, its folklore, and its history all weave into the stories I tell through my art. Every Guardian I draw carries a fragment of this land — the iron beneath the soil, the oak above it, the river mist, the miner’s lantern, the echo of hooves from royal hunts long gone. 

Why the Guardians Are Rising

The Guardians are not inventions — they are interpretations of the Forest’s spirit. They are the shapes the land takes when it wants to be seen, the protectors that rise when the Forest is threatened, forgotten, or misunderstood.

They embody everything this woodland has always been:
- watchful
- ancient
- fiercely protective
- quietly magical
- deeply rooted in place

The Forest of Dean is beautiful, but also fragile — shaped by centuries of industry, threatened by modern pressures, and held together by the stories and traditions that risk fading with time. The Guardians rise not to fight, but to remind. They remind us that the land is alive, that its creatures matter, and that its stories deserve to be carried forward.

Through them, I honour the place that has given me everything: my imagination, my art, and the certainty that magic still exists in the world — especially here, beneath these ancient trees. of the Woodland Realm

Step Deeper Into the Woodland Realm

If you’d like to explore the Guardians born from this ancient woodland, you can step through the next gate here:
→ Explore the Woodland Guardians