Coordinates: 51°44′38″N 2°12′54″W / 51.744°N 2.215°W / 51.744; -2.215

Stroud
Stroud from the air
Stroud  Stroud shown within Gloucestershire
Population	12,690 (parish) [1] 32,052  (town) [2] 47,348  (conurbation) [2]
OS grid reference	SO851051
Civil parish	Stroud
District	Stroud
Shire county	Gloucestershire
Region	South West
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	STROUD
Postcode district	GL5
Dialling code	01453
Police	Gloucestershire
Fire	Gloucestershire
Ambulance	Great Western
EU Parliament	South West England
UK Parliament	Stroud
List of places: UK • England • Gloucestershire

Stroud is a market town and civil parish in the county of Gloucestershire, England. It is the main town in Stroud District.

Situated below the western escarpment of the Cotswold Hills at the meeting point of the Five Valleys, the town is noted for its steep streets and cafe culture.^[3] The Cotswold Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty surrounds the town, and the Cotswold Way path passes by it to the west.

Although not formally part of the town, the parishes of Rodborough and Cainscross lie adjacent to Stroud and are often considered part of it.

Stroud acts as a centre for surrounding villages and small market towns including Amberley, Bisley, Chalford, Dudbridge, Dursley, Minchinhampton, Nailsworth, Oakridge, Painswick, Sheepscombe, Slad, Stonehouse, Thrupp and Woodchester.

History[link]

Stroud is known for its involvement in the Industrial Revolution.^[4] It was a cloth town; woollen mills were powered by the small rivers which surge through the five valleys, and supplied by Cotswold sheep which grazed on the hills above. Particularly noteworthy was the production of military uniforms in the colour Stroudwater Scarlet.^[5][6] The area was made home by a sizable Huguenot community in the 17th century, fleeing persecution in Catholic France,^[7] followed by a significant Jewish presence in the 19th century, linked to the tailoring and cloth industries.^[8]

Stroud was an industrial and trading location in the nineteenth century, and so needed transport links. It first had a canal network in the form of the Stroudwater Navigation and the Thames & Severn Canal, both of which survived until the early 20th century. It is now planned to restore these canals as a leisure facility by a partnership of Stroud District Council and the Cotswold Canals Trust^[9] with a multi-million pound Lottery grant. Stroud railway station (on the Gloucester–Swindon the Golden Valley Line) was designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel.

High Street, the main shopping street

Though there is much evidence of early historic settlement and transport, Stroud parish was originally part of Bisley, and only began to emerge as a distinct unit by the 13th century, taking its name from the marshy ground at the confluence of the Slad Brook and the River Frome called "La Strode" and was first recorded in 1221. The church was built by 1279, and it was assigned parochial rights by the rectors of Bisley in 1304, often cited as the date of Stroud's foundation.

Historic buildings and places of interest in the area include the neolithic long barrows (Uley Long Barrow) at Uley, Selsley Common and Nympsfield to the west; Roman era remains at Frocester, West Hill near Uley, and Woodchester; the medieval buildings at Beverston Castle; and the outstanding Tudor houses at Newark Park and Owlpen Manor. Woodchester Mansion is a masterpiece of the Gothic Revival by local architect Benjamin Bucknall.

From 1837 to 1841, Stroud's MP was Lord John Russell of the Whig party who was later to become Prime Minister. Russell was an important politician, responsible for passing acts of parliament such as the Public Health Act of 1848, but he is mainly remembered as one of the chief architects of the Reform Act 1867. This act, also known as the Second Reform Act, gave the vote to every urban male householder, not just those of considerable means. This resulted in the electorate being increased by 1.5 million voters. Lord Russell is remembered in the town by two street names, John Street and Russell Street, as well as in the name of the Lord John public house.

Demography[link]

As of the 2001 UK census, Stroud urban area (consisting of the civil parishes of Brimscombe, Nailsworth, Stonehouse and Stroud) had a total population of 47,348.^[10] For every 100 females, there were 96.4 males. Ethnically, the population is predominantly white (98.2%).^[11] 20.6% of the population were under the age of 16 and 8.3% were aged 75 and over; the mean age of the people of the urban area was 39.5. 92.6% of residents described their health as "fair" or better, similar to the average of 92.8% for the wider district.^[12][13] The average household size was 2.4.^[14] Of those aged 16–74, 24.5% had no academic qualifications,^[15] lower than the national average of 28.9%.^[13] Of those aged 16–74, 2.6% were unemployed and 28.4% were economically inactive.^[16]

Character and amenities[link]

Stroud has a significant artistic community that dates back to the early part of the twentieth century. Jasper Conran called Stroud 'the Covent Garden of the Cotswolds',^[17] the Daily Telegraph referred to it as 'the artistic equivalent of bookish Hay-on-Wye'^[18] while the London Evening Standard likened the town to 'Notting Hill with wellies'.^[19]

The town was one of the birthplaces of the Organic food movement and was home to Britain's first fully organic café, Woodruffs.^[20] The Biodynamic Agricultural Association is based in the town.^[21] For many years Stroud has hosted a fringe festival on the second weekend in September. A new committee took over in early 2009 and now runs the fringe on the first weekend in September each year, to coincide with the Stroud Festival Fortnight, including the walking and food festivals. The town also hosts an annual Vintage Fashion, Textile and Accessories Festival, and the fifth annual International Textile Festival was held in May 2010. This is the U.K's only festival to celebrate the diverse culture of textiles.^[22]

The Stroudwater Textile Trust was founded in 1999 to link the past and present of textiles in the Five Valleys and to manage the opening of several mills in which historic textile machinery, including a working waterwheel, has been restored and is demonstrated. The Trust has produced a DVD, Rivers of Cloth, using archive film and interviews to be released in early 2011 and a photographic survey of surviving woollen mills is being undertaken for a book, Wool and Water, to be published in 2012.

Subscription Rooms

Stroud has a strong community of independent shops and cafés, which provide the mainstay of the retail experience in the town. Alongside this, the town centre has witnessed two controversial developments in the form of a new cinema (which replaced the bus station) and a branch of McDonald's which, when plans were unveiled in 2004, came against opposition from locals.

The Subscription Rooms in the heart of the town centre provides a venue for a wide variety of entertainment and also houses the local Tourist Information Centre. There is also a small theatre, the Cotswold Playhouse, which is home to the amateur Cotswold Players; it occasionally plays host to visiting professional companies.

On the fringes of the town are Stratford Park, originally the park of a small local weaver, now home to a leisure centre with an indoor and outdoor swimming pool, and the Museum in the Park, a museum of the history and culture of the Stroud valleys.

Campaigns[link]

Stroud citizens have a history of protest going back to the Stroudwater Riots of 1825.^[23][24] In the late 1970s Stroud Campaign Against The Ringroad prevented Gloucestershire County Council's attempt to introduce new traffic plans. A few years later Stroud District Council tried to demolish 18th century buildings in the town centre. Stroud High Street Action Group, with some rooftop protests and a high court judgement, demonstrated against this. The restored buildings are now a feature of the High Street. After a short occupation a compromise was reached in the demolition of buildings in Cornhill with many being saved, including one identified as a medieval house. This campaign led to the formation of the Stroud Preservation Trust. which has been instrumental in saving many of the town's oldest buildings like Withey's house, the Brunel Goods Shed and the Hill Paul building.^[25]

Stroud Save The Trees Campaign came to national prominence in August 1989 when Stroud District Council tried to implement a road-widening scheme by a midnight raid on thirteen trees it wished to fell within the perimeter of Stratford Park. However local people got wind of the 'secret' and were there first to protect the trees. After a stand-off that lasted till dawn the police called off the operation on the grounds of public safety. The following year instead of road-widening the first 'traffic calming' in the county was installed. The trees remain to this day.

The restored Hill Paul building

A few years later Stroud District Council planned to fell the only mature tree in the town centre - the hornbeam on the Subscription rooms forecourt. A quickly mobilised citizenry persuaded them otherwise and the hornbeam survived.

In 2000 Stroud District Council gave permission for the Victorian landmark Hill Paul building to be demolished. After thwarting demolition, local activists formed a company and sold enough shares at £500 each to take an option on the building, which they passed on to a local developer. The building has now been restored and converted into apartments (see photo on the right).^[26][27]

The Save Stroud Hospitals Taskforce has been campaigning since spring 2006 against a range of cuts to health services in and around Stroud, with thousands of people taking part in street demonstrations. Stroud Maternity Hospital was saved in September 2006.^[28]

The Uplands Post Office branch in Stroud was one of 26 in the county to shut as part of a nationwide programme to cut losses. Following local opposition, the Post Office agreed to talks with civic chiefs to look at how it could reopen. The town council agreed to provide £10,000 of funding for the service in 2008 and up to £25,000 for 2009. In November 2008 it was confirmed that Stroud has become only the second place in Britain to save one of its Post Offices.^[29]

However, despite the protests, Tesco opened a store near Stratford park in 1989, McDonald's built a fast food restaurant at Rowcroft in 2005 and soon after, the bus station was replaced with a cinema.

In September 2010 the BNP scrapped plans to move their national media centre to Stroud after protests by local residents.^[30]

In February 2012 NHS managers agreed to halt plans for Stroud General Hospital to be run by a social enterprise after local residents mounted a legal challenge in the High Court.^[31]

Business[link]

There is still a small textile industry (the green baize cloth used to cover snooker tables and the cloth covering championship tennis balls is made here), but today, the town functions primarily as a centre for light engineering and small-scale manufacturing, and a provider of services for the surrounding villages.

The Stroud and Swindon Building Society has its headquarters here. Stroud is also home to the headquarters of the renewable energy provider Ecotricity and is a Fairtrade Town.

In September 2009, the Stroud Pound Co-operative launched the Stroud Pound^[32] as an attempt to reinforce the local economy and encourage more local production. The currency's design follows that of the Chiemgauer, in being backed on a one-for-one basis by the national currency, having a charge for redemption which is donated to local charities, and including a system of demurrage to encourage rapid circulation.

Farmers' market[link]

Bread loaves in the farmers' market

A farmers' market, launched by Jasper Conran and Isabella Blow on 3 July 1999,^[33] takes place every Saturday at the Cornhill market. It was nominated for the national Farmers' Market of the Year in 2001 and won it in 2007. It also won the Cotswold Life magazine award for the best farmers' market in Gloucestershire in 2003, 2004, 2005 and 2010. The market featured in an episode of BBC TV's The Hairy Bikers' Food Tour of Britain in September 2009, and won the Best Food Market award at the BBC Food & Farming Awards 2010.^[34] It is certified by FARMA.

In addition to the farmers' market there is a smaller market held in The Shambles, an area adjacent to the steep High Street. John Wesley preached from a butcher's block in The Shambles on 26 June 1742.^[35] opposite one of the oldest existing buildings in Stroud, the Old Town Hall. Originally called the Market-house, this was built in 1594^[36] and is still in occasional use today.

Education[link]

School of Science and Art

History[link]

"There was a school at Stroud in 1576 but the schoolmaster, who did not have a licence and failed to teach the catechism, was then dismissed..."^[37]

Primary schools[link]

There are six primary schools in the town:

• Uplands Uplands Community Primary School
• Callowell Callowell Primary School
• Gastrells Gastrells Community Primary School
• Parliament Parliament Primary School
• Rosary Rosary Catholic Primary School
• Stroud Valley Stroud Valley Community School

Schools in surrounding areas include

• Rodborough Community Primary school
• St Matthew's St Matthew's School (Cainscross)
• Cashes Green Primary school (Cainscross)
• Foxmoor Primary School (Cainscross)
• Whiteshill Community Primary school
• Randwick CE Primary school

Secondary schools[link]

There are three secondary schools in Stroud.

Archway Comprehensive School [3] is a County Council maintained school which offers an 11 to 18 education for children in Stroud, Rodborough and Cainscross.

There are also two state funded selective schools, Marling School and Stroud High School. These former Grant Maintained and Foundation schools became Academies in 2011. Both schools can trace their history back to the founding of Marling School in 1889 and Stroud High School which was founded in 1904 as the Girls' Endowed School. They continued to be grammar schools long after the comprehensive school became the norm in secondary education, and their future was the subject of long-running controversy.^[38] The two schools now share a mixed sixth form, called the Marling School Sixth Form and Stroud High School Sixth Form, which works in a three-way consortium with Archway Sixth Form and Stroud College and attracts pupils from many surrounding schools.

Other secondary schools in the locality include Maidenhill School in Stonehouse, and Thomas Keble School in Eastcombe and the private Wycliffe College in Stonehouse

Tertiary education[link]

Tertiary education in the town is provided by Stroud College - Now Part of South Gloucestershire and Stroud College from 1 February 2012

Transport[link]

Public bus transport in Stroud is run by Stagecoach, operating from its depot on London Road, and Cotswold Green.

The town is also served by First Great Western trains from Stroud railway station, with frequent services to Gloucester, Cheltenham, Swindon, Reading and London. The railway link was established in 1845. Up to then, Stroud had its own time which was set by a sundial at the top of Gloucester Street. There was also an observatory across the road from the hospital where now is a car park. As Stroud time was roughly 9 minutes behind GMT and people kept missing the train, a railway clock was put up in 1858 at the bottom of High Street. It was later moved across King Street to the top of Gloucester Street. The clock fell into disrepair over the years. It was finally saved by Captain Michael Maltin, who restored the clock in 1984 and found a new home for it in the Stroud library.

The A46 road links Stroud to Gloucester in the north and Bath to the south, with the A419 connecting Stroud to Cirencester in one direction and the M5 motorway at Junction 13 in the other.

National Express coaches serve the town, and Stroud also lies on the traffic-free section of Sustrans National Cycle Network Route 45.

Literature[link]

Novelists Sue Limb, Jilly Cooper and Katie Fforde, children's authors Jamila Gavin, John Dougherty and Cindy Jefferies, poet Jenny Joseph, plus national newspaper journalists like The Guardian's food critic Matthew Fort following in the footsteps of the Rev. W. Awdry, and W H Davies have made the Stroud area their home. Two of its most famous sons are the authors Laurie Lee, whose most notable creation Cider with Rosie is set in the nearby Slad valley, and Booker Prize-winning author Alan Hollinghurst. Poets such as Dennis Gould, Jeff Cloves, Philip Rush, Ted Milton, Michael Horovitz, Frances Horovitz and Adam Horovitz have grown up, lived and/or live in the area.

Sport[link]

Stroud Rugby Club, founded in 1873, play in the Western Counties North league. Their home ground is Fromehall Park, near the town centre.

Stroud Cricket Club is over 150 years old and plays its home games at Farmhill. The club has three senior teams with the first eleven playing its cricket in the South West Premier league.

Since 1982 Stroud Athletic Club has organised an annual half marathon which takes place in October. Nearly two and a half thousand runners from all over the country entered in 2007. Members of the club include the UK number one Olympic Marathon runner Dan Robinson.

Stroud Swimming Club was officially formed in 1978, but can trace its origins back to 1905 when it was known as Stroud Swimming and Water Polo Club. In 2006 and 2007 club members made up two thirds of the County team that finished in silver and bronze place respectively in the National Open Water Championships.

Stroud Hockey Club was founded in 1928 and has produced some top class hockey players including Simon Mason.

Politics and media[link]

In the 2010 General Election, Conservative Neil Carmichael became Member of Parliament for the Stroud constituency after Labour's David Drew lost his seat, who had held the seat since 1997. Stroud was a Marginal seat which the Conservatives had targeted in the 2010 Election, as was the neighbouring Gloucester (UK Parliament constituency) - Gloucestershire now has no Labour seats.

In 2008 Stroud Town Council comprised 11 Green Party councillors, with 5 independents, 1 Conservative and 1 Liberal Democrat.^[39]

In March 2008, a community radio station, Stroud FM, was launched in the town, broadcasting 24 hours a day on 107.9FM. The station, staffed by volunteers and funded by donations, focuses on local news and music, but also plays national and international music. Both BBC Radio Gloucestershire and Heart (Gloucester) have dedicated FM transmitters serving the town.

There are three local newspapers covering the town, the daily Gloucester Citizen and the Weekly Stroud Life published by Gloucestershire Media (part of the Northcliffe Group) and the Stroud News & Journal and is published by Newsquest Media (Southern) Limited, part of the American Gannett Company.

Stroud Life launched in 2008 is now the weekly market leader with a circulation of 15225 against 12,226 for the Stroud News and Journal. The Stroud News and Journal was formed by a merger in 1959 of the Stroud Journal (started in 1854 as a Liberal supporting Newspaper) and the Stroud News (started in 1867 and generally supported Conservative and Unionist interests).

Crime[link]

Figures from the local police force and the local Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnership^[40] indicate that Stroud has a significantly lower level of crime per head of population than the national average.

Notable people[link]

The town's most notable natives and residents are mainly authors, artists and actors:

Authors[link]

• Michael Horovitz, political poet and publisher, used to live in the area
• Frances Horovitz, poet and broadcaster, lived near Stroud, 1971–80
• Rev. W. V. Awdry, creator of Thomas the Tank Engine, moved to the area^[42] and was the Reverend of the parish church of Rodborough until he died in the 1990s. He is fondly remembered in the area and was seen daily riding his bicycle up the steep Rodborough hill.
• Jilly Cooper, author, moved to the area
• Alan Hollinghurst, author, born in Stroud^[43]
• Jamila Gavin, children's author, moved to Stroud^[44]
• Jenny Joseph, writer of "I Shall Wear Purple" lives in nearby Minchinhampton
• Laurie Lee, author, born in Stroud and bred in the Slad Valley, the setting of Cider with Rosie
• Matthew Fort, food writer, critic, and Guardian food columnist^[45]
• Katie Fforde, author, moved to the area^[46]
• Basil Liddell Hart, military theorist
• Adrian Liddell Hart, author and adventurer
• Richard Aronowitz, poet and novelist, author of "It's Just the Beating of my Heart", which is set in the Five Valleys, grew up in and around Stroud^[47]

Artists[link]

• Leo Baxendale, creator of Minnie the Minx, lives nearby^[48]
• Lynn Chadwick, sculptor^[49]
• Damien Hirst, artist, has a studio in Chalford and another in Stroud^[50]
• Robert Charles "Jack" Russell, former Gloucestershire and England cricketer, now artist, attended Archway School^[51]
• Alan Thornhill, sculptor^[52]
• Tim Noble, artist^[53]

Actors[link]

• Tim McInnerny, actor, Blackadder), attended Marling School^[54]
• William Moseley, actor, "The Chronicles of Narnia"
• Emma Samms, actor, lives in Stroud
• Keith Allen, actor, comedian, writer, and father of Lily Allen, has a home near Minchinhampton
• Tamzin Malleson, actor, grew up in Chalford, attending Archway School, and now lives near Minchinhampton with partner Keith Allen
• Colin Prockter, actor, Doctor Who, co-wrote Luna, lives in Stroud
• Sophie Ward, actor, lives in France Lynch^[55]
• Geoffrey Hutchings, actor, lived in Stroud^[56]

Musicians[link]

• Geoffrey Burgon, composer^[57]
• Eamon Hamilton, frontman of Brakes and former keyboard player of British Sea Power, raised in Stroud^[58]
• Tom Smith, lead singer of Editors, born in Stroud^[59]
• Jamie Hornsmith, bass guitarist of The Rakes^{[citation needed]}

Plaque to John Canton on the Old Town Hall in the Shambles

• Sade, singer, songwriter, Sade, moved to Stroud^[60]
• Martha Tilston, folk singer and daughter of Steve Tilston, moved to the area
• Pendragon, progressive rock band^[61]

Public relations[link]

• Mark Borkowski founder of Borkowski PR and author of several books was born in Stroud in 1959.^[62]

Sports[link]

• Alastair Hignell, sportsman and commentator^[63]
• Eddie "The Eagle" Edwards, ski jumper, lives in nearby Woodchester^[64]
• Stuart Nelson, footballer, Notts County^[65]
• Frank Keating, the Guardian sports journalist.^[66]
• Emily Pidgeon, athlete.^[67]
• Dominic Dale,snooker player^[68]

Historians[link]

• Peter Hennessy, historian of government, attended Marling School^[69]

Engineering and manufacturing[link]

• Edwin Beard Budding (1795–1846), inventor of the lawnmower and adjustable spanner, born and died in Stroud^[70]
• Arnold Redler (1875–1958), founder of the conveying company Redler Limited in Stroud in 1920 and inventor of the en-masse conveyor^[71]

Scientists[link]

• John Canton (1718–1772), physicist^[72]
• Sir Martin Evans, Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, born in Stroud^[73]
• Jasper Conran, designer, lives nearby
• Henry Miles (1698–1763), dissenting minister and writer on science, born and educated in Stroud

Twin towns[link]

• Saint-Ismier, Isère, France
• Stroud, Oklahoma, USA
• Duderstadt, Lower Saxony, Germany
• Stroud, New South Wales, Australia

Song about Stroud[link]

• "Stroud, The Town Of Make Believe" by Blurt, on the album "Kenny Rogers' Greatest Hit"

References[link]

External links[link]

• Stroud Town Council
• Stroud District Council
• Stroud District Tourism Site
• Stroud at the Open Directory Project
• Stroud Preservation Trust
• Stroud history website
• Stroud Local History Society

Les Stroud (b. October 20, 1961, in Mimico, Ontario^[1][2][3]) is a Canadian musician, filmmaker, and survival expert best known as the creator, writer, producer, director, cameraman and host of the television series Survivorman. After a short career behind the scenes in the music industry, Stroud became a full-time wilderness guide, survival instructor and musician based in Huntsville, Ontario. Stroud has produced survival-themed programming for The Outdoor Life Network, The Discovery Channel, The Science Channel, and YTV. The survival skills imparted from watching Stroud's television programs have been cited by several people as the reason they lived through harrowing wilderness ordeals.^[4]

Biography[link]

Stroud graduated from Mimico High School in the Mimico neighborhood of Toronto.^[5] Stroud went on to complete the Music Industry Arts program at Fanshawe College in London, Ontario.^[6] Stroud worked for several years at the Toronto-based music video channel MuchMusic, and as a songwriter for the band New Regime before a Temagami canoe trip sparked a career change.^[1] During this time he also worked as garbage collector for the City of Toronto.^[3] In 1990 Stroud became a guide for Black Feather Wilderness Adventures leading canoe excursions into the Northern Ontario wilds.^[3] It was also during this time while on a survival course he met his future wife, photographer Sue Jamison.^[2] They married in 1994 and together left for a year-long honeymoon in the remote Wabakimi area of Ontario which was to become the basis of the documentary Snowshoes and Solitude. Afterward, the couple moved to Yellowknife in the Northwest Territories where Stroud was employed as an outdoor instructor to special needs individuals of aboriginal descent.^[7] Stroud and Jamison then settled in Huntsville, Ontario where they had two children and started both the outdoor instructional outfit Wilderness Voice and the media company Wilderness Spirit Productions.^[6] Inspired by the popularity of the television show Survivor, Stroud pitched a more authentic version of the show to The Discovery Channel Canada. Stroud produced two programs titled One Week in the Wilderness and Winter in the Wilderness for @discovery.ca in 2001.^[2] The success of these specials led to the development of Survivorman, a show that followed a similar format of leaving Stroud on his own, with minimal equipment, in the wilderness to videotape his survival experience.

Stroud has extensive experience with survival and primitive living skills, initially training with expert David Arama.^[8][9] He went on to study with many others including John "Prairie Wolf" McPherson.^[10]

Stroud has been an active participant in adventure racing and has competed at the Canadian championships.^[8]

In late 2008, Stroud and Jamison separated.^[11][12]

Film and television[link]

After his marriage to Jamison in 1994, the two of them spent one year in the Canadian wilderness to attempt a paleolithic existence. They traveled to Goldsborough Lake (50°41′55″N 89°20′46″W / 50.69861°N 89.34611°W / 50.69861; -89.34611) deep in the Wabakimi, first building a tipi then an attached A-frame while using no metal, plastic, or otherwise manufactured tools. For the first half of the year, they took a store of traditional foods such as wild rice, squash, beaver and moose meat, bear fat, and maple sugar. In late September, Stroud's friends Doug Getgood and Fred Rowe brought in food for the next six months and chopped firewood for the couple. Stroud and Jamison built and equipped a winter cabin using an axe, a modern bow saw, and trapper's tin wood stove left by Getgood and Rowe, along with a metal pot they found.

Family and medical emergencies brought them out of the bush on three occasions. Once when Stroud's father was dying from cancer, another when they both went to be treated for giardiasis, and again when Jamison had a miscarriage. Stroud filmed their primitive living experience and released the 50 minute documentary, Snowshoes and Solitude, which was named Best Documentary at the Muskoka Film Festival and Best Film at the Waterwalker Film Festival.^[13]

In 2001 Stroud produced two one-hour specials for the science news show @discovery.ca. These segments follow the same format as Survivorman with Stroud filming his own survival in the wilderness. They were originally broadcast as daily segments over the course of one week but were repackaged as two one-hour specials titled Stranded.^[2] The popularity of these pilots spawned the show Survivorman. Stroud produced 23 episodes of the show which began airing in 2004.^[2] Stroud also composed and performed the opening theme music of Survivorman.^[14]

In 2006, Stroud produced a 90-minute special documenting his family's journey to building an off-the-grid home. The show, Off the Grid with Les Stroud, chronicled the process of buying property and refitting an old farm house with solar and wind power, a raincatcher and well, as well as the adjustments the Stroud family had to make to adapt to this style of living.^[1] Stroud has made multiple television appearances including on The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, The View, The Ellen DeGeneres Show, and Larry King Live.^[15]

Stroud has also hosted an episode of the Discovery channel show I Shouldn't Be Alive titled Lost In The Snow, which aired during its first season and the TV program Surviving Urban Disasters, which aired on the Science Channel and the 20th annual Shark Week on the Discovery Channel.^[16]

In 2010, Stroud hosted and produced the Gemini nominated hit kids TV series Survive This and Survive This 2 (YTV, Cartoon Network) that takes teens into the wilderness to teach them how to survive by giving them some instruction and challenging them with survival scenarios. Stroud's follow-up show to Survivorman was titled Beyond Survival with Les Stroud and debuted in 2010.^[17]

Music[link]

In addition to film making and wilderness survival, Stroud has also worked in the music industry as a professional musician. After graduation, Stroud worked both as an associate producer for the nascent music channel MuchMusic as well as production manager on music videos for artists such as Rush and Corey Hart.^[18] During this time Stroud also played in the David Bowie cover band Diamond Dogs and played lead guitar and composed music for his band New Regime^[1] which signed with RCA Records shortly after Stroud left the band.^[7][19]

Stroud and The Pikes CD Art

As frequently illustrated in his show Survivorman, Stroud is considered an exceptional blues harmonica player.^[19] This instrument is featured prominently in his self-titled debut CD which has been described as "a collection of diverse roots/blues and traditional folk, acoustic music that reflects the uniquely northern spirit of freedom and adventure." Several songs off of this album can be downloaded from his official site.^[19] Stroud has performed in and around the Muskoka area and at the Orillia Blues Festival and Toronto Beaches International Jazz Festival.

Stroud and The Northern Pikes have struck up a musical collaboration under the name Les Stroud and the Pikes. Throughout 2005 and 2006 they performed together live several times, and an EP born from this collaboration entitled Long Walk Home that was released in the spring of 2007.^[7][19]

Awards[link]

Stroud has received several accolades as a musician. He has won "Best Acoustic/Folk Act", "Best Blues Act" and "Best Overall" awards at the Spirit of the North music festival in New Liskeard, Ontario.^[6][7][19]

Stroud's documentary Snowshoes and Solitude was named Best Documentary at the Muskoka Film Festival and Best Film at the Waterwalker Film Festival.^[13]

Stroud was nominated for 6 Gemini Awards for his work on Survivorman^[20][21] In 2010, Stroud and his production team was nominated for Best Children's or Youth Non-Fiction Program or Series for Survive This.^[22]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official website
• Les Stroud and The Pikes
• Les Stroud at the Internet Movie Database

Bear Grylls
Born	Edward Michael Grylls (1974-06-07) 7 June 1974 (age 38) United Kingdom
Residence	A barge moored by Battersea Bridge on the River Thames, England[1] An island on Llŷn Peninsula, Abersoch, North Wales[2]
Occupation	Chief Scout Adventurer Explorer Author Motivational speaker[3] Television presenter
Spouse	Shara Cannings Knight[4]
Children	Jesse, Marmaduke,[5] and Huckleberry[6]
Parents	Sir Michael Grylls Lady Grylls (née Sarah Ford)
Website
BearGrylls.com

Edward Michael "Bear" Grylls (born 7 June 1974) is an English adventurer, writer and television presenter. He is best known for his television series Man vs. Wild, known as Born Survivor^[7] in the United Kingdom. In July 2009, Grylls was appointed the youngest ever Chief Scout at the age of 35.

Personal life[link]

Grylls grew up in Donaghadee, Northern Ireland until the age of 4 when his family moved to Bembridge on the Isle of Wight.^[8][9] He is the son of the late Conservative party politician Sir Michael Grylls and Lady Sarah Grylls.^[10] Lady Grylls was the daughter of Patricia Ford,^[11] briefly an Ulster Unionist Party MP, and cricketer and businessman Neville Ford. Grylls has one sibling, an elder sister, Lara Fawcett, a cardio-tennis coach, who gave him the nickname 'Bear' when he was a week old.^[12]

Grylls was educated at Eaton House, Ludgrove School, Eton College, where he helped start its first mountaineering club,^[13] and Birkbeck, University of London,^[14] where he graduated with a degree, obtained part-time, in Hispanic studies in 2002. From an early age, he learned to climb and sail from his father, who was a member of the prestigious Royal Yacht Squadron. As a teenager, he learned to skydive and earned a second dan black belt in Shotokan karate. He practices yoga and ninjutsu. At age eight he became a Cub Scout.^[15] He speaks English, Spanish, and French.^[16] Grylls is a Christian, describing his faith as the "backbone" in his life.^[17]

Although Grylls was christened 'Edward' he has legally changed his forename to 'Bear'.^[18] Grylls married Shara Grylls (née Cannings Knight) in 2000.^[4][11] They have three sons: Jesse, Marmaduke,^[19] and Huckleberry.^[6]

Military service[link]

After leaving school, Grylls considered joining the Indian Army and hiked in the Himalayan mountains of Sikkim.^[20] Grylls joined the British Army and served in the part-time United Kingdom Special Forces Reserve, with 21 Regiment Special Air Service, 21 SAS(R) for 3 years until 1996.

In 1996, he suffered a freefall parachuting accident in Zambia. His canopy ripped at 4,900 metres (16,000 ft), partially opening, causing him to fall and land on his parachute pack on his back, which partially crushed three vertebrae. Grylls later said: "I should have cut the main parachute and gone to the reserve but thought there was time to resolve the problem".^[21] According to his surgeon, Grylls came "within a whisker" of being paralysed for life and at first it was questionable whether he would ever walk again. Grylls spent the next 12 months in and out of military rehabilitation at Headley Court^[21] before being discharged and directing his efforts into trying to get well enough to fulfil his childhood dream of climbing Mount Everest.

In 2004, Grylls was awarded the honorary rank of Lieutenant Commander in the Royal Naval Reserve for services to charity and human endeavour.^[22]

Everest[link]

On 16 May 1998, Grylls achieved his childhood dream (an ambition since his father gave him a picture of Everest when he was eight) and entered the Guinness Book of Records, as the youngest Briton, at 23, to summit Mount Everest^[23], just eighteen months after injuring his back. (James Allen, an Australian-British climber who ascended Everest in 1995 with an Australian team, but who has dual citizenship, reached the summit at age 22.^[24][25] The feat has since been surpassed by Jake Meyer and, at age 19, by Rob Gauntlett.)

Other expeditions[link]

Circumnavigation of the UK[link]

In 2000, Grylls, led the first team to circumnavigate the UK on a personal watercraft or jet ski, taking about 30 days, to raise money for the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI). He also rowed naked for 22 miles in a homemade bathtub along the Thames to raise funds for a friend who lost his legs in a climbing accident.^[26]

Crossing the North Atlantic[link]

Three years later, he led a team of five, including his childhood friend, SAS colleague, and Mount Everest climbing partner Mick Crosthwaite, on the first unassisted crossing of the north Atlantic Arctic Ocean, in an open rigid inflatable boat^[27]. Suffering weeks of frozen spray and icebergs, battling force 8 gale winds, hypothermia, and storms in an eleven-metre-long boat through some of the most treacherous stretches of water in the world including the Labrador Sea, the Denmark Strait, and the stretch made famous by The Perfect Storm, Grylls and his team were just barely able to finish the journey from Halifax, Nova Scotia to John o' Groats, Scotland.

Paramotoring over Angel Falls[link]

In 2005, Grylls led the first team ever to attempt to paramotor over the remote jungle plateau of the Angel Falls in Venezuela, the world's highest waterfall. The team was attempting to reach the highest, most remote tepuis.

Dinner party at altitude[link]

In 2005, alongside the balloonist and mountaineer David Hempleman-Adams and Lieutenant Commander Alan Veal, leader of the Royal Navy Freefall Parachute Display Team, Grylls created a world record for the highest open-air formal dinner party, which they did under a hot-air balloon at 7,600 metres (25,000 ft), dressed in full mess dress and oxygen masks. To train for the event, he made over 200 parachute jumps. This was in aid of The Duke of Edinburgh's Award and The Prince's Trust.

Paramotoring over the Himalayas[link]

In 2007, Grylls claimed to have broken a new world record by flying a Parajet paramotor over the Himalayas, higher than Mount Everest.^[28] Grylls took off from 4,400 metres (14,500 ft), 8 miles south of the mountain. Grylls reported looking down on the summit during his ascent and coping with temperatures of −60 °C (−76 °F). He endured dangerously low oxygen levels and eventually reached 9,000 metres (29,500 ft), almost 3,000 metres (10,000 ft) higher than the previous record of 6,102 metres (20,019 ft). The feat was filmed for Discovery Channel worldwide as well as Channel 4 in the UK.^[29]

While Grylls initially planned to cross over Everest itself, the permit was only to fly to the south of Everest, and he did not traverse Everest out of risk of violating Chinese airspace.^[30]

Journey Antarctica 2008[link]

In 2008, Bear lead a team of four to climb one of the most remote unclimbed peaks in the world in Antarctica. This was raising funds for Global Angels kids charity and awareness for the potential of alternative energies. During this mission the team also aimed to explore the coast of Antarctica by inflatable boat and jetski, part powered by bioethanol, and then to travel across some of the vast ice desert by wind-powered kite-ski and electric powered paramotor. However, the expedition was cut short after Grylls suffered a broken shoulder while kite skiing across a stretch of ice. Travelling at speeds up to 50 km/h (30 mph), a ski caught on the ice, launching him in the air and breaking his shoulder when he came down. He had to be medically evacuated.^[31]

Longest indoor freefall[link]

Grylls, along with the double amputee Al Hodgson and the Scotsman Freddy MacDonald, set a Guinness world record in 2008 for the longest continuous indoor freefall.^[32] The previous record was 1 hr 36 mins by a US team. Grylls, Hodgson, and MacDonald, using a vertical wind tunnel in Milton Keynes, broke the record by a few seconds. The attempt was in support of the charity Global Angels.

Northwest Passage expedition[link]

In August 2010 Grylls lead a team of five to take an ice-breaking rigid-inflatable boat (RIB) through 2,500 miles (4,000 km) of the ice strewn Northwest Passage. The expedition intended to raise awareness of the effects of global warming and to raise money for children's charity Global Angels.^[33]

Media[link]

Grylls entered television work with an appearance in an advertisement for Sure deodorant, featuring his ascent of Mount Everest. Bear was also used by the UK Ministry of Defence to head the Army's anti-drugs TV campaign, and featured in the first ever major advertising campaign for the world-renowned department store Harrods. Grylls has been a guest on television programs, including Friday Night with Jonathan Ross, The Oprah Winfrey Show, Late Night with Conan O'Brien, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Attack of the Show, The Late Show with David Letterman, Jimmy Kimmel Live! and Harry Hill's TV Burp. Grylls recorded two advertisements for Post's Trail Mix Crunch Cereal, which aired in the US from January 2009. He also appeared as a distinguished instructor in Dos Equis' Most Interesting Academy in a webisode named "Survival in the Modern Era". He appeared in a five-part web series that demonstrates urban survival techniques and features Grylls going from bush to bash. He also has marketed the Alpha Course, a course on the basics of the Christian faith. Warner Bros. had asked Grylls to appear in its remake of the film Clash of the Titans^[34]

Grylls is a best-selling author. Grylls' first book, titled Facing Up, went into the UK top 10 best-seller list, and was launched in the USA entitled The Kid Who Climbed Everest. About his expedition and achievements climbing to the summit of Mount Everest. Grylls' second book Facing the Frozen Ocean was shortlisted for the William Hill Sports Book of the Year Award 2004. His third book was written to accompany the series Born Survivor: Bear Grylls. (Released in America in April 2008 to the Man vs. Wild Discovery television show) It features survival skills learned from some of the world's most hostile places. This book reached the Sunday Times Top 10 best-seller list. He also wrote an extreme guide to outdoor pursuits, titled Bear Grylls Outdoor Adventures. In 2011 Bear released his autobiography Mud, Sweat and Tears. and it is still currently the best-selling book in Australia and the United Kingdom.^{[citation needed]}

He has a series of children's adventure survival books titled: Mission Survival: Gold of the Gods, Mission Survival: Way of the Wolf, Mission Survival: Sands of the Scorpion and Mission Survival: Tracks of the Tiger.

[edit] Escape to the Legion

Grylls filmed a four-part TV show in 2005, called Escape to the Legion, which followed Grylls and eleven other "recruits" as they took part in a shortened re-creation of the French Foreign Legion's basic desert training in the Sahara. The show was broadcast in the UK on Channel 4,^[35] and in the USA on the Military Channel.^[36] In 2008, it was repeated in the UK on the History Channel.^[37]

[edit] Born Survivor / Man vs. Wild

Grylls hosts a series titled Born Survivor: Bear Grylls for the British Channel 4 and broadcast as Man vs. Wild in Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the U.S.A., and as Ultimate Survival on the Discovery Channel in Europe, Asia, and Africa. The series features Grylls dropped into inhospitable places, showing viewers how to survive. Man vs. Wild debuted in 2006 and went on to become the number one cable show in all of America and now reaches a global audience of over 1.2 billion viewers.^[19] The second season premièred in the US on 15 June 2007, the third in November 2007, and the fourth in May 2008.

The show has featured stunts including Grylls climbing cliffs, parachuting from helicopters, balloons, and planes, paragliding, ice climbing, running through a forest fire, wading rapids, eating snakes, wrapping his urine-soaked t-shirt around his head to help stave off the desert heat, drinking urine saved in a rattlesnake skin, drinking fecal liquid from elephant dung, eating deer droppings, wrestling alligators, field dressing a camel carcass and drinking water from it, eating various "creepy crawlies" [insects], utilising the corpse of a sheep as a sleeping bag and flotation device, free climbing waterfalls and using a bird guano/water enema for hydration.^[38][39] Grylls also regales the viewer with tales of adventurers stranded or killed in the wilderness.

In some early episodes, Man vs. Wild / Born Survivor was criticised by some sources for misleading viewers about some of the situations in which Grylls finds himself. Discovery and Channel 4 television subsequently pledged production and editing transparency and clarification related to the criticism.

In March 2012, Discovery Channel terminated its productions with Grylls due to contract disputes.^[40]

[edit] Worst Case Scenario

Grylls' latest project is titled Worst Case Scenario and airs on Discovery in the USA. It is based on the popular books of the same name.^[41]

Chief Scout[link]

On 17 May 2009, The Scout Association announced Grylls would be appointed Chief Scout following the end of Peter Duncan's five year term in July 2009.^[42] He was officially made Chief Scout at Gilwell 24 on 11 July 2009 in a handover event featuring Peter Duncan in front of a crowd of over 3,000 Explorer Scouts. He is the tenth person to hold the position and the youngest Chief Scout since the role was created for Robert Baden-Powell in 1920.^[43][44]

Charities[link]

Many of Grylls' expeditions and stunts have raised money for charitable organisations.^{[citation needed]} Grylls is an ambassador for The Prince's Trust, an organisation which provides training, financial, and practical support to young people in the United Kingdom.^[19] He is also vice president for The JoLt Trust, a small charity that takes disabled, disadvantaged, abused or neglected young people on challenging month-long expeditions.

Global Angels, a UK charity which seeks to aid children around the world, were the beneficiaries of his 2007 accomplishment of taking a powered para-glider higher than Mount Everest. Grylls's held the highest ever dinner party at 7,600 metres (25,000 ft) in aid of The Duke of Edinburgh's Award Scheme, and launched the 50th anniversary of the Awards. His successfully circumnavigating Britain on jet skis raised money for the Royal National Lifeboat Institution. Grylls' Everest climb was in aid of SSAFA Forces Help, a British-based charitable organisation set up to help former, and serving members of the British Armed Forces, and their families and dependents. His 2003 Arctic expedition detailed in the book Facing the Frozen Ocean was in aid of The Prince's Trust. His 2005 attempt to para-motor over the Angel Falls was in aid of the charity Hope and Homes for Children.^[45] In August 2010, Grylls continued his fund-raising work for Global Angels by undertaking an expedition through the Northwest Passage in a rigid inflatable boat. Many of his expeditions also support environmental causes such as his Antarctica expedition and his circumnavigation of Britain which tested a pioneering new fuel made from rubbish.

In 2011, Grylls was in New Zealand during the February 2011 Christchurch earthquake. Following the incident, he appeared on New Zealand advertisements encouraging people to donate money to help rebuild the city.

Other work[link]

Outside of TV, Grylls works as a motivational speaker, giving speeches worldwide to corporations, churches, schools, and other organisations.^[46] He is also a spokesperson for and owner of a Juice Plus franchise. Grylls has his own outdoor survival clothing range produced by British manufacturer Craghoppers as well as a knife manufactured by Gerber.

See also[link]

• Ranulph Fiennes, British adventurer and a hero of Grylls' growing up^[47]
• Bruce Parry, British adventurer and TV presenter
• Les Hiddins, Australian survival expert and TV presenter
• Les Stroud, Canadian survival expert and TV presenter
• Ray Mears, English survival expert and TV presenter

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Bear Grylls

• BearGrylls.com official website
• Bear Grylls on Twitter
• ScoutBase.org (UK) "Meet the Chiefs"