- Stonehouse, Gloucestershire
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Coordinates: 51°44′52″N 2°17′02″W / 51.74785°N 2.28386°W
Stonehouse 
Stonehouse
Stonehouse shown within GloucestershireOS grid reference SO805055 District Stroud Shire county Gloucestershire Region South West Country England Sovereign state United Kingdom Post town STONEHOUSE Postcode district GL10 Police Gloucestershire Fire Gloucestershire Ambulance Great Western EU Parliament South West England UK Parliament Stroud List of places: UK • England • Gloucestershire Stonehouse, Gloucestershire is an urban area within the Stroud District, in the UK. It is home to a number of factories, such as Dairy Crest and Schlumberger. The town is close to the M5 motorway. Stonehouse railway station has a regular train service to London. The town is situated approximately three miles west of Stroud and twelve miles south of Gloucester.
Contents
History
Stonehouse Manor
Stonehouse was mentioned in Willam the Conqueror's Domesday Book written in 1086. There was a manor house built in stone - quite different from the many wattle and daub buildings that were normally found. And so the area was named Stanhus in the book. The name evoluted from Stanhus to Stonehouse : stān > stone + hūs > house, as an effect of the great vowel shift at the end of the Middle Ages.
Stonehouse town sign
William De Ow, a cousin of William the Conqueror, owned the manor, whose grounds included two mills and a vineyard. In 1327, one of the manor's masters, John Maltravers, was found guilty of involvement in the murder of Edward II in Berkeley Castle, and fled abroad.
The manor house burned down in 1908. Today, on the same site stands Stonehouse Court Hotel, a Grade II listed manor house, which is now a hotel. It is located next to St Cyr's Church and the Stroudwater Canal. One of the original mills remains in operation.
Town growth
Town Growth was partly due to good communicatiions for transport, In 1779, the Stroudwater Navigation, (now part of the Thames and Severn Canal) was cut and relics of the canal can still be seen. Ocean Bridge was an iron swing bridge where canal boats would turn. Once there was a repair yard here. Canal restoration is actively underway. Business increased further when the land was prepared for the opening of the Midland Railway Station in 1844, and the Great Western Railway Station a year later. The Midland Railway Station was closed under the Beeching Axe in 1965. The towns growth has continued since the M5 was built close by in 1972.
The town's Parish church is St Cyr's, after St Cyriac or St Cyril. George Whitefield, the Gloucester-born evangelist, preached here[1]
World War 2
When the threat of world war two became clear in the late 1930s, the Cotswolds were seen as a suitable location for the dispersement of aerospace shadow factories, being a safe place away from German bombers range. Smiths were co-located to Bishops Cleeve and Stonehouse was chosen as a good place to build factories for the manufacturers Sperry and Hoffmann. These two factories employed many people during the war and for along time after wards ensuring employment in the town for many years.
On 12 September 1940, a lone Dornier flew along the Stroud Valley and photographed the area. Detailed mapping of the Sperry factory was noted by German Intelligence, in preparation for a raid in February 1943, although this never occurred.[2]
Post War
In the past thirty years, Stonehouse has seen substantial growth within industry; large multi-nationals such as ABB, International Intelligence Limited and Intelligent Armour Limited have moved in to the area.
Stonehouse is very well situated for business and business growth due to its central UK location and close proximity to the motorway nextworks of the M5 & M4. Today Stonehouse has a large number of residential housing estates, including Council housing and a small High Street.
Features
Doverow Hill is a former quarry and there are many surrounding hills and a small cliff that looks out onto the whole of Stonehouse.
The Woolpack Inn is one of the oldest buildings in Stonehouse (17 Century) and is certainly one of the oldest pubs in the town. It was the coaching hostelry for Stonehouse and the coach from Bath stopped there. There was 33 public houses and beer houses in Stonehouse in 1838, now there are only 2.
Town Hall and Post OfficeOne of the most well known establishments in the area is Wycliffe College, now a public school. Starting life in 1882, it incorporates Haywardsend, an old Tudor farmhouse. Maidenhill School is the town's comprehensive, 11-16 mixed secondary school. In the town thereare two primary schools the Park Infant which host years reception- year2 and Park Junior school years 3-6 each school has two classes per year. The preschools include quietways at the memorial hall red lodge playgroup and the children's centre.
The stone which gave the town its name was replaced by red brick as the builder's material of choice[citation needed] . 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[3] 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 police station[4] and post office) 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.[5][6]
The football club, Stonehouse Town F.C., has four teams, with the top one currently playing in the Northern Senior League.
See also
References
- ^ http://www.stcyrschurch.com/History.htm
- ^ http://stonehousehistorygroup.org.uk/page47.html
- ^ 51°44′44″N 2°16′39″W / 51.745486°N 2.277582°W
- ^ 51°44′49″N 2°16′58″W / 51.746891°N 2.282898°W
- ^ C R Elrington, N M Herbert, R B Pugh, ed (1972). A History of the County of Gloucester: Volume 10: Westbury and Whitstone Hundreds. Victoria County History. pp. 276–284. ISBN 9780197227251. http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=15887. Retrieved 5 October 2010.
- ^ Wilson, Ray (1997). "Stonehouse Brick and Tile Company". Gloucestershire Society for Industrial Archaeology Journal: 14–26. http://www.gsia.org.uk/reprints/1997/gi199714.pdf. Retrieved 4 October 2010.
External links
- Stonehouse Town Council
- Stonehouse, Gloucestershire at the Open Directory Project
- Stonehouse History Group
- See Stonehouse Brick and Tile workers at work 1945
Ceremonial county of Gloucestershire Unitary authorities Boroughs or districts Major settlements - Berkeley
- Bradley Stoke
- Cheltenham
- Chipping Campden
- Chipping Sodbury
- Cinderford
- Cirencester
- Coleford
- Dursley
- Fairford
- Filton
- Gloucester
- Kingswood
- Lechlade
- Lydney
- Minchinhampton
- Mitcheldean
- Moreton-in-Marsh
- Nailsworth
- Newent
- Northleach
- Painswick
- Patchway
- Stonehouse
- Stow-on-the-Wold
- Stroud
- Tetbury
- Tewkesbury
- Thornbury
- Winchcombe
- Wotton-under-Edge
- Yate
See also: List of civil parishes in Gloucestershire
Rivers Topics - History
- Museums
Categories:- Towns in Gloucestershire
- Stroud (district)
- Civil parishes in Gloucestershire
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