BUILDINGS and monuments in Selsley, Stroud, Minchinhampton, Chalford and Painswick all feature in a new UK-wide Arts and Crafts Movement trail just launched.

An international Arts and Crafts Movement exhibition is to be held at the Victoria and Albert Museum in the spring of next year and the UK trail celebrating the work of William Morris and his followers is the prelude to the exhibition.

The trail is in five parts: Greater London, the South East, Cheltenham and the Cotswolds, the Midlands and Lake District, and Scotland.

It is designed to work for individuals travelling by car or public transport and for group organisers planning special interest tours by coach.

Cheltenham Museum and Art Gallery, which houses the UK's definitive Arts and Crafts Movement collection, has taken the initiative of highlighting the treasures of the Arts and Crafts Movement around the country and the trail is now available on Cheltenham's dedicated Arts and Crafts website www.artsandcraftsmuseum.org.uk

All Saints Church Selsley, where the stained glass windows were the first major commission for William Morris's firm Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Company, is among the many Gloucestershire places of interest featured on the trail.

The School of Science and Art in Stroud, the Memorial Cross at Minchinhampton, Christchurch Chalford and the Gyde Almshouses at Painswick are all given special mention.

International Arts and Crafts will run at the V&A from March 17-July 24, 2005 and will show how Arts and Crafts originated in Britain in the 1880s and became the first British design movement to have widespread influence internationally.