What it's like to live in Stonehouse

Stroud district is mostly an owner-occupier area: 72.7% of homes are owned, 13.7% are privately rented and 12.3% are social rented, below the England average of 17.1%. Council homes make up 8.6% and housing association homes 3.6%, so social lets are a smaller share of the market than in many parts of the country.

Stroud District Council is by far the biggest social landlord with 4,989 homes, followed by Sovereign Network Group (586), Bromford Housing Association (335), Sanctuary Housing Association (313) and The Guinness Partnership (303). Average weekly social rents in the district for 2024/25 were £92 for a one bed, £107 for two beds and £116 for three beds.

The district skews older than England as a whole: 23.3% are 65 or over against 18.4% nationally, and 29.4% are aged 45 to 64. Under-16s make up 17.2%. Demand for social housing is real, with 2,717 households on the council's register at March 2025 and 360 homes let in 2024-25, which is part of why swapping appeals to so many tenants here.

Families are well covered here. Stonehouse Park Infant School and Park Junior School are both about 0.2 miles from the centre, so many children can walk. King's Stanley CofE Primary and Leonard Stanley CofE Primary are around a mile out, and Great Oldbury Primary Academy serves the newer housing on the edge of town.

For older children, Maidenhill School is 0.6 miles away, with Archway School and Marling School both around two miles in the Stroud direction. The Shrubberies School, a special school, is close by at 0.4 miles. Wycliffe College, an independent school, also sits in the town. Always check catchment and admissions with Gloucestershire County Council before planning a move.

Outside school, Laburnum Park is the nearest green space for younger children, with Community Park, Finns Way, Queen Elizabeth II Playing Field and Jack Russell Park within a few miles. Stonehouse Library is in the town itself, and village halls at King's Stanley, Standish and Randwick, plus Maypole Hall and The Octagon Community Hub, host the sort of groups and clubs that help you settle in.

Stonehouse station is barely a few minutes from the centre, which is unusual for a town this size and one of its strongest cards. Stroud station is 2.7 miles away as a second option, giving you another timetable to work with if you commute.

By road, the town sits close to the M5 corridor, so Gloucester, Bristol and the wider South West are reachable by car. Parking and traffic are easier than in Stroud itself, though the main routes through town get busy at school run and commuting times.

On foot, the centre is compact. The Co-op, the library, Laburnum Park, the infant and junior schools and a couple of pubs are all within a short walk of much of the town, so a car is not essential for everyday errands. Trips further afield, such as to the pharmacies in Cainscross or Stroud, the Vue cinema or the bigger supermarkets, usually mean a bus, train or car. If you rely on buses, check your exact street against current timetables before you commit to a swap.

Stonehouse keeps things local and low-key. The Woolpack Inn and The Globe are the two pubs closest to the centre, with Magpies Social Club nearby, and the White Hart and The Village Inn a little over a mile out in the surrounding villages. For a night out with more going on, Warehouse in Stroud is under three miles away, as is the Vue cinema.

For exercise, there is Stonehouse Crossfit and Legacy Martial Arts within a mile, plus Jeremy Bingham Personal Training in the town. Active Lifestyles and Anytime Fitness are around two and a half miles away in the Stroud direction if you want a bigger gym.

Green space is easy to reach. Laburnum Park is the closest, and Community Park, Finns Way and Queen Elizabeth II Playing Field give you more room within a couple of miles, with the Cotswold edge rising to the east for longer walks. Stonehouse Library and Stroud Library cover the quieter days, and the community halls scattered around the nearby villages run the kind of events that are worth looking out for.

Across the Stroud council area, 59.8% of adults are in work, a little above the England figure of 57.4%. Unemployment is low at 2.1%, compared with 3.5% nationally, and unemployment-related benefit claims stood at 2.1% of working-age people in September 2026 against 4% for England. On paper, this is a district where work is relatively easy to come by.

In practice, many people in Stonehouse travel to work. The station and the nearby M5 mean Gloucester, Cheltenham and Bristol are all realistic commutes, while Stroud itself draws people for shops, services and offices a few miles up the valley.

Locally, jobs tend to sit in the shops, schools, pubs, gyms and care and community services that serve the town and the villages around it. If your work depends on a particular employer or shift pattern, it is worth checking how the journey looks from the exact street you are swapping into, because travel times can vary a lot between the centre of town and the newer edges.