{{Short description|Village in Gloucestershire, England}} {{About|the village in the Cotswolds|the Iron age site in Hertfordshire|The Slad}} {{Use dmy dates|date=March 2015}} {{Use British English|date=March 2015}} {{infobox UK place |country= England |official_name= Slad |static_image_name= File:Slad Village - geograph.org.uk - 759427.jpg |static_image_width= |static_image_caption= Slad village, with Holy Trinity church in the background |map_type= |coordinates = {{coord|51.766667|-2.183333|display=inline,title}} |os_grid_reference= SO873076 |civil_parish= Painswick |shire_district= Stroud |shire_county= Gloucestershire |region= South West England |population = 388 |population_ref = (2011 census) |constituency_westminster= Stroud |post_town= STROUD |postcode_district= GL6 |postcode_area= GL |dial_code= 01452 }} thumb|280px|The Woolpack public house, 2004 '''Slad''' is a village in Gloucestershire, England, in the '''Slad Valley''' about {{convert|2|mi|0}} from Stroud on the B4070 road from Stroud to Birdlip.
Slad was the home of Laurie Lee, whose novel ''Cider with Rosie'' (1959) is a description of growing up in the village from his arrival at the age of three in 1917.
==Locale== The Slad Brook runs along the bottom of the valley. The small parish church, Holy Trinity Church, is a Grade II listed building<ref name="NHLE">{{National Heritage List for England| num=1091579 |desc=Church of Holy Trinity |grade=II |accessdate=18 September 2017}}</ref> and there is also a small traditional pub, ''The Woolpack''.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://thewoolpackslad.com/ |title=Home page |publisher=The Woolpack, Slad |date= |accessdate=19 September 2017 |archive-date=16 September 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170916152957/http://thewoolpackslad.com/ |url-status=live }}</ref>
==Governance== Slad is in the civil parish of Painswick, in Stroud District, in the county of Gloucestershire<ref name=elecmap>{{cite web | url = http://www.election-maps.co.uk/electmaps.jsf | title = Election Maps | publisher = Ordnance Survey | accessdate = 2013-08-12 | archive-date = 5 January 2010 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20100105222709/http://www.election-maps.co.uk/electmaps.jsf | url-status = live }}</ref> and the parliamentary constituency of Stroud.<ref name=elecmap/>
==People== Laurie Lee's novel ''Cider with Rosie'' (1959) is a description of growing up in the village from his arrival at the age of three in 1917. Having bought a cottage there with the proceeds from the book, he returned to live permanently in the village during the 1960s after being away for thirty years.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Passino Carla |title=Laurie Lee’s childhood home, the house that inspired ‘Cider with Rosie’, is up for sale |url=https://www.countrylife.co.uk/property/laurie-lees-childhood-home-house-inspired-cider-rosie-sale-203314 |access-date=13 December 2020 |work=Country Life |date=9 September 2019 |archive-date=10 September 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190910225214/https://www.countrylife.co.uk/property/laurie-lees-childhood-home-house-inspired-cider-rosie-sale-203314 |url-status=live }}</ref> Lee is buried in the village churchyard; the inscription on his headstone reads "He lies in the valley he loved".<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/gloucestershire/content/articles/2006/08/02/sladwalk_feature.shtml|title=Write Across the West: A Walk around Slad|website=www.bbc.co.uk}}</ref>
Between 1970 and 1980 the poets Frances and Michael Horovitz lived at "Mullions", the end cottage of the settlement of Piedmont in an offshoot of the valley only accessible by foot from Slad. Frances' poetry from that period often refers to the surroundings there, as does Michael's ''Midsummer Morning Jog Log'' (1986).<ref>{{cite book |title=Midsummer Morning Jog Log |url=https://www.amazon.co.uk/Midsummer-Morning-Jog-Michael-Horovitz/dp/0950460672 |publisher=Five Seasons Press |date=14 April 1986 |first1=Michael |last1=Horovitz |first2=Peter |last2=Blake |author-link1=Michael Horovitz |author-link2=Peter Blake (artist) |accessdate=19 September 2017 |archive-date=22 September 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170922002333/https://www.amazon.co.uk/Midsummer-Morning-Jog-Michael-Horovitz/dp/0950460672 |url-status=live }}</ref> Horovitz's continued occasional residence is testified not simply by that poem but by his use of the cottage as the editorial address of his magazine ''New Departures'' into the 1990s.<ref>{{cite news |newspaper=The Times Literary Supplement |url=http://www.the-tls.co.uk/articles/private/fiddling |first=Michael |last=Horovitz |title=Fiddling |type=letter |date=19 May 1995 |accessdate=19 September 2017 |archive-date=22 September 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170922194122/https://www.the-tls.co.uk/articles/private/fiddling/ |url-status=live }}</ref>
Polly Higgins, FRSGS was a Scottish barrister, author, and environmental lobbyist, described by Jonathan Watts in her obituary in ''The Guardian'' as, "one of the most inspiring figures in the green movement".<ref name=Guardian_Watts>{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/apr/22/polly-higgins-environmentalist-eradicating-ecocide-dies |title=Polly Higgins, lawyer who fought for recognition of 'ecocide', dies aged 50 |author=Jonathan Watts |newspaper=The Guardian |date=22 April 2019 |access-date=13 December 2020 |archive-date=2 June 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190602062718/https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/apr/22/polly-higgins-environmentalist-eradicating-ecocide-dies |url-status=live }}</ref> She left her career as a lawyer to focus on environmental advocacy, and unsuccessfully lobbied the United Nations Law Commission to recognise ecocide as an international crime. She died on 21 April 2019, at the age of 50<ref name=Guardian_Watts /> and is buried in Slad.<ref name=StroudNJ>{{cite web |url=https://www.stroudnewsandjournal.co.uk/news/17589118.stroud-eco-warrior-polly-higgins-dies/ |title='We must build on her legacy' – MP's tribute to Polly Higgins |author=Matty Airey |newspaper=Stroud News & Journal |date=22 April 2019 |accessdate=24 April 2019 |archive-date=24 April 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190424012152/https://www.stroudnewsandjournal.co.uk/news/17589118.stroud-eco-warrior-polly-higgins-dies/ |url-status=live }}</ref>
==References== {{reflist|30em}}
==External links== *{{Commons category-inline|Slad}} *[https://www.geograph.org.uk/search.php?i=2756004 Photographs of Slad and surrounding area on Geograph] *[https://stroudvoices.co.uk/#slad Audio history of the area (Slad filter)] *[https://www.stroudiecentral.co.uk/2017/06/10/badger-paintings-on-fence-posts/ comment & photographs of paintings of badgers on fence posts in Slad Lane]
{{authority control}}
Category:Villages in Gloucestershire Category:Painswick
{{Gloucestershire-geo-stub}}