- THE STUDY AREA IN ITS SETTING - The landscape and geology ...

CONSERVATION AREA STATEMENT – INDUSTRIAL HERITAGE CONSERVATION AREA: AN OVERVIEW4.24 Much of the road corridor has been infilledwith modern industry and housing, althoughthe access routes to the mills and hillsidecommunities still remain. Leaving the mainroad at right angles, the lanes are carriedover the river and canal by the many redbrick accommodation bridges. The land thatslopes away below the canal to the south hasremained largely undeveloped.4.25 Whilst views of the bare grassland of theescarpment provide a constant conspicuousbackdrop to the south of the Study Area,Doverow Hill in Stonehouse heralds the startof the more wooded hillside to the north.The impact of this hillside, with its scatteredweaving settlements such as Randwick andRuscombe, becomes greater as the lowerFrome valley approaches Stroud. From thispoint, the conservation area is defined andchannelled between the steep slopes of theupper Frome valleys’ sides.4.26 The hillside urban expansion of Stroud townand the Victorian red brick suburb ofRodborough dominate the eastern view atthis end of the western leg of the IHCA. Thebowl of the valley at the foot of the hill atWallbridge forms the meeting point of theIHCA transport infrastructure and from here,the Chalford and Nailsworth valleys branchaway.4.27 Unlike the lower Frome valley, the Stroudvalley legs to the east and south of the StudyArea are dominated by their landscape. Thehills, which rise sharply on both sides of thevalleys, are largely hung with beech woodsinterspersed with steeply sloping pasturefields.4.28 Mills are found along the length of the Stroudvalleys’ in the Study Area. These do not havequite the same visual impact on thelandscape as those in the lower Frome valley,however their scale and tall chimneys providelandmarks in the valley bottoms.4.29 Victorian roadside development, the additionof ancillary buildings to the mills and recenthousing developments on former mill siteshave, to an extent, blurred the boundariesbetween valley floor settlements. Inparticular, growing development has led tothe loss of the historic open spaces betweenmills, diminishing their once distinctiveisolation.4.30 It is possible to regain some sense of themills’ former settings by following nearbyfootpaths. However, the mills in the ChalfordValley can be appreciated best from the train.From this vantage point they can be viewedat close quarters, and the height of therailway line above the valley bottom allowsan understanding of the mill complexes as awhole.4.31 With the exception of small enclaves foundat key crossing points such as Bowbridge,and 19 th century red brick roadsidedevelopment, historic domestic settlement inthe Stroud Valleys has been predominantly onthe sides of the hills, rather than the valleyfloors.4.32 The houses cluster along the spring line onthe hillsides, usually around the paths androads that once linked the mills to the mainroutes out of the valleys. Along the length ofthe southern and eastern legs of the StudyArea, it is possible to see a direct linkbetween the mills in the valley bottoms, thehomes of the people who worked in themand the routes connecting the two. Many millworkers’ hamlets have expanded into largevillages, such as Amberley, Woodchester andChalford. Others, such as Bagpath, haveremained small and relatively isolated.4.33 The settlements, generally built between the17 th and early 19 th centuries, are predominatelyconstructed from stone, as are the mills theyserved. Their position on the steep hillsides hasentailed the construction of terraces of drystone retaining walls to support houses andgardens. Road and rail embankments have alsobeen shored up with massive stone walls; thenatural landscape has been painstakinglyartificially shaped to allow habitation andtransport infrastructure.Analysis: the Conservation Area in its setting page 31