River Frome, Stroud

The River Frome runs along the bottom of Stroud, and the town grew where four streams come down to join it, making the five valleys that give the district its name. From the sixteenth century to the late nineteenth the river drove the mills of the Stroud cloth trade; today a riverside path and the canal towpath follow it below the town.

The river and its valleys

The Frome rises at Climperwell, near Brimpsfield, high on the Cotswolds, and by the reckoning of the Victorian historian P H Fisher runs about 14 miles to Stroud by way of Chalford, then on through the Vale of Stonehouse to the Severn at Framilode, about 8 miles further. Stroud's local history society follows Fisher in naming the five valleys by their streams:

• The Frome itself, down from Chalford
• The Slad Brook, which joins it at Wallbridge
• The Painswick Stream, which joins at Lodgemore
• The Nailsworth Stream, down from Nailsworth and Woodchester, and the Ruscombe or Cuckold's Brook, both joining at Dudbridge

The town's name may come from the river. The Victoria County History reads la Strode, first recorded in 1221, as the marshy ground where the Slad Brook meets the Frome.

History

The Frome made Stroud a cloth town. Two fulling mills were recorded at Stroud in about 1513, its water came to turn the wheels of mills all along the valleys, and by 1608 the parish already had 19 clothiers, 76 weavers, 33 fullers and three dyers. By the early eighteenth century the district was famous for its cloth and its dyes. The depression of the late nineteenth century closed most of the mills in the old parish.

The canals

Water brought trade as well as power. The Stroudwater Navigation, running beside the river, reached the Severn in 1779, and in 1789 the Thames and Severn Canal joined it to the Thames. Since 1972 the Cotswold Canals Trust, based at Wallbridge, has led their restoration, which it calls the largest in the UK: 36 miles of canal. The next stretch, about 6km from Saul Junction to Stonehouse, is being restored to join the Stroudwater to the national network, with reopening aimed for 2029.

What to see

At Wallbridge, by the canal trust's base, a path leaves the town to follow the Frome through Frome Banks, a narrow reserve of about two acres behind Dr Newton's Way, as far as Capel's Mill and the railway viaduct over the valley. Stroud Valleys Project looks after the reserve, and has put in woody deflectors for fish, planted wildflowers that cope with the mud and firmed up the path. Stroud Valleys Project names dippers, grey wagtails and kingfishers on this stretch, and Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust, which managed it from 2015, adds otters. Rodborough Fields lie across the river, and the canal towpath runs back towards the town between canal and river.

Visiting

The riverside path and the towpath are open at all times and free. The towpath is mostly level; the Frome Banks path is narrow, can be muddy after rain and has steps and stiles, so boots help in winter. The Cotswold Canals Trust runs short trips on its boat Perseverance from Bowbridge Lock, east of the town, to Capel's Mill and back on set dates; see its website.

Getting there

Wallbridge is at the bottom of Stroud beside the A419, a few minutes' walk from the station and from the Subscription Rooms on George Street. Stroud has direct trains to London Paddington, buses stop at Merrywalks, and London Road car park (GL5 2AJ) is in the town. The Rodborough Common walk climbs the hill above the valley to the south.

Nearby

Above the river to the south are Rodborough Common and Rodborough Fort. The Clothiers Arms and the Prince Albert are both within a short walk, and Woodruffs is up in the town. The Museum in the Park at Stratford Park is the town's museum, free to visit. In the town, St Laurence's Church was rebuilt in the 1860s on the wealth of the valley.