Stonehouse: The Town Where Yogurt Rules and Football Dreams
Welcome to Stonehouse, Gloucestershire—a place where Müller (a dairy company) churns out more excitement than the town itself, and where the proposed 5,000 seat new stadium to be built within the Eco Park complex beside Junction 13 of the M5 in Gloucestershire, 1.5 miles west of the town of Stonehouse technically belongs to Forest Green Rovers, a vegan football club that's never actually played in Stonehouse. Yes, this is the town that's famous for yogurt production and borrowed sporting glory—truly the pinnacle of English civic achievement.
A Place Built on Stone (And Delusions of Grandeur)
Stonehouse appears in William the Conqueror's Domesday Book of 1086 under its Old English name "Stanhus" – so called, it is believed, because the manor house was built of stone rather than the usual wattle and daub. So yes, the town is literally named because someone once built a house out of stone. Revolutionary stuff, really. One can only imagine the medieval marketing meeting: "What shall we call this place?" "Well, there's that house... made of stone..." "Brilliant! Stonehouse it is!"
The town's geography reads like a catalog of modest ambitions: Stonehouse is a town in the Stroud District of Gloucestershire in southwestern England. The town centre is 2.5 miles east of the M5 motorway, junction 13. It's perfectly positioned for people who want to leave quickly, with Stonehouse railway station has a regular train service to London—because sometimes you need to escape to a place where yogurt factories aren't the main attraction.
The town's most dramatic historical moment came when One of the manor's owners, John Maltravers, was involved in the murder of King Edward II. He had to leave the country but later returned. Even in the 14th century, people were trying to flee Stonehouse, though admittedly for more pressing reasons than boredom.
The Brick-Making Glory Days (And Their Spectacular End)
Stonehouse found its true calling in the 19th century when it discovered it could make bricks. Due to the availability of raw materials in Stonehouse, brickmaking began there in 1856 with evidence of possible prior brickmaking as early as 1839 or 1840 and of as many as thirteen brickmaking sites altogether. Thirteen different places making bricks—clearly this was a town that had found its niche.
It was founded in 1891, and by 1895 employed a large number of people in making pottery, terra-cotta, and bricks. The company closed in 1968 and the 202-foot high chimney was demolished. The town's proudest industrial monument lasted all of 77 years before they knocked it down—which is probably a metaphor for something, though I'm not sure what.
The bricks did achieve some international fame: Some even went as far as Cape Town, Gibraltar, and Buenos Aires. The bricks for Gibraltar were carried on the RMS Lusitania ship. The English Clock Tower in Buenos Aires, Argentina, was built with these bricks. So while Stonehouse residents were stuck with the industrial dust and noise, their bricks got to see the world. The bricks had better travel plans than most of the locals.
The Yogurt Empire and Vegan Football Contradictions
Today, Stonehouse's claim to fame is hosting Müller (a dairy company) at Oldends Lane industrial estate. The irony is delicious: while Stonehouse produces dairy products for the masses, just down the road sits Forest Green became the world's first vegan football club in 2015. The town literally embodies the cognitive dissonance of modern food politics—industrial dairy production cheek-by-jowl with militant veganism.
Forest Green Rovers, despite being forever linked with Stonehouse in postal addresses and stadium planning documents, actually plays in Nailsworth. Forest Green Rovers Football Club is a professional association football club based in Nailsworth, Gloucestershire, England. The team competes in the National League, the fifth level of the English football league system. Their design is for a stadium made almost entirely of wood, including the roof cantilevers will technically be in Stonehouse, making the town home to England's most environmentally conscious football venue—for a team that doesn't actually play there yet.
The Müller factory has faced its share of drama too. In 2022, Animal Rebellion protesters have caused chaos at Müllers' Stonehouse factory, this morning, Sunday. In a country-wide movement, more than 100 supporters of Animal Rebellion have disrupted the supply of fresh dairy across large areas of England. Because nothing says "effective protest" like disrupting yogurt production in a Gloucestershire industrial estate.
Modern Stonehouse: Where History Goes to Retire
Today's Stonehouse is a study in suburban ambition. Stonehouse has a large number of residential housing estates, including council housing and a small high street. The town once boasted an impressive drinking culture: There were thirty-three public houses and beer houses in Stonehouse in 1838, now there are only two. From thirty-three pubs to two in less than two centuries—that's either impressive temperance or spectacular economic decline, depending on your perspective.
The surviving pubs tell their own story of diminished expectations. The Woolpack is one of the oldest buildings in Stonehouse, developed from 16th century cottages and barns. It catered for the wool traders and farmers whereas the Crown and Anchor in the middle of the town (now the High Street Medical Centre) was the main coaching inn where the Bath coach stopped. The Crown and Anchor has been transformed from a coaching inn to a medical centre—because nothing says "progress" like turning your pub into a doctor's surgery.
Think we were too nice? Get the full roast on RoastMyTown.com and see why Stonehouse earned its reputation as the place where yogurt is more famous than people.