The Rising Sun was located on the B4226 Poolway Road, the road leading into Coleford from Speech House, at the crossroads with North and South Roads.
James Gwyn was the owner and occupier of the Rising Sun beer house in 1891 but twelve years later in the 1903 licensing lists James had died as the ownership was in ‘The Representatives of the late James Gwyn’. The annual rateable values were set in both years at £12.0s.0d. and the Rising Sun closed at 10 pm. The pub operated free of brewery tie.
Gloucestershire Echo, Tuesday 14th May 1935 – Mushrooms, 2 feet 4 inches in circumference have been found by Mr Arthur Baynham, of the Rising Sun, Broadwell, on the ground of the Broadwell (Dean Forest) football club.
When new managers Joe and Janet Perry took over the running of the Rising Sun it seemed like the pub was trading well. A fund-raising evening on 28th August 1999 raised £600 for the Royal National Lifeboat Institution. There was a pig roast, tug-of-war, disco, darts and skittles knockouts. Customers were entertained by the Drybrook Brass Band and Morris Dancers. There was a raffle to win a colour television – A Matsui 14”remote control TV… highly desirable then, but in the context of today’s OLED flat screen technology the prize seems almost insulting.
There was some controversy when the Rising Sun suddenly closed in October 2001 apparently without any warning. The ‘Citizen’ newspaper reported on 20th December 2001 that the Rising Sun had been purchased by a London lady who had submitted an application to Forest of Dean District Council for change of use from public house into a house. Gordon Shingles and Ivor Beddis from the village of Broadwell were infuriated at the proposal. Gordon Shingles said, “The pub has always been very popular with the community and so many of us use it. We even had darts and skittles teams here. Ever since it closed people have had to travel a long way to play. We feel the heart of the community has been ripped out.” The men collected 300 signatures protesting about the closure and handed them the council.
Initially it seemed that Forest of Dean District Council were supportive as they had described the pub as an ‘important community resource.’ However, ‘last minute information’ supplied by the applicant seemed to influence the planning departments decision. The pub never reopened and is now residential. In the intervening 18 years or so the old Rising Sun, once with an open aspect facing the road, has been mostly obscured by the erection of fences and hedges. A West Country Ales ‘Best in the West’ ceramic plaque survives in situ.
Landlords at the Rising Sun include:
1891 James Gwynne (August 1901 licensed transferred from the reps. of the late James Gwynne to Mr Joseph Francis Smith)
1901-1904 Joseph Francis Smith
1904 (March) Noah Howell (summoned for permitting drunkeness on the premises December 1904 but case dismissed)
1906 Thomas Herbert (full transfer deferred, ‘for the purpose of the Bench passing the agreement.’)
1935 Arthur Baynham
1939 Mrs E. Baynham (Rising Sun, Broadway Lane End)
1971 Ivor Bert Beddis
1985 Gordon William Brown
1998 Joe and Janet Perry
