Between Ebley Oil Mill and Ebley Mill, two former gentlemen's houses are now surounded by modern housing estates.
This traditional humpback canal bridge provided access to Ebley Oil Mill and other properties between the canal and the River Frome. The abutments survive, but now with a lower crossing after a lorry became stuck when trying to cross the original hump. The tall building beside the bridge was the Bell public house.
To the south, Ebley Oil Mill originally crushed seeds to extract oil and the residue was used for cattle feed. Later it was used for finishing woollen cloth and then for grinding corn. The building is now a base for making artificial snow, and the various uses are featured on an obelisk beside the towpath.
This house close to the bridge was built c1780 by the owner of Ebley Oil Mill soon after the canal was completed. It continued to be occupied by later mill owners and then by other prominent businessmen. By 1880 a short tramroad carried coal through the grounds from the canal to the mill - until this was superseded by a siding from the Stonehouse & Nailsworth Railway in the valley to the south.
Immediately east of the house is a circular spill-weir which regulates the level of water in the long Ebley pound of the canal.
This grand house was built in 1874 by a prosperous dyer to replace an earlier building, and its grounds originally extended across the canal. The narrowing of the canal near to Ebley Mill marks the site of a private bridge that linked the two sections. This narrowing has been preserved in the restored canal beside the modern access bridge to Ebley Mill.
In the twentieth century, Ebley House was a National Children's Home which was well known for its annual fete and firework display. It is now the headquarters of the Novalis Trust which runs homes for people with special needs. Its former grounds are now a modern housing estate which made a contribution to restoring this part of the canal.
On the towpath side east of Bridge House is an old telegraph pole which has been restored as a reminder of a once common feature of the canal landscape. It is believed it was part of an early link between Stroud and Stonehouse established by the National Telephone Company in 1895/96.
Information about Ebley buildings from www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/glos/vol10.
Tramroad shown on c1880 OS map.
