Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
A town of 9,655 in Gloucestershire, South West.
Work and incomes lag (C−): the mean household earns £47,411 a year. Taken together, its subjects give Lydney a C overall, better than 33% of UK towns. Its place in the ranking is #42 of 48 in Gloucestershire. Hazard risk is weaker too: 2.8% of homes at high or medium risk of flooding from rivers or the sea. Cost of living is its strong suit — the median home sold for £252,500, 5.1 years of area income. Its other grades sit near the middle: B− for schools and B− for walkability.
Figures: prices, HM Land Registry, the last three years · income, ONS · claimants, DWP · flood risk, Environment Agency · commuting, Census 2021.
Gloucestershire Police published 29 of the 36 months; rates are per year over the months published.
The 3 things Lydney does most differently from other towns.
Each subject compared with the 2,160 UK towns with an overall grade (schools within England), ordered by how far Lydney is from typical. American towns are graded separately.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Historic England lists 52 buildings inside Lydney’s built-up area, 1 of them Grade I, and 1 scheduled monument.
11% of its homes were built before 1919, against 15% in the typical UK town.
The archive holds 6 old photos and postcards going back to 1890.
Data highlights are ordered by what stands out in Lydney.
People aged 15 to 24 make up 9.9% of the town. The middle age in Lydney is 44. Children under 15 make up 17%, about level with both Gloucestershire’s towns (17%) and England’s towns (18%).
51% women, 49% men
About 95 men for every 100 women. Across England, 51% of residents are women.
| Lydney | Gloucestershire | England | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 15 | 17% | 17% | 18% |
| 15–24 | 9.9% | 11% | 12% |
| 25–44 | 24% | 26% | 27% |
| 45–64 | 26% | 26% | 25% |
| 65+ | 23% | 20% | 18% |
| No qualifications | 19% | 15% | 18% |
| Apprenticeship | 6.9% | 5.8% | 5.3% |
| A levels or similar | 18% | 18% | 17% |
| Degree level | 23% | 34% | 34% |
ONS Census 2021 · Gloucestershire and England: all residents of their built-up areas · OGL
Secondary results at the one secondary school within 3 km: an Attainment 8 score of 43.1, with 34% at grade 5 or above in English and maths. Two of its 4 schools are below, each with the reason it’s listed. Between them, three primaries and one secondary teach 1,477 pupils in Lydney.
| School | Level | Pupils | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Severnbanks Primary SchoolLargest primary schoolPrimary | Primary | 251 | C+ |
| The Dean AcademyLargest secondary schoolSecondary | Secondary | 816 | C |
Over the year to August 2026, 257 offences were reported in Lydney, along with 57 incidents of anti-social behaviour. There were 17.5 anti-social behaviour reports per 1,000 residents (not graded), above Gloucestershire’s towns (9.1) and England’s towns (7.8) alike. Among the 1,308 UK towns of 2,500 to 10,000 people, Lydney has more crime per resident than 77% of them. Violence and sexual offences were 54% of the crimes.
Not gradedAnti-social behaviour, shoplifting and other theft are shown but left out of the Safety Grade, which counts violence and crimes against homes and vehicles per resident.
data.police.uk street-level crime · points inside the ONS built-up-area boundary · OGL · The police category of violence and sexual offences includes harassment and stalking.
Half of the 527 standard sales inside Lydney’s built-up area from September 2023 to August 2026 went for more than £252,500. Owners make up just over two thirds of households, near Gloucestershire’s towns (68%) and higher than England’s towns (61%). Private rents average £828 a month across the Forest of Dean council area.
| By type | Median | Sales |
|---|---|---|
| Detached | £325,000 | 197 |
| Semi-detached | £246,000 | 176 |
| Terraced | £203,000 | 143 |
| Flat or maisonette | £130,000 | 11 |
HM Land Registry Price Paid · ONS private rents · MHCLG / Welsh Government council tax · ONS Census 2021 tenure · OGL
2 GP practices serve the town; 75% of patients rate theirs good in the GP Patient Survey. 20% of residents have a disability, above both Gloucestershire’s towns (17%) and England’s towns (17%). What’s more, at the census, 5.8% of people here described their health as bad or very bad. The nearest A&E to Lydney is Gloucestershire Royal Hospital, 15.8 miles away.
| Census 2021 | Lydney | Gloucestershire | England |
|---|---|---|---|
| Good or very good health | 80% | 83% | 82% |
| Bad or very bad health | 5.8% | 4.5% | 5.2% |
| Disabled (Equality Act) | 20% | 17% | 17% |
ONS Census 2021, general health and disability · OHID Fingertips, life expectancy 2019–23 · OGL · Because the census answers ignore age, a younger population lifts them; that is why the Health Grade is built on age-adjusted measures like life expectancy and early deaths.
The heritage lists give each building’s grade but not its age, so we don’t say which is oldest.
Grade II* covers 3 of them, Grade I 1. Lydney’s listed buildings include the Church of St Mary, Grade I. Just over a tenth of its homes were built before 1919, below Gloucestershire’s towns (19%) and England’s towns (16%) alike.
Historic England list, October 2026 · Valuation Office Agency, homes by build period · OGL
The Census was taken on 21 March 2021, in lockdown, so 22% of workers were mainly at home; shares here are of those who travelled.
The car took 84% of commuters, higher than both Gloucestershire’s towns (78%) and England’s towns (70%). 38% of commuters travelled under 5 km to work. Work in town: 32% of resident commuters. The census counted 22% of workers working mainly from home.
ONS Census 2021, method of travel and distance to work · ONS small-area income · DWP claimant count · OGL
Museums, castles, gardens and days out in and near Lydney. Best known first.
CastleBerkeley Castle4.5 km outside town, to the southeast
Heritage railwayDean Forest Railway1.3 km outside town, to the northwest
MuseumEdward Jenner Museum4.3 km outside town, to the southeastAttractionAttractionGo Ape4.2 km outside town, to the northWildlife parkWildlife parkWhitcliff Park (Deer Park)4.6 km outside town, to the southeastPhotos: each place’s Wikidata image, from Wikimedia Commons under the licence below (our copy, resized).
52 listed buildings in Lydney, 1 of them Grade I.
Church of St Mary: Photo: Alf Beard · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Market Cross: Photo: Milestone Society · CC BY-SA 2.0 · The Greyhound: Photo: David Medcalf · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Geograph · Althorpe House: Photo: Jaggery · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Geograph
5 notable people were born in Lydney.
Lionel Beaumont Thomas: Lafayette, Public domain · Paul Nicholls: Danskel, CC BY-SA 3.0
The nearest built-up areas, from ONS’s 2022 boundaries. See them on the map →
| Town | People | Miles | Overall | Cost | Safety | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lydney | 9,655 | — | C | B | C | C+ |
| Yorkley and Whitecroft | 2,678 | 2.1 | C+ | B− | B+ | B |
| Bream | 3,117 | 2.5 | C | B+ | C+ | B− |
| Sharpness | 1,237 | 2.6 | — | A− | C− | C+ |
| Blakeney | 1,303 | 3 | — | B | C+ | C+ |
| Berkeley | 2,250 | 3.8 | — | B | C+ | B− |
| Ruspidge | 2,431 | 5.7 | — | A− | B− | C− |
| Broadwell and Coalway | 3,304 | 5.7 | C+ | B | B− | C |
Sharpness, Blakeney, Berkeley and Ruspidge have fewer than 2,500 residents, so they get subject grades but no overall grade. People: Census 2021. Miles: centre to centre.
That is 2.2 times the typical UK town for its size. Its Grade I building is Church of St Mary. It also has 1 scheduled monument.
Surface water isn’t included. Check a specific address on GOV.UK’s flood risk service.
Burglary was rare, with 9 reports in the year.
Town in Gloucestershire, England
Lydney is a built-up area of 9,655 people, in the Forest of Dean council area. TownRatings uses ONS’s 2022 built-up areas as towns: the physical town, as people mean the word, rather than a council district, so its figures cover the town itself.
Built from ONS geography and Census 2021
Sources: ONS Census 2021, output areas summed to the ONS 2022 built-up area · HM Land Registry Price Paid (standard sales, September 2023 to August 2026) · ONS Price Index of Private Rents (August 2026, by council) · MHCLG and Welsh Government council tax, Band D 2026–27 (with parish precepts in England) · data.police.uk street-level crime, 36 months to August 2026, points inside the built-up-area boundary · ONS small-area life expectancy and healthy life expectancy, 2019 to 2023 (England and Wales), OHID Fingertips small-area indicators (England) and Census 2021 health, adjusted for age · ONS small-area income estimates (financial year ending 2023) · DWP claimant count via Nomis (January to August 2026) · Historic England, National Heritage List for England (listed buildings, scheduled monuments, registered parks and gardens, battlefields, World Heritage Sites), October 2026, inside the ONS 2022 built-up-area boundary · Valuation Office Agency, Council Tax: stock of properties by build period (31 March 2025) · TownRatings grades: our own summary of the data, ranked against UK towns only. All under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Contains HM Land Registry data © Crown copyright and database right 2026. Contains OS data © Crown copyright and database right 2026 (ONS boundaries). Northern Ireland: Source: NISRA; contains Land & Property Services data and Ordnance Survey of Northern Ireland information, © Crown copyright, licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Scotland: contains National Records of Scotland data, Registers of Scotland data and SEPA data, © Crown copyright / © SEPA 2025, licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.