{{Short description|Village in Gloucestershire, England}} {{for|places with similar spellings |Woolston (disambiguation){{!}}Woolston|Woollaston (disambiguation)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=March 2015}} {{Use British English|date=March 2015}} {{Infobox UK place | country = England | coordinates = {{coord|51.70|-02.6|display=inline,title}} | static_image_name = Netherend Stores - geograph.org.uk - 1809721.jpg | static_image_caption = Woolaston village | official_name = Woolaston | shire_district = | shire_county = Gloucestershire | region = South West England | constituency_westminster = Forest of Dean | population = 1,206 | population_ref = (2011)<ref>{{cite web|url=https://neighbourhood.statistics.gov.uk/dissemination/LeadKeyFigures.do?a=7&b=11130920&c=Woolaston&d=16&e=62&g=6427272&i=1001x1003x1032x1004&m=0&r=1&s=1427456992369&enc=1|title=Parish population 2011|access-date=27 March 2015|archive-date=2 April 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150402161951/https://neighbourhood.statistics.gov.uk/dissemination/LeadKeyFigures.do?a=7&b=11130920&c=Woolaston&d=16&e=62&g=6427272&i=1001x1003x1032x1004&m=0&r=1&s=1427456992369&enc=1|url-status=live}}</ref> | post_town = Lydney | postcode_area = GL | postcode_district = GL15 | dial_code = | os_grid_reference = SO594003 }}
'''Woolaston''' is a village and civil parish in the Forest of Dean district of Gloucestershire in South West England. It lies on the north side of the Severn Estuary approximately {{convert|5|mi|km|abbr=off}} from the Welsh border at Chepstow and is surrounded by woodland and agricultural land.
== Name == Woolaston was named in Domesday as ''Odelaveston'', meaning Wulflaf's village (''tun'').<ref>{{Cite web |title=Key to English Place-names |url=http://kepn.nottingham.ac.uk/map/place/Gloucestershire/Woolaston |access-date=2025-12-20 |website=kepn.nottingham.ac.uk}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Ekwall |first=Eilert |title=The concise Oxford dictionary of English place-names |date=1985 |publisher=Clarendon Press |isbn=978-0-19-869103-7 |edition=4. ed., repr |location=Oxford |page=}}</ref>
==Development of the village==
The dairy has recently been developed into a small housing development.<ref>{{cite web |title=Farm in 36 homes plan |url=http://www.theforestreview.co.uk/article.cfm?id=116863&headline=Farm%20in%2036%20homes%20plan§ionIs=news&searchyear=2019 |publisher=Forest of Dean and Wye Valley Review |access-date=27 August 2020 |archive-date=27 August 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200827105550/http://www.theforestreview.co.uk/article.cfm?id=116863&headline=Farm+in+36+homes+plan§ionIs=news&searchyear=2019 |url-status=live }}</ref> Recent developments have consolidated rather than expanded the village footprint.
Traveling north west from Netherend with its primary school, village shop and 'The Netherend' pub, you pass what was once the Methodist chapel, then 'Birchwood Road', leading to a housing estate, the 'Ring Fence' a small lane with a number of cottages and houses along it, the 'Rising Sun' one of the village's two public houses and the village allotments.
Woolaston Common is about 1 mile from the main A48 road and north of the main village. Here there is a small hamlet of houses and an area of common ground which, for the most part of the year, is covered in bracken. Adjoining the common is also another hamlet named Sandtumps.
==Governance== The village falls in the 'Hewelsfield and Woolaston' electoral ward. This ward stretches from Brockweir in the north east to ''Woolaston''. The total population of the ward taken at the 2011 census was 1,690.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ukcensusdata.com/hewelsfield-and-woolaston-e05004349#sthash.YD4DLXIY.dpbs|title=Hewelsfield and Woolaston ward 2011|access-date=27 March 2015|archive-date=3 March 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303232050/http://www.ukcensusdata.com/hewelsfield-and-woolaston-e05004349#sthash.YD4DLXIY.dpbs|url-status=live}}</ref>
== St. Andrew's Church == St. Andrew's parish church at Woolaston is about a mile south west of Netherend along the A48 towards Chepstow. The earliest record of its existence is in 1131.<ref>{{cite web |title=Church of St Andrew |url=https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1101547 |website=National Heritage List for England |publisher=Historic England |access-date=27 August 2020 |archive-date=27 August 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200827105551/https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1101547 |url-status=live }}</ref> However, the old circular churchyard and the nearby Roman road, which ran just to the north-west of the church, suggest a much earlier holy site. The Tower was originally a low one with a short wooden steeple, but following the granting of a faculty in 1774, it was completely rebuilt.<ref>{{cite web |title=Woolaston Church - St Andrews |url=http://www.wyedeantourism.co.uk/discover/things%20to%20do/t-3597%7C/i-4456-Woolaston_Church__St_Andrews |publisher=Forest of Dean and Wye Valley |access-date=27 August 2020 |archive-date=27 August 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200827105551/http://www.wyedeantourism.co.uk/discover/things%20to%20do/t-3597%7C/i-4456-Woolaston_Church__St_Andrews |url-status=usurped }}</ref> It was threatened with closure in 2007 but at the final Midnight Mass on Christmas Eve it was announced the Church will be saved.<ref>{{cite web |title=Woolaston in the Forest of Dean |url=http://www.deanweb.info/history8.html |publisher=Dean web |access-date=27 August 2020 |archive-date=25 January 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200125021727/http://www.deanweb.info/history8.html |url-status=live }}</ref>
==Stroat Church and ruined Bible Christian chapel== Stroat Church (previously known as Stroat Mission) is located three miles out of Woolaston on the A48 towards Chepstow. It has been involved in the village of Woolaston for over 120 years.<ref>{{cite web |title=Stroat Church |url=http://stroatchurch.org.uk/ |publisher=Stroat Church |access-date=27 August 2020 |archive-date=27 August 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200827105613/http://stroatchurch.org.uk/ |url-status=live }}</ref>
Its history began with Squire Morgan and his family in the 1880s.<ref name=churchdb>{{cite web |title=Stroat Evangelical Church, Stroat, Tidenham |url=http://churchdb.gukutils.org.uk/GLS1164.php |publisher=Gloucestershire Places of Worship |access-date=27 August 2020 |archive-date=27 August 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200827105552/http://churchdb.gukutils.org.uk/GLS1164.php |url-status=live }}</ref> They were evangelical Anglicans with a deep concern for the people of the Parish of Tidenham and in particular for those living in Woodcroft and, these being the distinctly rural areas where they most felt a need to evangelise. Scattered though the community was, the work they embarked upon at Woodcroft prospered. People came to worship from a wide area by whatever means they could, but mostly on foot or by horse and cart. Today the car has replaced the cart and the roads are lined with optical fibre broadband, but the countryside is still much as it was back then.
It was in 1889 that the Morgans bought a plot of ground at Stroat and in that same year erected a corrugated iron building that became known as the Iron Room.<ref name=churchdb/> As the years rolled on Stroat became independent of Woodcoft.
There is a derelict Bible Christian chapel, built in 1836, on Woodside Road, near its junction with Slade Road.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://picasaweb.google.com/apgstott/ChurchesAndChapels#569on%20Woodside%20Road%205374132511965506 |title=Bible Christian Chapel, Woolaston Woodside, built 1836 |author=Gill |publisher=picasaweb.google.com |year=2011 |access-date=16 July 2013}}</ref>
==References== {{Reflist}}
* {{Parkhouse: West Gloucester & Wye Valley Lines|chapter=9. Chepstow to Grange Court Junction |pages=255 }}
== External links == {{Commons category|Woolaston}} *[https://www.geograph.org.uk/search.php?i=3679922 Photos of Woolaston and surrounding area on geograph]
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Category:Villages in Gloucestershire Category:Forest of Dean