Hidden Historic Sites Of Gloucester - History You Didn't Know About

[Music] only about 10 of all my viewers are subscribed feel free to subscribe for more historic content the main attraction in gloucester is the giant ornate cathedral which stands proud over the landscape but as beautiful as this stunning building may be there are a few equally intriguing historic sites dotted around the city hidden down alleyways industrial estates or in one case at the junction of a busy city road the first sight is blackfriar's priory said to have the oldest and best preserved medieval library in britain blackfriars was built around 1239 on the site of the ex-norman castle which had already fallen out of use by this time and was being used as a jail henry iii became the patron of a friary on the site and grant a timber from the nearby forest of dean and other royal forests a very special gift indeed and was used for the roof and timber floors not only a priory for religious practices nor a friary for the monks to stay while they were working on the nearby cathedral of gloucester blackfriars was also possibly a hospice or hospital for the poor and the sick suggested to care for the families of local benefactors serving as an early form of a private health care plan for the patrons of the church the monastery continued to grow in size up until the 16th century where the dissolution of the monasteries decree by henry viii ruined everything as usual and the building was eventually sold off to the mayor of gloucester for 240 pounds which was then remodeled into a private dwelling and a cloth factory now this was a bit cheeky of me considering that blackfriars is still a private residence reserved for weddings venues events and guided tours however i simply had to see it for myself for the limited time i had so when i visited the site there were tradesmen going in and out of the building setting up a stage for the play dracula i dipped in and began taking photos of specific masonry that caught my eye and i can only assume that the trainsman thought i was part of the crew and didn't confront me the entire time i was there i even had the cheek to ask if the boss was around and i was guided into a room which supposedly had original 13th century scissor braced roof trusses however these looked a tad too clean-cut to be something from the 13th century i told the manager there that i was just a tourist looking to soak up some history and she was surprisingly delighted and offered a private tour at no cost however unfortunately no photography of this was permitted the east gate chamber taking a leap back in time for a moment and we find the subterranean ruins of the roman town wall and remnants of a 13th century tower due to the road name it's safe to presume that this was once the eastern gate of the roman city of colonia neville blephensium which then became known as bleven and now coloster the roman settlement was originally built in around 68 a.d but these ruins would date from around the second century a.d replacing an earlier clay defensive rampart the roman city was known to be rather high status and cated for soldiers who were making their way to early on one of the other major roman military hubs near the border between england and wales for five pounds you can take a private tour down into this underground site where you can walk around the foundations of the tower the wall and even a tudor horse washing station where traders horses were cleaned before being allowed to enter the market area unfortunately for me i only had one afternoon to visit all the major sites of gloucester including a cathedral which can take a day or two in the south so i've added this tour to my list for next time if you have a black friars you'll also need a grey friars [Music] hidden between tall industrial buildings in a not so touristy part of the city sits the gigantic skeleton of greyfriars church founded in around 1231 just a few years before blackfriars this site was built using the generic monastic plan at the time complete with a chapter house refectory dormitory as well as many other buildings which made up of various ranges surrounding the central cloister unfortunately not much remains of this one giant building complex however the surviving church nay do give some clues as to its history in 1518 the rich local family of berkeley owners of the famous barclay castle paid for grey friar's church to be remodeled in the modern tudor design only a short while later however in 1539 the dissolution of the monasteries ruled this site to be partially dismantled and then sold off and was later severely damaged by royalist forces in 1643 during the english civil war in the centuries that followed the site was gradually picked away and in 1810 a large building was built into the west end which is today a public library rather fitting considering that the nearby blackfriars danver road boasted one of the earliest medieval libraries in britain and today the monastic sites of gloucester continue to be used as a place of study a rare find indeed is this surviving saxon church dating to the late 800s a.d however the stone ruins that you see here today would have most likely been due to a later remodeling throughout its role as a monastic building the priory was founded by ethelflood daughter of alfred the great and was a very important building in gloucester during the saxon period so important in fact that king athelstan was brought up in the core of saint oldsworth's priory and he later granted various privileges to the church in gratitude for their hospitality most saxon religious centers were effectively bulldozed over by the norman settlers after 1066 and replaced with larger grander churches or cathedrals on the same site however in gloucester's case the norman cathedral was built danger road and the priory remained in use given other less important monastic duties sin oswald's priory fell out of favor quite early probably due to its saxon heritage which the normans often viewed in an unfavorable manner and the church's importance declined from the 11th century onwards continuing to be used as a minor house of the cannons regular further misfortune fell in 1536 during the dissolution of the monasteries and then later the church fell victim to the siege of gloucester in 1643 where it was largely demolished and so these were a few of my favorite hidden historic sites around gloucester soon i'll be dedicating an entire video to gloucester cathedral so stay tuned for more local history of your area as well as other various history around britain and fervor [Music] you

Channel: Alex The History Guy

Views: 2,904

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Id: 8ZXYEulMGkU

Length: 7min 44sec (464 seconds)

Published: Thu Aug 04 2022