Stonehouse is a town in the Stroud District of Gloucestershire in southwestern England.
The town centre is 2.5 miles east of the M5 motorway, junction 13. Stonehouse railway station has a regular train service to London.
The town is situated approximately 9 miles south of Gloucester city centre and 4 miles west of central Stroud, though following recent development it is partially contiguous with the Ebley district of Stroud. It includes the sub-villages of Bridgend (to the south) and Ryeford (to the east).
History
Stonehouse Manor
Stonehouse appears in William the Conqueror's Domesday Book of 1086 under its Old English name “Stanhus” – so called, it is believed, because the manor house was built of stone rather than the usual wattle and daub. William de Ow, a cousin of William the Conqueror, owned the manor lands which included a vineyard, and two mills. The name may have evolved from Stanhus to Stonehouse : stān > stone + hūs > house, as an effect of the Great Vowel Shift at the end of the Middle Ages.
The original manor house was completely rebuilt in 1601. In 1906, Stonehouse Court was bought by Arthur Winterbotham who completely refurbished it to a design by architect Edwin Lutyens. and despite a fire in 1908, that destroyed the new interior of the house leaving only the outer shell and a few original features. Winterbotham had the house restored in a similar fashion. Mr Winterbotham died in 1936, leaving his widow Caroline living there until her death in 1974, when the house was sold and, after a period as business offices, eventually became an hotel in 1983 as Stonehouse Court Hotel. It is located next to St Cyr's Church near the Stroudwater Canal. Stonehouse Court is a listed grade 2 building.
Some of the town's oldest trees are in the grounds of Stonehouse Court.
Oldend Hall
Oldend Hall was occupied by the Beard family from 1661 to the late 18th century. The house was two-storied and largely stone-faced, its entrance front facing north. The half-H plan consists of a central block and two flanking wings extending southwards. The. west wing is structurally timber-framed and dates from the earlier 17th century. The only exposed framing was along the upper story of the west wall; elsewhere the wing has been stone-faced at various periods. The central block has been more drastically altered, but also formed part of the original timber-framed house; the presence of several re-used smoke-blackened timbers in the roof suggests that it may have contained a medieval open hall before it was remodelled. The house was much altered and enlarged c. 1700. The central block was extended eastwards to include a large chimney which stood against its former gable-end. The east wing, entirely of stone with two gables on the east was added and the north front of the older building was faced with stone ashlar to match it. Features of that period include several mullioned and transomed windows, a central dormer, and the central doorway with its semi-circular hood on shaped brackets. The only internal fitting to survive from the earlier house is a 16th-century door with linen-fold panels.29 Oldend Hall was demolished in 1977.30
Notable dates In 1327, one of the manor's masters, John Maltravers, was implicated in the murder of Edward II in Berkeley Castle, and fled abroad. He later found favour with Edward III and the Stonehouse manor was restored to him “by tenure de Marchacia (of the royal Marshalcy) by a rose per annum”. The rose was a symbol of loyalty to the Crown. This may have been the origin of the modern day emblem of Stonehouse – the Tudor rose.
1375–1558 The manor was owned by the Earls of Arundel. The Lord of the Manor did not necessarily live at the house; it would have often have been occupied by a steward or tenant. During this period the manor house was a working court, holding jurisdiction over the whole manor. This is when it became known as Stonehouse Court.
1558 The Court was sold to local clothiers William Fowler and William Sandford. The cloth industry was now becoming the major source of employment in the area.
1601 William Fowler's son Daniel rebuilt the manor house. The date stone over the door is thought to commemorate the new building.
1685 The Court was let to farmers with the owners living in grander places.
1730 The earliest surviving map of the manor lands. A copy of this can be seen in the hotel.
1779 The Stroudwater Canal opened, running through the manor lands.
1810 Court Farm was built.
1847 The Court was owned by the Marling family.
Industry
The woollen industry was important to Stonehouse people, first as producers of wool and later as experts in textiles. The small mills of the 17th and 18th century supported work at home for the growing population of the village, later changing to a factory system. As the textile industry declined, Stonehouse remained a thriving place as smaller businesses of every type took over.
Due to the availability of raw materials in Stonehouse, brickmaking began there in 1856 with evidence of possible prior brickmaking as early as 1839 or 1840 and of as many as thirteen brickmaking sites altogether. The largest and last to close of the brickmakers, Stonehouse Brick and Tile Company Ltd., was located where the Rosedale housing estate now stands. It was founded in 1891, and by 1895 employed a large number of people in making pottery, terra-cotta, and bricks. The company closed in 1968 and the 202-foot high chimney was demolished. Bricks and other materials made by the company were not only used locally (notably in the Stonehouse Post Office, now the Town Hall) and in other areas of Britain, but were also used as far away as Cape Town, Gibraltar, and Buenos Aires, with those used in Gibraltar transported there on the RMS Lusitania during her sea trials. Among the many buildings abroad built from Brick and Tile bricks is the English Clock Tower in Buenos Aires, Argentina, which celebrated its centenary in 2016. Stonehouse History Group sent a commemorative plaque which is now displayed in the Tower.
Stonehouse has a number of business and industrial parks, with the largest of these in Oldends Lane, located off the A419 in the west of the town and is home to the Severnside Dairy for Müller and other large companies including Schlumberger, Renishaw, Delphi Automotive, Lister Shearing and Dairy Partners.
In 2015 a new business park was built at the side of the A419 opposite the town's main industrial estate in Oldends Lane. In 2016 a new eco-business park and wood-based football stadium for Forest Green Rovers was mooted by local businessman Dale Vince, CEO of Ecotricity, to be constructed west of the town, close to the M5 junction. The formal planning application for the stadium was initially refused by Stroud Council in June 2019 but ultimately approved in December 2019.
Amenities
Canal
From the town, there are a number of footpaths and lanes leading to the nearby canal, Stroudwater Navigation, which passes through the west of the town. On the canal at the rear of Stonehouse Court is Ocean Bridge. This was an iron swing bridge where canal boats would turn. There used to be a repair yard there. The Cotswold Canals Trust are actively restoring the canal. Work is currently underway and plans to also relink it all the way to Saul Junction where it will meet the Gloucester & Sharpness Canal. To achieve this, a new railway bridge was constructed at the 'Ocean' during 2021, a new canal cutting to be constructed under the M5 and remodelling of the A38 roundabout near Fromebridge Mill also completed in 2021 so that boats will, effectively, pass under the roundabout. When all this work is finished, boats may be able to navigate from Saul Junction all the way to the centre of Stroud. Further work is needed to link this from Stroud to the Thames.
The Ocean is an ideal wildlife nesting location and a variety of ducks, swans, herons, kingfishers and moorhens can be seen.
Cotswold Way
The national trail, Cotswold Way, passes close to Stonehouse.
Sport
The football club, Stonehouse Town F.C., located at the north of the town, has four teams, with the top one currently playing in the Ulhsport Hellenic League Division 1.
Recreation grounds
The town has three public recreation grounds, these are Laburnham Playing Field, just west of the High Street, Meadow Road Park, east of the High Street and at Oldends Lane, in the north of the town next to Stonehouse Football Club.
Green spaces and nature reserve On the town side of the A419 next to Court View, near the now derelict Stonehouse and Nailsworth Railway is a small nature reserve, fenced off from public access, that contained a colony of great crested newts. Over the years since the estate at Court View has been occupied, the five valleys project were responsible for the reserve and took an annual census of the number of newts. In recent years, the census has stopped and the area remains fenced off without any further count. A plaque at the reserve shows details of wildlife that can be seen there.
Pubs
In 1838 the whole parish (including Cainscross and Ebley and Westrip) had a total of 33 public houses and beerhouses and in 1891 there were 21 public houses. In the village of Stonehouse in 1901 there were about 14.Census 1901 In 2018 there are two – The Woolpack and The Globe which both date from the early 19th century. The Woolpack Inn is one of the oldest buildings in Stonehouse, developed from 16th-century cottages and barns. It catered for the wool traders and farmers whereas the Crown and Anchor in the middle of the town (now a doctors' surgery) was the main coaching inn where the Bath coach stopped. The Spa Inn on Oldends Lane was one of Stonehouse's oldest public houses, developing from 16th-century cottages. During the 19th century it was selling mineral water from its well and a pump room was added. Gradually the Spa business faded and it became a beerhouse. It was a successful pub during the 20th century, but was closed early in 2013 after a succession of landlords and then sold by the brewery Wadworths in 2014.
Media Television Local news and television programmes are provided by BBC West and BBC West Midlands on BBC One & ITV West Country and ITV Central on ITV1. Television signals are received from either the Mendip or Ridge Hill TV transmitters.
Radio Local radio stations are BBC Radio Gloucestershire, Heart West and Greatest Hits Radio South West.
Newspapers The town is served by the local newspaper, Stroud News & Journal.
Education
Primary schools In the town there are two primary schools. Park Infant hosts pupils from reception through to year 2 (age 5 to 7) and has approximately 160 pupils. Park Junior school for pupils between years 3 and 6 (ages 7 to 10) and has approximately 200 pupils. Each school has two classes per year.
Secondary schools Maidenhill School, located in the north east of Stonehouse, is the town's comprehensive, 11–16 mixed secondary school. The school has a capacity for 785 pupils.
Independent schools
Wycliffe College is in the south of the town and spread over two campuses, its Preparatory School campus on Ebley Road, which includes a Nursery school, and large Senior campus close by. One of the school's boarding houses, Haywardsend, is one of the town's oldest buildings, an old Tudor farmhouse. Haywardsfield, an imposing three-story red brick building at the head of the school drive, is the school's oldest boarding house. In addition to trees on the grounds of Stonehouse Court, some of the town's oldest trees are within the college grounds however some of these have been removed in recent years due to disease or weakness considered a factor to pupil safety. Their loss has been off-set by the planting of many new trees throughout the campus.
Religious centres