diff --git a/cplusplus/Doxyfile.in b/cplusplus/Doxyfile.in
index 9f0f376a..b489896b 100644
--- a/cplusplus/Doxyfile.in
+++ b/cplusplus/Doxyfile.in
@@ -835,6 +835,7 @@ INPUT                  = \
 	@DOXY_INPUT_DIRECTORY@/include/vips/VError8.h \
 	@DOXY_INPUT_DIRECTORY@/include/vips/VImage8.h \
 	@DOXY_INPUT_DIRECTORY@/include/vips/VInterpolate8.h \
+	@DOXY_INPUT_DIRECTORY@/include/vips/VRegion8.h \
 	@DOXY_INPUT_DIRECTORY@/include/vips/vips8
 
 # This tag can be used to specify the character encoding of the source files
diff --git a/cplusplus/include/vips/Makefile.am b/cplusplus/include/vips/Makefile.am
index d1c0e805..c3da74c8 100644
--- a/cplusplus/include/vips/Makefile.am
+++ b/cplusplus/include/vips/Makefile.am
@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@ pkginclude_HEADERS = \
 	VError8.h \
 	VImage8.h \
 	VInterpolate8.h \
+	VRegion8.h \
 	VConnection8.h \
 	vips8 
 
diff --git a/cplusplus/include/vips/VImage8.h b/cplusplus/include/vips/VImage8.h
index 2cc118b4..aff27543 100644
--- a/cplusplus/include/vips/VImage8.h
+++ b/cplusplus/include/vips/VImage8.h
@@ -1057,7 +1057,7 @@ public:
 	}
 
 	/**
-	 * Acquire VRegion covering the whole image.
+	 * Acquire an unprepared VRegion.
 	 */
 	VRegion
 	region() const;
diff --git a/cplusplus/include/vips/VRegion8.h b/cplusplus/include/vips/VRegion8.h
index 68eddbba..c841aacf 100644
--- a/cplusplus/include/vips/VRegion8.h
+++ b/cplusplus/include/vips/VRegion8.h
@@ -122,6 +122,15 @@ public:
 		return VIPS_REGION_ADDR( get_region(), x, y );
 	}
 
+	/**
+	 * Get the stride (bytes per row, including padding) of the region.
+	 */
+	size_t
+	stride() const
+	{
+		return VIPS_REGION_LSKIP( get_region() );
+	}
+
 	/**
 	 * Get VipsPel at the given index of the region.
 	 */
diff --git a/cplusplus/include/vips/meson.build b/cplusplus/include/vips/meson.build
index b1952659..9e7fea69 100644
--- a/cplusplus/include/vips/meson.build
+++ b/cplusplus/include/vips/meson.build
@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@ public_cpp_headers = files(
     'VError8.h',
     'VImage8.h',
     'VInterpolate8.h',
+    'VRegion8.h',
     'VConnection8.h',
     'vips8',
 )