Gloucester Cathedral

Gloucester Cathedral, Church of St. Peter and the Holy and Indivisible Trinity. One of the finest cathedrals in England, rated as one of the seven most beautiful in the world is one of the glories of Gloucester City. This is the place that the Harry Potter film was made   If you have a good connection to the web, look at our video clips of the cathedral from our broadband section.   In 679 AD King Ethelred of Mercia granted lands to Osric to support the building of a church at Gloucester. Osric founded the Abbey of St Peter as a community of monks and nuns. The building fell into decay after his death in 729 AD and was rebuilt in 823 AD by Beornwulf as a house for secular priests.   Building of the present structure commenced in 1089 and continued until around 1120, although the church was consecrated in 1100. The tower was commenced in 1450 and completed around 1460. King Henry III was crowned in the Cathedral in 1216, when he was only nine years of age.

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You will find monuments to Robert, Duke of Normandy (died 1134). He was the eldest son of William the Conqueror, and was buried in the Cathedral.  King Edward II, murdered in Berkeley Castle in 1327. His tomb can be found in the North Ambulatory and one of the windows in the south wall illustrates his murder..

You will also see Colonel Carne’s cross, carved with   a nail in  the Chinese prison camps by the commanding officer of the ” Glorious   Glosters” who preferred to go into captivity with his men rather than escape to   freedom after the heroic battle at Solma-ri on the Imjin river during the Korean   war in 1951. He was later awarded the Victoria Cross.

Built on an earlier Abbey the great south window was   created in the reign of Edward 3rd. It is also famous for its beautiful   cloisters and the wonderful perpendicular choir .

The Abbey had several inns built and the New Inn can   still be seen in Northgate St.

The most outstanding feature of the nave is the   Norman arcading with it’s huge columns that are 7 ft. wide and reach a height of   32 feet .

The East window, built in 1349 to commemorate the   participation of local Knights in the battle of Crecy is the largest in England   and measures 78 by 38 feet. (28.8m X 11.6m )

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