Situated beneath the Cotswold escarpment overlooking the Severn Vale, the surrounding land is mainly given over to agricultural use.

[4]  As the village grew, Leonard Stanley developed into a busy weaving and agricultural centre with inns, a marketplace, and two annual fairs.

The Bitton Brook runs northward towards the River Frome and forms a shallow combe in the north part of the parish.

[7] There is a regular bus service, operated by Stagecoach West, which connects Leonard Stanley to Stroud and other local communities as well as the cities of Cheltenham and Gloucester.

Cam and Dursley station, situated 3 miles (5 km) west of Leonard Stanley, provides further regular mainline train services to Bristol and Birmingham.

[10] There is some evidence of the Romano-British occupation from the 3rd and 4th centuries in Leonard Stanley with small archeological finds near Seven Waters.

In 1086, the Domesday book records the village name as Stanlege,[11] a word derived from the Norse, meaning a stony forest or glade clearing.

By 1116 a small church dedicated to St. Leonard had been built and in c.1130, Roger de Berkeley, II, founded an Augustinian Priory.

In the early 14th century Edward II granted a charter for a weekly market which was subsequently renewed by James I in 1620.

Though there is no clear evidence for this, or any dedication to St. Swithin, it could explain why the church is today known as St. Swithun's and why the saint's day was celebrated.

[15] It was three years later, on 11 June 1538, that Henry sent an imperative request to the Abbot of Gloucester to recall the monks from Stanley St Leonard.

The priory was dissolved and a ninety nine-year lease with an annual rent of £20 was granted to Sir William Kingston in September 1538.

The market house stood near the village green, and a fulling mill used for the cleaning of cloth had been built near the complex of fishponds at Seven Waters.

The fire was such a significant event that King James II issued an appeal for money for rebuilding work.

Lavender Cottage and Yew Tree House, both standing near the corner of the village green, underwent extensive rebuilding in the 17th century suggesting they too had suffered some damaged from the fire.

The oval windows seen near the top of the gables were left unglazed to encourage owls to nest in the building.

This was Stradlyngs or Lye's mill and by the early 18th century there were seven houses at Stanley Downton together with the Flag Inn built in 1700.

The Methodist minister, Charles Wesley, visited the village and preached beneath a large elm tree on Monday, 27 August 1739.

On the afternoon of Sunday, 7 October 1739, he spoke for over two hours to a large crowd of about three thousand people ‘at Stanley on a little green near the town’.

After years of opposition by the mill owners, in July 1779 the Stroudwater Navigation, a canal, opened linking Stroud to the River Severn.

Mechanisation of the cloth making process signalled the end of the cottage weaving industry with the construction of Stanley Mills in 1813.

This rail link, with a station in Frocester, made it easier for transporting livestock to the Gloucester markets.

[26] The figures show that despite the loss of the cottage weaving industry in the village, textiles along with agriculture, and domestic service were the predominant occupations.

By now the main employment for the villagers was at the local mills, the Stonehouse brush factory, and Dudbridge foundry.

This included children evacuated from cities for safety away from the bombing raids and members of the land army who assisted farmers with food production for the war effort.

In 2019, a new vending machine service opened at Church Farm selling locally made produce.

In 1551, the last major outbreak of the disease known as the Sweating Sickness struck England resulting in an estimated 15% reduction in the population.

The census figures for 1801 records there were 590 villagers living in Leonard Stanley giving an overall estimated growth rate of 68% for the years between 1551 and 1801.

There must have been a financial impact on the community but how significant this was is unclear particularly as the population appears to have already been in a slight decline prior to the fire.

Whilst this must have significantly affected the cottage weavers, the mills would also have provided other opportunities for employment and the population rose to 861 by 1851 but fell to 651 by the 1911 census.