Coaley


Coaley is a village in the English county of Gloucestershire roughly 4 miles from the town of Dursley, and 5 miles from the town of Stroud. 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 and Cambridge 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, the Coaley C of E Primary School, a church, a village hall, and a community shop, set up in recent years using the former reception classroom of the school. Cam and Dursley railway station was reopened in 1994 and is situated on the South-Western border of the village.
Coaley has a football team, Coaley Rovers, who are also known as Coaley Crows. They compete 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 Gloucestershire village of the year in a Calor-sponsored competition organised by Gloucestershire 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, Geoffrey Webb, drank regularly in the 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 and stretches south to Uley. The total population of this ward taken at the 2011 census was 2,299.