Stroud, Gloucestershire

:For other places of the same name, see Stroud (disambiguation).

History

Historically, Stroud is known for its involvement in the Industrial Revolution. It was a cloth town; woollen mills were powered by the small rivers which surge through the five valleys, and supplied by Cotswold sheep grazed on the hills above. Particularly noteworthy was the production of military uniforms in the trademark Stroudwater Scarlet colour. Stroud was a fairly major industrial and trading location in the nineteenth century, and so needed transport links. It first had a canal network built: the Stroudwater Navigation and the Thames & Severn Canal, both of which struggled to survive until the early 20th century. The canals are now being restored as a leisure facility by a partnership of British Waterways and the Cotswold Canal Trust http://www.cotswoldcanals.com (formerly the Stroudwater, Thames and Severn Canal Trust) with a multi-million Lottery grant. Stroud railway station (on the Gloucester-Swindon "Golden Valley" line) was designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel.

Related Topics:
Industrial Revolution - Cloth - Woollen - Mill - River - Sheep - Canal - Cotswold Canal Trust - Lottery - Stroud railway station - Gloucester - Swindon - "Golden Valley" - Isambard Kingdom Brunel

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