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The first planned routes across the Cotswolds were the roads built by the Romans to transport their armies around the country. These roads followed the ridge-tops, Cirencester becoming an important centre of Roman life. Smaller roads or tracks ran from these main routes to the villages. The Cotswolds were noted for having larger village communities rather than small farmsteads. By the seventeenth century, Acts of Parliament had been passed which ordered parishes to bear the responsibilities of road maintenance, but administrative and financial problems plagued the scheme and Turnpike Trusts and Toll Roads were set up. The Turnpike Act for the Stroud to Cirencester road was passed in 1751. Turnpike Trusts were almost entirely made up of local cloth merchants. Rural roads were still badly kept, to the point of being dangerous, but this was to change in the l880s when the County Road authorities were formed.

Local enterprise ran the stage coaches towards the end of the eighteenth century. In 1770 coaches left Stroud for London twice a week, but from 1790 to 1807 the only locally owned coach was run by the Masters family of Cirencester. The Minchinhampton coach set out at 4am and reached London at 8pm the same day. In 1807 a company of local subscribers was set up to run a London service but this failed in 1809. Gloucester to Bath, via Stroud and Tetbury, cost 12s 6d, while the London to Gloucester fare was one pound twelve shillings. The latter coach left Gloucester at 5pm and reached London at noon the next day. In 1777 goods for London left the Horse and Groom in Gloucester at noon on Saturdays and arrived at the George, Snow Hill, London, on Thursdays, running via Painswick, Stroud and Minchinhampton. By the early l800s light goods were transported in Fly Wagons, reaching London in two days. Fly Vans, which took only 20 hours, ran three times a week. Tanner and Baylis, and Dawes were two of the most notable local haulers.

A stage coach originally used on the Cheltenham London route

Forney Transportation Museum

Denver

USA

The first attempt at a motorised service in the area was by Charles Dance who ran his service from Gloucester to Cheltenham. This was, however, only slightly quicker than the stage coach.

From 1697 there were schemes to make the Stroudwater navigable from the River Severn to Stroud to bring in coal and carry away the manufactured goods. Because the Stroudwater was used to power the local woollen mills their owners objected and it was not until 1775 that a canal was authorised rather than the original idea of a navigable river. The canal was opened in 1779, some eight miles long with twelve wide locks. It was soon realised that if this canal could be linked with the Thames then a navigable link with London could be established. In 1783 work began on the Thames and Severn Canal, which opened in 1789, running the length of the Golden Valley and through the Sapperton Tunnel, which, at almost two and a half miles in length, was the longest bore in Britain. The canal was the main route from London to Bristol and the Midlands, the barges having to navigate the tidal River Severn on the last part of their journey. By 1810 shorter routes had been built and the Thames and Severn lost some of its importance. In 1820 the Berkeley Canal was opened between Sharpness and Gloucester to by-pass the tidal section of river. The main canal traffic was of a local nature, but as local mills turned to steam power the canal became an important carrier of coal from the Forest of Dean. While the Stroudwater Company was very successful, the Thames and Severn struggled from the outset, the lack of a good water supply being one of its main troubles.

The 1825 Session of Parliament heard a debate on the Stroud and Severn Railroad, to run via Eastington and Dudbridge, with branches to Froombridge near Frampton on Severn and Iron Mills at Avening. This was the first proposed railway in the Stroud area and strenuous arguments were published by both parties for and against. The Canal Company won the day as the railway scheme was abandoned.