The Wool Pack has stood in the Slad Valley since 1670, originally as a staging post for the wool drays carrying fleeces down from Bisley. Its lasting fame, though, comes from one regular: the poet and writer Laurie Lee, who grew up in Slad and immortalised the pub in his childhood memoir Cider with Rosie. Lee spent much of his later life drinking in its garden, and when he died in 1997 he was buried in the churchyard just above it, overlooking the pub he loved for most of his ninety years.
A Pub Immortalised in Print
Few village pubs anywhere have quite the literary pedigree of the Wool Pack. Laurie Lee wrote about Slad and its people with an affection that turned the valley into something close to a pilgrimage site for readers of Cider with Rosie, and the pub sat at the centre of that world — the place he drank, wrote and, in later years, held court. Today the Wool Pack keeps a small collection of Laurie Lee memorabilia, including his beer bottles and a cabinet devoted to his books, and the pub still occasionally brews a beer named in his honour.
The Slad Valley Table
Behind the literary connection is a proper working village pub, built around genuinely local sourcing: meat comes from suppliers no more than fourteen miles away, vegetables from Cirencester and whatever the neighbours are growing, and fish and seafood from Looe on the Cornish coast. The kitchen turns out everything from a traditional Sunday roast to more inventive plates such as mussels, served in a low-beamed room that has changed very little in character since Lee’s day, with a garden that makes the most of the valley views in summer.
Planning Your Visit
The Wool Pack is on Slad Road, Slad, Stroud, Gloucestershire, GL6 7QA, a short drive from Stroud along one of the prettiest valley roads in the Cotswolds. And our guide to Stroud and to Painswick, both close by will hopefully give you a sense of the delights of the wider area; the south Cotswolds being an area we love as much as the Woolpack. When you come use our App to follow some breat walks that end or involve a classic Cotswold hostelry like The Woolpack.