PLANNING permission has been granted for 100 new homes at the historic Ham Mill in Thrupp.

The project at the picturesque riverside location will also see the restoration of the mill which dates back to 1608.

The scheme has planning permission from Stroud District Council for 55 houses and 45 apartments on a 4.94 acre site, located in a scenic wooded valley just off the A419 London Road, near to Rodborough Common.

It has been brought to market by commercial property specialist Colliers International, which is seeking offers for the freehold of the site, which has lain derelict since a carpet weaving firm based at the mill left in 2000.

Head of development in the Bristol office of Colliers International,Christopher Dawson said: “Nineteenth century former industrial buildings such as Ham Mill, with their original brickwork and multiple windows, are increasingly sought after for residential conversion into character apartments.

“The Ham Mill site has the additional advantage of being located in a picturesque wooded area overlooking the River Frome, rather than in an urban setting.”

In addition to 100 converted and new build homes, the site also has planning permission for over 10,000 sq ft of flexible community and commercial space, 150 parking spaces and 120 cycle spaces.

Ham Mill reflects the legacy of The Stroud Valleys as one of the earliest cloth-making areas in Britain, and the site is earmarked as a landmark site within the Stroud Industrial Heritage Conservation area, and both the mill building and the gates and gatepost to the front of the site are Grade II listed.

Textiles were produced at Ham Mill from the early 1600 to 2000 in a variety of forms, and by a succession of different businesses.

After being used for the manufacture of cloth for Royalist soldiers’ uniforms, it was sold in 1634 to Samuel Webb and continued to produce cloth throughout the 18th and 19th centuries.

By 1846 it was being used partly as a saw mill, but cloth making continued during the 1850s. In 1900, the mill was sold to carpet weavers Bond Worth, who used it for spinning carpet yarn until they vacated the site in 2000.