IN the wake of the Chilcot report, the SNJ looks back at how hundreds of protesters in Stroud demonstrated against the war in Iraq in 2003.

As the government debated invading Iraq, around 600 protestors from Stroud made the trip to London to take part in the biggest political demonstration in Britain.

Twelve coaches left Stroud bus station to join a march of more than one million people opposing the war.

Demonstrators from Stroud included poet Dennis Gould, barrister Alex Raeburn, film maker James Dick and many who had never taken part in a political march before.

Veteran demonstrator Dennis Gould said: “There are so many new people and while it might not stop this war which they seem hell bent on having it shows that people care and something is happening.”

Christians gathered in Stroud High Street to pray for peace in an event organised by Churches Together for Stroud.

Hundreds of Archway School pupils formed a huge circle on the school grounds the day before war broke out in protest.

Around a dozen pupils from Thomas Keble School walked out of the classroom to join protests outside the Sub Rooms.

After war was declared, more than 100 peace protesters took part in a demonstration to register their disappointment.

They gathered at Stroud’s Sub Rooms before marching to Merrywalks, fanning out across the bridge and along the roadside.

Bearing banners and placards with messages ranging from ‘Stroud Peace Movement Says No To War’ to ‘Wage Peace’, demonstrators filed across the bridge, draping their slogans over the railings.