Fee Manley explores the links between three clothiers and the Stroudwater Canal.
The story begins with the Eycott family, whose fortunes were deeply tied to the woollen industry of the Stroud Valley and the emerging industrial landscape of the late 18th century. Henry Eycott Snr. was a landowner and mill owner who, along with his father Joseph, operated successful mills at Stonehouse, including Stonehouse Upper Mill and later Bond’s Mill. These were prosperous times for the woollen broadcloth trade, and the Eycotts stood among the local families shaping the transition from traditional cloth-making to a more industrial system. But their story becomes especially important when the Stroudwater Canal enters the scene.
In the early 1770s, Henry Eycott Snr. is recorded as a key local figure in the canal’s development. When plans for the navigation were taking shape, he attended the crucial meetings at the George Inn in Stroud and also became one of the subscribers who helped fund the project. The canal, designed to carry coal from the River Severn into the Stroud Valleys, would become essential to the woollen industry that the Eycotts were deeply embedded in. Perhaps most significantly, in 1775 Henry gave formal consent for the canal to pass through his land, with the condition that it did not damage his mill or his “Rack Close,” an area associated with the traditional cloth-drying process. This act placed him directly within the physical making of the canal.
By the time of his will in 1799, Henry had ensured that his estates and canal shares would pass to his son rather than to his wider family connections, signalling a clear continuation of the Eycott industrial legacy.
His son, Henry Eycott Jnr., inherited not only wealth and land in 1801, but also his father’s strong connection to the canal. By then, the Stroudwater Navigation was fully established as a vital commercial route, and Henry Jnr. became an active participant in its continued operation.
He appears regularly in the records of the Company of Proprietors, attending meetings and eventually serving on its Committee alongside other leading industrial families of the region. The canal was no longer just an ambitious project—it was now the lifeline of the valley’s economy, and Henry Jnr. was one of its custodians. He held multiple shares in the navigation company, reinforcing his financial and practical stake in its success. The canal and the mills were inseparable in his world: cloth production depended on transport, and transport depended on men like him.
Running parallel to the Eycott story is that of William Stanton, whose life becomes closely entwined with the Eycotts through a family connection. William was born in 1758 in Clerkenwell, London, to Joseph Stanton and Elizabeth Page. After the death of his father, his mother later married Henry Eycott Snr. in 1768. This marriage reshaped William’s family world entirely, giving him a new household and, importantly, a new half-brother in Henry Eycott Jnr.
From this point on, William and Henry grew up within the same extended family network. The connection between them endured throughout their lives, blending family ties with shared industrial interests. William went on to establish himself as a clothier and mill owner in his own right. In 1793, he purchased Stafford Mill, a long-established cloth mill at Thrupp near Stroud. This was close to the newly opened Thames & Severn Canal, via which he could receive coal brought up the Stroudwater Canal. The mill became the centre of his family’s business empire, and his descendants would continue to operate it for generations. Like the Eycotts, William’s life was deeply tied to the industrial landscape of Stroud—and inevitably to the canals that served it.
As the Stroudwater Navigation became fully operational from 1779, both families found themselves bound to its success. For both families, the canal was both a financial investment and a practical necessity, moving coal into the valley. Their mills depended on reliable transport, and the canal offered exactly that. Over time, William became more than just a beneficiary of the system. He is recorded as serving on the committee of the Stroudwater Canal for many years, attending meetings at the George Inn in Stroud—the same place where the canal had first been formally organised.
It is here that the lives of Henry Eycott Jnr. and William Stanton most clearly intersect. Both men are listed among the committee members responsible for overseeing the canal’s operation and development. They attended meetings together, shared decisions, and participated in the management of what had become one of the most important industrial arteries in Gloucestershire. As well as their family connection—William being Henry Jnr.’s half-brother—their relationship also functioned in practical, business terms. They were not merely relatives; they were colleagues in the governance of the canal and stakeholders in the same industrial system.
