Stroud

Stroud, a manufacturing and market town of Gloucestershire, 10 miles SSE. of Gloucester, on an eminence in a valley sheltered by the Cotswolds, where the Frome and Slade rivulets unite to form the Stroud Water or Frome. The water of this stream being peculiarly adapted for use in dyeing scarlet and other grain colours, cloth- factories and dyeworks have been built along its banks for 20 miles; and Stroud itself is the centre of the woollen manufactures of Gloucestershire, and contains a number of cloth-mills. The parish church, St Lawrence, was rebuilt, with exception of the tower and spire, in 1866-68; the town-hall, incorporating an Elizabethan façade, in 1865; and there are also the Subscription-rooms (1830), the Lansdown Hall (1879), a hospital (1876), &c. From 1832 to 1885 Stroud, with twelve other parishes, formed a parliamentary borough, returning two members. Pop. (1881) 9535; (1891) 9818.