European gas price now up 48% since Friday!
And Dutch gas storages at a very low level (10% filled).
But: no incentive at all for commercial companies to start filling up again: prices throughout the year are higher than those for next winter. If we want the storages filled, governments need to act.
A young Sudanese man dressed in navy blue with a press bulletproof vest on looks into the camera. He is wearing in-ear headphones and he has a large plaster on his temple.
Sudanese journalist Almigdad Hassan has received the Newcomer of the Year – Hans Verploeg Award 2025
thesudanist.com/journalist-a...
AMPLIFY STROUD is 100% reader supported. Sign up now as a paying subscriber from as little as £5 a month and help us to document the living social history of Stroud
A woman with long grey hair, wearing a pink jacket and a green, pink and blue tartan scarf stands amongst a line of people on the grass. She is holding a small bodhran (Irish hand drum) and watching the celebration closely. In her pocket she has a red woolly hat. The image is half covered by a pink panel on which is written the following text: ”There is a campaign across the world to give rights and sovereignty to rivers and watercourses and this is in direct opposition to the continued pollution of our rivers by water companies. “Many local councils up and down the country are engaged and committed to this shared outcome.” — Robin Layfield
The blessing forms part of a global campaign to give rivers fundamental rights: to flow, to be understood as having sentience, to be free from pollution; to restoration and to be treated as living entities with legal guardians.
In the foregound a small brazier is set on the grass. It is stacked with wood and it is burning with the flames leaping into the air a few inches above it. This is where people will cast their fears and doubts and where they will draw in the warmth and heat of Brigid, Celtic goddess of the end of Winter. A woman dressed all in white stands in the background. She is a Water Maiden, part of the celebration and there to channel the energies of the Frome into the ritual. A pink panel covers half of the image, overlaid is the following text: “THERE IS SOMETHING DEEPLY MAGICAL about reconnecting with the land and the water around you, about acknowledging that we are all just a tiny part of this world and that no amount of tarmac, river pollution, AI or doomscrolling can take away our fundamental links to and our origins within nature.” — Robin Layfield
Robin Layfield takes us on a deeply personal journey of inspiration and celebration, of chanting and wishing, of practical magic and climate activism.
DATELINE: 2 FEBRUARY 2026
WRITER: ROBIN LAYFIELD
TOPIC: “I AM THE WATER, THE WATER IS ME” — BLESSING THE FROME
On Sunday 1 February people came to Rodborough Fields from all over Stroud to mark the Celtic festival of Imbolc and to join in the blessing of the river Frome.
THANK YOU for reading, you don't know how important your support is!
SUPPORT US
~~~~~~~~~~
We manage all of this on a shoestring and depend upon the goodwill of our writers and readers, if you would like to support us in this work, you can make a small monthly donation of £5 or more and that will really help.
Go to amplifystroud.com and hit subscribe.
If YOU would like to write for AmplifyStroud, please visit our pitching guidelines on the website and send a submission in to antenna@amplifystroud.com.
Cover of a recent article, titled "REDS - Stroud's new youth hub". The image features a group of young people standing with their arms outstretched and cheering. The tag line reads "Community" and there is a small amplify brandmark in the cornre (a lower case underlined white letter 'a' on a pink squircle — square with rounded corners)
What we aim to do is produce evergreen content that captures a mood, a spirit or a feeling. We are building a social history of Stroud from 2015 onwards and we are capturing each moment as it happens
We recognise that our work is not in breaking news - there are many other outlets in Stroud doing this and as an independent news provider, we rate Stroud Times amongst the best locally.
A selection of recent articles from 2025. The titles are as follows The Ghost of Christmas Future 50 Years of Rising Stars FC — Nikki Laine interviews Ayoob Moulla It's not just workers calling for a wealth tax — millionaires are too! Requiem for a Protest? — A response Emergence Re-Stock — the Campaign to reduce textile waste Common Ground World Suicide Prevention Day ”Music is the Key to Radical Resistance” — Los Fastidios
We have covered a diverse range of topics from the hyper local, to the global, from community activities, to local government and national policymaking. We've had good representation from Dialect Rural Writers and from the young people of the RYSE, which is a point of pride for us.
Thank you to PINF @publicinterestnews.org.uk - the Public Interest News Foundation for your support and to This Ends Now for your "Words Matter" campaign, which we hope to see make a real impact on on the media.
Props also go out to Joe Magee, Matt Bigwood (from Stroud Times) and Alexander Caminada for generously donating photographs and cover images for some of our articles.
An older man with short spiky hair smiles at the camera. He has a distinctive gap between his front teeth and the lines on his face show that he has seen a lot in his career. This is the former MP David Drew. He is wearing a suit jacket and stripy shirt. On his jacket is a small cross badge depicting his Christian faith.
A young Brown man with a beard and a baseball cap is at a protest. The banner behind him reads "Stop Rosebank". He is wearing a Palestinian Kuffiyeh. The label reads "KAM"
A young woman with brown-blonde hair and a blue scarf smiles into the camera.
An older Jewish man with rectangular glasses and spiky hair looks into the camera. Behind him a demonstration is taking place. He looks concerned and intense.
A woman with smart glasses and shoulder length dark brown hair is looking thoughtfully towards the camera. The label reads "SARAH"
A young man smiles into the camera. He has short black hair and a trim black beard. He is wearing a blue / grey teeshirt
A Syrian man with a short black beard and rectangular glasses tilts his head to the side and looks into the eyes of the viewer. He is wearing a green jacket and smiling slightly
A young person with small hoops in their ears and short spiky hair looks into the camera.
A young person looks away into the distance. They have long brown-blondish hair and several ear piercings.
An older man in a smart grey jacket with a navy shirt and a green and navy scarf. He has short grey hair and a short grey beard. He is wearing an 'XR' badge and has an 'XR' patch pinned onto his jacket. He is staring off into the distance
A man with piercing blue eyes stares directly into the camera. He is wearing a flat cap and standing behind the peeling bark of a Silver Birch tree.
A smiling young woman with long red hair is holding a black labrador to her as she looks towards the camera. The label reads "ROMA"
Thank you Alex and Alyssa (top Deputy Editors), thank you David, Emma(s), Nikki and Alun.
Thank you Sarah, Roma, Kam, Rami, Eli, Jezza, Tattie, Milly, Will @willluker.bsky.social from The Shire News, former MP David Drew, and Chikara Shimasaki from the Stroud Commons.
A young man with a septum piercing or nose ring, shortish brown hair and a beard. He is smiling towards the camera. The label reads "ALEX”
A young woman with shoulder length dark brown hair and wearing a teal cardigan. She has brown eyes and is smiling towards the camera. The label reads "ALYSSA"
A woman with long blonde hair stares confidently into the camera. She is smartly dressed in a grey polo-neck with matching grey jacket. The label reads "NIKKI"
A young woman with shoulder-length curly light-brown hair and hazel eyes. She wears a green dress with a geometric print. She stares off into the distance. The label reads "EMMA"
THANK YOU
~~~~~~~~~
Thanks to everyone that has put pen to paper and taken the time to write one or more articles for Amplify Stroud over the course of 2025.
You have all written such interesting articles and hopefully you have more to share.
If you would like to support us in this work, please consider upgrading to a paid subscription from only £5 per month.
Thank you for reading & we'd like to wish you a very Merry Christmas
Amplify Stroud is dedicated to platforming new writers and giving a voice to the social history of Stroud. We work entirely voluntarily, on a shoestring, to bring you stories and articles that add texture, culture and background to living in Stroud.
Trinity Rooms are trying to raise enough money for a community purchase of this much-loved building before Christmas Day.
You can help here
www.stroudtrinityrooms.org/help-buy-tri...
Emma paints a picture of a place that is full of life and humour, kindness and community spirit and invites us all to step through the doors and join in the celebration.
Read the full piece here on Amplify Stroud
In her latest post for Amplify Stroud, Emma Kernahan tells us about her experiences at the Trinity Rooms Community Hub, from joining in Christmas Dinner to seeing ghosts of the past when it was a World War 1 hospital ward.
amplifystroud.com/the-ghost-of...
The Cracker Barrel thing was THIS YEAR. We have three more years of this shit. Anybody who makes it to 2028 without looking like Nosferatu will be required by the state to start a skincare brand.
The boys save up to buy a football and start playing in the park — 25-a-side, they have dreams of starting a club and joining the Sunday League.
Fifty years later Rising Stars FC takes the county championship.
Nikki Laine interviews Ayoob "Ginge" Moolla about Rising Stars FC after 50 years of growth of the club.
A group of young boys come to the UK in the Summer of 1966. They go to the park at the weekends to play cricket but they become obsessed with football.
amplifystroud.com/50-years-of-...
Here is Shalize at TEDx Stroud talking about Zero-Waste clothing in 2021
www.youtube.com/watch?time_c...
EMERGENCE RE-STOCK — THE CAMPAIGN TO REDUCE TEXTILE WASTE
SHALIZE NICHOLAS | EMERGENCE RE-STOCK
OCTOBER 2025
UK households throw away around 300,000 tonnes of clothing each year, with much ending up in incineration or landfill.
amplifystroud.com/emergence-re...
SUPPORT NEW INDEPENDENT WRITING
Amplify Stroud is actively nurturing the next generation of young writers and your contribution enables us to commission new articles from new writers every month.
Read more on our website and subscribe for free articles straight to your inbox.
