Saint Mary's Minster Berkeley Gloucestershire

A Walking Tour

Start the tour in the castle car-park.

Berkeley Castle: This castle has been the home of the Berkeley family since shortly after the Norman invasion of England: it therefore claims to be the oldest, continuously occupied castle in Britain. Site of the brutal murder of King Edward II in 1327, it was also the meeting place for the plotters against Richard III in 1399. With its Great Hall, dungeon, kitchen and splendid gardens, the castle is a great destination for all the family.

From the castle car park, walk into Berkeley up the hill, passing the old Victorian school, in service until the early 1960’s on your left, the old police station and magistrates court on the right. As you get to the centre of the town, the old coaching inn, The Berkeley Arms, towers over you. It is not hard to imagine the clatter of hooves and the blowing of the horn as a mail coach clatters off to Bristol!

Keep on straight ahead, into Salter Street: this is the old “village green” area, with an attractive collection of Georgian and Victorian houses around it. On your left you walk past the old brewery, now called Church House. Look out for houses with “fake” windows, an aesthetic solution to the problem of having to avoid paying “Window Tax”. The old Mariner’s Arms pub dates back to the 14th century.

Turn left into Stock Lane and enter the old harbour area of Berkeley! In the early 19th Century ships of up to 40 tons sailed up to the centre of town, with cargoes of salt, fruit, pottery, lead and wood. The Berkeley family even had a barge that they moored in what is now the castle meadows . Walk along to the end, past the old Salt House, where the salt was unloaded, and where mooring rings can still be seen.

Turn left up the High Street to Church Lane, past the house given to James Phipps by Edward Jenner, as a “thank-you” for being the “guinea-pig” for the smallpox vaccination, and make your way into the churchyard.