Gloucester : Britain

Gloucester : Britain
Gloucester (pronounced [ˈglɒstə]) is a city in south-west England, close to the Welsh border. In 1991 it had a population of 106,526. Traditionally Gloucester has been the county town of Gloucestershire.
It is located on the left (east) bank of the River Severn, 114 miles west-north-west of London. It is sheltered by the Cotswolds on the east, while the Malvern Hills and the Forest of Dean rise prominently to the west and north-west.
Gloucester is a port, linked via the Gloucester and Sharpness Canal to the Severn estuary, allowing larger ships to reach the docks than would be possible on the tidal reaches of the river itself.. The wharves, warehouses and the docks themselves fell into considerable disrepair until the 1980s, at which point they were renovated and form a public open space for the city’s residents. Some warehouses now house the National Waterways Museum, others were converted into luxury residential apartments, shops and bars.
Places of interest at Gloucester
Gloucester Cathedral, in the north of the city near the river, originates in the foundation of an abbey dedicated to St Peter in 681. It is the burial place of King Edward II of England.
Attached to the deanery is the Norman prior’s chapel. In St Mary’s Square outside the Abbey gate, Bishop Hooper suffered martyrdom under Queen Mary in 1555.
Many quaint gabled and timbered houses survive from earlier periods of the city’s history. At the point of intersection of the four principal streets stood the Tolsey or town hall, replaced by a modern building in 1894. None of the old public buildings is left but the New Inn in Northgate Street is a beautiful timbered house, strong and massive, with external galleries and courtyards; it was built in 1450 for the pilgrims to Edward II’s shrine, by Abbot Sebroke, and a traditional subterranean passage leads to the cathedral.
There are a large number of churches and in the past there were also many dissenting chapels. It may have been the old proverb, “as sure as God’s in Gloucester,� which provoked Oliver Cromwell to declare that the city had “more churches than godliness.� The first Sunday school in England was held in Gloucester, founded by Robert Raikes in 1780. Four churches are of special interest:
St Mary de Lode, with a Norman tower and chancel, and a monument of Bishop Hooper, on the site of a Roman temple which became the first Christian church in Britain;
St Mary de Crypt, a cruciform structure of the 12th century, with later additions and a beautiful and lofty tower;
The church of St Michael, said to have been connected with the ancient abbey of St Peter; and
St Nicholas church, originally of Norman erection, and possessing a tower and other portions of later date.
In the neighbourhood of St Mary de Crypt are the slight remains of Greyfriars and Blackfriars monasteries, and also of the city wall. Early vaulted cellars remain under the Fleece and Saracen’s Head inns.
There are three endowed schools: the College school, refounded by Henry VIII of England as part of the cathedral establishment; the school of St Mary de Crypt, founded by Dame Joan Cooke in the same reign; and Sir Thomas Rich’s Blue Coat Hospital for boys (1666). At the Crypt school the famous preacher George Whitefield (1714-1770) was educated, and he preached his first sermon in the church.
The noteworthy modern buildings include the museum and school of art and science, the county gaol (on the site of a Saxon and Norman castle), the Shire Hall and the Whitefield memorial church. A park in the south of the city contains a spa, a chalybeate spring having been discovered in 1814. West of this, across the canal, are the remains (a gateway and some walls) of Llanthony Priory, a cell of the mother abbey in the vale of Ewyas, Monmouthshire, which in the reign of Edward IV became the secondary establishment.
Kingsholm Stadium is the home of Gloucester RFC, founded in 1873, one of England’s top rugby union clubs