Dursley

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For the fictional Dursleys (Harry Potter's relatives), see Dursley family.

Map sources for Dursley at grid reference ST756981

Arms of the former Dursley Rural District Council

Dursley is a market town in Gloucestershire, England. It is under the North East flank of Stinchcombe Hill (part of the 'Cotswold Edge'), and about 6km South East of the River Severn. The town is adjacent with Cam which, though a village, is a community of double the size. The two communities (combined population about 12,000) share many facilities.

Dursley gained borough status in 1471 and lost it in 1886. From then until 1974 it was the administrative centre of Dursley Rural District (RDC). In 1974 the RDC became part of Stroud District.

In 1856 a short branch line railway opened, [1] linking Dursley and Cam to the Bristol - Gloucester main line at Coaley Junction. The branch line was closed in 1968. Coaley Junction station was also closed at about this time. However, in 1994 a new railway station called Cam and Dursley [2] was opened on the main line near the site of Coaley Junction.

Dursley was a manufacturing town, producing the famous Dursley Pedersen bicycle [3] and Lister stationary engine.

Upon his marriage in 1937 the novelist Evelyn Waugh moved to Piers Court near Dursley, where, except while serving in the Second World War, he lived until his death in 1966. Local legend also has it that William Shakespeare worked as a schoolmaster in Dursley during his "lost years". References to local landscapes and families in Henry IV are often cited as evidence.

Stinchcombe Hill provides a scenic backdrop to much of the town. It has an 18 hole golf course, said to be a favourite of the actor Hugh Grant. The Hill has had a great deal of work carried out by volunteers (SHV, led by John Smallwood), since 1992. They have attempted to restore the open views over the Severn Vale. The cleared areas can be seen from the M5. The Cotswold Way has now been re-routed around the Hill to take advantage of this work.

Harry Potter author JK Rowling used to visit the town as a child with her parents, and hated it so much she named the awful Dursley family in the Potter books after it.^{[citation needed]}

The Old Spot is regularly voted Gloucestershire Pub of the Year and features a full range of real ales (including "Old Ric").

Home to the discovery of the 'Tessellating fisheye kaleidoscope' in 1999.

The town's secondary school, Rednock School, [4] serves Cam, Dursley and the outlying villages including Coaley, Uley, Owlpen, Stinchcombe and others, and is a Specialist Science College.

There are a number of ancient historical sites in the general vicinity including Beverston Castle, Owlpen Manor and Calcot Manor, the latter having finds dating to the Roman era. According to Lumina Technologies, the Roman bas-relief work found at Calcot is evidence not just of the Roman presence, but of a significant Roman road through this area.^[1]