Gloucester

Gloucester, city, administrative capital of Gloucestershire, western England, on the River Severn. Gloucester is England's most inland port, connected by a deep-water canal, completed in 1827, to docks on the Severn estuary; it is now used mostly by pleasure craft, and there is extensive office development. Tourism is an important part of the local economy and there is a large financial sector: the Bank of England registrar's department and the headquarters of the Cheltenham and Gloucester building society are located there.

Manufactured goods include aircraft and defence equipment, medical instrumentation, agricultural machinery, and food products that include Europe's largest ice cream factory. The city is a focus of the surrounding agricultural region, and Gloucester's twice-weekly cattle market is one of the most important in Europe.

Gloucester Cathedral is essentially an 11th-century Norman structure with Gothic additions. Edward II, who was murdered nearby, is buried in the cathedral. The cathedral is the venue of the Three Choirs Festival with Hereford and Worcester. Other points of interest include the City Museum, the Prison Museum, and the National Waterways Museum. The University of Gloucestershire, created from the Cheltenham & Gloucester College of Higher Education in 2001, opened its School of Sport and Leisure at the Oxstalls Campus in the city in 2002.

The Romans established an outpost known as Glevum in c. ad 49, and by the end of the 1st century it was one of only four British towns to be awarded the highest urban classification of “Colonia” (the others being Colchester, Lincoln, and York). The town became the capital of the Saxon kingdom of Mercia, and by the early 11th century it had a royal palace and a mint. A Benedictine abbey was built on the site of the present cathedral in 1058, and later William I erected a castle there. The siege of Gloucester, in which the besieged Parliamentarians were ultimately victorious, took place in 1643 and was an important battle of the English Civil War. Population 109,888 (2001).