Amenities and Village Life
The village has one pub, a junior school, a church, two chapels and a doctors' surgery. The Congregational church, dating from the 1870s has Gothic Revival architecture.
Village life today is centred around the school, church and the Assembly Rooms, which has a hall with a stage for entertainment and special events for the local close knit community. It also has a snooker room and a reading room for hire. Today the Rooms hold a very popular and well established monthly 'Local Produce and Suppliers Market', a local farmers' market offering a fine selection of organic vegetables, rare breed pedigree pork, award winning local cheeses, cider, wine, honey and a range of delicacies otherwise usual to London's specialists, Fortnum & Mason.
The St Briavels Assembly Rooms are also used by the community for classes, playgroups and various events. A recent grant from DEFRA of £94,000 is currently being spent on updating the Rooms for increased usage.
The general character of the village is typified by a mid 19th century core, complemented to the east by a large number of houses built during the 1970s. Although many residents now no longer work in the area the village retains a relatively vibrant community.
The St Briavels Bread and Cheese Dole tradition is said to date back to the time of Miles de Gloucester, 1st Earl of Hereford (then lord of the Forest of Dean) in the 12th century. Each year on Whit Sunday bread and cheese is thrown from the wall of the castle to local 'Dole Claimers' dressed in medieval costume. 'Dole claimers' could be anyone who paid a penny to the incumbent Earl of Hereford entitling them to gather firewood from the nearby Hudnalls wood. Some believe in the power of these edible morsels and preserve them for good luck (miners originally used them as charms to protect against accidents underground). Today some people choose to place them in matchboxes and rest them under their pillow to inspire dreams of the future.
An annual summer fête, known as 'The Carnival', attracts large crowds and is usually held on the second Saturday afternoon in June. Five carnival floats gather and fancy dress contestants congregate around the village green. The floats include St Briavels School, St Briavels Infants, St Briavels Juniors, St Briavels Playgroup and the Carnival Queen Float. The floats then process through the village, finally parking at the bottom of the recreation ground.
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—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
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—Robert Bolt (1924–1995)
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—Amelia E. Barr (1831–1919)