Welcome to the website of Chalford Parish Local History Group, which is designed to provide information on our meetings, on other local history events in the area and to be a source of general information about the history of the Chalford Parish.
The Group was formally constituted in September 2016 after a series of very successful meetings had been held beginning in May of that year. We currently have over 120 people on our mailing list and everyone is welcome at all our meetings.
We also have a Facebook Group here which anyone is welcome to join, with over 800 members. This is a private Group so you will need to join it to see posts.
This website continues to evolve as we add new material so do keep returning or try following some of the links at the top of the page.
Next Meeting
15 April – The Schools of Chalford Parish (Part 1)
We’ve done a significant amount of research on our Parish schools before for our various books, but in this presentation, members of the Committee will be putting it all together to talk about education in the Parish up to the Second World War. We’ll be talking about Dame Schools, Sunday Schools, National Schools and British Schools as well as a number of locally run Private Schools. We’ll hopefully have some photos you won’t have seen before and some stories you won’t have heard. Hear about the influence of the Church, the problems of school attendance, the reasons why even in the 20th century there were still children who couldn’t read and write, and the significant role played by some influential local head teachers.
The talk starts at 7.30 p.m. and entrance is £2 (cash only please) payable on the door. Everyone is welcome and we look forward to seeing you there.
Latest Book Publication
In September 2025, we announced the publication of our latest book, Old Maps of Chalford. This was inspired by the response to Roger Carnt’s talk on that very subject in October 2024 and the subsequent discovery that we have so many rich sources of local maps, many of which are not available except by going to see them in person in archives and collections. Seven of the Committee put this book together, drawing on a wide variety of local maps from the 16th century onwards. The 72 page A4 landscape publication is in full colour with numerous pictures and full page reproductions of many of the maps. It is available (price £10) at our meetings as well as via Chalford Parish Centre (Geralds Way), Eastcombe Stores, and Chalford Village Shop. Now also available via R&R Books, Stroud (at the Shambles Market weekly).
We meet monthly except August and December, normally on the third Wednesday of the month.
Our current programme is here and other local history events which may be of interest are here.