cathedral city
Cathedral city is a city status in the United Kingdom.
Cathedral city may also refer to:
* Cathedral City, California, a city in Southern California, United States
* Cathedral City Cheddar, a brand of Cheddar cheese
* Cathedral City High Scho ...
and the county town of Gloucestershire in the South West of England. Gloucester lies on the River Severn, between the Cotswolds to the east and the Forest of Dean to the west, east of Monmouth and east of the border with Wales. Including suburban areas, Gloucester has a population of around 132,000. It is a port, linked via the
Gloucester and Sharpness Canal
The Gloucester and Sharpness Canal (also known as the Gloucester and Berkeley Canal) is a ship canal in the west of England, between Gloucester and Sharpness; for much of its length it runs close to the tidal River Severn, but cuts off a sign ...
to the
Severn Estuary
The Severn Estuary ( cy, Aber Hafren) is the estuary of the River Severn, flowing into the Bristol Channel between South West England and South Wales. Its high tidal range, approximately , means that it has been at the centre of discussions in t ...
.
Gloucester was founded by the
Romans
Roman or Romans most often refers to:
*Rome, the capital city of Italy
* Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD
*Roman people, the people of ancient Rome
*''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...
and became an important city and '' colony'' in AD 97 under Emperor Nerva as '' Colonia Glevum Nervensis''.
It was granted its first charter in 1155 by Henry II. In 1216, Henry III, aged only nine years, was crowned with a gilded iron ring in the Chapter House of Gloucester Cathedral. Gloucester's significance in the Middle Ages is underlined by the fact that it had a number of monastic establishments, including: St Peter's Abbey founded in 679 (later Gloucester Cathedral), the nearby
St Oswald's Priory, Gloucester
St Oswald's Priory was founded by Æthelflæd, daughter of Alfred the Great, and her husband Æthelred, ealdorman of Mercia, in the late 880s or the 890s.Heighway, p. 103St Oswald's Priory, English Heritage It appears to have been an exact cop ...
founded in the 880s or 890s and Llanthony Secunda Priory, founded 1136. The town is also the site of the
siege of Gloucester
The siege of Gloucester took place between 10 August and 5 September 1643 during the First English Civil War. It was part of a Royalist campaign led by King Charles I to take control of the Severn Valley from the Parliamentarians. Follow ...
in 1643, during which the city held out against Royalist forces in the First English Civil War.
A major attraction of the city is Gloucester Cathedral, which is the burial place of King Edward II and Walter de Lacy; it features in scenes from the '' Harry Potter'' films. Other features of interest include the museum and school of art and science, the former
county jail
A prison, also known as a jail, gaol (dated, standard English, Australian, and historically in Canada), penitentiary (American English and Canadian English), detention center (or detention centre outside the US), correction center, correct ...
(on the site of a Saxon and Norman castle), the Shire Hall (now headquarters of the County Council) and the Whitefield memorial church. A park in the south of the city contains a spa, a chalybeate spring having been discovered in 1814.
Economically, the city is dominated by the service industries and has strong financial, research, distribution and light industrial sectors. Historically, it was prominent in the aerospace industry.
In 1926, the Gloucestershire Aircraft Company at Brockworth changed its name to the
Gloster Aircraft Company
The Gloster Aircraft Company was a British aircraft manufacturer from 1917 to 1963.
Founded as the Gloucestershire Aircraft Company Limited during the First World War, with the aircraft construction activities of H H Martyn & Co Ltd of Chelte ...
because international customers claimed that the name ''Gloucestershire'' was too difficult to spell. A sculpture in the city centre celebrates Gloucester's aviation history and its involvement in the jet engine.
Etymology
From the city's Roman name, ''
Glevum
Glevum (or, more formally, Colonia Nervia Glevensium, or occasionally ''Glouvia'') was originally a Roman fort in Roman Britain that became a " colonia" of retired legionaries in AD 97. Today, it is known as Gloucester, in the English county o ...
'', Anglo-Saxon migrants after 410, with their fledgling feudal structure, the
Kingdom of Wessex
la, Regnum Occidentalium Saxonum
, conventional_long_name = Kingdom of the West Saxons
, common_name = Wessex
, image_map = Southern British Isles 9th century.svg
, map_caption = S ...
, culturally overwhelmed the area's Romano-Celtic society and changed the city's name from ''Caerloyw'' (), Gloucester's name in modern Welsh, while recognising the presence of the Roman fort. ''Caerloyw'' is: ''caer'' (meaning "fort, stronghold or castle") and ''loyw'', a
lenition
In linguistics, lenition is a sound change that alters consonants, making them more sonorous. The word ''lenition'' itself means "softening" or "weakening" (from Latin 'weak'). Lenition can happen both synchronically (within a language at a pa ...
of ''gloyw'' as it would have been pronounced by many speakers, means "bright/shiny/glowy".
A variant of the term '' -cester/chester/caster'' instead of the Welsh ''
caer
Caer (; owl, cair or ') is a placename element in Welsh meaning "stronghold", "fortress", or "citadel", roughly equivalent to an Old English suffix (''-ceaster'') now variously written as , , and .Allen, Grant.
Notable residents of Gloucester have included:
Gloucester Tramways Company
Gloucester Tramways Company operated a horse-drawn tramway service in Gloucester between 1879 and 1904.
History
In 1877, when The Gloucester Tramways Company submitted details of a system to the City Council. Gloucester Tramways Company was a ...
*
Gloucester Corporation Tramways
Gloucester Corporation Tramways operated an electric tramway service in Gloucester between 1904 and 1933.
History
Gloucester City Council purchased the assets of the horse-drawn Gloucester Tramways Company in 1902, with the intention of electr ...