The Dean Heritage Centre

We are the Museum of the Forest: a stunning building and location with inside and outside attractions. Learn about the history of the Forest from the Ice Age to the present day, visit our museum and gallery, explore the Gruffalo woodland trail, visit a charcoal burner's camp, see our millpond and stream, kids will enjoy our woodland playground plus there is an excellent cafe and gift shop.

Set across a stunning and fully interactive five acre site, the Dean Heritage Centre protects and preserves the unique history and heritage of the beautiful Forest of Dean. It includes:

Five onsite galleries exploring the history of the Forest from the Ice Age to the present day.

Set in a Heritage Mill building on five acres of woodland, overlooking a scenic Mill pond

The Gruffalo woodland trail

An authentic Victorian school room

A charcoal burner's camp

A woodland playground

Chainsaw carving demonstrations

An onsite gift shop and cafe

There's always something new and exciting to interest, inspire and surprise you.

With a full programme of special events, exhibitions, art shows and educational workshops across the year, it's a great day out for all the family.

See the latest special events here. 

For the latest admission prices see here.

For group and coach bookings contact us.  

For the latest admission prices see here.

For group and coach bookings see here.

The Centre

The centre comprises the museum itself, a millpond and waterwheel, forester's cottage with garden and animals, art and craft exhibitions and workshops, and trails around the surrounding woodland. In addition, there are picnic tables, barbecue hearths, an adventure playground, a gift shop selling local produce and a cafe providing homemade food.

The Museum

The museum itself comprises five galleries telling the history of the Forest of Dean from the earliest geological and fossil records to the present day. A wide variety of artefacts are on display from industries such as coal and iron mining, forestry, timber, stone working and clock making that have shaped the history, landscape and culture of the Forest. Among the more noteworthy artefacts in the museum's collection are an 1830s Lightmoor Colliery beam engine, Thomas Sopwith's 1838 geological model of the Dean Forest, and the Voyce collection of eighteenth and nineteenth century longcase clocks.

Open every day 10-5

The Millpond

The museum has a millpond, water from which drives the restored waterwheel. The pond is fed by a stream running from Morgan's Pool, the lowest of the Soudley Ponds, and is home to colonies of mallard and mandarin ducks, dippers, kingfishers, wagtails and a heron. Starting from the museum, a forestry trail can be followed through centuries-old oak and beech woods up to the summit of Bradley Hill, where a panoramic view of the valley can be seen; including the 1846 Zion Chapel and the old railway tunnel, excavated in 1894 and which runs beneath the hillside.

Find out more about the village of Soudley and other locations here.