PUBLIC SERVICES
Water supply. (fn. 1)
The earliest piped water
supplies were brought to Gloucester by the initiative of the religious houses. The copious springs
rising on Robins Wood Hill, which provided the
principal supply to the city until the 19th century,
were exploited by Gloucester Abbey from the
early 13th century. The sacrist Ellis of Hereford
(d. 1237) was said to have built a fresh water
supply for the abbey, (fn. 2) and it was presumably in
connexion with his scheme that the owner of
springs on the hill, William Geraud, granted the
abbey the right to take water and to hold land on
which a reservoir had been formed. The abbey's
rights were confirmed before 1284 by a later
owner, Philip, son of Philip of Matson. (fn. 3) William
Geraud also granted rights in the springs to the
Franciscan friars of Gloucester who later engaged
in disputes with the abbey over the water; by a
settlement made in 1357 after mediation by the
prince of Wales the friars' pipe from the hill was
limited to one third the size of the abbey's pipe. (fn. 4)
The Carmelite friars also built a water supply for
their house, laying a pipe from Goosewhite well
on the east side of the city in the 1340s. (fn. 5)
In 1438 the Franciscans granted to the bailiffs
and community of the town three quarters of the
water coming through their Robins Wood Hill
pipe together with the right to pipe it to the high
cross or elsewhere in the town; (fn. 6) the cross had
been adapted as a public conduit by 1446, when
property was assigned for its upkeep. (fn. 7) By 1509 at
least one house in the town had its own private
pipe, for which the corporation was paid 20s. a
year, (fn. 8) and the number of private pipes had
proliferated by 1571 when they were causing
shortages at the public conduit. (fn. 9) The corporation
was retaining a town plumber to maintain the
system in 1494, (fn. 10) and later it made contracts for
terms of years with local plumbers for that purpose. (fn. 11) It bought the pipeline coming from Robins
Wood Hill and the other quarter share of the
water, together with the freehold of Greyfriars, in
1630. (fn. 12) The separate Gloucester Abbey pipeline
continued to be used after the Dissolution by the
dean and chapter, (fn. 13) who were associated with the
corporation in an Act of Parliament of 1542 which
gave the two bodies licence to exploit additional
springs on the hill. (fn. 14) In the early 17th century the
chapter's tenant of the Ram inn, in Northgate
Street, beneath which its pipeline ran, served as
the 'aquaeductor', with responsibility for maintaining the pipeline and a wellhouse on the hill. (fn. 15)
During the 17th century efforts were made to
improve the city's supplies of the Robins Wood
Hill water. In 1623 the corporation shared with
the parishioners of St. Mary de Grace the cost of
building a conduit against the wall of that
church, (fn. 16) and in 1636 John Scriven at his own cost
built a conduit south of the market house in
Southgate Street. (fn. 17) Another conduit which stood
near Holy Trinity church by 1635 (fn. 18) was dismantled c. 1690 and the cistern and pipes moved
under the church tower. (fn. 19) Public wells continued
to be used and in 1653 the corporation made
grants to help parish ratepayers to improve two of
them: an ancient well at the north gate, which had
been in use in 1494, was reopened and a pump
placed over it, and a pump in St. Mary de Lode
parish was repaired. Orders made the same year
for locking the public conduits at night were
presumably part of a general concern about the
adequacy of the city's supplies. (fn. 20)
In 1693 Thomas Nicholls, a Gloucester plumber who had taken over the maintenance of the
Robins Wood Hill pipe for life in 1680, (fn. 21) devised a
scheme for supplying the city with water from the
river Severn. In partnership with Richard Lowbridge, an ironmonger of Stourbridge (Worcs.),
and Daniel Denell, a carpenter of Handsworth
(Staffs.), he built a pump house near Westgate
bridge to pump water to a cistern installed in the
top of the King's Board in upper Westgate Street
and had licence from the corporation for piping
supplies to householders who contracted with
him. The works were completed in 1695, when
three more shareholders were admitted, but the
venture was not apparently a success, for of the
six shares, each valued at £250 initially, one was
sold for £60 in 1737 and another for £120 in
1741. (fn. 22) The company's area of supply was
presumably limited to the lower part of Westgate
Street and the Island. The system was abandoned
with the removal of the King's Board under the
improvement Act of 1750. (fn. 23)
The next major attempt to improve the city's
supplies came in 1740 when an Act empowered
the corporation to build new works on Robins
Wood Hill. (fn. 24) The corporation made its powers
over to John Selwyn, owner of the springs on the
hill and one of the city M.P.s, who had paid the
expenses of the Act. (fn. 25) Selwyn built two reservoirs
and laid new pipes. In 1744 he was supplying c.
140 households in the city. (fn. 26) He and his successors
at Matson continued to supply the city until 1836
when Viscount Sydney sold the works to the
Gloucester Water company, constituted under an
Act of that year with powers to build new works
and supply an area which included the city and
the hamlets and parishes immediately surrounding it. (fn. 27) The company's supply was fairly soon
found inadequate for the growing city, particularly after 1849 when the corporation in its
role of board of health began to exercise its powers
to make householders connect to the supply (fn. 28) and
began to put pressure on the company to extend
its mains to the newer areas of the city. (fn. 29) In 1851
the company was supplying only about one
seventh of the houses in the city. (fn. 30)
In 1854 the corporation acting as board of
health bought the water company's undertaking. (fn. 31)
Finding it possible to supply the city for no more
than two days a week, the board adopted
temporary measures to supplement the supply:
new wells, most of which were in the event found
to produce water unfit for use, were dug and
water was pumped up from the Severn to the
reservoirs. (fn. 32) In 1855 the board took powers for
building new works at Great Witcombe and for a
wider area of supply. (fn. 33) Supplies were taken
directly from the Horsbere brook at Witcombe (fn. 34)
until 1863 when two large new reservoirs, fed
from the numerous springs in the area, were
completed; a third reservoir was opened in 1870. (fn. 35)
The distribution system within the city was also
extended by the board and by the end of 1856
covered all parts of the city as then constituted. (fn. 36)
By 1867 about five sixths of the houses within the
boundary were connected to it. (fn. 37)
Regular extensions to the mains were required
in subsequent years to keep pace with new building; (fn. 38) in 1879 535 applications for connexion were
received. (fn. 39) Many of the old and new houses within
the enlarged city still remained unconnected in
1887, however, when 1,294 were said to draw
supplies from impure surface wells, (fn. 40) but the
number dependent on well water had been
reduced to 163 by 1893 and to only 12 by 1900. (fn. 41)
From 1871 a part of the Bristol Road area,
comprising 187 houses in 1893, was supplied from
waterworks built at Hempsted by the Revd.
Samuel Lysons; in 1897 those houses were connected to the city supply. (fn. 42)
By the early 1890s the Robins Wood Hill and
Witcombe works were no longer sufficient for the
city. While possible new schemes were examined,
Severn water, introduced through a pumping and
filtration works built at Walham in 1893 was used
temporarily to supplement supplies. (fn. 43) In 1894 the
corporation took powers for building what
became known as its Newent works, involving a
well and pumping station in Oxenhall parish and a
reservoir at Madam's Wood near Upleadon.
Those works were completed in 1896 and a
second reservoir was built at Madam's Wood in
1901. (fn. 44) In 1911 the corporation built another well
and pumping station at Ketford in Pauntley
parish to increase supplies to Madam's Wood. (fn. 45)
The need for yet further sources of supply led the
corporation in 1936 to join with Cheltenham
corporation in the formation of the Cheltenham
and Gloucester joint water board. (fn. 46) The existing
Cheltenham corporation works at Tewkesbury
were much enlarged and water from the Severn
was pumped up to reservoirs on Churchdown
Hill. From 1942 that supply provided the bulk of
Gloucester's needs, though the Witcombe,
Newent, and Ketford sources continued to be
used, (fn. 47) the Ketford works being modernized in
1951 and those at Oxenhall in 1957. Robins Wood
Hill ceased to be used as a source of supply in
1924 but the reservoirs there remained in use for
storage until 1946. (fn. 48) Some of the older outlying
settlements adjoining the city were not connected
to its supply until the mid 20th century: in 1930
Twigworth village was still wholly dependent on
wells, while only 19 of the 130 houses in Longford
parish and only 13 of the 115 houses in Hempsted
parish had mains water. (fn. 49)
From the 1930s Gloucester corporation negotiated agreements for supplying adjoining rural
areas and in 1938 began work on a scheme for the
southern parishes of Gloucester rural district. In
the mid 1940s a major scheme was built to provide
supplies to the northern part of the Thornbury
rural district. (fn. 50) The undertakings of the corporation and the joint board were taken over by the
North West Gloucestershire water board in 1965
and that in its turn was absorbed by the SevernTrent water authority in 1974. Under the new
authority Gloucester continued to receive most of
its water from the Tewkesbury works, supplemented by water brought from the river Wye
through a new treatment works at Mitcheldean.
The Witcombe, Newent, and Ketford sources
continued in use for supplying some rural areas of
the county. (fn. 51)
GAS SUPPLY.
A gas company was formed in
1819 when powers to provide public gaslighting
were granted to the governor and guardians of the
poor. It built its works in Quay Street and was
incorporated in the following year as the
Gloucester Gaslight company. (fn. 52) Some street
lamps and supplies to some private consumers
were provided during 1820, (fn. 53) but the company
encountered early difficulties and improvements
to the original works were found to be necessary.
By 1829, however, the system was working well. (fn. 54)
In 1834 the company was given powers to raise
additional capital for providing a supply for the
suburbs. (fn. 55) In 1872 the limits of supply of the
company were widened to cover an area lying
within three miles of the original (pre-1835) city
boundary and it was given powers for new
gasworks, (fn. 56) which were built between 1874 and
1877 on the Bristol road near Podsmead. (fn. 57) A
further extension in 1898 took the limits of supply
to the outer boundaries of Hardwicke, Brockworth, and Down Hatherley parishes, (fn. 58) and
another in 1935 included parts of Newent and
East Dean rural districts. (fn. 59) After nationalization in
1948 the Gloucester works continued in use as one
of the South West Gas Board's chief manufacturing stations until the 1960s when the region
was supplied with gas made from oil products,
replaced in the early 1970s by natural gas from the
North Sea. (fn. 60)
ELECTRICITY SUPPLY.
From 1889 onwards
several companies put forward proposals for
supplying the city with electricity, but the corporation decided to provide its own supply and took
powers for doing so in 1896. Its works, built in
Commercial Road, were opened in 1900 and the
provision of street lamps and the connexion of
private consumers to the supply began that year. (fn. 61)
In 1927 the parishes of the Gloucester rural
district were added to the corporation's area of
supply. (fn. 62) In 1943 the works were replaced by a
new power station built at Castle Meads with
access for coal supplies from a branch railway and
a jetty on the Severn. The undertaking was
nationalized in 1948, (fn. 63) and the Castle Meads
power station continued to supply the National
Grid until it was closed in 1970. (fn. 64)
PAVING, CLEANING, AND LIGHTING.
The town had regular grants of pavage from
1321; (fn. 65) in 1410 the administration of the fund was
the responsibility of the stewards who expended
the considerable sum of £17 17s. in that year. (fn. 66) In
1473 the bailiffs and stewards petitioned the
Crown about the poor state of repair of the paving
in the town and secured an order that the
householders in the four principal streets should
make the pavement from the fronts of their houses
to the middle of the street, the officers being given
power to do the work if necessary and recover the
cost from those responsible by distraint; (fn. 67) the
obligation of tenants to repair the pavements
created under the order was later a regular
provision in leases of Gloucester Abbey's houses
in the main streets. (fn. 68) An improvement Act of 1776
made all householders and property owners
responsible for making up and keeping in repair
the streets adjoining their houses, and to superintend and enforce the work it provided for the
appointment of parish surveyors, to be chosen by
the city magistrates each year from lists supplied
by the vestries. Pitching was to be allowed only in
the side streets. The four main streets were to be
surfaced with flat paving stones and were to have
side gutters and foot pavements 5 ft. wide. (fn. 69) Foot
pavements may already have existed in some
places, for an order by the common council in
1743 allowed householders to pave with broad
stones up to 5 ft. from their doors provided that
12 ft. of roadway was left between. (fn. 70) The paving
of the main streets under the Act was completed
in 1778, and College Court was also paved by
means of subscription. (fn. 71) Under an Act of 1781 the
obligation to provide flat paving was extended to
include the Island, lower Northgate Street, St.
Mary's Square, and Three Cocks Lane. (fn. 72)
The city corporation through its ownership of
the gates, quay, market houses, and other public
buildings was liable to repair a considerable area
of the main streets, and it took responsibility for
the upkeep of all five of the main roads between
the gates and the city boundary. On the Bristol
road it also repaired beyond the boundary as far as
the Sud brook, using an annual sum of £4 given
by Sir Thomas Bell by deed of 1562, and from at
least 1651, perhaps by virtue of its hospital property, it repaired the London road beyond the
boundary as far as Wotton Pitch. (fn. 73) Repair of the
public pavements and pitchings was consigned by
the corporation to contractors for 21 years in 1705
and 1736, (fn. 74) and contracts for shorter terms were
made later. (fn. 75) In 1798 a deficit in the corporation's
budget was attributed mainly to the recent heavy
cost of street repairs. (fn. 76) In 1849 it was responsible
for 40,886 yd. of the streets and private owners
were responsible for 45,731 yd., while the
Gloucester and Berkeley canal company and the
spa company maintained streets laid out around
their respective undertakings. (fn. 77) In that year the
responsibilities of the parish surveyors under the
improvement Acts passed to the corporation
under its new powers as a board of health. From
that date the board repaired the roadways out of
the rates but the cost of repairing the foot pavements in the streets covered by the Acts remained
the responsibility of the property holders until
1861. (fn. 78)
Some parts of the city streets had been macadamized by 1828, (fn. 79) but macadamization of the main
streets was mostly done by the board of health in
1850. Later in that decade the old pitching of
some of the minor streets and lanes was replaced
by a macadamized surface and their old central
gutters were at last done away with. (fn. 80)
Attempts by the town authorities to enforce
street cleaning were recorded from the beginning
of the 16th century, when butchers' refuse was the
main cause for concern. (fn. 81) There was a common
'gorreour' responsible for clearing out the
butchers' shambles in 1514; he was ordered to
operate at night because of the stench that was
caused. (fn. 82) The butchers' refuse was dumped on a
piece of land near the quay, assigned for that
purpose in 1454. (fn. 83) Bearland in the same area of the
town was used for common dunghills from at least
1372 when complaints were made by the constable of the castle. (fn. 84) In the early 16th century there
were other common dunghills at the south end of
Hare Lane and at Goose ditch outside the east
wall. (fn. 85) From 1600 the corporation periodically
appointed scavengers but the post does not appear
to have been established on a regular basis, (fn. 86)
perhaps because of the problem, evident in the
1670s, of raising his salary by a special rate. (fn. 87) In
1641 the common council enacted that individual
householders should clean once a week the parts
of the paved streets for which they were
responsible and instituted an inspection committee and fines for neglect. (fn. 88) In 1731 it ruled that
distress might be taken from householders to
enforce the removal of rubbish from outside
houses. (fn. 89) In the 1760s at least two of the larger
parishes employed scavengers for their own
areas, (fn. 90) and in 1769 the magistrates invoked
powers given them under a recent statute and
appointed two for the city. (fn. 91)
The duties of the parish surveyors appointed
under the improvement Act of 1776 included
organizing street cleaning twice a week, and the
Act also required householders to sweep their
parts of the footways every Saturday and laid
down detailed penalties for leaving rubbish in the
streets. (fn. 92) The system created by the Act was not
working satisfactorily in 1812 when the corporation attempted a more rigid enforcement of the
penalties for leaving rubbish in the streets and
appointed an inspector of nuisances. (fn. 93) In the late
1840s, when each parish had its own scavenger
who contracted with the surveyors, the work was
very inefficiently done, and some of the newer
streets, having not yet been adopted by the
parishes, were not covered at all. Many householders found it necessary to make private arrangements for rubbish disposal. (fn. 94) The board of health
on its appointment in 1849 at first intended to
employ direct labour for scavenging and bought
two horse-drawn sweeping machines, but it soon
decided to use contractors, who were required to
sweep the streets and remove night soil three
times a week. (fn. 95) Carts for watering the streets were
also acquired by the board. (fn. 96) Four sites outside
the town were assigned as refuse tips in 1849, (fn. 97)
and later, between 1902 and 1923, a refuse destructor incorporated in the city electricity works
was in use. (fn. 98)
An early measure to provide street lighting was
taken by the council in 1685 when it ordered all
householders paying at least 2d. a week in poor
rates to hang lanterns outside their doors on
winter evenings. (fn. 99) St. Nicholas's parish was maintaining public oil lamps in the 1720s, (fn. 100) as was St.
Mary de Crypt in 1734, when the governor and
guardians of the poor decided to take
responsibility for all the public lamps of the city. (fn. 101)
That responsibility was returned to the parish
vestries in 1755 (fn. 102) but once more taken by the
guardians under the Act reconstituting them in
1764. (fn. 103) By 1790 the guardians were maintaining c.
160 lights and employing a lamplighter. (fn. 104)
By an Act of 1819 the governor and guardians
were empowered to provide gaslighting in the
city, the rates levied by them to be authorized by
the corporation. The newly formed gas company
began to install gaslights in the streets the
following year. (fn. 105) In the 1830s difficulties over
securing a satisfactory contract with the company
led the governor and guardians to contemplate
purchasing the undertaking. (fn. 106) In 1834 commissioners, including the mayor and aldermen and the
county magistrates, were appointed to light the
suburbs lying within a mile from the city boundary. (fn. 107) The unequal rights levied by the two lighting authorities later caused dissatisfaction, (fn. 108) and in
1865 the lighting powers of the governor and
guardians and those of the commissioners in the
area added to the city in 1835 were transferred to
the corporation as board of health. (fn. 109) The suburban commissioners lost a further area to the
corporation under the boundary extension of
1874, (fn. 110) but in 1894 they were given powers over
the suburbs within two miles of the then boundary (fn. 111) and, in the area left to them by later boundary extensions, continued to operate until the mid
20th century. (fn. 112) Electric lighting was introduced in
the city streets from 1900. (fn. 113)
SEWERAGE.
In 1831 the city corporation and
the improvement commissioners were urged by
the voluntary board of health, set up to meet the
threat of the cholera epidemic, to take action on
providing a sewerage system for Gloucester. (fn. 114) It
was the approach of cholera to England in 1847
that once more aroused concern about the sanitary
state of the city. A memorial by the city's doctors
then stated that 'all the evils which arise from a
total want of a system of sewerage exist here to a
very serious extent' and urged the corporation to
take measures for cleaning the streams and ditches
surrounding the city, into which most of the
sewage drained. A sanitary committee, formed by
the corporation in response to that appeal,
appointed an inspector of nuisances and made
some attempt to improve the situation. The
culverting of one of the most notorious ditches, on
the city's northern boundary behind houses in
Sweetbriar Street, carried out by the property
owner Brasenose College at the committee's instigation, was regarded as an important improvement; but the measures taken were piecemeal and
insufficient to prevent the arrival of cholera in
1849. (fn. 115) When the corporation assumed its powers
as a board of health in 1849 it began culverting
some more of the open ditches and improving
surface drainage. (fn. 116) The building of a complete
underground sewerage and drainage system, the
planning of which was delayed until a detailed
map of the city had been prepared by the
Ordnance Survey, was begun by the board in
1853 and completed in 1855. (fn. 117) The system was
based on two main outfall sewers which emptied
into the Severn at the north end of the quay. (fn. 118)
Modifications and additions began almost
immediately, including works carried out in 1858
and 1859 to prevent pollution of the Sud brook on
the city boundary in the Spa area; in collaboration
with three adjoining hamlets and the Gloucester
and Berkeley canal company, a sewer was laid
under the bed of the stream from Parkend Road to
Bristol Road, where it was connected to the new
city system. (fn. 119)
Sewering the outlying areas, as new building
progressed rapidly in the mid and later 19th
century, was a piecemeal process, hampered by
friction between the various sanitary authorities,
and it was many years before the problem of
pollution of watercourses, including the Twyver,
the Sud brook, and the Still ditch (the Sud brook
west of the canal), was completely solved. In 1863
the local boards of health formed for Barton St.
Michael and Barton St. Mary took over
responsibility for the newly developed lower
Barton Street area. That area relied for sewerage
on a rudimentary system of culverted ditches
connecting with the Twyver or with the Sud
brook, (fn. 120) which the boards, acting jointly, culverted from above Tredworth High Street to Parkend Road. An annual payment made to the city
board for allowing the sewage to drain into the
city system through the Sud brook sewer was the
cause of much dispute and renegotiation, leading
the Barton boards to consider plans for a separate
outfall in 1871. (fn. 121) The local board formed in 1865
for Kingsholm St. Catherine on the north side of
the city tackled the pollution of the Twyver by
building a new system of sewers, completed in
1867, with its own outfall pipe across Meanham to
the eastern channel of the Severn. Later the
Kingsholm board made repeated complaints to
the Gloucester board about the continuing pollution of the Twyver from houses within the city
boundary. (fn. 122) Following the enlargement of the
boundary and the abolition of the suburban
boards in 1874, the city system was extended into
the added areas. New sewers were laid in the
Barton area in the years 1876–7, though it was not
until 1885 that all house drains were given direct
connexions to them; the continuing use of the old
culverts as part of the system caused the problem
of a build-up of gas, making it necessary to install
ventilation pipes. (fn. 123) The Kingsholm board's sewers
were linked to the city system in 1879 and the old
outfall abandoned. (fn. 124)
In 1876 the Gloucester union as a rural sanitary
authority formed the East End special drainage
district and planned a scheme for sewering the
Saintbridge area; due to the refusal of the city
authority to allow it to connect with the city
system, it was never built, (fn. 125) and that area was not
adequately sewered until after the boundary
extension of 1900. (fn. 126) In the Bristol Road area on
the south side of the city co-operation was found
possible. The rural sanitary authority formed the
South End special drainage district in 1883, (fn. 127) and
in the years 1884–5 collaborated with the city in
building a new main outfall sewer from Stroud
Road to the Severn below Llanthony weir and in
filling the offensive Still ditch. (fn. 128) In 1897 the
Gloucester rural district council formed the
North End special drainage district and in 1898
completed a scheme for the Hucclecote, Barnwood, and Wotton areas, with an outfall works
east of Pleasure Farm at Longford. (fn. 129) In the mid
20th century the principal scheme benefiting areas
remaining outside the city was a new one built by
the rural district for its northern parishes in the
years 1939–41, with a treatment works by the
Horsbere brook in Longford. (fn. 130)
Among significant improvements to the city
system was the re-laying and enlargement of the
main sewer along Barton Street in 1898, (fn. 131) and in
1912 the extension of the main outfall for the old
city area under the eastern channel of the Severn
to discharge into the western channel. (fn. 132) With its
continuing expansion into newly built-up areas
the sewerage and drainage system became overloaded and periodic flooding resulted. To ease the
problem the new housing estates built after the
First World War were given separate drainage
systems for dealing with surface water, discharging it into streams. (fn. 133) Plans for a new main
sewerage and drainage scheme were drawn up by
the corporation in 1933 but it was not until 1951
that work on building it began. The scheme
included various new trunk sewers, a pumping
station at Netheridge opened in 1956 with an
outfall on the river bank nearby, and a treatment
plant built next to the pumping station and
opened in 1963. (fn. 134) The new system was substantially complete by 1967 and was extended to the
new area taken into the city that year. In 1974
management of the system passed to the new
Severn-Trent water authority. (fn. 135)
FIRE SERVICE.
The acquisition and maintenance of fire engines, ladders, and buckets was a
periodic preoccupation of the city's common
council. In 1635 it maintained fire buckets at
churches and other places in the city and firehooks
at the barley market house. The buckets were
supplied out of a fund made up of fines from
new burgesses. (fn. 136) In 1648 the council ordered a
fire engine from London, the cost to be met
from the bucket money. (fn. 137) A second engine
was bought in 1652 and part of Holy Trinity
church was adapted to house the engines in
1656. (fn. 138) In 1702 a new engine house was built
adjoining the tower of the church. (fn. 139) In 1741, when
it owned four engines, the corporation bought a
new one, to Richard Newsham's design, capable
of raising water to a height of 30 ft. (fn. 140) In 1748 the
corporation appointed six firemen, who were
required to practise with the equipment every six
weeks. (fn. 141)
In 1836 the city firefighting equipment was
placed in the care of the superintendent of the
police force formed that year, and in 1838 it was
decided that the force as a whole should be drilled
and instructed as a fire brigade. (fn. 142) The force was
provided with a new engine and more modern
equipment in 1849. (fn. 143) By that time and until the
early 20th century, however, the bulk of the
firefighting in the city was carried out by insurance companies, (fn. 144) two of which maintained
brigades there in 1841 (fn. 145) and three in 1867. (fn. 146)
In 1912 the corporation formed a new city
brigade, accepting the free offer of the equipment
of the Norwich Union and the Liverpool and
London and Globe insurance companies, which
had decided to disband their brigades. (fn. 147) A motor
fire engine was bought and a fire station, opened
in 1913, was built in Bearland. (fn. 148) The new brigade
also took over the city's fire float. (fn. 149) That vessel,
based in the docks and supplied with sufficient
hose for fighting fires up to ½ mile from the canal,
had been provided in 1906 as a joint project of the
local firms of corn and timber merchants, the
docks company, and the corporation; (fn. 150) the last
had assumed complete control of the float in
1910. (fn. 151) The city brigade was taken over by the
National Fire Service in 1941 and returned to the
control of the corporation in 1948. (fn. 152) In 1949 it had
a full-time strength of 50 men, based at Bearland
and at a second station in Barnwood. (fn. 153) A new fire
station, built in Eastern Avenue, was opened in
1956. (fn. 154) In 1972 the city brigade was amalgamated
with the Gloucestershire county brigade. (fn. 155)
WATCHING AND POLICE.
The serjeants-at-mace, bellmen, and other minor corporation officers were assisted in their policing duties in the
city by a body of constables; by 1690 there were
two constables each to act in the east and south
wards of the city and four each in the west and
north wards. (fn. 156) From 1769 one of the serjeants-atmace was appointed as high constable by the
magistrates and acted as head of the city police.
Early in 1786 the magistrates directed the constables to maintain a night watch for the next few
months (fn. 157) but that appears to have been only a
temporary measure. A plan to set up a regular
night watch financed from the rates was supported by a public meeting in 1812 but met with
opposition from some of the parish vestries, as did
a revival of the plan in 1814, (fn. 158) and arrangements
for watching were not placed on a regular basis (fn. 159)
until 1821. An Act then required each parish to
submit a list of three candidates each year to the
magistrates who were to choose one man from
each list to form the watch and make regulations
for its procedure. (fn. 160)
In 1836 a full-time uniformed police force was
formed for the city by the watch committee set up
by the corporation under the provisions of the
Municipal Corporations Act. The force comprised a superintendent, 3 sergeants, one of whom
lived at the city lock-up in Southgate Street which
became the police station, and 12 constables. The
corporation officers and four watchmen employed
by the Gloucester and Berkeley canal company
were also sworn in as constables to enable them to
assist the police when necessary. (fn. 161) The city police
force was amalgamated with the Gloucestershire
county force in 1859 when it was agreed that a
force of 32 men should be stationed at Gloucester,
20 of them to be paid for by the city; the force was
also to police a suburban area previously policed
by a small county detachment stationed at Wotton. (fn. 162) The Gloucester force was increased to a
strength of 40 after the extension of the city
boundary in 1874, (fn. 163) and in 1906 it numbered 76,
under the command of a deputy chief constable. (fn. 164)
Marybone House in Bearland was bought for use
as a police station in 1858 (fn. 165) and a large new station
was built on the site as part of the new Shire Hall
complex in the early 1960s.
CEMETERIES.
The corporation was
constituted the burial board for the city in 1856
and laid out as a cemetery a 13-acre site at
Tredworth, which was opened in 1857 when
burials in the old city churchyards ceased.
Chapels for Anglicans and for nonconformists,
linked by a central corridor surmounted by a
tower and spire, were designed by the firm of
Medland and Maberly. (fn. 166) The cemetery was
extended in 1875, 1909, and 1911, the final
extension enlarging it to 35 a. A second city
cemetery, at Coney Hill, was laid out in 1934 (fn. 167) but
not opened for burials until 1939. A crematorium,
added to the cemetery chapel at Coney Hill, was
opened in 1953. (fn. 168)