| What: | Historical Site |
| Where: | GL5 3HF Situated behind Sainsbury's on the Dudbridge Road |
| Then: | Seventeenth century use linked to Daniel Fowler, a local clothier. The later dyeworks continued here up to the early 1900s. |
| Now: | A petrol filling station and a late 20th century housing estate. |
The history of the mill on the northern part of the site cannot be traced earlier than 1659, when Daniel Fowler leased a fulling mill on the site. In 1743, it was conveyed to Richard Hawker, dyer, when it consisted of two fulling stocks, a gig mill and knapping mill. The southern part of the site apparently included the site of an ancient mill called Cherynges Mill, recorded from 1291. This was sold to Richard Hawker in 1761 and the two properties were conveyed as one thereafter.
Early in the 19th century, dyeing became the main business activity on the site, and in the early 1800s, "seven furnaces were continually employed and often forty-two pieces of cloth dyed in one day".
Later the mill was sold to S.S. Marling, who leased the mill as a dyeworks to members of the Smith family, who made various improvements here in the 1870s and 1880s. The dyeworks continued to be occupied until c.1908. In 1973, some buildings survived from the works, and the site was in use as a garage.
From January 2016, this website is managed by Stroud Local
History Society
Revised 2018 EMW
