ABSTRACT
About 1540, travelogue writer and antiquarian John Leland visited Gloucester and commended a “merchant named Bell” for his contributions to the upkeep of the bridges and his conversion of Blackfriars into a “weaving-house,” while pointing out that Greyfriars already had become a brewery. Overall, he found the town to be in good condition and, when describing the dissolved friaries and civic control of the hospitals, gave no intimation that there was any lingering resentment. Leland described Gloucester’s best features as “the two streets which run across the town between opposite gates” and the aqueducts that efficiently supplied the people with water. In fact, for Leland, the only real problem Gloucester had was the periodic flooding of the streets when the river overflowed its banks.1
