CONSERVATION AREA STATEMENT - Stroud District Council

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CONSERVATION AREA STATEMENT - Conservation Area No7: FRAMPTON ON SEVERN
Ship Canal'. A scheme was drawn up by the architect and civil engineer Robert Mylne, but he left the project after it
ran into financial difficulties in 1798. At this point, the canal basin at Gloucester was complete, but only a quarter of
the 18-mile canal to its original proposed junction with the Severn at Berkeley Pill was finished.
The project dragged on for another 20 years until the world famous engineer Thomas Telford, was appointed to bring
the scheme to completion. He abandoned the Berkeley idea and moved the southern terminus to Sharpness Point.
After so much delay, the canal finally opened in April 1827.
Two crossing points were provided at Frampton, with crossing keeper’s houses: Splatt Bridge, named after an ancient
plot of waste ground close to Frampton Pill, carried the road from Church End into the fields.
Fretherne Bridge carried the turnpiked Perry Way across to Fretherne and the ferry between Arlingham and Newnham.
Frampton Wharf, now a small car park, was built nearby. This was much used after the opening of the Cadbury factory
in 1916 and the zig- zag roofline of the original covered loading bays can still be seen. The factory expanded along
the site until its closure in the early 1980s.
The Buildings in Sub Area 5: The Canal
Key buildings and focal points
This sub- area features three highly striking buildings, which are stylistically a million miles away from the Frampton
vernacular.
The bridgekeepers’ lodges next to the bridges at Splatt and on the Fretherne road are more or less contemporary
with the canal and were probably actually designed by Robert Mylne as part of his initial vision for the scheme.
Stroud District Council