• Discover Our Story
Our People, Our History, Our community
We have a grand vision and big ambitions for The Folk of Gloucester. This is a project with the City community at its heart.
The Folk of Gloucester is a project situated within a 16 th 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.
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. 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.
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 Operations team is led by our manager Alex Cooke, our lead for events is Marc Waters and Sue Smith looks after the tours. The Folk Cafe is Manager by Orla Miller-Hall. The Folk is overseen by a board of trustees who meet regularly. The meetings are chaired by trustee Gareth Jayne.
We recognise the contribution of many other volunteers who have enabled our events to take place. Our Garden team led by Min Lane has transformed the gardens in a short time from a wilderness to being well on the way to former glory.
We are currently developing our ten year strategic plan and will co-design this with the community of Gloucester City. We will align our vision and planning with wider City, Regional and National Heritage and Cultural organisations.