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More than 5000 entries on the history, culture and life of Britain (published in 1993 by Macmillan, now out of print)
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Gloucester
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(104,000 in 1991)
City on the river Severn; administrative centre of Gloucestershire. The Roman settlement of Glevum was established here in the late 1st century AD to protect the river crossing west into Wales. The town's later importance derived from the abbey founded in 681. At the *dissolution of the monasteries the abbey church (11–15C) became the cathedral of a new diocese. The predominantly *Romanesque nave with massive pillars leads into a delicate *Perpendicular choir; its east window, the largest of its period, has stained glass given in 1352 to commemorate the victory at *Crécy. Even more spectacular Perpendicular stonework is in the cloisters (late 14C to early 15C), with the earliest large-scale *fan vaulting in the country. This is one of the locations of the *Three Choirs Festival, and the first *Sunday school was also in Gloucester.
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The City Museum and Art Gallery, in an Elizabethan-style building of 1893, has mainly local material apart from the Marling Bequest of 18C British painting and decorative art. Part of the city's docks have been adapted to form the National Waterways Museum, with a floating collection of historic boats and an accompanying exhibition in the 19C Llanthony warehouse. The Robert Opie Collection is an evocative museum of advertising and packaging materials from the mid-19C to the present.
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