The Museum of Gloucester in Brunswick Road is the main museum in the city of

Gloucester Gloucester ( ) is a cathedral city 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 ...

, England. It was extensively renovated following a large National Heritage Lottery Fund grant, and reopened on

Gloucester Day Gloucester Day is a recently reinstated annual day of celebration of the City of Gloucester's history and culture. The day was first held in the modern era on 5 September 2009 but originally dates from the lifting of the Siege of Gloucester in 16 ...

, 3 September 2011. In March 2016, the Museum rebranded itself; it used to be called the Gloucester City Museum & Art Gallery. Gloucester Life is a smaller museum in Westgate Street, dealing with the

social history Social history, often called the new social history, is a field of history that looks at the lived experience of the past. In its "golden age" it was a major growth field in the 1960s and 1970s among scholars, and still is well represented in his ...

Gloucestershire Gloucestershire ( abbreviated Glos) is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn and the entire Forest of Dean. The county town is the city of Gl ...

Origins

The museum opened on 12 March 1860 as a private venture in three rooms at ''The Black Swan'', provided rent-free by the poet

Sydney Dobell Sydney Thompson Dobell (5 April 182422 August 1874) was an English poet and critic, and a member of the so-called Spasmodic school. Biography Dobell was born at Cranbrook, Kent. His father, John Dobell, was a wine merchant and his mother Julie ...

. In 1896 the ''Corporation of the City of Gloucester'' took over the venture.

The building

The Victorian building, in the early Renaissance style, inspired by the work of T.G. Jackson, is Grade II listed by

English Heritage English Heritage (officially the English Heritage Trust) is a charity that manages over 400 historic monuments, buildings and places. These include prehistoric sites, medieval castles, Roman forts and country houses. The charity states that i ...

. It was originally the ''Price Memorial Hall'' of the ''Gloucester Science and Art Society'', built for Margaret Price as a memorial to her husband William Edwin Price in 1893, and designed by F.S. Waller. The ''Corporation of the City of Gloucester'' took over the building as the ''City Museum & Art Gallery'' in 1902. Originally only on the ground floor, a first floor was added in 1958 which was opened by the archaeologist

Sir Mortimer Wheeler Sir Robert Eric Mortimer Wheeler CH CIE MC TD (10 September 1890 – 22 July 1976) was a British archaeologist and officer in the British Army. Over the course of his career, he served as Director of both the National Museum of Wales a ...

Collections

Newnham-on-Severn from Dean Hill - William Turner of Oxford

Objects in the museum include: *Dinosaur skeletons. *Archaeology, including the Rufus Sita Tombstone and the Iron Age Birdlip Mirror found in 1879."Gloucester Museum Doubles Its Space" in ''The Times'', 25 April 1958, p. 12. *Natural history objects. *Roman and mediaeval artefacts, including the Gloucester tabula set, a rare 11th or 12th century

board game Board games are tabletop games that typically use . These pieces are moved or placed on a pre-marked board (playing surface) and often include elements of table, card, role-playing, and miniatures games as well. Many board games feature a comp ...

. *Fine and decorative art items, including

Delftware Delftware or Delft pottery, also known as Delft Blue ( nl, Delfts blauw) or as delf, is a general term now used for Dutch tin-glazed earthenware, a form of faience. Most of it is blue and white pottery, and the city of Delft in the Netherland ...

, Staffordshire figurines and Arts and Crafts Bowls by Alfred and Louise Powell. *Queen Anne furniture. *Local history items including items relating to the

Gloucester Railway Carriage & Wagon Company Gloucester Railway Carriage and Wagon Company (GRC&W) was a railway rolling stock manufacturer based in Gloucester, England from 1860 until 1986. Products included goods wagons, passenger coaches, diesel multiple units, electric multiple units ...

and a bust of local Methodist preacher

George Whitfield George Whitefield (; 30 September 1770), also known as George Whitfield, was an Anglican cleric and evangelist who was one of the founders of Methodism and the evangelical movement. Born in Gloucester, he matriculated at Pembroke College at th ...

Art collection

The art collection includes about 300 paintings including works by

J. M. W. Turner Joseph Mallord William Turner (23 April 177519 December 1851), known in his time as William Turner, was an English Romantic painter, printmaker and watercolourist. He is known for his expressive colouring, imaginative landscapes and turbulen ...

and

Thomas Gainsborough Thomas Gainsborough (14 May 1727 (baptised) – 2 August 1788) was an English portrait and landscape painter, draughtsman, and printmaker. Along with his rival Sir Joshua Reynolds, he is considered one of the most important British artists of ...

as well as a painting of Oliver Cromwell without his famous warts.Gloucester City Museum & Art Gallery.

Gloucestershire County Council Gloucestershire County Council is a county council which administers the most strategic local government services in the non-metropolitan county of Gloucestershire, in the South West of England. The council's principal functions are county road ...

, 2011. Retrieved 10 September 2011. In 1977, the collection acquired a landscape of ''Newnham-on-Severn from Dean Hill'' by William Turner of Oxford with help from

The Art Fund Art Fund (formerly the National Art Collections Fund) is an independent membership-based British charitable organization, charity, which raises funds to aid the acquisition of artworks for the nation. It gives grants and acts as a channel for man ...

Activities

In 1976, excavations by the Museum's ''Excavation Unit'' at St. Oswald's Priory yielded important new finds relating to the

Saxon The Saxons ( la, Saxones, german: Sachsen, ang, Seaxan, osx, Sahson, nds, Sassen, nl, Saksen) were a group of Germanic * * * * peoples whose name was given in the early Middle Ages to a large country (Old Saxony, la, Saxonia) near the Nor ...

minster founded by

Æthelred Æthelred (; ang, Æþelræd ) or Ethelred () is an Old English personal name (a compound of '' æþele'' and '' ræd'', meaning "noble counsel" or "well-advised") and may refer to: Anglo-Saxon England * Æthelred and Æthelberht, legendary prin ...

Ealdorman Ealdorman (, ) was a term in Anglo-Saxon England which originally applied to a man of high status, including some of royal birth, whose authority was independent of the king. It evolved in meaning and in the eighth century was sometimes applied ...

Mercia la, Merciorum regnum , conventional_long_name=Kingdom of Mercia , common_name=Mercia , status=Kingdom , status_text=Independent kingdom (527–879)Client state of Wessex () , life_span=527–918 , era=Heptarchy , event_start= , date_start= , ye ...

and his wife

Æthelflæd Æthelflæd, Lady of the Mercians ( 870 – 12 June 918) ruled Mercia in the English Midlands from 911 until her death. She was the eldest daughter of Alfred the Great, king of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Wessex, and his wife Ealhswith. Æth ...

in the 890s."Archaeology: Signs of Saxon Minster" by Carolyn Heighway in ''The Times'', 13 March 1976, p. 16.

Selected publications

*''Sovereigns Of England Elizabeth I - Elizabeth II an Exhibition Held In The Wheatstone Hall Gloucester 1953''. 1953. *''Ten treasures of the City Museums Gloucester, 1860-1960.'' 1960. *Rhodes, J.F. ''Catalogue Of Romano-British Sculptures In The Gloucester City Museum''. 1964. *Wellington, Robert. ''Hubert Wellington memorial exhibition: An exhibition of paintings & drawings by Hubert Wellington, 1879-1967''. 1968. *Frith, Brian. ''Twelve Portraits of Gloucester Benefactors''. 1972. *Taylor, John Neufville. ''Fishing on the Lower Severn''. 1974. *Whiting, J.R.S. ''Gloucester Besieged: The story of a Roundhead city 1640-1660.'' 1975. (2nd edition 1984) * Heighway, Carolyn M. ''Ancient Gloucester: The story of the Roman and medieval city''. 1976. *Heighway, Carolyn M. ''The East Gate of Gloucester''. 1980. *''The Golden Age of Richard III: City Museum & Art Gallery, Brunswick Rd., Gloucester: 2 July-1 October 1983: An Exhibition on the Twin Themes of Richard III and the Mediaeval Town.'' 1983. *Morris, Christopher. ''Farming in Gloucestershire, 1800-1914''. 1984. *Collins, Chris. ''Robinswood Hill Geology Trail''. 1985. *Watkins, Malcolm J. ''Golden Age of Richard III''. 1985. *Watkins, Malcolm J. ''Gloucester: The Normans and Domesday.'' 1985. *Morris, Christopher. ''Gloucester Folk Museum''. 1986. *Watkins, Malcolm J. ''March of Rome: Roman Soldier AD.50-150''. 1987. *Cox, Nigel G. ''Gloucester Folk Museum: A Guide to the Buildings''. 1987. *Atkin, Malcolm. ''History Under Our Feet: Work of the Gloucester Excavation Unit''. 1988. *Dartnall, D.L. ''The great Gloucestershire dinosaur discovery''. 1990.

References

External links

Official website.
{{authority control Museums in Gloucester Museums established in 1860 Museums of ancient Rome in the United Kingdom 1860 establishments in England Art museums and galleries in Gloucestershire Natural history museums in England History of Gloucester