Blaisdon is a village and

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...

in the

Forest of Dean The Forest of Dean is a geographical, historical and cultural region in the western part of the Counties of England, county of Gloucestershire, England. It forms a roughly triangle, triangular plateau bounded by the River Wye to the west and no ...

Gloucestershire Gloucestershire ( , ; abbreviated Glos.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by Herefordshire to the north-west, Worcestershire to the north, Warwickshire to the north-east, Oxfordshire ...

, England, about ten miles west of

Gloucester Gloucester ( ) is a cathedral city, non-metropolitan district and the county town of Gloucestershire in the South West England, South West of England. Gloucester lies on the River Severn, between the Cotswolds to the east and the Forest of Dean ...

. Its population in 2005 was estimated by

Gloucestershire County Council Gloucestershire County Council is the upper-tier local authority for the non-metropolitan county of Gloucestershire, in England. The council was created in 1889. The council's principal functions are county roads and rights of way, social servi ...

to be 249. An estimate in 2012 placed the population at 420. The local church is dedicated to St Michael. John Dowding of Tanhouse Farm, Blaisdon developed the popular jam-making

plum A plum is a fruit of some species in Prunus subg. Prunus, ''Prunus'' subg. ''Prunus'.'' Dried plums are often called prunes, though in the United States they may be labeled as 'dried plums', especially during the 21st century. Plums are ...

"Blaisdon Red" in the late 19th century. The Blaisdon Stud Farm was the home of the world's largest

shire horse The Shire is a breed of draft horse, draught horse originally from England. The Shire has a great capacity for weight-pulling; it was used for agriculture, farm work, to tow barges at a time when the Canals of the United Kingdom, canal system ...

, " Blaisdon Conqueror". His bones are in the

British Museum The British Museum is a Museum, public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is the largest in the world. It documents the story of human cu ...

. Blaisdon Hall sits on a hill overlooking the village. It was built in 1874. It was used as a seminary and school by the

Salesians of Don Bosco The Salesians of Don Bosco (SDB), formally known as the Society of Saint Francis de Sales (), is a religious congregation of men in the Catholic Church, founded in 1859 by the Italian priest John Bosco to help poor and migrant youth during the ...

from 1935 to 1995. It was an agricultural college (

Hartpury Hartpury is a civil parish in Gloucestershire, England. It has an area of about . Hartpury Parish Council estimates 700 people live in around 270 houses. The population of the central village area within the parish was estimated at 550 people by ...

) from 1995 to 1999. It has since become a private residence.

Railways

Blaisdon Halt was located on the section of line between

Ross-on-Wye Ross-on-Wye is a market town and civil parish in Herefordshire, England, near the border with Wales. It had a population estimated at 10,978 in 2021. It lies in the south-east of the county, on the River Wye and on the northern edge of the Fore ...

and Grange Court on the

Hereford, Ross and Gloucester Railway The Hereford, Ross and Gloucester Railway was a railway which ran for linking Hereford and Gloucester, England, via Ross-on-Wye. It was opened on 1 June 1855 as a broad gauge line, it was amalgamated with the Great Western Railway in 1862. ...

. It was opened on 1 June 1855 as a

broad gauge A broad-gauge railway is a railway with a track gauge (the distance between the rails) broader than the used by standard-gauge railways. Broad gauge of , more known as Russian gauge, is the dominant track gauge in former Soviet Union countries ...

line, it was amalgamated with the

Great Western Railway The Great Western Railway (GWR) was a History of rail transport in Great Britain, British railway company that linked London with the southwest, west and West Midlands (region), West Midlands of England and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, ...

in 1862. In 1869 the railway was converted to

standard gauge A standard-gauge railway is a railway with a track gauge of . The standard gauge is also called Stephenson gauge (after George Stephenson), international gauge, UIC gauge, uniform gauge, normal gauge in Europe, and SGR in East Africa. It is the ...

. The railway was closed to passengers on 2 November 1964, freight services between

Ross-on-Wye railway station Ross-on-Wye served the town of Ross-on-Wye, in Herefordshire, England. It was a junction railway station: the terminus of the Ross and Monmouth Railway, which joined the Hereford, Ross and Gloucester Railway just south of the station. Hist ...

and

Grange Court railway station Grange Court railway station was a junction station on the South Wales Railway in Gloucestershire (on the present day Gloucester to Newport Line) where it met the Hereford, Ross and Gloucester Railway. History Opened on 1 June 1855 by the ...

continued on until 1 November 1965.

References

External links

Blaisdon
Forest Web Villages in Gloucestershire Civil parishes in Gloucestershire Forest of Dean {{Gloucestershire-geo-stub