Thrupp & Brimscombe
Encyclopedia
Thrupp and Brimscombe are two small linked villages situated in the narrow Frome Valley
just outside Stroud, Gloucestershire
in the parish
of Thrupp, which also includes the hamlet
s of Upper and Lower Bourne, Lypiatt, Quarhouse, the Heavens and Claypits.
mills and a gig mill.
The gig mill, which eventually became known as Thrupp Mill, was leased to Edward Ferrabee in 1793. By 1828 the entire premises were leased to the Ferrabees, and an iron works, the Phoenix Iron Works had been established. The Ferrabees became well known for their production of cloth-making machines, steam engines, agricultural machinery and water wheels. It was here that John Lewis had invented a machine in 1815 to shear the surplus fibres or nap from the surface of cloth, using a horizontal blade.
In the 1820s Edwin Beard Budding
, a machinist or ‘mechanician', was employed by Edward's son, John, at Thrupp. It was while Budding was working at Thrupp that Lewis' machine was developed to use rotary cutters, and Budding realised that this machine could be adapted for other purposes. Using gears, a revolving horizontal shaft and three blades he developed a machine to cut grass, which until then had been cut manually, using a scythe. This resulted in the world's first lawn mower
being invented at Thrupp. It received its patent in 1830. Budding is also credited with the invention of the screw adjustable spanner.
with its canal
and rail
links, with Brimscombe Port serving as the hub of the Thames and Severn canal
.
Brimscombe Port was originally built to transfer cargo from Severn Trows
, which travelled from the River Severn
down the Stroudwater Navigation
, to Thames barge
s which carried the goods eastwards towards London. This was necessary because the locks to the east of the port were too narrow to accommodate the larger sea-going Trows. There were also several boat-building yards at the port, including Abdela & Mitchell, who exported boats, notably paddle steamers, all over the world.
According to recent on-the-ground research the legendary riverboat ‘Queen Of Africa’ which gave a star performance in the John Huston movie The African Queen was built at the Abdela & Mitchell Brimscombe works between 1908 and 1911.
Many of the Abdela & Mitchell river-boats went to the Nile, the Niger and other African rivers, and especially to the Peruvian Amazon and other Amazonian tributaries. The Abdela river-boats were highly regarded for their elegance, shallow draft (often less than 40cm), and flexibility, viz the ‘Adis Ababa’ for Lt-Col John Harrington’s White Nile/Ethiopia expedition of 1903 – ‘boiler arranged to burn oil, coal or wood’. Lesley Abdela who lives in East Sussex is the last direct descendant bearing the name of the Victorian/Edwardian shipbuilding family which owned yards on the Manchester Ship Canal, Queen’s Ferry, and Brimscombe. Her marine architect grandfather Isaac Abdela was the proprietor of the Abdela & Mitchell shipyards when the ‘Queen Of Africa’ was built at Brimscombe. The Shipyards announced themselves as ‘Contractors To The Admiralty, War Office, India Office And Allied Governments’.
Until the construction of what is now the A419
road along the bottom of the valley in 1815, Thrupp Lane was the main thoroughfare between Stroud and Chalford
. The condition of this road was such that it required a whole day for a team of horses to draw a loaded waggon and return, a distance of only four miles each way.
Brimscombe railway station was opened on 1 June 1845 as part of the Cheltenham and Great Western Union Railway
from Swindon
to Gloucester
.
It closed on 2 November 1964, and the nearest station is now at Stroud.
. Plans are in place, and much activity being undertaken to restore the whole length of what is now known as The Cotswold Canals, eastwards from Brimscombe to Inglesham on the Thames.
many former cloth and woollen mills built around the port at that time have been restored and converted for modern business use.
Bourne Mills latterly produced walking sticks but now houses a cycle shop, auto repair services, and a metal polishing company.
Griffin Mill, which was founded in 1600 by the Griffin family for the making of cloth, subsequently turned to furniture making, and is now occupied by a variety of small businesses including a paint factory, a painting and decorating retail business, a fitness centre, an antiques emporium, a computer supplier, a print making co-operative and an art shop.
Ham Mill produced textiles from 1601 to 2000, when the carpet manufacturer occupying the premises ceased trading. It presently lies empty.
Hope Mills business centre contains a tree maintenance company, a car body repair centre, a banner maker and an electrical, plumbing and building maintenance contractor.
Phoenix Mill, the site of the old iron works, is now a trading estate containing among others a swimming pool installer, a hot sauce manufacturer, an electronic component manufacturer and a printers.
Port Mill was at one time a grist
mill. It later became a textile mill (until the 1930s) and is now occupied by The History Press
.
Although there are still a handful of shops in Brimscombe including the Newsagent, Post Office, Fish & Chip Shop, Hairdressers and Antique Furntiure store the number of retail outlets has been in steady decline. The last shop and post office
in Thrupp, The Happy Shopper
, closed in 1998.
Both schools act as feeder school
s for Thomas Keble, Stroud High School
, Marling School
, Archway School
, Deer Park in Cirencester, Sir William Romney
, Maidenhill and St. Peter's School in Gloucester
.
Until recently there was another pub called the King and Castle.
This acquired its name from its proximity to the railway line, 'king' and 'castle' being the names of two classes of locomotive used by the Great Western Railway
. It is now an Indian restaurant.
within the boundaries of Thrupp, but there is a parish church, Holy Trinity, and a Methodist church on Brimscombe Hill, as well as a non-denominational Christian Fellowship that meets in the Brimscombe & Thrupp Social Centre.
,(known as the Lilywhites) play in the Gloucestershire County League and Stroud District Football League. Their home ground is The Meadows, where they have been playing their games for over a hundred years.
River Frome, Stroud
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....
just outside Stroud, Gloucestershire
Stroud, Gloucestershire
Stroud is a market town and civil parish in the county of Gloucestershire, England. It is the main town in Stroud District.Situated below the western escarpment of the Cotswold Hills at the meeting point of the Five Valleys, the town is noted for its steep streets and cafe culture...
in the parish
Civil parish
In England, a civil parish is a territorial designation and, where they are found, the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties...
of Thrupp, which also includes the hamlet
Hamlet (place)
A hamlet is usually a rural settlement which is too small to be considered a village, though sometimes the word is used for a different sort of community. Historically, when a hamlet became large enough to justify building a church, it was then classified as a village...
s of Upper and Lower Bourne, Lypiatt, Quarhouse, the Heavens and Claypits.
Phoenix iron works
Early records indicate that there was a cloth mill at Thrupp dating back as far as 1381. By 1770 the premises had expanded to include a house, four fullingFulling
Fulling or tucking or walking is a step in woolen clothmaking which involves the cleansing of cloth to eliminate oils, dirt, and other impurities, and making it thicker. The worker who does the job is a fuller, tucker, or walker...
mills and a gig mill.
The gig mill, which eventually became known as Thrupp Mill, was leased to Edward Ferrabee in 1793. By 1828 the entire premises were leased to the Ferrabees, and an iron works, the Phoenix Iron Works had been established. The Ferrabees became well known for their production of cloth-making machines, steam engines, agricultural machinery and water wheels. It was here that John Lewis had invented a machine in 1815 to shear the surplus fibres or nap from the surface of cloth, using a horizontal blade.
In the 1820s Edwin Beard Budding
Edwin Beard Budding
Edwin Beard Budding , an engineer from Stroud, England, was the English inventor of the lawnmower and adjustable spanner.-Lawnmower:...
, a machinist or ‘mechanician', was employed by Edward's son, John, at Thrupp. It was while Budding was working at Thrupp that Lewis' machine was developed to use rotary cutters, and Budding realised that this machine could be adapted for other purposes. Using gears, a revolving horizontal shaft and three blades he developed a machine to cut grass, which until then had been cut manually, using a scythe. This resulted in the world's first lawn mower
Lawn mower
A lawn mower is a machine that uses a revolving blade or blades to cut a lawn at an even length.Lawn mowers employing a blade that rotates about a vertical axis are known as rotary mowers, while those employing a blade assembly that rotates about a horizontal axis are known as cylinder or reel...
being invented at Thrupp. It received its patent in 1830. Budding is also credited with the invention of the screw adjustable spanner.
Brimscombe port
Brimscombe was an important local centre during the Industrial RevolutionIndustrial Revolution
The Industrial Revolution was a period from the 18th to the 19th century where major changes in agriculture, manufacturing, mining, transportation, and technology had a profound effect on the social, economic and cultural conditions of the times...
with its canal
Canal
Canals are man-made channels for water. There are two types of canal:#Waterways: navigable transportation canals used for carrying ships and boats shipping goods and conveying people, further subdivided into two kinds:...
and rail
Rail transport
Rail transport is a means of conveyance of passengers and goods by way of wheeled vehicles running on rail tracks. In contrast to road transport, where vehicles merely run on a prepared surface, rail vehicles are also directionally guided by the tracks they run on...
links, with Brimscombe Port serving as the hub of the Thames and Severn canal
Thames and Severn Canal
The Thames and Severn Canal is a canal in Gloucestershire in the south of England, which was completed in 1789. It was conceived as part of a canal route from Bristol to London. At its eastern end, it connects to the River Thames at Inglesham Lock near Lechlade, while at its western end, it...
.
Brimscombe Port was originally built to transfer cargo from Severn Trows
Trow
A trow was a type of cargo boat found in the past on the rivers Severn and Wye in Great Britain and used to transport goods. The mast could be taken down so that the trow could go under bridges, such as the bridge at Worcester and the many bridges up and downstream. The mast was stepped in a three...
, which travelled from the River Severn
River Severn
The River Severn is the longest river in Great Britain, at about , but the second longest on the British Isles, behind the River Shannon. It rises at an altitude of on Plynlimon, Ceredigion near Llanidloes, Powys, in the Cambrian Mountains of mid Wales...
down the Stroudwater Navigation
Stroudwater Navigation
The Stroudwater Navigation is a canal linking Stroud to the Severn Estuary in England and Wales. It was authorised in 1776, although part had already been built, as the Proprietors thought that an Act of Parliament obtained in 1730 gave them the necessary powers. It opened in 1779, and was a...
, to Thames barge
Barge
A barge is a flat-bottomed boat, built mainly for river and canal transport of heavy goods. Some barges are not self-propelled and need to be towed by tugboats or pushed by towboats...
s which carried the goods eastwards towards London. This was necessary because the locks to the east of the port were too narrow to accommodate the larger sea-going Trows. There were also several boat-building yards at the port, including Abdela & Mitchell, who exported boats, notably paddle steamers, all over the world.
According to recent on-the-ground research the legendary riverboat ‘Queen Of Africa’ which gave a star performance in the John Huston movie The African Queen was built at the Abdela & Mitchell Brimscombe works between 1908 and 1911.
Many of the Abdela & Mitchell river-boats went to the Nile, the Niger and other African rivers, and especially to the Peruvian Amazon and other Amazonian tributaries. The Abdela river-boats were highly regarded for their elegance, shallow draft (often less than 40cm), and flexibility, viz the ‘Adis Ababa’ for Lt-Col John Harrington’s White Nile/Ethiopia expedition of 1903 – ‘boiler arranged to burn oil, coal or wood’. Lesley Abdela who lives in East Sussex is the last direct descendant bearing the name of the Victorian/Edwardian shipbuilding family which owned yards on the Manchester Ship Canal, Queen’s Ferry, and Brimscombe. Her marine architect grandfather Isaac Abdela was the proprietor of the Abdela & Mitchell shipyards when the ‘Queen Of Africa’ was built at Brimscombe. The Shipyards announced themselves as ‘Contractors To The Admiralty, War Office, India Office And Allied Governments’.
Until the construction of what is now the A419
A419 road
The A419 road is a primary route between Chiseldon near Swindon at junction 15 of the M4 with the A346 road, and Whitminster in Gloucestershire, England....
road along the bottom of the valley in 1815, Thrupp Lane was the main thoroughfare between Stroud and Chalford
Chalford
Chalford is a village in the Frome Valley of the Cotswolds in Gloucestershire, England. It is about 8 km upstream of Stroud. It gives its name to Chalford parish, which covers the villages of Chalford, Chalford Hill, France Lynch, Bussage and Brownshill, spread over 2 mi² of the...
. The condition of this road was such that it required a whole day for a team of horses to draw a loaded waggon and return, a distance of only four miles each way.
Brimscombe railway station was opened on 1 June 1845 as part of the Cheltenham and Great Western Union Railway
Cheltenham and Great Western Union Railway
The Cheltenham and Great Western Union Railway was a broad gauge railway that linked the Great Western Railway at Swindon, Wiltshire, with Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, England...
from Swindon
Swindon
Swindon is a large town within the borough of Swindon and ceremonial county of Wiltshire, in South West England. It is midway between Bristol, west and Reading, east. London is east...
to Gloucester
Gloucester
Gloucester is a city, district and county town of Gloucestershire in the South West region of England. Gloucester lies close to the Welsh border, and on the River Severn, approximately north-east of Bristol, and south-southwest of Birmingham....
.
It closed on 2 November 1964, and the nearest station is now at Stroud.
Present day
The former port is to be regenerated as part of the canal restoration project by the Cotswold Canals Partnership. This will require considerable engineering expertise as much of the basin has been infilled and in places factories have been built over the canal. Initially the canal is planned to become navigable from Brimscombe Port to the Gloucester and Sharpness CanalGloucester and Sharpness Canal
The Gloucester and Sharpness Canal or Gloucester and Berkeley Canal is a canal in the west of England, between Gloucester and Sharpness; for much of its length it runs close to the tidal River Severn, but cuts off a significant loop in the river, at a once-dangerous bend near Arlingham...
. Plans are in place, and much activity being undertaken to restore the whole length of what is now known as The Cotswold Canals, eastwards from Brimscombe to Inglesham on the Thames.
Business
Although small-scale textile weaving and cloth manufacturing had been taking place for centuries it was with the construction of the Thames and Severn canal and Brimscombe port in 1789 that the two villages expanded rapidly, andmany former cloth and woollen mills built around the port at that time have been restored and converted for modern business use.
Bourne Mills latterly produced walking sticks but now houses a cycle shop, auto repair services, and a metal polishing company.
Griffin Mill, which was founded in 1600 by the Griffin family for the making of cloth, subsequently turned to furniture making, and is now occupied by a variety of small businesses including a paint factory, a painting and decorating retail business, a fitness centre, an antiques emporium, a computer supplier, a print making co-operative and an art shop.
Ham Mill produced textiles from 1601 to 2000, when the carpet manufacturer occupying the premises ceased trading. It presently lies empty.
Hope Mills business centre contains a tree maintenance company, a car body repair centre, a banner maker and an electrical, plumbing and building maintenance contractor.
Phoenix Mill, the site of the old iron works, is now a trading estate containing among others a swimming pool installer, a hot sauce manufacturer, an electronic component manufacturer and a printers.
Port Mill was at one time a grist
Grist
Grist is grain that has been separated from its chaff in preparation for grinding. It can also mean grain that has been ground at a grist mill. Its etymology derives from the verb grind....
mill. It later became a textile mill (until the 1930s) and is now occupied by The History Press
The History Press
The History Press is one of the UK’s largest local and specialist history publishers, publishing approximately 500 books per year.Created in December 2007, The History Press has integrated core elements of the NPI Media Group within it, including all existing published titles, plus all the future...
.
Although there are still a handful of shops in Brimscombe including the Newsagent, Post Office, Fish & Chip Shop, Hairdressers and Antique Furntiure store the number of retail outlets has been in steady decline. The last shop and post office
Post office
A post office is a facility forming part of a postal system for the posting, receipt, sorting, handling, transmission or delivery of mail.Post offices offer mail-related services such as post office boxes, postage and packaging supplies...
in Thrupp, The Happy Shopper
Happy Shopper
Happy Shopper is a United Kingdom brand of independent convenience products. The brand is owned by cash and carry company Booker Group.The products are sold by Booker to independent convenience stores and off-licences. Products include groceries, frozen foods, carbonated drinks and confectionery....
, closed in 1998.
Education
Thrupp primary school is a mixed school of non denominational religion with a thriving arts community, while Brimscombe C of E Primary is a mixed school of Church of England religion.Both schools act as feeder school
Feeder school
Feeder school is a name applied to schools, colleges, universities, or other educational institutions that provide a significant number of graduates who intend to continue their studies at specific schools, or even in specific fields....
s for Thomas Keble, Stroud High School
Stroud High School
Stroud High School is a state funded grammar school for girls aged 11 to 18 located in Stroud, Gloucestershire, England.-History:Stroud High School was founded in 1904 as the Girls' Endowed School by a group of local citizens led by solicitor Mr. A. J...
, Marling School
Marling School
Marling School is a grammar school for boys located in Stroud, Gloucestershire, England, next to its sister school, Stroud High School. It is on the Cainscross Road, the main route out of Stroud towards the M5....
, Archway School
Archway School
Archway School is a comprehensive co-educational school for pupils aged 11 to 18 in Stroud, Gloucestershire, England. It holds the status of a Specialist Technology College. The headteacher is Mr Colin Belford....
, Deer Park in Cirencester, Sir William Romney
Sir William Romney's School, Tetbury
Sir William Romney's School is a secondary school in Tetbury, Gloucestershire, England, with students aged 11–16. It serves schools around the Tetbury, Leighterton, Stroud, Cirencester, Nailsworth and Avening, also many other towns around Tetbury....
, Maidenhill and St. Peter's School in Gloucester
Gloucester
Gloucester is a city, district and county town of Gloucestershire in the South West region of England. Gloucester lies close to the Welsh border, and on the River Severn, approximately north-east of Bristol, and south-southwest of Birmingham....
.
Leisure
There is a public house, the name of which reflect the local history, the Ship Inn at Brimscombe, which takes its name from the Severn Trows which are mentioned earlier.Until recently there was another pub called the King and Castle.
This acquired its name from its proximity to the railway line, 'king' and 'castle' being the names of two classes of locomotive used by the Great Western Railway
Great Western Railway
The Great Western Railway was a British railway company that linked London with the south-west and west of England and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, received its enabling Act of Parliament in 1835 and ran its first trains in 1838...
. It is now an Indian restaurant.
Religion
Unusually for a parish there is no parish churchParish church
A parish church , in Christianity, is the church which acts as the religious centre of a parish, the basic administrative unit of episcopal churches....
within the boundaries of Thrupp, but there is a parish church, Holy Trinity, and a Methodist church on Brimscombe Hill, as well as a non-denominational Christian Fellowship that meets in the Brimscombe & Thrupp Social Centre.
Sport
Brimscombe & Thrupp F.C.Brimscombe & Thrupp F.C.
Brimscombe and Thrupp are a football club based in Brimscombe near Stroud. They are currently members of the Gloucestershire County League and won the league in the 2010-11 season, earning promotion to the Hellenic Football League. The club is affiliated to the Gloucestershire County...
,(known as the Lilywhites) play in the Gloucestershire County League and Stroud District Football League. Their home ground is The Meadows, where they have been playing their games for over a hundred years.