Coaley is a village in the English county of

Gloucestershire Gloucestershire ( , ; abbreviated Glos.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by Herefordshire to the north-west, Worcestershire to the north, Warwickshire to the north-east, Oxfordshire ...

roughly 4 miles from the town of Dursley, and 5 miles from the town of

Stroud Stroud is a market town and civil parish in Gloucestershire, England. It is the main town in Stroud District. The town's population was 13,500 in 2021. Sited below the western escarpment of the Cotswold Hills, at the meeting point of the ...

. The village drops from the edge of the Cotswold Hills, overlooked by Frocester Hill and Coaley Peak picnic site, towards the River Cam at

Cam Cam or CAM may refer to: Science and technology * Cam (mechanism), a mechanical linkage which translates motion * Camshaft, a shaft with a cam * Camera or webcam, a device that records images or video In computing * Computer-aided manufacturin ...

and

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a List of cities in the United Kingdom, city and non-metropolitan district in the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It is the county town of Cambridgeshire and is located on the River Cam, north of London. As of the 2021 Unit ...

and the Severn Estuary beyond. It has a population of around 770. Coaley has many amenities, including a 300-year-old pub, the Old Fox (was The Fox and Hounds until November 2018 ), awarded the Cotswold Life Food & Drink Awards Pub of The Year 2022, the Coaley C of E Primary School, a church, a village hall, and a community shop, recently re-opened in a new building, with coffee shop facilities. Cam and Dursley railway station (near the former Coaley Junction station) was reopened in 1994 (the original closed in 1965) and is situated on the South-Western border of the village. Coaley used to have a football team, Coaley Rovers, who were also known as Coaley Crows. They competed in the Stroud and District League. There is also a Coaley Cricket Club. Coaley also holds an annual produce show, which has been held since 1942 on the first Saturday in September. In 2003, Coaley was crowned

village of the year in a Calor-sponsored competition organised by

Rural Community Council, and went on to pick up a runner-up prize in the national competition, in recognition of local residents' efforts to develop community organisations and enterprises. Local legend has it that one of the original script writers of ''

The Archers ''The Archers'' is a British radio soap opera currently broadcast on BBC Radio 4, the corporation's main spoken-word Radio broadcasting, channel. Broadcast since 1951, it was famously billed as "an everyday story of country folk" and is now pr ...

'', Geoffrey Webb, drank regularly in the (now closed) Swan Public House in the village, and his experiences helped inspire the long-running radio serial.

Governance

The village falls in 'Coaley and Uley' electoral ward. This ward starts in the north near the

M5 motorway The M5 is a motorway in England linking the Midlands with the South West England, South West. It runs from junction 8 of the M6 motorway, M6 at West Bromwich near Birmingham to Exeter in Devon. Heading south-west, the M5 runs east of West Brom ...

and stretches south to Uley. The total population of this ward taken at the 2011 census was 2,299.

References

External links

Coaley Parish Council

Coaley Primary School

/Coaley Community Shop

The Old Fox at Coaley

Coaley Junction Action Committee (Railway Information)

Coaley Cricket Club

Coaley Produce Show

Coaley Parish Plan

Stroud Voices (Coaley filter) - oral history site
{{authority control Villages in Gloucestershire Stroud District Civil parishes in Gloucestershire