Gloucester Abbey

Gloucester Cathedral stands in the north of Gloucester, close to the River Severn. It began as a minster founded by Osric, King of the Hwicce, around 679. The site passed to Benedictine monks early in the 11th century. After a fire in 1088, Abbot Serlo rebuilt the abbey on a grand scale. William the Conqueror held his Christmas Court here in 1085. Henry III was crowned in the abbey in 1216. The cathedral contains the shrine of Edward II, murdered at Berkeley Castle in 1327. Its fan vaulting in the cloisters is the earliest surviving example of its kind. Nikolaus Pevsner and Jon Cannon have studied the abbey’s history and its royal connections. The cathedral became a diocesan seat after the Dissolution in 1541. Rachel Treweek became the first woman diocesan bishop here in 2015. Visitors find the nave, apse and crypt from Serlo’s rebuilding. The chapter house still shows where Domesday Book was planned. The Great and Little Cloisters surround peaceful walks. The precinct wall and medieval gates mark the original enclosure. The Treasury and other Grade I listed buildings stand within the complex.