My first wife Valerie was born in Soudley, locale of the last picture of the Forest trees in Bill Walters' song. Her accent, modified over the years as she moved eastward when she married me, was just like that. Her father [who died before I had a chance to meet him] was a forester and also a forest miner. Her mother spent some time as crossing-keeper at Soudley Halt before the line was closed. Her father's best friend Ivor Hopkins, still a neighbour that I met, was the son of one of the men who went to prison for killing the bear at Ruardean, a local story, mentioned in Walters' notes:~ In my own time, visiting my morther-in-law there, I was told, as a piece of local lore, that if you wanted a fight you could still start one by going into a pub in Ruardean and saying "Who killed the bear, then?". As I understand it, early in C20 an Italian street musician with a tame bear who wore the collecting tin round its neck visited the area. A child was injured, and the rumour spread that the bear had attacked it. Some men killed the unfortunate beast, thus robbing the poor man of much of his means of livelihood; and several of them went to prison. One of my wife's poems about her childhood was about "Old Ivor, [whose] father went to prison for the Bear" ~ a reference she knew would have been understood by anyone from the area. A nice piece of living folklore which I learnt genuinely at source. That was about 50 years ago.
Any present day Voresters reading this? Anyone know, can you still start a fight at Ruardean, Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire, by asking who killed the bear?