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Published: October 1st 2023
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Sightseeing in Gloucester
As expected, it was raining heavily in the morning of 20
th September. After breakfast, we headed for the Docks’ area. We walked past Victoria Dock, warehouses and restaurants etc and reached Llanthony Warehouse, i.e. National Waterway Museum. We entered the museum and saw a wide variety of engines, wheels, displayed horses, fishing tools and boats and cans decorated with flowers by sailors’ families, etc. We found it interesting to see the family boat with their possessions in the boat which was run by the 1960s – we saw a little TV, kitchen, sofa in the boat. They looked very small; we thought it was a miniature boat display and couldn’t believe that they were used by the real people. It was still raining, but we strolled through the bank of the museum to see the engines and pumps which were used a long time ago. We saw the sightseeing boat and its driver. Having an eye contact with me, he quietly said, ‘We are not able to run the boat today.’ We confirmed this news with the board by the reception where visitors buy tickets for the museum and the boat.
Rain was little eased up
around 11 o’clock. We visited Mariners’ chapel and walked up to the suspension bridge and strolled through shops in Gloucester Docks. We popped in a couple of shops, ‘Warehouse’ ‘Marks & Spencer Outlet’ and ‘Ted Baker’ and bought some items for ourselves.
Afterwards, we continued walking round the Docks, took photos of buildings and historic vehicles displayed on the banks, and boats in the canal.
We decided to have lunch at Monk’s café in the cathedral and both had ‘cream tea’ for lunch.
Afterwards, we decided to walk though historic buildings in the town. I bought the walking guide book and Mark navigated the trail. We firstly walked around west of the cathedral; saw St Mary’s Gate, St Edward Gate, Church House, Miller’s Green Community House and Bishop Hooper’s statue. I read about Bishop Hooper’s life in the history of ‘Gloucester’. He was a staunch Protestant, and as a result, was burnt at the stake during the reign of ‘Bloody Mary’. His statue was ercted between St Mary de Lode Church and the western gateway to the cathedral precinct, the location of which was his martyrdom. St Mary de Lode Church wasn’t open due to the building
work in the afternoon on 20
th September. However, the caretaker kindly let us enter the building a bit and showed us the original stained glass commemorating Ivor Gurney, the composer and the poet of the Severn River. I heard that a lot of his works were published posthumously.
We then headed for Westgate Street via College Street. We popped in the Arts & Craft shop. I bought a beautiful necklace made of the local stones. There were a number of historic, grand buildings on the Westgate Street – The Shire Hall, John Lawrence building made of ‘new red sandstone’ from the Midland, and HSBC and The Abbey National Bank buildings. It was a pity that St Michael’s Church Tower was closed due to ongoing restoration work. We carried on the walk on the Eastgate Street and looked at façade of Lloyds TSB, Natwest, BHGS and Eastgate shopping centre.
We then went back to the Cross and walked on Northgate Street: we found St John’s Church at the end and followed the ‘Via Sacra’. The pavement had walled garden. We found a very distinctive monument, St John Church’s Spire.
Finally, we walked on Southgate Street and saw some
interesting facades above Costa and a public house with elaborate timber-framed front, which was formerly Robert Raike’s House.
Because of the windy weather, our umbrellas got broken; we went to the Boots and bought new ones. We decided to have a rest at our hotel at late afternoon.
The rain seemed to have eased up a lot around 5pm. I suggested Mark we visit a couple of historic buildings – Ladybellegate House on Longsmith Street, Blackfriars and the Old Custom House – before going to the dinner. We first approached Blackfriars. The building was surrounded by the wall and it is under the care of English Heritage and it is only open on Sundays and Mondays. Ladybellegate House wasn’t far – just a few minutes’ walks from Blackfriars. Ladybellegate House is a fine example of an eighteen century town house. The house was built in 1704 by Henry Wagstraffe and sublet to the Raikes’ family hence it was once resided by Robert Raikes, the elder, founder of the Gloucester Journal and Robert Raikes, the younger, the founder of the Sunday School movement. We walked to the Old Customer House on the Quay. According to the guidebook, the building
Boat people's life
The lady was steering the boat with a dog dates from 1581, but substantially rebuilt or enlarged in 1724. It was pretty faded, but we could see the coat of arms on the front.
We were quite hungry after walking on and learning historic town – we had big meals at Aroma, Indian Restaurant.
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