In 1730, an Act of Parliament was passed allowing the scheme. However, the improvements were never made!
According to Samuel Rudder in his New History of Gloucestershire (1779), this was because of the mills:
'The great trade and populousness of the country [around Stroud] occasioned an application to Parliament to make the Frome [Stroudwater] navigable from this town to the Severn, and an Act passed for that purpose in 1730, but from an apprehension afterwards of injuring the clothing mills upon the river, it was never carried into execution.'
However, it may also have been difficult to raise enough money to carry out the work.
From January 2016, this website is managed by Stroud Local
History Society
