Fretherne

Fretherne Court was a handsome residential sporting mansion with picturesque grounds and deer park estate of some 676 acres, situated in the Severn Vale between the Gloucester and Sharpness Canal and the River Severn, in Fretherne, Gloucestershire. It was owned by the Darell family who were Baronets of Richmond Hill.It was built in around 1864 by Sir Edward Tierney (Tierney baronets) who also enlarged Fretherne church from one aisle to three. A good description of Sir Edwards renovations can be read in Sir Lionel E. H. M. Darell's memoirs - written about 1950: "My grandfather - Rev. Sir Lionel William Darell, 4th Baronet (1817–1883) - had come from Richmond Hill, London to a little village of Fretherne, the living being presented to him by Sir Edward Tierney. Sir Edward completely transmogrofied the humble little refectory of Fretherne, building on to it many extra reception rooms, a ballroom, billiard room, water towers and halls, and last but no means least, a charming little chapel just inside the front entrance hall. Our airey nurseries were on the second floor, but in those days there was no electric light, central heating, or bathroom of any description. The Kitchens were large, designed after the big kitchen at Christ Church, Oxford, but the food had to be brought up many passages".

Overton is a hamlet in the civil parish of Arlingham, in the Stroud district, in the county of Gloucestershire, England. The name, first recorded in 1584, is of Old English origin and means "upper farmstead". Barrow Hill (62m), above the hamlet, is the highest point on the Arlingham peninsula and offers good views across the Severn to the Forest of Dean. Wick Court is a Grade II* listed building. It is an "almost unaltered example of an Elizabethan house said to have been used by the Lords Berkeley when catching salmon, and even visited by Queen Elizabeth."

Wick Court is a country house in the parish of Arlingham, Gloucestershire, England, 0.5 mile east of the hamlet of Overton. It was constructed between the late 14th and the mid-17th centuries. Now a base for the charity Farms for City Children, it operates as a traditional livestock farm providing experience of country life for children from urban areas. Wick Court is a Grade II* listed building.

Priding is a hamlet in the civil parish of Arlingham, in the Stroud district, in the county of Gloucestershire, England.

Fretherne with Saul is a civil parish in the Stroud district of Gloucestershire, England. It includes the villages of Framilode, Fretherne, Saul and Upper Framilode. Watercourses form a significant portion of the parish boundaries: on two sides is the River Severn, which forms the boundary with the parishes of Westbury-on-Severn to the north and Awre to the south-west, both being in the Forest of Dean; and the Gloucester and Sharpness Canal forms the boundary with the parish of Whitminster to the east, and the major portion of the boundary with the parish of Frampton-on-Severn to the south-east. The land boundaries are with the parishes of Arlingham to the west and north-west; Frampton-on-Severn to the south; and Longney and Epney to the north-east. The parish is crossed by the River Frome, which flows into the Severn at Upper Framilode. The only major road in the parish is the B4071, which connects Saul to the A38. The parish was formed in 1884 from the separate parishes of Fretherne and Saul, and from five detached parts of the parish of Eastington which lay within the parishes of Fretherne and Saul.

Saul is a village and former civil parish, now in the parish of Fretherne with Saul, in the Stroud district, in the county of Gloucestershire, England. In 1881 the parish had a population of 597. On 24 March 1884 the parish was abolished to form Fretherne with Saul; part also went to Moreton Valance and Standish.

The Westbury Shales is a geologic formation in England. It preserves fossils of Holcoptera schlotheimi, Saurichthys acuminatus, Coleopteron sp. and Liassophlebia sp. dating back to the Rhaetian period.

Framilode is a village on the banks of the River Severn in Gloucestershire, England, in the parish of Fretherne with Saul. It consists of two settlements: the larger, Framilode, is at the mouth of the River Frome. The smaller settlement, Framilode Passage, lies about 0.5 mile downstream. The name, first recorded in the 7th century, means "Frome crossing point", probably signifying a crossing of the Severn by the mouth of the Frome. However, by the 16th century the ferry was further downstream at Framilode Passage, and the ferry across the Severn here continued in occasional use until the Second World War.In 1126 Gloucester Abbey acquired a mill on the Frome at Framilode, and both corn mills and fulling mills continued to operate in the village until the late 18th century. The opening of the Stroudwater Canal in 1779 created water shortages, and by 1786 the mills were used for tinplate manufacture. By 1831 the mills were used as a forge, but were derelict by 1841.The Stroudwater Canal also entered the Severn at Framilode, and a canal basin was built at Framilode in 1794 and 1795. After the Gloucester and Berkeley Canal opened in 1827 use of the stretch between the junction with the new canal and the Severn declined, and in the 1920s the section was blocked and fell into disuse. The basin was subsequently filled.Framilode became an ecclesiastical parish in 1855, and the parish church of St Peter was built in 1854. The church is a Grade II listed building. The ecclesiastical parish was merged with the parish of Fretherne in 1949, and is now part of the Severnside group of parishes.

Frampton Court is a Grade I listed country house and estate of about 1,500 acres (610 ha) in Frampton-on-Severn, Gloucestershire, England. It has been owned by the Clifford family since the 11th century. The main buildings are the 18th century Frampton Court and, on the opposite side of the village green, Manor Farm. The gardens at Frampton Court have a Gothic orangery and ornamental canal in the style of William Halfpenny. The two houses, barn and orangery are all Grade I listed buildings in their own right, while the Gatepiers and Gates are Grade II* listed.

Rodley is a settlement in Westbury-on-Severn parish, Forest of Dean District, Gloucestershire, England. It lies to the south east of Westbury-on-Severn, surrounded on three sides by a loop of the River Severn. Rodley has a tin church, known as Rodley Mission Church. This is a prefabricated church constructed in 1908 of galvanised metal over a wooden interior. It is used for occasional services.There are three Grade II listed buildings in Rodley: Court Farmhouse, 17th century with an early 18th-century extension; Dove House, built 1766–77; and Rodley Court, an 18th-century farmhouse.

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 25 miles (40 km) 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.

Frampton on Severn is a village and civil parish in Gloucestershire, England. The population is 1,432.