Gloucester: saints, sheriffs, and the bright fort by the Severn. From Roman Colonia Glevum to Æthelflæd’s Mercian power-base and the Norman ledger of Domesday, this episode traces how one city was rebuilt in stone, faith, and finance. We follow Æthelflæd, the Lady of the Mercians, bringing the relics of St Oswald to Gloucester and turning a burh into a pilgrimage centre and royal mausoleum. Then we slip into everyday life: hunting and hawking, impromptu horse races, unruly mob football, tavern dice, and quiet board games in cloisters and inns. Finally, we ask what endures: the difference between walls that protect and walls that command, and the stubborn fact that people persist beneath every new regime. Gloucester’s layers still shine through the centuries, from honey and iron to pounds and pence, from saint’s shrine to sheriff’s tower.

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