History

The thoughts of a Recreation Ground came about in 1918 when the people of Coleford started to make collections to provide a recreation ground in honour of of the bravery and valour of Captain Angus Buchanan VC in the Great War.

In the Great War, a young resident of Coleford, Angus Buchanan, who had just left Haberdashers Monmouth School, volunteered to join the Army and was posted to The South Wales Borderers. He quickly rose through the ranks to become a Captain. He was a man who led by example and on a number of occasions, at the front line, he went out into no-mans land under fire to recover injured men of his troop. He was wounded several times and on the last occasion, Captain Buchanan was shot in the head. He survived but became blind. For his bravery King George V awarded him the Victoria Cross to go alongside the Military Cross that he had already received for earlier bravery. The citation reads:

“For most conspicuous bravery. During an attack an officer was lying out in the open severely wounded about 150 yards from cover. Two men went to his assistance and one of them was hit at once. Captain Buchanan, on seeing this, immediately went out and, with the help of the other man, carried the wounded officer to cover under heavy machine gun fire. He then returned and brought in the wounded man, again under heavy fire”.

The Tsar of Russia awarded him the Order of St Vladimir with Swords – the Russian equivalent of the Victoria Cross. On his return to civilian life, despite being blind, Angus went to St Dunstans to learn braille and then went up to Oxford University where he obtained a Law Degree and he returned to Coleford where he set up a Law Practice.

In the post WW1 years, following the heroic actions of Captain Buchanan, the people of Coleford drew together to subscribe the necessary funds to purchase 60 acres of land at Victoria Road, Coleford for the benefit of the townsfolk as a Recreation Ground. The Trustees of the Trust that was set up in 1923 to create the new Recreation Ground, permitted in the same year, the setting up of a three rink bowling green at the Recreation Ground. Also, moving to the Trust Grounds were Coleford Ladies Hockey Club, Coleford Cricket Club, Coleford Football Club, Coleford Tennis Club and the Forest of Dean Golf Club.

A Memorial Committee was set up in 1919 to raise the necessary money and find suitable land for the proposal. Several members of the Committee were committee members of the Forest of Dean Golf Club which had been set up at The Marshes in 1907.

The raising of funds was undertaken by simply asking for money from the local well-to-do but also running carnivals, fetes, whist drives and similar events. It took a couple of years of fundraising to raise about £750 (equivalent to about £50,000 in today's money).

The finding of a suitable site was proving extremely difficult.

In May 1920, sites were being looked at included Gloucester Road, at Poolway, Sparrow Hill near to The Coombs, Staunton Road at Owens Farm and Coalway Road next to the Bells Grammar School. The rationale was to obtain ground that was big enough for separate football and cricket pitches together with room for a playground for the “urchins”. None of these sites were totally suitable. Some were wet; some were rocky and all were not flat enough.

A year passed without finding a suitable site but a breakthrough was achieved in May 1921 when memorial committee member Mr J S Mills, who owned a gents outfitters in the Market Place adjacent to the Midland Bank building, offered the land he owned near The Scowles. The land was originally part of the Whitecliff Estate which had come up for auction on 16^th November 1894 at the Angel Hotel following the death of the Reverend Doctor J N Shipton. The Estate comprised farmland including 50 acres of land south of Newland Street reaching to the Suntory Factory and bounded by Rock Lane and 59 acres of land north of the Great Western Railway Coleford branch rail line as far as Owens Farm. With good will on both sides and a proactive solicitor the project committee took ownership of the land north of Newland Street and by 13^th June 1921 the committee had taken possession. A condition of the sale was that the Forest of Dean Golf Club should be allowed to transfer from High Nash to a new home on Trust Ground.

By August 1923, the Memorial Committee had done its job and a new charitable trust was set up to take over the administration of the Grounds. That Trust was the Angus Buchanan VC Recreation Ground.