Stroud is a local government district in Gloucestershire, England. It is named after its largest town, Stroud, and has its administrative headquarters in Ebley Mill, in the Ebley area on the western outskirts of the town. The district is mixed and consists of part of the Cotswolds and the Vale of Berkeley, an area of the flat, fertile valley of the River Severn. The town of Stroud is by some way the largest in the area. The southern portion of the district is served mostly by its own market towns, chief among which are Dursley and Wotton-under-Edge.