Situated along the valley from Blakeney towards Parkend on the B4431 is yet more evidence of Dean's industrial past, notably at the Forestry Commission picnic site at Wench Ford, where Blackpool Brook runs through a series of man-made pools and channels which helped control water flow to an iron furnace and forge at Blakeney.

Apart from being a popular picnic site (mainly because it is one of the places with in the Forest where barbecues are allowed), Wench Ford lies close to the Forest's best known archaeological monument, the famous 'Dean Road', which is situated at the north end of the picnic site just through Blackpool Bridge which carried the old Central Railway.