An Ancient Protected City

Gloucester in 1643 was still partly depending on defences originally built by the Romans more than a thousand years earlier. The river was also an important element in the defensive scheme.

Gloucester is a city laid out by the Romans and then rebuilt by the Saxons. The plan still reflects these ancient roots. In 1643 the Roman and mediaeval walls still survived between the North and South Gates, around the eastern side of the city. From the south gate to the river the defences were made of earth, and on the north and the west the course of the rivers Twyver and Severn were important. Much of this north-western part of the city was water meadows, which were flooded as soon as the royalist army began to approach, to form a wide and essentially impassable moat.

Beyond the gates were suburbs, extending along modern Southgate, Eastgate and Northgate Streets with linear developments of houses and other buildings. More than 200 of these were destroyed by the defenders to prevent them being used by the enemy.

The cathedral provided an ideal look out post, from which the defenders were able to gauge the strength and disposition of the royalist armies, and also to see when attacks were beginning to develop.

The Docks and the canal had yet to be created, of course.