| Connections with the Wesleyans and Methodists possibly had the greatest influence on Stroud at any one time. In the mid to late 1700s, George Whitefield (son a of a Gloucester innkeeper) preached on the bowling green at Stroud to several thousands and his follower Thomas Adams built Rodborough Tabernacle around 1766, which became the leading place for worship in the whole County!
Similarly, John Wesley preached in Stroud in July 1742, at the Shambles from a butcher's block and his Stroud followers built the "Round House" in Acre Street on Stroud Hill. Although the Salvation Army now owns it, it is Britain's oldest surviving Methodist Chapel built originally in that form.
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