Holy Trinity Church, Slad

Holy Trinity is the village church of Slad, beside the B4070 about 3km up its valley from Stroud, in the Five Valleys. Built in 1831 by Charles Baker of Painswick and reconstructed in 1869, it is a small, plain church with a stone spirelet, and it is where Laurie Lee, the author of Cider with Rosie, is buried.

History

Holy Trinity was built in 1831 to serve Slad, a village of the Stroud cloth valleys, and opened in 1834 as a chapel of ease to Painswick. Its listing names the architect as Charles Baker of Painswick, who also oversaw the building of Stroud's Subscription Rooms to George Basevi's design. The church was reconstructed in 1869 by Benjamin Bucknall, who added the north aisle and porch, and it later became a parish church in its own right. The clock below its spirelet is dated to the 1880s.

Laurie Lee

Laurie Lee grew up in the Slad valley and wrote about the village and its people in Cider with Rosie. He went back to live in Slad, had a home there by 1972, died in the village on 13 May 1997, and is buried in the churchyard; his headstone carries the line 'He lies in the valley he loved'. The church says his grave lies opposite a memorial window installed by his family and supporters, and it asks visitors to look at both sides of the headstone. Inside, a permanent display tells the story of his life, and our page on famous people with Cotswold connections has more about him.

What to see

Laurie Lee's grave and the memorial window opposite it are what most visitors come for, but the church itself rewards a few minutes.

• The low, crenellated west gable, faced in ashlar, with two plate-tracery windows, a small rose window and a hipped porch, and the stone spirelet, square with an ogee opening on each face and an octagonal top.
• The clock below the spirelet, dated in the 1880s.
• On the north side, four plate-tracery windows under a corbel table, and lancets in the chancel.
• Inside, a four-bay arcade on round columns with cushion capitals, a boarded ceiling on stone corbels and a barrel-vaulted chancel.
• The pulpit and an octagonal font with a tall pyramid cover.
• The Laurie Lee display, and photocards and the village guidebook on sale.

Visiting

Holy Trinity is open in daylight hours and entry is free; donations are welcome, and the village and church guidebook, which also covers local walks, is on sale inside. There is a service at 11am every Sunday. There are a few parking spaces for disabled drivers up the drive; everyone else parks on the road outside the Woolpack. The church has no toilets of its own; the Woolpack's are open to church visitors but are not accessible. A coffee morning for residents and visitors is held at 10.30am on the third Saturday of the month.

Getting there

Slad is on the B4070 about 3km north-east of Stroud, on the road to Birdlip; the church postcode is GL6 7QA. Park on the road outside the Woolpack. On foot, the Laurie Lee Wildlife Way crosses the B4070 at the north end of the village, about 400m up the road, and many walkers add the detour to the church and the pub.

Nearby

The Woolpack, which CAMRA describes as Laurie Lee's local, is across the road from the church. The Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust reserves on the Laurie Lee Wildlife Way are close: Swift's Hill, which appears in Cider with Rosie, across the valley; Snows Farm at the head of it; and the beech wood of Frith Wood on the ridge towards Painswick, where St Mary’s is the town church. Down the valley in Stroud are the Subscription Rooms, whose building Charles Baker oversaw, and St Laurence's.