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Gloucester Trivia
by Russell Grant
- Gloucester was at the centre of a number of natural disasters: in 1088 St Peter's Abbey burned down followed in 1089 with the rumblings of an earthquake. On Thursday May 22 nd 1102 a great fire strikes at St Peter's Abbey and the city itself becomes a bonfire. Not long after on Wednesday March 8 th 1122 lightning strikes St Peter's Abbey's steeple causing a conflagration. May 11 th 1190 a fire turns most of Gloucester to ashes, and in the winter of 1210 the River Severn freezes over. The city is again badly damaged by fire in 1214 followed by more flames in 1222/3 with the Lower Westgate area destroyed and the following year Upper Westgate Street as far as College Street becomes charcoal. The new century 1300 is welcomed with a further fire at St Peter's Abbey and in 1301 Llanthony is hit by fire. 1349 Black Death makes a tragic entrance. In 1575 an earthquake damages Gloucester and 1604 the plague makes another unwelcome entrée. In 1912 the city forms a fire brigade about 900 years too late!
- Pin-makers were plying their prickly trade in Gloucester according to records since 1396 and by 1802 one in five Gloucestrians were employed in one of nine pin factories. Longsmith Street says it all being the sent of the iron trade - in turn this supply of skilled metalworkers encouraged the later growth of railway, aircraft and other engineering industries.
- England 's Glory matches are more than a household name they have a place in the affections of Gloucester folks. It all because of Samuel John Moreland - the founder who first started making lucifers in his small factory in 1867; slang for match to light cigarettes. Over a hundred years later in 1971, 350 people, worked in a factory a few hundred yards from the original site, produced about 12,500 million England's Glory matches annually. Some of the most modern mass production machinery of its type in the world at the time was in constant use in Gloucester . Several match making factories stemmed from the prosperous timber trade in Gloucester in the 1860's and 1870's. But by 1880 Moreland's was out on its own. Moreland had chosen his location with business acumen close to the Gloucester and Sharpness canal which allowed quick and easy communications. The iconic label features HMS Devastation built by the British Royal Navy at Portsmouth in 1871.
- Gloucester-built Cotton motorcycles enjoyed a number of successes at the famous Isle of Man TT races during 1920's and 30's but competition from the Far East in the 1960's and 70's brought its demise. Luckily, these light yet strong machines survive in Gloucester Folk Museum .
- Wall's built Europe's biggest ice cream factory in cool Gloucester.
- Olbas Oil was developed in Gloucester by G.R. Lane Health Products. The organic fluid and pastilles which has helped me before many a personal appearance or lecture was given a starring role when Michael Caine was seen sniffing it in the film 'Get Carter'!
- Hubert Cecil Booth patented his first vacuum cleaner, 'Puffing Billy', at the age of thirty after being told by an American inventor that it would be impossible to build a machine that would suck up dust! But born in 1871 he was a visionary and despite early vacuum cleaners being so large they had to be mounted on horse drawn carts, one of the first tasks was to clean the aisle of Westminster Abbey for the Coronation of King Edward VII in 1901.
- Twentieth Century excavations near Gloucester Castle , now Gloucester Prison, unearthed the intricately carved Gloucester Tables Set now in the City Museum . This was a game similar to modern backgammon and may have been thrown out by a loser in a fit of pique! Gloucester was also well known for Roberts the toymakers, which made parlour games for Victorian and Edwardian families.
- Jemmy Wood became a nationally recognised figure as the owner of the Gloucester Old Bank and maybe even Britain 's first millionaire. Yet his miserly ways inspired Charles Dickens to create the character of Ebenezer Scrooge in 'A Christmas Carol'. The Gloucester Old Bank eventually formed part of today's Lloyds TSB.
- Born in Westgate Street , Sir Charles Wheatstone invented the electric telegraph and was later knighted for his work in laying the first transatlantic telegraph cable. His Wheatstone Bridge is still used to measure electrical resistance.
- Poet W.E. Henley was born at 1 Eastgate Street in 1849 but lost a leg as a result of a chronic infection of tuberculosis. Although famous for his own poem 'Invictus', he was also the model for his friend Robert Louis Stevenson's character Long John Silver in ' Treasure Island '.
- Born in 1890, Ivor Gurney's brilliant poetry and musical compositions belied an obstinate and unpredictable nature. Following his experiences fighting in France with the Gloucestershire Regiment during the 1914 - 1918 conflict his war poetry led to ever-deeper personal isolation and depression. He died in 1937 but left such works as 'Songs on Lonely Roads' and 'Severn and Somme '.
- George Whitefield, born in 1714 at the Bell Inn in Southgate Street, is today better known in America than in Britain. As well as open air evangelism, he founded 51 seats of learning including Princeton and Pennsylvania Universities .
- Robert Raikes was baptised at St. Mary de Crypt in 1736 and educated at the Crypt School and then the King's School. He was apprenticed to his father, a printer who founded the Gloucester Journal. When Dad died he took over and changed its size and layout. He was concerned with the need for prison reform, and used the Journal to tell the public of the inhuman conditions inside. As if that wasn't enough he also founded the first Sunday School. He theorised that prisons were full of people who had a deprived childhood, so in partnership with the Reverend Thomas Stock they opened the world's first Sunday School in St. Catherine's Street. John Wesley remarked “I find these Schools springing up wherever I go “Robert Raikes died in 1811 of a heart attack. The local children who went to his Sunday School at his burial in St. Mary de Lode church and were each given a shilling and piece of Mr.Raikes' plum cake. The original Sunday school was pulled down by Philistines but a statue of Robert Raikes can be seen in Gloucester Park
- Originally known as The Music meeting, The Three Choirs Festival comes to Gloucester once every three years and is shared with Worcester and Hereford Cathedrals. There have been many famous musical personalities associated with the Three Choirs Festival including Edward Elgar who was short of cash so joined the orchestra with his violin!
- Hammer thrower Lorraine Shaw won a Gold Medal at the 2002 Commonwealth Games held in Manchester .
- By 1785 Gloucester Castle was hardly existent due to Charles II decreeing it's destruction a century earlier that new accommodation for convicts was needed. Penal reformer John Howard and county magistrate Sir George Onesiphorus Paul engaged award winning prison architect William Blackburn to design a new county gaol which is still in use today and the reason why the Gloucester Prison sits on Gloucester Castle .
- The glass cover over the East Gate by the Boots store dates from 1980. Since Roman times the D-shaped structure has also served as a prison and a school.
- The City Museum & Art Gallery was built in 1902 over part of Gloucester's Roman wall pop in and you can see it in all it's glory down below, well part of it! But there is much more inside. Look out for amazing fossils, animals, fish - and a range of visiting exhibitions.
- The martyred Bishop Hooper's Lodgings is home to the popular Folk Museum building. It is a wonderful building dating from 1548 and was once a pin factory – as you will see with some of the most unbelievable exhibits that look more like torture gadgets than pin-making gizmos. It tells the story of Gloucester 's remarkable social and economic past - complete with a locally built steamroller.
- Gloucester City Council's Archaeology Unit is probably unique in being housed in an old fire station - and over a transport museum too! Since it began in 1973 the Unit has unearthed the Gloucester Tables Set and a number of Roman skeletons at Kingsholm.
- The National Waterways Museum presents the fascinating 300 year old story of Britain 's inland navigations. Located in Llanthony Warehouse in Gloucester Docks since 1988, it exhibits traditional "roses and castles" markings of narrowboats, the very collectable and colourful barge or canal-ware to a rare fireless steam locomotive from Gloucester 's wartime power station.
- Nature In Art is the World's first art gallery and museum dedicated exclusively to art inspired by nature. Superstar contributors include Pablo Picasso, David Shepherd and Graham Sutherland - but there are art courses for enthusiastic amateurs as well!
- Based in an historic former seat of local government, the Guildhall Arts Centre offers an amazing selection of installation art and performance, art house cinema, music and other cultural events. Gloucester has duel theatres in the King's and the Olympus , so named because it is home of the Gloucester Operatic and Dramatic Society - the G.O.D.S.!
- Built on the site of the city's first Victorian public baths - GL1, Gloucester 's Leisure Centre offers every facility for the 21st-century athlete. With state-of-the-art swimming pools and fitness and exercise areas, the centre also boasts a martial arts dojo, events hall, squash courts, a four lane bowls indoor bowls area, badminton and ball games hall and gymnastics arena.
- In 1498 St Peter's Abbey (Gloucester Cathedral) built the Fleece Inn to cater for all the pilgrims and visitors coming to the city to worship at Edward II's tomb who by now had attained cult status.
- I have seen some beautiful Swiss clocks both in London and Switzerland but also in Gloucester . The century old clock over Bakers the jewellers in Southgate Street depicts the four nations of England , Wales , Scotland and Ireland along with Old Father Time. The Eastgate Shopping Centre is home to a spectacular timepiece themed on Beatrix Potter's "The Tailor of Gloucester" story.
- Lizzie Harker born in 1863 wrote Miss Esperance and Mr Wycherley and its sequel Mr Wycherley's Ward, she died in 1933.
- John Taylor the Elizabeth Water Poet born in 1580 wrote many bawdy and raw pieces and composed pageants for the Lord Mayor of London, Dick Whittington himself perhaps, and also published works about his oscillations!
- Dick Whittington was born around 1350 in Gloucester to William Whittington, Lord of Pauntley. When he was 13 he was sent to be apprenticed to John Fitzwarren in London . Later he was to become the greatest merchant in the country. He supplied finest silks from China for the wedding dresses of the daughters of King Henry IV and even loaned money to him. He DID become mayor of the City of London four times in fact - 1397, 1398, 1407 and 1420 and just like the fairy-tale promises he married Alice, the bosses daughter. Next time you go to see pantomime you'll know it really is for real – except for one thing, Turn Again Whittington THRICE Mayor Of London , when it was QUADRUPLE, I guess it doesn't scan as well…..
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| Russell Grant interviews Susan Hamilton, to find out the facts about Gloucester Cathedral. Please feel free to download the audio files for your MP3 player or to listen to on your PC: |
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Russell interviews Greg Ward at Country House Hotel & Restaurant in Gloucester
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Visit USA Media Awards held at the Royal
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Russell Grant, The Lord of Ashford in Middlesex,
guest of honour.
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