Edward Hunt's Forest of Dean Miscellany

At one point a little stream of water runs in a culvert underneath the [Spruce] Drive; so small as hardly to be noticed were its voice not strong from recent rains. It deserves notice too; for this is Blackpool Brook, which when strong and broad a few miles farther on its course, will show us one of the most interesting antiquities the Forest holds. Without the Blackpool Brook we should lack Blackpool Bridge with its adjacent ford; that ford, the curve to which, neglected by the traffic of to-day, preserves a strip of Roman paving perfect as when laid.

This text is taken from ‘The Forest of Dean’ by Arthur O. Cooke, published by Constable in 1913.