220 skeletons, the goddess of love and two multi-million pound developments
A tour of two multi-million pound developments set to shape Gloucester’s future has also unearthed news of the latest challenge for the city - what to do with 220 bodies dug up on on of the sites.
Dear reader,
We hope you had a great weekend.
Those of you who monitor your emails over the weekend might have seen us post the edition we had expected to publish on Friday, our construction-themed edition featuring a report on the recent Gloucestershire Constructing Excellence conference.
It also carried another Top 100 Businesses in Gloucestershire story, also construction-related, on Barnwood-based Newland Homes. It’s latest annual report tells, in a nutshell, the impact the planning system currently is having on the sector.
Today we don’t entirely let go of construction, with a long read triggered by a visit to the ongoing redevelopment of the old Debenhams building in Gloucester city centre into a new campus for the University of Gloucestershire and the fast-emerging £107 million development, The Forum.
This is the first time detail has emerged of how the plans - especially for the university - have had to change and adapt to make them fit for purpose. It’s a sign of the challenges it’s faced and of just how fast the world of education is changing.
But we lead in on the headline grabbing archaeological discovery that occured as the university prepared to begin its work, and which we haven’t heard shared anywhere elsse as yet.
Prepare to be amazed.
Raikes is looking for more sponsors to join its current stable. If you are interested, please email andrew.merrell@raikesjournal.co.uk or telephone 07956 926061. We plan to release some figures shortly, but reckon feel we are moving towards being able to claim to be the best read digital publication in Gloucestershire for business stories.
Charity of the week… sorry, charities!
We usually introduce you to one of Gloucestershire’s 2,000 charities in this space, but today it is our turn to let you know about an event in which some of those charities will be gathering together to introduce themselves to you. This is Gloucestershire’s Big Information Day, an event dedicated to connecting as many people as possible with the range of services and support available in our community. Hosts for the day will be none other than Longfield Community Hospice itself, one of the county’s much-loved hospices, which is inviting everyone along to meet representatives from 34 other charities, organisations and services. Due to take place on Thursday, 26 September, from 1pm to 3pm. You can find out more here.
Your briefing notes
😋 Just a little reminder, in case you missed our edition on Monday last week and all the social media by those making it all happen, it is Food and Drink Week in Cheltenham - a seven-day celebration of everything from beer to oysters, from wine to burgers, Michelin-starred chefs to a chilli eating competition. If you think you know Cheltenham’s food and drink scene - think again. As Raikes reported last week - not by copying the figure off a press release either, by actually asking some questions of those in the know, the sector in Cheltenham is worth at least £41 million annually - that’s just the visitor spend - and possibly as much as £80 million all in. No one really knows! You can read that story and find out more about the week here.
⚖️ If you frequent LinkedIn and managed to focus amidst the maelstrom of information streaming past you may well have spotted a post from one of Raike’s Founding Partners, Randall & Payne. The county accountants has been alerting everyone to its forthcoming Budget event at Gloucester Rugby’s Kingsholm stadium on Wednesday 30 October. This is where the Chancellor’s annual attempt to balance the books of UK plc is played on a big screen to a room full of guests. Raikes was there for the last Budget and can confirm it was not just enlightening - with insight coming from senior members of the Randall & Payne team and partners again this year, Rathbones - but also an enjoyable networking event too. Who says the Budget can’t be fun? If you would like to attend, please reserve your place by emailing marketing@randall-payne.co.uk.
🏆 We flagged this on two editions last week, too, but as a media partner we just can’t help ourselves. This is your chance to vote for who you think should walk away a winner from the fortcoming Gloucester BID Believe in Gloucester Awards. The shortlist of businesses, charities and individuals for each of the 13 awards has been chosen, all you have to do is follow the link, make your choices, confirm your email address so you can’t use it to vote multiple times, and you can relax! Cast your vote here.
* Everything you read on The Raikes Journal is made possible by our incredible Founding Partners: QuoLux, Willans LLP, Gloucestershire College, Merrell People and Randall & Payne, our sponsors Hartpury University and Hartpury College, our Founding Members and wonderful paying subscribers.
If you upgrade to paid, you’ll be part of this community interest company too. In an era when local journalism is all but gone, we are dedicated to delivering quality journalism for Gloucestershire, to championing the county, in particular its businesses, charities, education and training providers, to defending it, challenging those who need to be held to account and to helping create an even stronger community. If you upgrade to paid you will be able to see past the paywalls on our second and third email editions of the week, that lock all our archive after two weeks and lock our rolling Top 100 Businesses in Gloucestershire, the series that follows the financial fortunes of our biggest firms by turnover. You will be able to comment on our stories too. You’ll be helping make this CIC sustainable. Please do join us.
You can sign up for just £2.30 a week - or £1.80 a week if two or more people sign up at once.
What do 220 skeletons, the goddess of love and two multi-million pound developments have in common?
A tour of two multi-million pound developments set to shape Gloucester’s future has also unearthed news of the latest challenge for the city - what to do with 220 bodies dug up on on of the sites.
By Andrew Merrell.
When you spend upwards of £20 million redeveloping a building and £100 million-plus on creating a new city centre quarter promising an exciting future you don’t really want the story to become all about its past.
But on a guided tour of Gloucester’s former Debenhams, to see how the university is investing millions turning it into its new city centre campus, and how the nearby £100 million-plus Forum is shaping up, we learned how the spectre of its past is back to haunt it.
As our party, a guided tour organised by Gloucester Chamber of Commerce and made possible by the university and its construction firm Morgan Sindall, paused on the roof of the former department store block we learned just how complicated the site’s archaeology was making things.
We had just climbed the three floors to walk out onto the refurbished roof space, now crowned with giant pyramids of atrium glass and heat pumps, and were admiring stunning, little-known views of Gloucester’s skyline.
At which point, Louise Overton, from the university, revealed the challenge the city now faced as a result of archaeological work carried out as part of the project, made possible by £20 million of Government Levelling Up cash.
That challenge is the small matter of what to do with the remains of several hundred bodies exhumed from the site directly below where we stood.
“We found about 160 skeletons while excavating and another 60 elsewhere on the site,” said Overton.
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to The Raikes Journal to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.