Framilode is a village on the banks of the

River Severn The River Severn (, ), at long, is the longest river in Great Britain. It is also the river with the most voluminous flow of water by far in all of England and Wales, with an average flow rate of at Apperley, Gloucestershire. It rises in t ...

Gloucestershire Gloucestershire ( , ; abbreviated Glos.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by Herefordshire to the north-west, Worcestershire to the north, Warwickshire to the north-east, Oxfordshire ...

, England, in the parish of

Fretherne with Saul 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 ...

. 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 mill A gristmill (also: grist mill, corn mill, flour mill, feed mill or feedmill) grinds cereal grain into flour and middlings. The term can refer to either the grinding mechanism or the building that holds it. Grist is grain that has been separat ...

s and

fulling mill Fulling, also known as tucking or walking ( Scots: ''waukin'', hence often spelt waulking in Scottish English), is a step in woollen clothmaking which involves the cleansing of woven cloth (particularly wool) to eliminate (lanolin) oils, dirt, ...

s continued to operate in the village until the late 18th century. The opening of the

Stroudwater Canal The Stroudwater Navigation is a canal in Gloucestershire, England which linked Stroud, Gloucestershire, Stroud to the River Severn. It was authorised in 1776, although part had already been built, as the proprietors believed that an Act of Pa ...

in 1779 created water shortages, and by 1786 the mills were used for

tinplate Tinplate consists of sheet metal, sheets of steel coated with a thin layer of tin to impede rust, rusting. Before the advent of cheap mild steel, the backing metal (known as "") was wrought iron. While once more widely used, the primary use of tinp ...

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 The Gloucester and Sharpness Canal (also known as the Gloucester and Berkeley Canal) is a ship canal in the west of England, between Gloucester and Sharpness, completed in 1827. For much of its length the canal runs close to the tidal River S ...

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 A parish is a territorial entity in many Christianity, Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest#Christianity, priest, often termed a parish pries ...

in 1855, and the parish church of St Peter was built in 1854. The church is a

Grade II listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, H ...

. The ecclesiastical parish was merged with the parish of

Fretherne Fretherne is a small village and former civil parish, now in the parish of Fretherne with Saul, in the Stroud district, in Gloucestershire, England, situated between the larger villages of Frampton-on-Severn and Arlingham. In 1881 the parish ha ...

in 1949, and is now part of the Severnside group of parishes.Severnside group of parishes website
/ref>

References

External links

{{authority control Villages in Gloucestershire Stroud District