SOCIAL LIFE.
Before the 19th century the social
life of the town was centred on the inns, of which
there were 22 in the parish in 1781, (fn. 60) most of them
situated in or around High Street. On the south side
of the street roughly opposite the Shambles were the
George and the Swan, both recorded from 1654. The
George was the chief inn of the town, (fn. 61) and was used
in the 18th century for such functions as balls,
concerts and assemblies, (fn. 62) meetings of the vestry and
parish officers, (fn. 63) the deliberations of canal promoters or clothiers, (fn. 64) and the holding of petty
sessions; (fn. 65) it was also the terminus of the London
coaches. (fn. 66) It closed in 1819 when the proprietor,
responding to the shift in the town's centre of
gravity caused by the new Bath and London roads,
moved his business to a building on the west side of
King Street which had been the Kings Arms inn
since 1801. That building, renamed the Royal
George hotel, remained the principal hotel of
Stroud (fn. 67) until c. 1870 when the Imperial hotel was
built at the railway station; (fn. 68) the Royal George
closed in 1916. (fn. 69) The Swan inn, near the old
George in High Street, had closed by the early 19th
century but by 1822 another inn with the same sign
had opened near by on the east side of Union
Street. (fn. 70) Higher up on the north side of the Cross
were the White Hart recorded from 1708 and the
King's Head recorded from 1769; the former, which
had a large room used for public meetings and
functions, closed in 1861. (fn. 71) The Butchers' Arms,
recorded from 1781, was, as mentioned above, on
the west side of the Shambles, (fn. 72) and further down
High Street were the Marlborough Head, later the
Bedford Arms, which had opened by 1766 and
closed in 1854, (fn. 73) and the Greyhound, opposite the
entrance to King Street, which had opened by
1781. (fn. 74)
On the north side of Nelson Street a house given
for charitable uses by the Revd. William Johns in
1720 had opened as the Horse Shoes public house by
1752, but by 1826 was called the New George inn. (fn. 75)
Lower down on the same side was the Red Lion
recorded from 1753. (fn. 76) The Duke of York, recorded
from 1801, stood on the south side of Nelson
Street. (fn. 77) In Church Street the Lamb inn had
opened by 1769, (fn. 78) and at the north end of King
Street the Golden Heart had opened by 1764 (fn. 79) and
the Chequers by 1781. (fn. 80) Most of the older inns of the
town closed in the 19th century and, of those
mentioned above, only the Greyhound and the new
Swan inn remained open as public houses in 1971.
Many others opened, however, in the newer parts
of the town and in the outlying hamlets, and in 1891
there was a total of 92 licensed premises in the parish;
most were then owned by the Stroud brewery or the
Salmon's Spring brewery of Godsell & Sons, whose
local rivalry was evidently one reason for the high
number. (fn. 81)
In the 19th century several public meeting-places
were opened, notably the Stroud Subscription
Rooms built in 1833. The large assembly room on
the first floor of that building was used for a variety
of balls, lectures, and political meetings, and from
1835 the lower rooms housed a library and reading
room. (fn. 82) From 1882 the lower rooms were occupied
by a social club called the Stroud Club, (fn. 83) and from
1926 the club shared the rooms with the freemasons. (fn. 84) The Victoria Rooms, a public meetingplace near the Royal George in King Street, was
built shortly before the Subscription Rooms in
1831, but failed to compete with them and was later
converted into houses and shops. (fn. 85) The temperance
hall built in Lansdown in 1879 was also used for
meetings and lectures on general topics. (fn. 86) From
1869 lectures and meetings took place at Badbrook
Hall on the west side of Gloucester Street under the
aegis of the local Conservative association, (fn. 87) and in
1895-6 a new Conservative club was built on the
south-east side of Rowcroft. A Liberal club with
premises in Lansdown was formed in 1892. (fn. 88) Among
various literary and scientific societies, some short
lived, was the Stroud Athenaeum which was founded
in 1847 and dissolved in 1853 to be succeeded by the
Mutual Improvement Society, later the Stroud
Institute. From 1863 the latter society had a lecture
hall, reading room, and library, provided by its
president S. S. Dickinson, in the old Golden Heart
inn in King Street, and later it moved to premises in
George Street. (fn. 89) A Natural History and Philosophical Society was established in 1876. (fn. 90)
The public and social activities of the town were
stimulated by the creation of the Stroud parliamentary borough under the Reform Act of 1832; the
borough returned two members and comprised
Stroud and 12 surrounding parishes. (fn. 91) Lord John
Russell was one of the members for the borough
between 1835 and 1841 and Edward Horsman, who
became Chief Secretary for Ireland, represented it
between 1853 and 1868. The other members for the
borough, which was usually held by the Liberals,
were mainly men of local importance such as S. S.
Dickinson who sat from 1868 to 1874, H. S. P.
Winterbotham, the son of a Stroud banker, who sat
from 1867 until his death in 1873 (fn. 92) and was one of
the leaders of the nonconformists in the House, (fn. 93) and
millowners of the Stanton family. (fn. 94) Much political
passion was engendered in the borough by a
succession of five elections - a by-election after the
death of a sitting member, the general election, and
three further elections following the unseating of
members on petition- which took place in the
course of 14 months in 1874-5. Under the Act of
1885 the borough was absorbed in the larger
Stroud or Mid Gloucestershire division of the
county. (fn. 95)
Between 1764 and 1833 seven friendly societies
were started in the town; two of them, the Society
of Clothworkers which met at the Golden Heart
from 1764 and the Society of Woollen Cloth
Weavers meeting at the Kings Head from 1816,
were formed specifically for workers in the dominant
local industry. (fn. 96) By 1815 518 inhabitants of the
parish were members of friendly societies. (fn. 97) The
Ancient Order of Foresters had a branch at Stroud
from 1854 and the Odd Fellows from 1857. (fn. 98) In 1875
George Holloway, who as senior partner in a large
clothing manufactory was the chief employer of
labour in the town, established his Mid Gloucester
Working Men's Benefit Society, which had
attracted 3,500 members by 1888. (fn. 99) The society
later became known as the Original Holloway
Benefit Society, having become the parent of the
Holloway societies established on the same principles
in many other towns. (fn. 1) A Cooperative Society was
formed in 1882 and had 603 members by 1886. (fn. 2)
A number of professional people recorded in the
18th century reflects the growth of Stroud as a local
centre. An apothecary of the town died in 1710; (fn. 3)
another was mentioned in 1733, (fn. 4) and an apothecary
and a surgeon in 1773. (fn. 5) Attorneys were recorded in
1763 and 1775. (fn. 6) In 1821 the inhabitants included 4
surgeons, 3 doctors, 6 attorneys, 2 auctioneers, and a
surveyor. (fn. 7) The first bank in the town was the Stroud
Bank founded in 1779 by the partnership of James
Winchcombe, Joseph Wathen, John Hollings, and
James Dallaway, and later carried on by Benjamin
(d. 1810) and Joseph Grazebrook. (fn. 8) The bank
originally had premises in High Street but later
moved to Rowcroft, and, having been acquired in
1838 by the Gloucestershire Banking Co., moved in
1859 to Rowcroft House. Another bank was carried
on by Messrs. Martin, Mills, & Wilson at a house
on the south side of High Street from 1809 until its
closure in 1825, and the Gloucestershire Banking Co.
opened another branch in 1834 at Bank House on the
north side of High Street. (fn. 9) A bank started at
Brimscombe Port in 1818 by Richard Miller, bargeowner and merchant, failed in 1822. (fn. 10)
A printer, F. Vigurs, was working in Stroud
town by 1815, (fn. 11) and by 1820 J. P. Brisley had a press
at a house at the Shambles (fn. 12) which was apparently
the same that had been occupied by Daniel Hogg,
bookseller and stationer, in 1773. (fn. 13) The first Stroud
newspaper was the Monthly Observer, later the Free
Press, which was published between 1848 and 1856.
In 1854 F. W. Harmer started a weekly paper, the
Stroud Journal, and in 1867 publication of another
weekly, the Stroud News and Gloucestershire
Advertizer, began; (fn. 14) the former was Liberal in
political affiliation and the latter Conservative. (fn. 15) The
two papers were amalgamated as the Stroud News
and Journal in 1957. (fn. 16)
Plays to be performed at the New Theatre in
Stroud were advertized in 1794, (fn. 17) and in 1799 John
Boles Watson, the Cheltenham manager, and
Robert Hoy were seeking a licence to stage performances in Stroud. (fn. 18) The theatre used in both
instances was apparently a building on the south of
High Street where a company performing in 1808
included the then unknown Edmund Kean, who
married Mary Chambers, another member of the
company, in Stroud church. (fn. 19) Later in the 19th
century touring companies sometimes visited the
Subscription Rooms, and the former temperance
hall in Lansdown was being used for the same
purpose in the 1920s. In 1913 the Empire Theatre
was built on the south side of London Road, and
from 1927 it was called the Palace Theatre and was
also used as a cinema. (fn. 20) An amateur group, the
Cotswold Players, was formed in 1912 (fn. 21) and in 1971
used the former Primitive Methodist chapel in
Parliament Street as a theatre. The first cinema to
open at Stroud was the Electric Photoplay House
which functioned for a few years from c. 1910 in the
former Unitarian chapel in Lansdown, (fn. 22) and by 1917
there was also the Stroud Picture House in King
Street Parade; (fn. 23) the latter was apparently replaced
by the Ritz which opened in the parade in 1939 and
closed after a fire in 1961. (fn. 24) In 1971 only the cinema
in London Road, then called the Classic, remained.
In 1888 a free library, which later became a
branch of the county library, was opened in a
building in Lansdown, (fn. 25) and it was extended in 1967
by a new building on the site of the old vicarage
adjoining. (fn. 26) A museum, housed in the School of
Science and Art building, was founded with a
bequest from William Cowle (d. 1899), but was not
established on a sound footing until 1929. (fn. 27) The
Daisy Bank recreation ground at the end of Horns
Road was given by Sir John Dorington in 1899, (fn. 28)
and in 1930 Bank Gardens west of the church were
given to the urban district by Ernest Winterbotham. (fn. 29) In 1936 the U.D.C. bought 56 a. of the
grounds of Stratford Park and laid them out as a
public park including a swimming pool and tennis
courts. (fn. 30) The Stroud Choral Society was founded
in or before 1835, being subsequently disbanded and
re-formed in the late 19th century. (fn. 31) In 1971 it was
one of three music societies in the town, where
musical activity was stimulated by the establishment
of an annual festival of music and literature in
1947. (fn. 32) An annual horticultural show was founded
in 1932. (fn. 33)