Gloucester Docks, a successful bid and a year of celebrations
The arrival of the canal and the opening of the Gloucester Docks in 1827 helped turn a struggling cathedral city into a growing Victorian workshop. Gloucester Docks have been a major element in the city ever since. Once trade came to an end, the docks went quiet but not for long. They have now been reborn with a mix of housing and retail enterprises, a second renaissance and as we start to make plans to celebrate their bicentenary, the docks are still fundamentally important to Gloucester's economy and one of our key cultural offerings.
Consequently, we are delighted to announce that Gloucestershire Archives have secured a grant from Lloyds of London to investigate some of the historic sailing craft based in the city. By examining archive collections and undertaking family research we will look at the crews and their families, the boatbuilders and repairers and the shipowners who ran them. We plan to produce an exhibition which will then feed into the other bicentenary celebrations happening throughout 2027.
Other early plans to mark this landmark include a party and activities that everyone in Gloucester can enjoy. Events that we already hold annually will be enhanced and there will be new shows and exhibitions through the year. We also hope that everyone in Gloucester will want to make themselves part of the celebrations by putting on events and doing something to help the summer along.
We want to bring the docks to a wider audience, increasing visitors to the city in 2027 and helping our businesses thrive. At the heart of the modern docks lies the drydocks and the unique talents of Nielsen’s yard the country’s foremost repair centre for historic wooden craft. It is also a maritime business handling a wide range of modern vessels. We want that business to help draw the cream of sailing and heritage craft to visit the city and bring the docks to life.
And when the bicentenary is over, we hope the docks will feel more welcoming with new seats and signposting and more historic information and interpretation available for future generations to appreciate.
Green Pledge Project Update
'Going Green' Free Family Drop-in Sessions
The Green Team are running four fun packed drop-in sessions on Thursdays throughout August in the Dunrossil Room at the Heritage Hub. Sessions are as follows:
1 August, 10am – 12 noon: What a Load of Rubbish! – junk modelling and thinking about pollution and its impact on nature.
8 August, 10am – 12 noon: Eat Me! – all about food, teaming up with Ryan from the Wiggly Charity
15 August, 10am – 12 noon: The Tailor of Gloucester - looking at clothes, how they were made and mended in the past, long before fast fashion became an issue. Plus you can try a weaving activity and find out about natural dyes.
22 August, 10am – 12 noon: Water, Water, Everywhere…. all about flooding and using maps and old photographs of floods in Gloucestershire to create pictures of how humans might adapt.
The Green Team are also planning to run an orchard related event in the Autumn, inspired by the exciting discovery of a wonderful little book formerly belonging to Barbara Legge, catalogue reference D13653. It contains highly detailed orchard planting schemes for various areas of Gloucestershire.
All future Green Pledge Project outreach activities will be advertised here
Listen up!
Christina Wheeler, manager of the Green Pledge Project at Gloucestershire Archives has been busy making green related podcasts which can be accessed via the Green Pledge Project webpage here.
In the latest episode, you have the opportunity to listen to two dawn choruses, both recorded in the month of May, in the same place, but 70 years apart.
Gathering and sharing information and produce 
Project Grow have teamed up with Wiggly Charity and the Gloucestershire Heritage Hub and are taking over the Hub's existing community garden. The aim is to grow 50% of the vegetables needed for Wiggly’s cookery courses as well as for the community of Kingsholm. We are working to prove the case for a more sustainable community food system, growing chemical free plants and produce with low food miles (less than 0.5miles from Hub to kitchen) and all delivered with minimal packaging and waste.
Having started in February, we are now harvesting and delivering vegetables, herbs and flowers to Wiggly on a weekly basis. The garden is open every Tuesday from 10am and over the last month we have also teamed up with Roots Cafe to supply food for their community meal, every Tuesday evening from 4pm. They've recently been given boxes of salads, potatoes, herbs, cherries and even sweetpeas for their tables for which they were extremely grateful.
You can get a monthly installment of what is happening in the community garden here
And if you would like to get involved, please email us at hello@weareprojectgrow.com