What’s Stroudie Central about?
It’s about Stroud in Gloucestershire and the surrounding area.
Stroudie Central makes no claims to be a source of the latest news. It’s a personal blog that aims to document the history of the area and to track the ever changing landscape as developers alter it.
It might also have a bit of local news now and again, it depends on how busy I am.
This site has lots of information on local walks and on the many old mill buildings from the past cloth industry in the area. These items are found in the Walks and Cloth Mills menu.
Stroudie Central was created in 2016 by, erm me. I’ve lived in the Stroud valleys since the 70s. It’s not auto generated by AI.
A word about AI and the open web
Websites are under massive threat from AI companies stealing their content and displaying it directly in search engine search results.
It results in something called zero click searches. This change is taking place at a rapid rate and unless governments do something to halt it the open web as we know it will be no longer.
Most websites these days are created by AI. They’re easy to spot as they’re full of errors. Those sites then get consumed by information gathering AI compounding the errors to produce even more garbage websites or AI overviews.
Interesting times ahead, I’m glad I lived through the early days of the Internet, it was more fun. Look up enshittification, it’s interesting.
Where is Stroud?
It’s in Gloucestershire. Stroud is in what’s known locally as the five valleys due to its geographical nature. Unfortunately the revamped Merrywalks shopping centre in Stroud is named the same so any reference to the area can be confusing.
I will be dropping the ‘five’ from now on and stick to something like the Stroud valleys.
What’s a Stroudie?
Stroudie is a term thats grown into common usage over the years and refers to the people of Stroud and the surrounding area.
Oh, you’re a Stroudie, sort of thing!
Stroud and its surrounding valleys have a thriving community of artists that show their work at local exhibition venues such as the Museum in the Park, Lansdown Hall and local cafes like Woodruffs.
There’s a vibrant music scene with bands playing in local pubs and venues such as the sub rooms and the Prince Albert at Rodborough.
Pick up a copy of the monthly Good on Paper (free) available from most independent shops and cafes in the town to find out what’s going on each month (exhibitions, music, arts, the whole caboodle) along with some great articles about Stroudies.
Stroudie Central is on YouTube
Click the YouTube logo to visit our channel. The ads are annoying but some things work better as video.
Copyright and photo reuse
All photographs and website content are copyright of the owner of Stroudie Central (unless otherwise stated) and may not be used or republished without permission.
Specifically, this means don’t take my photographs and post them in Facebook groups or other media without saying where you got them from.