Stroud has been an important market town in the Cotswolds for centuries. At the heart of the five valleys, its prosperity was founded on the wool trade in the Middle Ages. During the Industrial Revolution, the town became a textile centre with numerous mills built along its streams. The canal network facilitated trade and industry in the town, as did the arrival of Brunel’s Great Western Railway. The town is renowned today for its historic buildings and steep streets and has become an independent cultural centre with a strong environmental community, which even boasted its own currency for a while in recent years. Through the centuries Stroud’s unusual history has encompassed the country’s oldest anti-slavery memorial, Huguenot and Jewish communities, a Victorian Communist colony, the last pistol duel in England, food riots, suffragettes, suffragists and much more.With tales of remarkable characters, unusual events and tucked-away or disappeared historical buildings and locations, Secret Stroud will appeal to all those with an interest in the history of this Gloucestershire town.