Joyce Moss is possibly best known locally for her work with Cats Protection in the Forest of Dean but she was a history teacher for many years and has published several books based on her research.

Her latest book looks at the impact of the Reformation in one Gloucestershire Deanery. Tradition, Reformation and Reaction in the Forest of Dean, 1450-1603 includes some surprising discoveries.

The book took two years to research and write, Joyce told the Ross Gazette: “There is a wealth of information in the Gloucester Diocesan Records and the Herefordshire Court Books.”

However it was when Joyce came across a reference to William Tyndale, a leading figure in the Protestant Reformation, while on a visit to Oxford to read a PhD thesis that she discovered new information. She came across a new book by a leading historian, D MacCullough in Blackwells, which stated that Tyndale, who is well known for his translation of the Bible into English, came from the Forest.

Joyce examined the evidence and believes it is very old and she explores this in the first part of her book.

Much of her research included looking at court records and wills to find out about ordinary people. She found the church courts in Gloucestershire to be among the most corrupt in the country in Elizabethan times.