| Dudbridge | |
|---|---|
  Dudbridge Location within Gloucestershire | |
| OS grid reference | SO8305 |
| Shire county | |
| Region | |
| Country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Police | Gloucestershire |
| Fire | Gloucestershire |
| Ambulance | South Western |
Dudbridge is a suburb on the southern edge of Stroud in Gloucestershire, England.
Dudbridge gains its name from the first bridge in the location, which spanned the River Frome. This made it an important crossing point for traffic heading south from the Cotswolds to the Port of Bristol, which is reflected in that it is the meeting point of four parishes: Stroud in which lies, plus Rodborough to its east, and Stonehouse and Kings Stanley to its south. [1]
The fast-flowing river made Dudbridge a natural location for early industry, with the earliest record of a mill dating from 1235. Later industries included dying, forging and metalwork. [1]
The Redler's industrial estate is the site of the original Dudbridge Mills, located directly beside the River Frome. From the mid-18th century onwards it housed the mills of Daniel Chance, in the mid-18th century, owned three mills: one corn; one gig and a dyehouse with eight drying racks. [2] In 1794, John Apperley's family fused the site for wool and cloth making or the next 140 years. After the business collapsed in 1933, Redler's conveyors manufactured industrial handling equipment on the site until the mid-1990s, when it became an industrial estate. [3]
The original Lightpill site is one actually located in Rodborough, but in light of inter-war and 1960s developments, exists now further in Dudbridge. A cloth mill from the 17th century, [4] in 1910 it became home to a printing works. In 1910 Syrolit Ltd became one of the world's first plastic manufacturers, which in 1914 was reorganised into Erinoid in order to gain a UK license to manufacture a German process to manufacture a new plastic substance used for buttons and ornaments. By 1933, the business had expanded south on the site and employed 500 people. Taken over by O. & M. Kleeman Ltd in 1957, it was than merged into Mobil in 1961. In 1965 the complex was acquired by BP, operating initially as BP Plastics and later as BP Chemicals International. After takeover the site expanded west up to the Stroud railway line spur, producing polyvinyl chloride products, latterly bin bags. In 1973, when 700 people were employed, the factory manufactured polystyrene, articles in thermo-plastic materials for use in the electrical and building industries, and casein and polyester button blanks. [5] To accommodate increased production, three large chemical containers were constructed on the west side of the railway line on the former dye works, supplied daily by Wincanton Transport trucks shipping raw chemical products from the docks at Southampton, Bristol and Sharpness. Closed in the late 1980s, the production site became the Bath Road Trading Estate, while the former dye works and chemical storage area became a new housing estate.
In 1770, dyer Richard Hawker built Dudbridge House close to the river and his works. In 2007 the house has been converted into flats, and faces a housing estate which was built in the 1980s on part of the old dyeworks. [6] [7]
In 1849, Kimmins Mill was constructed to mill flour. After ceasing milling in 1935, it was used as a storage facility, including textile machinery. Now located next to a Sainsbury's carpark, it is now the Stroud Mills Heritage centre, with a national collection of books and information about the construction industry, and historic information about the Stroud area. [8]
Up until 1900, the site where Sainsbury's supermarket now sits was an orchard, with an attached small foundry. Before the First World War, James Apperley founded the Dudbridge Patent Machine Works to manufacture textile machinery, but after his business failed H. G. Holbrow manufactured steam engines, and then J. D. Humpidge manufactured gas engines. In the late 1920s, Hampton cars were assembled there. After their failure, the site reverted to a foundry until the late early 1990s, home to the cupola iron furnaces of Lewis & Holes Ltd. [9]
To the top of Dudbridge Hill, and on the junction between Dudbridge and Rodborough on the A46 road to Bath, lies the Daniels industrial estate. In 1840, Thomas Daniels founded an engineering, millwrighting and foundry business which quickly grew. After the death of Lionel Daniels in 1956, the company became Daniels plc (listed on the London Stock Exchange), which was taken over by Unichrome International in 1968. After the site closed in the late 1980s, it was converted to an industrial estate, whose tenants included a Focus DIY store. [10]
The Hampton Engineering Company had been formed in Kings Norton, Birmingham in 1912, but after it went into receivership, in 1919 the company was re-established as a joint venture between William Paddon and Charles Apperley of the Stroud Metal and Plating Company, and production was transferred to Dudbridge. [11] The first post-war car was the Hampton 11.9 with either a 1496 cc or 1795 cc Dorman four-cylinder engine but only a few were made before the money ran out and the company was bought by a major shareholder John Daniel and re-registered as Hampton Engineering Co (1920) Ltd. In 1925 a receiver was appointed yet again, but Hampton bounced back again as Hampton Cars (London) Ltd with finance from businessman John Hatton-Hall. The company moved to smaller premises on Selsley Hill, [11] before ceasing production just before World War II.
Dudbridge today is a mixed industrial and housing development, with the industry towards the foot of the valley on one side of the A419 road, while the housing rises higher up towards Rodborough. Redevelopments of the late 1990s brought about the building of a major Sainsbury's supermarket, serving southern Stroud and onwards to Stonehouse. Damien Hirst's SCIENCE art production facility lies within the area.
Along with most of Stroud, Dudbridge has low levels of burglary, theft of motor vehicles, with numbers of serious and fatal road traffic accidents lower than the county average. The percentage of young offenders resident in the area and of children with low scores at key stages 1–3, are also below the Stroud and county averages.
Being low in the Stroud Valleys, and an already formed crossing point, Dudbridge was a natural point of congregation for transport. The Stroudwater Canal opened a wharf in 1779 in Dudbridge, while in 1886 the Stonehouse and Nailsworth Railway, later part of the Midland Railway, opened a railway station. [1] Opened as "Dudbridge for Stroud," [12] the buildings included a two-storey station-master's house, and though there was originally only a single platform, the station was a passing place on the single-track branch line.
In 1885, the Midland Railway built a very short branch line from Dudbridge to Stroud. The new line opened for goods traffic in 1885 and for passengers the following year, at which point Dudbridge became a junction station, and a second platform was built. Passenger services were suspended on the line as an economy measure to save fuel in June 1947, and were officially withdrawn from 8 June 1949. Dudbridge remained open for goods traffic until 1966, when the Beeching cuts closed the line. The station building remained until the early 1990s, when it was demolished to make way for the route of the Ebley Bypass.
The Thames and Severn Canal is a canal in Gloucestershire in the south-west of England, which was completed in 1789. It was conceived as part of a cargo route from Bristol and the Midlands to London, linking England's two largest rivers for better trade. The route climbs the steep Cotswold escarpment through the Golden Valley, tunnels underneath the summit of the Cotswold Edge, and emerges near the source of the Thames.
Stroud is a market town and civil parish in Gloucestershire, England. It is the main town in Stroud District. The town's population was 13,500 in 2021.
Stroud District is a local government district in Gloucestershire, England. The district is named after its largest town of Stroud. The council is based at Ebley Mill in Cainscross. The district also includes the towns of Berkeley, Dursley, Nailsworth, Stonehouse and Wotton-under-Edge, along with numerous villages and surrounding rural areas. Over half of the district lies within the Cotswolds Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.
Stonehouse is a town in the Stroud District of Gloucestershire in southwestern England.
Brimscombe and Thrupp is a civil parish made up of the villages of Thrupp and Brimscombe, in the narrow Frome Valley slightly south-east of Stroud, Gloucestershire, England. The parish also includes the hamlets of Quarhouse and The Heavens. The population taken at the 2011 census was 1,830.
The River Frome, once also known as the Stroudwater, is a small river in Gloucestershire, England. It is to be distinguished from another River Frome in Gloucestershire, the Bristol Frome, and the nearby River Frome, Herefordshire. The river is approximately 25 miles (40 km) long.
British industrial narrow-gauge railways are narrow-gauge railways in the United Kingdom and the Isle of Man that were primarily built to serve one or more industries. Some offered passenger services for employees or workmen, but they did not run public passenger trains. They are categorized by the primary industry they served.
Rodborough is a large village and civil parish in the district of Stroud, Gloucestershire, in South West England. It is directly south of the town of Stroud, north of the town of Nailsworth and north-west of the town of Minchinhampton. The parish includes the settlements of Bagpath, Butterrow, Kingscourt, Lightpill and Rooksmoor, and is adjacent to the Stroud suburb of Dudbridge. The population taken at the 2011 census was 5,334.
The Stroudwater Navigation is a canal in Gloucestershire, England which linked Stroud to the River Severn. It was authorised in 1776, although part had already been built, as the proprietors believed that an Act of Parliament obtained in 1730 gave them the necessary powers. Opened in 1779, it was a commercial success, its main cargo being coal. It was 8 miles (13 km) in length and had a rise of 102 ft 5 in (31.22 m) through 12 locks. Following the opening of the Thames and Severn Canal in 1789, it formed part of a through route from Bristol to London, although much of its trade vanished when the Kennet and Avon Canal provided a more direct route in 1810. Despite competition from the railways, the canal continued to pay dividends to shareholders until 1922, and was not finally abandoned until 1954.
The Hampton was a British car made by the Hampton Engineering Company, which was based in Kings Norton, Birmingham from 1912 to 1918 and at Dudbridge in Stroud, Gloucestershire, from 1918 to 1933.
The Stonehouse and Nailsworth Railway was a short railway line in the county of Gloucestershire, England. It was promoted independently to connect the industrial town of Nailsworth to the main line railway network at Stonehouse. It opened in 1867, but was immediately in financial difficulty, due largely to debenture interest payments and other financial commitments from the construction.
Ryeford railway station served the villages of Ryeford, King's Stanley and Leonard Stanley in Gloucestershire, England. It was on the 5.8-mile (9.3 km) Stonehouse and Nailsworth Railway, later part of the Midland Railway.
Dudbridge railway station served the Stroud suburb of Dudbridge and the village of Selsley, little more than 1 mile (1.6 km) from Stroud, in Gloucestershire, England. The station was on the 5+3⁄4 miles (9.3 km) long Stonehouse and Nailsworth Railway, later part of the Midland Railway.
Stroud railway station served the town of Stroud, in Gloucestershire, England. The station was on a short 1.25 mi-long branch from Dudbridge on the Stonehouse and Nailsworth Railway, part of the Midland Railway. It was not connected to the earlier and still used Stroud railway station on the Great Western Railway.
Bowbridge Crossing Halt was opened on 1 May 1905 on what is now the Golden Valley Line between Kemble and Stroud. This line was opened in 1845 as the Cheltenham and Great Western Union Railway from Swindon to Gloucester and this was one of many small stations and halts built on this line for the local passenger service. This halt opened with the introduction of the GWR steam railmotor services between Stonehouse and Chalford.
Leonard Stanley, or Stanley St.Leonard, is a village and parish in Gloucestershire, England, 95 miles (150 km) west of London and 3.5 miles (5.5 km) southwest of the town of Stroud. Situated beneath the Cotswold escarpment overlooking the Severn Vale, the surrounding land is mainly given over to agricultural use. The village is made up of some 600 houses and has an estimated population of 1,545 as of 2019. The hamlet of Stanley Downton lies less than a mile to the north and lies within the parish. In 1970, the village was twinned with the commune of Dozulé in the Calvados region of Normandy, northern France.
The Gatehouse at Bonds Mill at Stonehouse, Gloucestershire, England, was constructed during World War II as a defensive pillbox as part of the Stop Line Green. It is a rare example of a two-storey pillbox with a rooftop gun emplacement and is a Grade II listed building. It is now used as a visitor centre run by the Cotswold Canals Trust.
Painswick Stream is a small river in Gloucestershire, England. It is a tributary of the River Frome, and flows generally southwards, passing around the village of Painswick and through the town of Stroud. It used to join the Frome at its mouth, but was diverted into the then-derelict Stroudwater Navigation as part of a flood relief scheme in the 1950s. Despite its small size, it has been used to power a significant number of mills, many of which were associated with cloth manufacture until the industry was hit by a series of depressions in the 1820s and 1830s. Some found other uses, being used for grinding corn and for the manufacture of walking sticks and umbrella sticks, another prominent local industry. Many were subsequently demolished, but a number survive which have been granted listed building status.
Nailsworth Stream is a small river in Gloucestershire, England. It is a tributary of the River Frome. From its source near Cherington, it flows westwards through Avening to reach Nailsworth, where it turns towards the north, and passes through Woodchester to join the Frome at Dudbridge, a suburb of Stroud.
