⏩ The Gloucester Start: Friday May 23rd
Cheese rolling legends remembered | Services are best in land | Weekend things to do
Good morning, welcome to Friday’s edition. A reminder that there’s no Start next week during the school half-term break - I’ll be back as normal on June 2nd. Here’s today’s bulletin - enjoy your bank holiday weekend!
⛅ Today’s weather: Sunny with overcast spells, temperatures in the high teens and dry throughout.
🛣️ Gloucester Services has - again - be named the best in the country. Consumer advice service Which? asked more than 4,000 people for their favourite motorway stops, with Gloucester coming out on top. - Gloucestershire Live
🧀 Two late cheese rolling champions will be remembered at this year’s event. Izzy John and Steve Brain won more than 30 races between them. - BBC Gloucestershire
↪️ The cheese rolling, which takes place this bank holiday Monday, has been officially declared ‘unsafe’, but won’t be stopped from going ahead. The Tewkesbury Borough Safety Advisory Group has raised concerns over public safety and the possibility of serious injury. - Gloucestershire Live
🚨 Cash was stolen during a break-in at a cake shop in Tredworth. Sweet T’s owners said they felt ‘heartbroken, violated’ by the incident but promised ‘we’re not giving up’. - Gloucestershire Live
🥧 The sculptor behind the stone carving of a lamprey pie gifted to King Charles last week has called it ‘an honour and a privilege’. It’s an historic tradition for Gloucester to gift the monarch the delicacy, with this one fashioned by Debs Harrison out of stone from Llanthony Priory. - Gloucester News Centre
🎓 The University of Gloucestershire’s new City Campus will help ensure Gloucester is ‘fit for the future’, says city councillor Rebecca Trimnell. She was reacting to seeing the construction hoardings being removed from the former Debenhams building as work to transform it continues. - Gloucester News Centre
💼 Management jobs are available at Gloucester’s Hotel Indigo ahead of its opening (as covered in May 13th’s Start). They include head of facilities and restaurant and bars manager and are paying up to £45,000 a year. - Gloucestershire Live
🧥 Are you familiar with the Costume for Gloucester? It’s a magnificent floor-length coat debuted in 2023 and designed to pay celebration to the city’s traditions and nuances. How it came to be has been explored in-depth for a magazine feature. - Cotswold Life
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📌 Together Gloucester is a three-year, city-wide initiative that puts decisions about cultural investment in the hands of the community. This latest call for applications comes as the list of 14 successful applicants are announced from the scheme’s third round of funding. The successful events and activities include a series of circus workshops, hip hop and street dance sessions, a Bollywood club for the over-60s, and a skate park. New applications are now open for: One of four £1,000 grants to test out new cultural ideas or grow existing activities across Gloucester; up to £3,000 for performances or activities to be held in King’s Square, a space specifically designed to host large-scale public events 👇 More details here.
📅 Things to do this weekend
🕺 Deansfest at The Deans Walk Inn, Kingsholm | Friday-Sunday | Free entry | Details
🧘 Morning Yoga at Gloucester Cathedral | Saturday, 8.30am | £12 | Details
🐑 Free Petting Zoo in King’s Square | Saturday, 11am | Free | Details
🔍 Family Trail: Mysteries of May at Museum of Gloucester | Saturday until June 1st | £2 | Details
🧱 Lego Club at various Gloucestershire libraries | Saturday, times vary | Free | Details
🪩 Bingo Lingo at Trilogy Nightclub | Saturday, 6pm onwards | £14 | Details
🌭 Bank Holiday BBQ at Robert Raikes House, Southgate Street | Sunday, 5pm | Free entry | Details
🧀 Cheese Rolling at Coopers Hill | Bank Holiday Monday, 12pm onwards | Free | Details
Top posts from Thursday’s Start:
💼 Lisa Spivey elected as county council’s first female leader
🚗 Calls for investigation over car boot sale delays
🔧 Concerns over council car park being used by mobile mechanic