The River Frome, once also known as the Stroudwater, is a small river in Gloucestershire, England. It is to be distinguished from another River Frome in Gloucestershire, the Bristol Frome, and the nearby River Frome, Herefordshire. The river is approximately long.
It flows broadly westwards, from its source high up on the Cotswold escarpment, initially through a narrow, steep-sided valley, which it shares with the Thames and Severn Canal and the Golden Valley line railway. Below Stroud, the main town on the river, it is swelled by flows from several tributaries, and the valley opens out, with the channel splitting into two before reuniting into a single channel. The river, as well as its tributaries, has been used for milling since the time of the Domesday Book. Some early mills were used for milling corn but subsequently the river was important for the woollen industry, until that experienced a series of depressions in the early 19th century. The area then became known for the production of walking sticks and umbrella sticks, an industry that lasted into the mid-20th century. Steam engines were installed from the 1810s onwards, but were often used to assist when water power was insufficient, rather than to replace water power. Despite the demise of milling, many mill buildings survive along the course of the river, a significant number of which are listed buildings, in recognition of their architecture.
The river has undergone modification over the years, not least to power the mills. There was an early attempt to make it navigable as far as Stroud, using cranes to move containers from boats at one level to those at another level, at places where a mill dam prevented through navigation. The scheme was abandoned before it was completed, due to the cost of construction and the time taken to tranship the containers. Communication was later provided by the Stroudwater Navigation, a separate canal which followed the route of the river from the River Severn to Wallbridge and opened in 1779. This was later extended through to the River Thames by the construction of the Thames and Severn Canal, which opened in 1789. Both are now part of the Cotswold Canals Trust, and are being restored. A small part of both canals near their junction is classified as a main river, because three of the tributaries of the Frome were diverted into them in the 1950s as part of a flood prevention scheme.
Despite the number of historical weirs and modern flood defence structures, the river is not classified as heavily modified, although the modification of its channel, together with the volume of water abstracted to supply the canals and for the drinking water industry, mean that its water quality is only rated moderate under the terms of the Water Framework Directive, as both factors affect the ability of fish to move freely along the river.
Course
The River Frome flows from high up on the Cotswold escarpment in the north east of its catchment, initially heading southwards, and then turning to the west. Just upstream of its junction with the Holy Brook or Holly Brook, at Whitehall Bridge it becomes a main river, as classified by the Environment Agency. It inhabits a steep-sided narrow valley, which it shares in the upper reaches with the Thames and Severn Canal and the Golden Valley line railway. It flows to the north to reach Stroud and then to the west again to Ebley Mill, where there is a gauging station to measure its flow. Below Stroud, it shares its course with the Stroudwater Navigation, which with the Thames and Severn is now part of the Cotswold Canals, which are undergoing restoration. The final section flows to the north-west, although much of its flow is then diverted into the Gloucester and Sharpness Canal to provide a drinking water supply for Bristol. For most of its length, the underlying bedrock is oolitic limestone and liassic sandstone. Below Ebley, the river valley widens into a floodplain, and the channel splits into two, which reunite at Churchend. Large parts of this final section are embanked, to protect low lying land from flooding.