About Stroud:
The British designer Jasper Conran once likened Stroud to ‘the Convent Garden of the Cotswolds’, and made even more famous by Laurie Lee’s “Cider with Rosie”. Stroud is a great base to explore the undiscovered south Cotswolds countryside and the Five Golden Valleys.
The town of Stroud is the capital of the south western Cotswolds and located at the divergence of the five Golden Valleys, so named after the monetary wealth created in the processing of wool from the plentiful supply of water power.
Five populated valleys converge at Stroud, ten miles southwest of Cheltenham, creating a bustle of hills. The bustle is not a new phenomenon. During the heyday of the wool trade the river Frome powered 150 mills, turning Stroud into the centre of the local cloth industry. Even now, Stroud is very much a working town, and one which doesn't need its heritage in order to survive. While some of the old mills have been converted into flats, others contain factories, but only two continue to make cloth - no longer the so-called Stroudwater Scarlet used for military uniforms, but high-quality felt for tennis balls and snooker tables.
In recent years, Stroud has become a thriving alternative centre, its town council Green since 1990. You'll see mountains of organic food and sustainable goods for sale in the centre, while the nearby valleys are home to a growing community of artists.
