ABSTRACT
The siting of pre-Conquest and medieval Gloucester, as of Roman Glevum before it, was determined by the River Severn, the town -marking the lowest bridgeable point. In addition to the natural line of communication provided by the Severn, medieval Gloucester inherited its Roman predecessor's road system. The town-plan of late-medieval was dominated by three major enclosures. Of these, the largest and most striking was the incomplete form of the Roman fortress, its distinctive rounded corners visible to the north-east and south-east. The area to the north of the Roman fortress and the abbey precinct constitutes perhaps the most singular element of Gloucester's medieval town-plan. Some impression of the degree of correspondence between the late-medieval and modern plot-patterns can be derived from a comparison of the 1455 rental and the 1:500 Ordnance Survey plans. The 'morphological unity' is apparent at a number of quite different scales, within the various form complexes that made up the town-plan as a whole.
