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About Gloucester
Gloucester has a rich history, dating back to the time of the Romans when Glevum was founded as a colonia (settlement of Roman citizens) in AD97 to protect the Severn crossing. Refortified by the Saxon Queen Aethelflaeda in the ninth century against Viking attacks, it was from the Chapter House of St Peters Abbey in Gloucester that William the Conqueror decreed the survey which became the Domesday Book.
St Peter’s Abbey was dissolved during the reformation under Henry VIII, and the Abbey Church later became the Cathedral of the city. During the reign of ‘Bloody’ Mary John Hooper, the Bishop of Gloucester, was martyred by being burned at the stake outside the gates of the Cathedral for being an “unrepentant heretic”. Before his death he was held prisoner in the building in Westgate Street which is now the Folk Museum.
During the Civil War, the City sided with Parliament against the Crown, and in 1643 withstood a siege by the forces of King Charles I. The largest siege army of the Civil War was encamped around Gloucester between 10th August and 5th September, when the city was relieved by a force from London. Fewer than 50 of the 5,500 inhabitants of Gloucester died, compared with several thousand of the King’s force of between 30 – 35,000.
The city also has a rich industrial history, largely down to its position on the Severn. Until 1968 the England’s Glory matches were made here in a factory on the Bristol Road which still bears its neon sign, the first in Gloucester. The Gloucester Railway Carriage and Wagon Company owed part of its success to the supplies of wood brought up the Gloucester and Berkeley Canal, and Gloucester became a busy railway junction.
The movement, over several decades, of people and businesses from the city centre has left large areas of central Gloucester in need of regeneration. With the redevelopment of St Oswalds Park, on-going regeneration at the Docks including a £200 million transformation of the waterfront, renovation of King’s Square and The Oxbode, and new plans unveiled for the redevelopment of the Blackfriars area, Gloucester has a bright future ahead.
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