Coleford’s Hidden Heritage ‘then and now’ app was launched with a short mobile phone guided tour of the town centre last Thursday.

The full seven-mile route includes Darkhill Ironworks and Titanic Steelworks which are critical to the story of the evolving iron and steel industry and which earned Coleford the soubriquet ‘the birthplace of modern steel’.

Cllr Nick Penny, Mayor of Coleford, said: “We already have a Hidden Heritage of the Dean app which uses the same format.

“It works on a smart phone or tablet and shows a photograph of a physical feature as it was in the past which slowly morphs into an image of the same scene as it is today. We see this as the second chapter of a book of apps covering the whole of the forest.”

The app was funded by the Foresters’ Forest, Coleford Town Council and Coleford Area MCTI Partnership. It will be used on one of the guided walks in the forthcoming Coleford Area Walking Festival running until May 20.