Staunton is a village and civil parish in the Forest of Dean in west Gloucestershire, England, close to the border with Wales.

Stane may also refer to six notable stones within the parish, including a rocky outcrop called the Frog or Toad's Mouth at the west end of the village.

The church originally had a paved path leading out of the porchway direct in a straight route to the main road.

Deposits of iron ore in the parish were being dug in 1608 and various small mines provided work during the 18th century.

[8] From the 1950s the quarry on the ridge of the plantations north of Highmeadow above Cherry Orchard Farm was worked for road stone.

In 1813 competition arrived as the White Horse opened in the west part of the village street, which later became the main road.

Until the 1970s there was a nursery below the White Horse with large greenhouses on the area stretching from the pub car park to the High House – the site is now built on.

The Old Rectory and its outbuildings, which date from the 17th century, were split up into separate freeholds in the late 1980s, and the Coach House and Tithe Barn converted into residential properties.

When Lord Nelson and Lady Hamilton visited Monmouth and district, it was painted white in their honour.

Up to the middle of the 19th century it used to rock on its base – however, in June 1885 a party of five travelling actors from the London Star Company and the landlord at the Agincourt Inn in Monmouth, having enjoyed an evening of sampling fine wines, managed to dislodge the stone and send it crashing down the slope.

It split into several pieces, but was hauled back up the hill at great cost and to prevent further vandalism was cemented in place and no longer rocks.

The Suckstone is reputed to be the largest piece of detached conglomerate or puddingstone rock in England and Wales and has been estimated to weigh maybe 14,000 tons.

According to local myth, those that climb the Suckstone are visited by the mischievous and capricious Fairy of the Rock, who will grant certain visitors superhuman powers.

Notable people who have encountered this woodland spirit are said to include Victorian artist J. M. W. Turner, during a boyhood visit to the area, and Coleford-born playwright Dennis Potter.

In the churchyard is the grave of David Mushet (1772–1847), a noted Scottish metallurgist, who built Darkhill Ironworks and who, with his son, greatly advanced the iron and steel industries.

The village hall today is the meeting place for the village art group, book group, harvest suppers, sewing classes, the Garden Club, table-tennis club, keep fit, pantos, musical evenings, Forest of Dean Quaker Sunday worship[15] and parish council meetings.