Gloucestershire stone stile project

Stone stiles are a characteristic of the Cotswold landscape of Gloucestershire, with many stiles over 200 years old. For centuries stone stiles have allowed pedestrian access across the countryside and as such indicated ancient pathways which predate land enclosure, and point to where farmsteads, barns and villages, long since vanished, existed. Despite their historic value there is no comprehensive record of stone stiles in our ancient county of Gloucestershire.

CPRE Gloucestershire volunteer Peter Wilson launched the Gloucestershire Stone Stile Project in the summer of 2020, with support from CPRE Gloucestershire and the Cotteswold Naturalists’ Field Club.

View all the stiles that we have found here!  You can search by grid references or longitude and latitude.

The Project

The Project was divided into three phases: Reporting of stiles, the indexing of those stiles and finally the production of an interactive OS map showing the location of the stile and information on it.

The support for the Project has been overwhelming with over 1000 stone stiles reported and our thanks go to everyone who has contributed. There were duplicate sightings but often new information would be added such as the condition of the stile or its history. We now have an invaluable record of the stone stiles in our county which is a further step in securing their preservation and have expanded the scope to include historic metal stiles.

We are well on our way to indexing all of the stiles we ahve been informed about and we have produced an interactive map.  The map shows the location of the stiles and most have some photographs.  It is great to help explore your local area.

Phase two

And now the aim is to create an Index, with a unique number for each stile together with all the information received from the contributors. With the help of a small team of volunteers we have been able to start the second phase of the Project. This will bring together all the information received from the contributors on stiles located in each parish across the county.  Much of this is already available from the forms submitted together with at least one photograph but if more information is needed it will be necessary to visit the individual stile. The recording of 800 stiles across Gloucestershire needs to be tackled and this is where the team need your help.

We are looking for volunteers who are preferably fairly confident in using an Excel spread sheet to record the information which will be supplied to you from Peter Wilson. Each volunteer will receive the emails together with photographs of each stile and will be asked to enter the details onto a spreadsheet. Hugh Tarran, a member of the team has produced Guidance Notes and will be on hand if help is needed. We anticipate more volunteers will opt to use Excel however the details could be recorded onto a table in a Word document

This is some of the information which will appear on the spread sheet: – Location of stile, map ref, type of stile, which parish, condition of stile – in use and if not alternative in situ, on Right of Way or private land, where path goes to and from, and any additional information such as possible age of path, when stile was installed and any landscape features – geology, archaeology, history, etc.

It is so important to record our historical heritage and we hope that you can help. The project is one step away from producing an interactive App and with a team of Indexers across Gloucestershire we can achieve this.

For more information please contact Peter Wilson by emailing: peter.wilson@woodchestervalleyvillage.co.uk or Hugh Tarran on h.tarran@tiscali.co.uk