Stroud springs.....

Walk along brook

Now here is an interesting new blog that looks at Stroud's springs. In the Ruscombe Brook Action Group (RBAG) the issue of springs has come up a few times as they have moved or ebbed and flowed over the years.....this idea to map them is very interesting and I will keep an eye on it.
Meanwhile at RBAG we are due for our AGM soon - 6th November - do let us know if you are interested and I can send details.

Here's what Stuart Butler writes to me and in the Rodborough Commoner about the spring project: "I can’t say that I am obsessed with springs; I don’t normally give them a second thought…but something has happened to me below the spring-line over the past few months. It all started when I went to the Writing Britain Exhibition at the British Library and started reflecting on how landscape has affected history, as well as literature. This doesn’t sound any big deal, but I have always been interested in social history and if asked about the genius loci of Stroud, then I would normally mumble something about handloom weavers or Chartists or Quakers or Non-Conformism etc. Geology and all that wouldn’t get a look in.

"But this exhibition made me think about the ultimate genius loci of Stroud and that got me thinking about springs. I am, even whilst I write, involved in the setting up of a website to map as many of our local springs as possible. The website will record multi-media representations of our springs; recollections of our springs; walks to and around our springs; metaphysical musing about springs etc. When this is done – ha! – we will move on to mapping the radical history and heritage of Stroud. But not before we hold a multi-media exhibition about our local springs, complete with pop-up restaurant."

See: http://radicalstroud.blogspot.co.uk/