Stroud (district)
Stroud is a
local government district in
Gloucestershire,
England. It is named after its largest town,
Stroud, and has its administrative headquarters in
Ebley, on the outskirts of the town.
The district is mixed and consists of part of the
Cotswolds and an area of the flat, fertile valley of the
River Severn. While the town of
Stroud is by some way the largest in the area, it is located in the extreme north of the district and isolated from the south by poor communications through the surrounding hills. The southern portion of the district is served mostly by its own market towns, chief among which are
Dursley and
Wotton-under-Edge. It was formed under the
Local Government Act 1972, on
April 1,
1974, by a merger of
Nailsworth and Stroud
urban districts,
Dursley Rural District,
Stroud Rural District, and parts of
Gloucester Rural District,
Sodbury Rural District and
Thornbury Rural District.
The area is rich in
Iron Age and
Roman remnants and is of particular interest to
archaeologists for its
Neolithic burial grounds, of which there are over 100.
Much of the landscape in this area is designated as an
Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The esteemed
Cotswold Way walk leads through the area.
