I started writing A Guide to the Radical History of Stroud and the Five
Valleys a year ago, with a narrative history occasionally touched by a comedic
Mark Steele/ Mark Thomas style of analysis. After a year, I have reached the
mid-nineteenth century, in terms of content, with a definite feeling that my style
and approach are about to change. A visit to the Writing Britain exhibition at
the British Library has made me think more widely about the relationship
between landscape, literature, the writing of history and pyschogeography. It
has also made me think more deeply about the collaborative use of different
media in the presentation of my findings - as opposed to the lonely writer in
the garret trope. Hence this blog, as a first step, as a first step towards
discovering, perpetuating and developing the genius loci of Stroud and the Five
Valleys. The story is too important for humour: serious history and literature
might be needed; as will a group-effort. A lot of people who move into Stroud
are fascinated by its radicalism and wonder whence it came; let us hope that we
can all, locals and newcomers alike, answer the question, “What is the peculiar
genius loci of Stroud and its associated valleys?”
