First Timetable A New Line The Impact Stroud Time Rail Motor Decline of the Railways

The Great Western Railway line ran alongside the Thames & Severn canal from Chalford into Stroud, with trains stopping at the station off Russell Street. However, the GWR was not the only railway company to serve Stroud. In 1867, a branch line financed by a company of local businessmen opened between Nailsworth, Dudbridge and the main Midland Railway (Gloucester - Bristol line) near Stonehouse.

In 1885, the operation of the Nailsworth Branch was taken over by the Midland Railway, who opened a spur served by a shuttle train from Dudbridge to Stroud, terminating at the Cheapside Station. This arrangement meant that passengers leaving Stroud on the Midland Railway had to change almost immediately at Dudbridge!

From January 2016, this website is managed by Stroud Local History Society

GRO OS 49NE 1st 1883 Ordnance Survey Map 1883
GRO GPS 223/22 Locomotive on the Nailsworth Branch, 1873
GRO Kelly's Directory, 1897, p308