The village of Sedbury as we know it now did not exist prior to WW1. The building of the garden village at Pennsylvania and the houses on Grahamstown Road was the beginning of the present village. Prior to WW1 Sedbury, previously known as Kingstone, was the group of houses at the junction of the two Sedbury Lanes near to both Tump and Sedbury Farms.
The road layout of King Alfred’s, Madoccke, Buttington and several other roads was marked out by kerbing ready to build more houses for the shipyard workers. With the failure of the shipyard at Beachley only Mercian Way, Bridget Drive and Offa’s Close were completed.
The houses in Penn as it became known were taken over by the army to house the families of the soldiers who were employed at the Army Boys Technical School which opened in the former Prisoner of War Camp. In 1927 the building now used as a village hall and (probably) built as a store for the building of Pennsylvania Village became an Army Garrison School with teachers from the Queens Army Education Service.
In 1949 the school was taken over by the local authority, Gloucestershire County Council, and became Beachley County Infants School under the headship of Mrs Jesse Slade one of the former Queen’s Army Schoolmistresses. That became known as Penn School, with three classes originally and later four with the addition of a Terrapin classroom. The infant children transferred to Tutshill School at the age of seven. Penn School closed in 1967 with the opening of Offa’s Mead School. Mrs Slade retired and Mr G Thomas took on the headship of the new school.
In the 1950s and 1960s the local authority built houses in King Alfred’s Road, Madocke Road Ormerod Road and various cul de sacs off them. In the 1960s private housing was built in Ormerod Rd, Denmark Drive and Norse Way.
From small beginnings Sedbury is now one of the most densely populated areas of Tidenham Parish.
