Littledean
village in Gloucestershire, England, UK
Littledean is a village in the Forest of Dean, west Gloucestershire, England. The village has a long history and formerly had the status of a town. Littledean Hall was originally a Saxon hall, although it has been rebuilt and the current house dates back to 1612. The remains of a Roman temple are situated in the grounds. Neither the hall or Roman remains are open to the public.
Collectively, the villages and the surrounding wood (Forest of Dean) were mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086 as Dene, and appear as Dena in 1130.
Governance
The village falls in the Littledean and Ruspidge electoral ward. This ward has Littledean in the north plus Ruspidge and Soudley civil parish in the south. The total ward population taken at the 2011 census was 3,768.
Notable buildings
Littledean Hall, a country house.
“Littledean” enters the record as village in Gloucestershire, England, UK. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Littledean, village and Gloucestershire can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“Littledean” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Littledean, village and Gloucestershire provides the most credible route into that argument.
Maps, plans, fabric surveys and administrative records can establish how the site’s name, extent and function changed over time. The source revision retrieved here is dated Mar 20, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q6652933. Authority coordinates are 51.815, -2.477. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1612, 1086, 1130 and 2011.
Modern boundaries and familiar names can conceal earlier jurisdictions or structures that do not align with the present site. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Treat names, boundaries and functions as historically changeable. Maps, plans, inventories and administrative records can clarify what the place meant at different dates.
- Historic place names
- Jurisdictional context
- Routes into maps and plans
Contemporary maps, plans, listed-building records, estate papers and the responsible local or national archive.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Littledean”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Littledean primary sources, Littledean archive and Littledean research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
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Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Littledean” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.