Stonehouse, Gloucestershire

Description
Stonehouse, a village and a parish in Gloucestershire. The village stands adjacent to the Stroudwater Canal, 3 miles W of Stroud, and has a head post office and stations on the G.W.R. and M.R. The inhabitants are chiefly employed in the woollen manufacture, and there is a manufactory of bricks, tiles, and pottery. Fairs are held on 1 May and 11 Oct., and there are two banks, a working men's institute, with reading-room and library, and a cottagers' horticultural society. The parish contains also Ebley village, part of Cainscross, and Haywards Field, formerly extra-parochial. Acreage, 1874; population of the civil parish, 4352; of the ecclesiastical, 2008. Stonehonse Court is an old Elizabethan mansion, once visited by Queen Elizabeth. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Gloucester and Bristol; net value, £334 with residence. Patron, the Crown. The church, with the exception of the tower, was rebuilt in 1854, and restored and enlarged in 1884. There are Congregational and Wesleyan chapels.