Walk into Stroud’s History
The Trust organises walks aimed at revealing the history of the area. These are gentle walks through the beautiful landscape or around the towns.
The dates of walks are advertised and places must be booked as it is necessary for numbers to be restricted. It is possible to arrange a walk for specific groups.
In the Tracks of the Millworkers
Historic Minchinhampton is a beautiful place to start a walk down to the limits of the parish at Longfords Mill. The winding route takes in a sunken lane and a tumbling valley before climbing to the edge of Box village and taking the hedge-lined path that workers at Longfords tramped twice a day. The return journey from the peaceful and attractive mill is beside a tumbling brook in a hidden valley. Several stiles and steep slopes.
Looking up, higher than the shop windows, is the best way to see how the architecture of the town has developed over the centuries. As well as the buildings, there are also some interesting characters to learn about. This walk reveals all.
A short walk through history
Stroud High Street has some interesting architecture but you need to look up. The centre of the town has a long history of tumultuous, even riotous, events and the stories can bring to life the characters involved. This walk sheds a new light on Stroud.
The Upp End of Stroud
Once there were fields where now the Top of Town area overlooks the valleys. The outlines of these fields can still be traced and many of the 17th century cottages remain. This busy artisan suburb welcomed John Wesley to preach and was the birthplace of a famous scientist. This is a gentle walk along usually quiet streets with distant views.
A country walk starting at the Museum in the Park. The circular route explores the lower Painswick Valley with its historic mill sites and houses as well as the grand Hawkwood College. This beautiful valley was once a hive of industry, making woollen cloth for the London and world markets. The mills’ owners built themselves fine houses and this walk weaves across the valley, passing some of these venerable structures.
Some stiles and moderate slopes.
‘The Grove’, now Hawkwood College
By Byways to Longfords
Longford’s Mill is about 1.5 miles from Nailsworth by road. Using tracks, an old road and a short stretch of the main road, the countryside varies between open fields & woodland, high ground & a deep cleft. Streams cross the route and at the end is a historic mill. There is a great diversity of landscape to enjoy in a short distance.
The Trust is exploring ways to restore the Old Mill to public use and the walk enables us to see what it has to offer. The site dates back to the 1300s, it became a prosperous mill sending woollen cloth to China, supplying Edward Prince of Wales with cloth for the seats of his Rolls Royce and becoming the largest tennis ball cloth manufacturer outside of the USA. There are stories to tell and the landscape is beautiful.
Chalford Industrial Walk
Once Chalford was thronged with mills making woollen cloth to send around the world. Later, the same mills threw silk, ground bones, made walking sticks and other products. The canal was busy ferrying coal, the railway took away the various products and the chimneys smoked as the mill owners worked to supply the world.
The mills are now silent, the canal is empty and the trains rush through the glorious landscape of this quiet valley. So the there is an opportunity to re-live the past and enjoy the present with a History Walk starting at the Chalford Roundhouse and going down to St Mary’s Mill where there is a large static waterwheel and a Tangye steam engine that will be made to turn. Find out how springs were harnessed, enjoy the quiet of a former leat and appreciate the beauty of St Mary’s.
Bliss Mills c.1904
Churning Wheels Walk
Nailsworth has been called ‘the waterwheel capital of the South West’ and this short easy walk takes in a great variety of designs and demonstrates the historic importance of waterpower and the ingenuity involved in using it. Waterwheels involve mill leats and man-made ponds so there is the natural world also to enjoy and in the short distance between Dunkirk and Egypt there is a wealth of history to appreciate.