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Stow-on-the-Wold, Gloucestershire

Stow-on-the-Wold, at the junction of a number of long established route ways, is an ancient market town, with some current buildings dating to the sixteenth century. Built on top of a rounded hill, the town's origins lie with an iron age hill fort, dating to around 700BC. Banks were built around the hill top to offer protection from enemies. The lines of the town square today give a sense of complete enclosure and hark back to those prehistoric earth banks. Hill forts were generally places of refuge rather than places to live, but clearly Stow at the junction of ancient route ways offered such opportunities that it made sense for people to live here and develop a settlement. The abbots of Maugersbury Manor who controlled the town in medieval times clearly saw this potential and encouraged the growth of Stow as a market town. According to C.R. Elrington in A History of the County of Gloucester the first weekly market at Stow was instituted by Henry I in 1107.

 

It was the development of the wool industry that brought Stow to the peak of its prosperity and power. From the fourteenth to the sixteenth century wool was a vital trade for England. An echo of wool as a vital national interest is still evident today in the continued tradition of the lord chancellor sitting on a wool sack in the House of Lords. The fourteenth century economy of England relied on wool, and contributed to the cost of extended and successful military campaigns in France. It was Edward III who in 1330 established an annual seven day market at Stow. Many different types of goods were traded, with wool always an important commodity. In 1476 two five day fairs were established, held in May and October. During the reign of Henry VIII an aggressive foreign policy destroyed overseas markets for English wool and caused a collapse in the wool trade. This was a major disaster for some towns, which simply stopped developing. Lavenham in Suffolk is an example. The fact that Stow looks as it does today, that is quaint, old and pretty, suggests that the wool disaster must have had an effect. But Stow seems to have had enough variety of trade to remain relatively prosperous. Horse trading began to replace the trade in sheep. Twice yearly markets concentrating on horses, and a wide range of other goods are still held at Stow, no longer in the central square but in a large field close to the town.

 

Later in history, during the seventeenth century English Civil War, Stow's position at the centre of so many routes of communication meant that royalist and parliamentary armies were often passing through, and sometimes fighting in and around the town. Stow was the site of a major battle in 1646 which effectively ended the first part of the Civil War. This battle is commemorated with a plaque in the churchyard at St Edward's Church.

Directions: Stow-on-the-Wold is at the junction of the A429, the A436, and the B4068, about twelve miles east of Cheltenham. Click here for an interactive map centred on Stow-on-the-Wold.

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