Hope Mill, Stroud

of Brimscombe near Stroud

1540 Thomas Sewell, clothier, leased the mill from John Whittington of Pauntley Court. It consisted of a house, fulling mills and a dyeing house.

By 1705, the mill had passed by marriage to Joseph Gough, clothier. It became known as Gough Mills. It then consisted of three fulling mills and a gig mill.

1812 A new silk mill building was built, incorporating some 18th century mill buildings, and given the name Hope Mill.

1829 Both the Gough and Hope Mills were sold to Robert Bamford, a woollen yarn manufacturer, who shortly afterwards demolished Gough Mill.

1854 George Howard, Hope Mills, Stroud, clothier.

Between 1863 and about 1910, part of Hope Mill was used for silk weaving.

1870 Sampson Brothers, Hope Mills, Stroud.

1878 Edwin Clark established slipways and engineering workshops on the site of Hope Mill and, soon afterwards, also the Canal Ironworks on the north side of the canal. Here, they and their successors built launches, tugs, cargo vessels and passenger river vessels fitted with screws or stern paddle-wheels driven by steam or diesel.

1901 The Clark company was acquired by Abdela, Mitchell and Co whose boats and launches were supplied throughout Britain. Some of the boats had gone through the canal to Inglesham and down the Thames to London for shipment abroad. Others, too large to pass the locks, were shipped in parts for assembly abroad or built in sections which were floated independently down the canal to join the junction with the Gloucester and Berkeley canal at Saul where they were joined together.

1933 The canal was abandoned, which made boat-building difficult, but the yard survived in production until 1937.

The sites on both sides of the canal remained in use for industrial purposes in 1973, and part of the old stone mill survived, although its upper storeys had then recently been removed.

See Also

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• [1] Digital Stroud

Sources of Information

• [2] Glos. C.C. records