Qualla: Gloucester

Gloucester: Introduction

Wed, 20 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Michael D Beckwith, CC0. Walk into the cloisters of Gloucester Cathedral and you may catch yourself looking for Harry Potter. The cloisters were used as Hogwarts corridors in three of the films, and they look exactly right because they were exactly right to begin with - fan-vaulted, late-medieval, lit by the same green-filtered light that streams through the same windows monks once walked past on their way to compline. The abbey was founded here in 681, more than thirteen centuries ago, when Saint Peter's at Gloucester began the slow business of becoming the cathedral that now stares down from postcards. Underneath it all, the Romans built first.

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Image: Michael D Beckwith | CC0

Gloucester: Edward II and the Cathedral

Wed, 20 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit BazzaDaRambler, CC BY 2.0. King Edward II is buried inside the cathedral, and the choice of tomb was, in its way, the making of the place. Edward died at Berkeley Castle in 1327, possibly murdered, and several abbeys reportedly refused the body. Gloucester's abbot took it. The shrine that grew around the t...

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Image: BazzaDaRambler | CC BY 2.0

Gloucester: Streets That Saw Romans

Wed, 20 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Philafrenzy, CC BY-SA 4.0. The four main streets - Northgate, Southgate, Eastgate, Westgate - meet at the Cross, and they have done so since the Romans laid them out. Beneath Boots on Eastgate Street, behind a glass observation panel installed in 1980, you can see Roman remains exactly where they were foun...

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Image: Philafrenzy | CC BY-SA 4.0

Gloucester: Wet Doctor, First Sunday School

Wed, 20 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit BazzaDaRambler, CC BY 2.0. A nursery rhyme tells of Doctor Foster, who went to Gloucester in a shower of rain, stepped in a puddle up to his middle and never went there again. Nobody knows quite when or why the rhyme was written. What Gloucester does know is that the first Sunday school in England was foun...

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Image: BazzaDaRambler | CC BY 2.0

Gloucester: The Docks and the Jet Age

Wed, 20 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit BazzaDaRambler, CC BY 2.0. Gloucester is fifteen miles inland from the Severn Estuary, but it has a working dock. The Gloucester and Sharpness Canal, completed in 1827, brought oceangoing vessels right into the city centre. The handsome Victorian warehouses around the dock basin now house museums, restaura...

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Image: BazzaDaRambler | CC BY 2.0

Gloucester: Rugby, Cornettos, and Festivals

Wed, 20 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Steve Force, CC BY-SA 2.0. Kingsholm Stadium, the home of Gloucester Rugby since 1873, is one of the loudest grounds in English club rugby. Cherry-and-white scarves fill the terraces, and the Shed - a particular section of standing supporters - has its own folklore. The city has hosted Rugby World Cup matc...

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Image: Steve Force | CC BY-SA 2.0