PEOPLE, HISTORY, COMMUNITY

This is a project with the City community at its heart.

The Folk of Gloucester is a project situated within a 16th century Tudor building with the City community at its heart. Honouring and learning about our past, by bringing people together from the present, our aim is to keep the history of Gloucester city alive through the telling of stories.

Through the display of objects, exhibitions, and delivery of programmes and events we will bring to life the stories of the people of the City of Gloucester from the Tudor period to the present day. We want every child within the city and surrounding districts to visit The Folk to discover and rediscover their love for this historically important building and City.

“Gloucester is a beautiful, vibrant and diverse city full of history and it is our intention that everyone in the local community will have the opportunity to be involved in The Folk of Gloucester.”

In November 2019 The Gloucester Civic Trust agreed a licence to operate The Folk with Gloucester City Council.

The Gloucester Civic Trust’s charitable purpose is to raise the public awareness and interest in the City, promote high standards of local planning and architecture and secure the preservation, protection, development and improvement of features of historic interest in Gloucester.

Under this arrangement we will now be able to programme regular community led events and begin formulating comprehensive plans for the future of the building and bring it back into use at the heart of our community.

our team

The Folk is overseen by the trustees of the Gloucester Civic Trust and managed by a board comprising trustees, employees, consultants and volunteers. The Operations team is led by Alex Cooke and the Cafe is managed by Jo and Katrina. The garden is cared for by Cherry who is transforming it from wilderness to sanctuary. Everything else is supported by our amazing team of volunteers and partners.

OUR HISTORY

THE FOLK – THREE BEAUTIFUL BUILDINGS

 

There are three buildings, now clearly painted in three different authentic historic tints:
99 and 101 date from 1506 – 1512, and 103 is mid 17th century. After the passage of nearly five centuries it is marvellous that so much survives and in such sound condition.

99 & 101 WESTGATE STREET

 

Two Grade 2 listed buildings from the Tudor period (early- to mid-16th century)

These are traditional timber frame buildings constructed from oak.  They are half-timbered, which is the term used when trees are split in half to make a pair of beams.

The walls, floors and roof frames were all jointed and pegged together.  The joints used were developed by carpenters over many generations as the best method of joining beams in any particular part of the frame. No nails or iron ties were necessary.  Timber frame buildings are strong and much lighter than the equivalent in brick and stone. They could be made very tall if desired; an advantage on cramped town sites.  Another advantage of timber frame construction is that once the frame has been completed the roof, floors and walls can all be finished simultaneously.  The wall panels were filled with ‘wattle and daub’ and then plastered, while the roof could be tiled, thatched or slated.

The buildings are impressive now but they originally had three oversailing gables with their carved bargeboards, while the first floor has lost one of its three projecting windows.  Finely moulded glazing bars in the wall between the first floor windows show that originally this floor was glazed from end to end, at a time when glass was rare and expensive.  On the ground floor much of the rich carving to the posts has been hacked away to allow insertion of later shop fronts.
They comprised a pair of shops with domestic and workshop accommodation above.  Behind 99 is a three storey service block which became the pin factory annexe.  The shops were originally unglazed and would have been closed by oak shutters at night.  On the east side is a passageway which leads to the gardens and outbuildings.  A wealthy clothier, John Sandford, owned the buildings by 1548. It is probable that the premises were used for the storing of cloth and the manufacture of garments.  The continuous glazing on the first floor would have provided excellent light for needlework.

Little is known of the history over the next two centuries but during that time a large chimney was built behind 101 and a two storey brick extension with a further chimney was built in the courtyard.

By 1743 William Cowcher, pin maker, was the occupier.  He probably repaired the buildings and adapted them for pin making by linking 99 and 101 and the top floor fireplace in 99 was converted into an annealing forge.  Other changes were made but by the beginning of the 19th century the pin making industry was declining.  With the end of pin making in the building, around 1850, the interior was partitioned to provide domestic accommodation, sitting rooms, bedrooms, and kitchens, although some rooms remained as workshops for crafts such as tin smithing and basket making.

By 1900 the ground floor of 101 had a large shopfront and two front doors, one for the shop and one for the accommodation.  99 was an undertakers between 1900 and 1933.  101 was successively a sweetshop, a cobblers and a fishmongers.

In 1933 the building was purchased by the City and restored.  Internal partitions were removed to expose the Tudor fabric and a fine reproduction oak staircase was inserted.  The Victorian shopfronts were removed and the present ground floor windows placed in the original Tudor openings.  Finally, the first floor windows once again received leaded lights.

In front of you as you enter 101 you will find a small shop and information displays.

If you turn left into 99 you will see a display of drawings of the Folk as it might have been in the 16th century and a display about Cotton Motorcycles (which were made behind the Folk in Quay Street) including two splendid motorcycles. You then pass through a general display area to the Victorian kitchen and the stairs to the first floor.

If you go straight on from the entrance through 101 you will pass a recently discovered well and reach the Café and entrance to the Courtyard and Secret Garden.

At the front of the building the floor overhangs the street to form a jetty.  This floor, with its glazed windows on the Westgate frontage, contained the principal rooms of the house.  The chance survival of three panels of wall paintings gives some idea of how the rooms would have looked.  The paintings are late 16th century and are typical of the Renaissance style which came to England from Germany and the Low Countries around this time.  Fragments of further wall paintings exist on the ground floor but these are simpler, consisting of repeated Tudor rose and fleur-de-lys motifs.

 

The floor here is the one most associated with 18th century pin making.  Many original oak boards survive and some of these have brass debris from the manufacturing process trampled into them.  Thousands of pins still lie below the boards, trapped by the plaster ceilings.

The fireplace was originally like the one on the floor below but was converted into an annealing forge in the 18th century.  It was used to soften the iron during pin manufacture.  If you would like to see what a pin looked like, look at the posts in Southgate street modelled on the pins which show how the brass wire was wrapped around the top.

 

The roof beams are clearly on display and show the Tudor craftsmanship.

103 Westgate Street

 A 17th Century House

 

This house is believed to have been built around 100 years after 99-101 and is only partly timber framed.

The building consists of three floors linked by two winding staircases plus attics and cellars.  The lower walls are constructed of stone with timber framing on the upper floors.  A fine oak door opening onto Westgate Street can be seen.

In 1646 no.103 was sold by Damaris Deighton to Henry Watkins, a maltster.  She had inherited the house from her father John Deighton, a surgeon, in 1640.

The building has been known for many years as Bishop Hooper House because some people believed that Bishop Hooper stayed here on the night before he was burnt at the stake in 1555.  However, there is no evidence that this actually happened, particularly as the house was built at least 50 years later!  It has been a chemist, a sweetshop and a museum.

PIN FACTORY ANNEXE

This stands behind 97 Westgate Street and was originally entirely separated from 99 by the passageway.  By 1548 it was owned by John Sandford.  The building was originally a two storey Tudor timber framed barn.  By 1743 William Cowcher was making pins in 99 Westgate.  Around the turn of the 18th century the building was remodelled to accommodate pin making workers.  The Tudor roof was removed and an extra brick built storey added on.  The walls on the lower floors had already been infilled with bricks.  From 1900-1933 the annexe formed part of the undertaker’s premises which occupied 99 Westgate Street and was probably where the coffins were made.

CIDER HOUSE –  2 QUAY STREET

This building is shown on an estate map of 1780 and is brick built with a very fine oak roof.  From 1825 the premises were owned by Robert Lovesey, a timber merchant and wheelwright.  From the mid 19th century until 1963 it was used as a slaughter house by butchers with shops in Westgate Street.  A beam with pulleys was fitted high in the roof for the handling of carcasses and can still be seen.  The Museum acquired 2 Quay Street in 1969 and restored it.  It now houses a horse driven cider mill (one of the last surviving in the West Country) and press.

NEW BUILDINGS

Land was bought by the Council in the 1960s to join Westgate and Quay Street.  The dairy (now the Café) was opened in 1983, the Ironmongers Shop (which was converted to a sweet shop in recent years) in 1985 together with workshops for the carpenter and wheelwrights.