Stonehouse (St. Cyril)

STONEHOUSE (St. Cyril), a parish, in the union of Stroud, Lower division of the hundred of Whitstone, E. division of the county of Gloucester, 3 miles (W.) from Stroud; containing 2711 inhabitants. The parish forms a pleasing and fertile vale, situated on the road from Gloucester to Bath, and intersected by the river Frome and the Stroudwater canal. It comprises 1520a. 2r. 1p. The surface is in some places varied with elevations, of which the substratum is limestone; the soil in other portions is loamy, and favourable to the growth of apples for cider. The cloth manufacture appears to have been introduced at an early period, as, in the reign of Henry VIII., a fulling-mill in the parish formed part of the possessions of the abbey of Gloucester. During the 17th century, and the greater part of the 18th, the place was celebrated for its scarlet cloth, which was considered the finest in the kingdom; and its clothing establishments still rank among the most extensive and flourishing in the district. Here is a station of the Bristol and Birmingham railway, and the Swindon line branches off at Stonehouse in a south-eastern direction. Fairs are held on May 1st and October 11th. The living is a vicarage, endowed with the rectorial tithes, and valued in the king's books at £22; net income, £510: it is in the patronage of the Crown. The church, though much modernised, retains portions of its original Norman style, of which the north door is a good specimen. At Cain's-Cross is a separate incumbency. There are places of worship for Independents and Wesleyans. John Elliott and others, in 1774, subscribed £612. 10. for establishing a free school in the village of Stonehouse, and another in the hamlet of Ebley; two rooms were built in 1831, and the income arising from the endowment is £47 per annum.