Forest of Dean (UK Parliament constituency)

Forest of Dean
County constituency for the House of Commons
Boundary of Forest of Dean in Gloucestershire for the 2010 general election.
Location of Gloucestershire within England.
County	Gloucestershire
Electorate	68,703 (December 2010)
Current constituency
Created	1997
Member of parliament	Mark Harper (Conservative)
Number of members	One
Created from	West Gloucestershire
1885–1950
Number of members	One
Replaced by	West Gloucestershire
Overlaps
European Parliament constituency	South West England

Forest of Dean is a parliamentary constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2005 by Mark Harper, a Conservative.

1885-1918: The Sessional Divisions of Coleford, Lydney, Newent, and Newnham.

1918-1950: The Urban Districts of Awre, Coleford, Newnham, and Westbury-on-Severn, the Rural Districts of East Dean and United Parishes, Lydney, Newent, and West Dean, and part of the Rural District of Gloucester.

This seat was created for the 1885 general election, replacing the two-seat constituency of West Gloucestershire under the Redistribution of Seats Act 1885, and abolished for the 1950 general election. It was re-created, with different boundaries, for the 1997 general election.

The Forest of Dean constituency covers Gloucestershire west of the river Severn, and lies in the south west of England, near the Welsh border.

The core of the constituency consists of the Royal Forest of Dean itself, which was established by William the Conqueror nearly a thousand years ago and is one of the last surviving Royal Forests in England. The seat has a rich industrial and mining history, evidenced by the market towns of Coleford and Cinderford, and the old port of Lydney from where coal mined in the Forest of Dean Coalfield would start its journey to all parts of the world. The Dean’s rich industrial heritage and spectacular natural beauty unsurprisingly means tourism is an increasingly important aspect of Forest life.