Historic England: Gloucestershire: Unique Images from the Archives of Historic England

By David Elder and Historic England

This illustrated history portrays one of England’s finest counties. It provides a nostalgic look at Gloucestershire’s past and highlights the special character of some of its most important historic sites.The photographs are taken from the Historic England Archive, a unique collection of over 12 million photographs, drawings, plans and documents covering England’s archaeology, architecture, social and local history. Pictures date from the earliest days of photography to the present and cover subjects from Bronze Age burials and medieval churches to cinemas and seaside resorts.The county of Gloucestershire is one of the most varied in the country. Divided by the valley of the River Severn, the ancient Forest of Dean in the west of the county was home to coal mining for many years. To the east, the Cotswold Hills grew wealthy in the Middle Ages through the wool trade and many towns and villages have a rich heritage of historic buildings, from Chipping Camden and the mill town of Stroud to Cirencester, which was founded by the Romans. The two largest settlements are the cathedral city of Gloucester and Georgian Cheltenham, but other historical towns are to be found throughout the county, from Tewkesbury to Berkeley, Thornbury and Chipping Sodbury.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Amberley Publishing
• Release date: Aug 15, 2019
• ISBN: 9781445692166

Book preview

Introduction

In the Iron Age and Roman periods, while there was no distinct region called Gloucestershire, the area we now recognise as such was probably inhabited by two separate populations: a Germanic group, east of the Severn; and a Celtic group, west of it. During the Anglo-Saxon period it was occupied by the Hwicces, a West Saxon tribe who were governed by Mercia in the seventh century. It is thought that Gloucestershire became a shire in the tenth century, mention being made in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle in 1016. Since then, although the county’s boundaries have occasionally been adjusted, including at the end of the eleventh century when Winchcombeshire (previously a county by itself) and the Forest of Dean were incorporated, Gloucestershire still comprises three distinct geographic areas: the Cotswolds, the Severn Vale and the Forest of Dean. For the purposes of this study, Gloucestershire is defined under the current ceremonial counties’ boundaries and, therefore, includes the region north of Bristol but not Bristol itself.

One small part of the county’s natural beauty, which F. W. Harvey summarised in his poem ‘A Song for Gloucestershire’ as ‘Forest and vale and high blue hill’, is captured in the first chapter of this book, while the county’s predominantly agricultural nature is covered next. It was the orchards of the Severn Vale that gave rise to the Orchard Pig, or Gloucestershire Old Spot, while the ‘high blue hill’ helped to furnish the sheep (or Cotswold lions) with long, thick fleeces. Today a beneficial microclimate also makes it a favourable place for vines and wine making. The county’s ancient families and landowners are represented through the houses and gardens they built. These include the Berkeleys, resident here for nearly 900 years, and the Tracy family who built Stanway House. The county is also rich in places of worship. While it is uncertain whether the old proverb ‘As sure as God’s in Gloucestershire’ refers to the wealth of abbeys, or the fact that the Church owned around one-third of the county during the late Middle Ages, or simply that it was perceived as a prosperous place in which to live, Gloucestershire is blessed with some of the most remarkable religious houses in the country – from the ancient abbeys at Tewkesbury and Gloucester to Cheltenham’s fine example of a provincial synagogue.

The pioneering spirit of the county is revealed in education. Cheltenham may have provided the first girls’ school founded on the proprietary system, but Cirencester gave the English-speaking world its first agricultural college. In the field of entertainment, Gloucestershire has also led the way, from the world’s longest-running cricket festival (at Cheltenham) to the ancient Cotswold Olympick Games. Lastly, the region’s industries have been shaped by its diverse landscapes, from mining in the Forest of Dean to the woollen trade of the Cotswolds and the textile mills of the Stroud valleys. The county also reveals a remarkable ambition, whether through building the country’s longest canal tunnel (at Sapperton), or constructing the world’s largest aircraft assembly hall (at Filton).

In presenting a range of snapshots across the county, this volume embraces around 1,830 years of history, from the construction of the Roman villa at Witcombe in AD 250 to the culmination of site clearance at Berkeley Nuclear Power Station by 2080.

Hill, Forest and Vale

Symonds Yat, 1948

This is the view north, taken from Symonds Yat Rock, the well-known limestone outcrop that rises around 500 feet above the River Wye. Famed for its natural beauty, the area is also steeped in a rich archaeological past, from caves yielding the ancient bones of hyenas and mammoth to traces of old rock shelters used by Mesolithic hunters. (© Historic England Archive)

Minchinhampton Common, 1959

The second-largest open common in the Cotswolds, Minchinhampton Common is now owned by the National Trust. Important as an archaeological landscape, the common is dotted with a variety of Neolithic and Bronze Age burial mounds, ancient field systems, and the remains of a large Iron Age fort. (© Historic England Archive.