Gloucester is a cathedral city located on the River Severn situated between the Cotswolds and Forest of Dean. It is the most inland port in the UK, Gloucester has a proud industrial past, intertwined with a rich history that dates back to Roman times. Combine this with an ever-changing and developing city, and Gloucester offers the perfect mix of old and new.

Gloucester was founded by the Romans and became an important city and colony in AD 97 under Emperor Nerva as Colonia Glevum Nervensis.

It was granted its first charter in 1155 by Henry II. In 1216, Henry III, aged only nine years, was crowned with a gilded iron ring in the Chapter House of Gloucester Cathedral. Gloucester’s significance in the Middle Ages is underlined by the fact that it had a number of monastic establishments, including: St Peter’s Abbey founded in 679 (later Gloucester Cathedral), the nearby St Oswald’s Priory, Gloucester founded in the 880s or 890s and Llanthony Secunda Priory, founded 1136. The town is also the site of the siege of Gloucester in 1643, during which the city held out against Royalist forces in the First English Civil War.