Map - Stroud District (Stroud)

Stroud District is a district in the ceremonial county of Gloucestershire, South West England. The district covers many outlying towns and villages. The towns forming the district are Dursley, Minchinhampton, Nailsworth, Painswick, Stonehouse, Berkeley, Stroud (The administrative centre) and Wotton-under-Edge. The district is geographically located between the Tewkesbury district to the northwest and northeast, Gloucester district to the north, the Cotswold district to the north-northeast. east and southeast, The Forest of Dean district to the north-northwest, west, and southwest and the South Gloucestershire unitary authority to the southeast, south, and south-southwest. The largest settlement by far is Stroud, followed by the village of Cam and Stonehouse.

Stroud District Council was formed under the Local Government Act 1972, on 1 April 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. In 1991 following a boundary review the Parish of Hillesely and Tresham was transferred from Northavon District Council to Stroud. This area was formerly in the Chipping Sodbury Rural District Council area. At the same review the parish of Quedgeley (formerly in Gloucester Rural) was transferred from Stroud to Gloucester City.

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 its wealth was built on the cloth industry during the Victorian era, and its many mills, most of which are now listed buildings, survive as testament to this. 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. There are gliding clubs at Aston Down and Nympsfield.