IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
Clifton Road, GLOUCESTER, GL1 5BJ

These things are springing up everywhere, now that no one's got any money and even relatively exalted worker ants like, say, night shift haulage company managers get paid a mere pittance. Here's a new Aldi under construction on the Bristol Road in Gloucester.

Although no longer a co-op, this building at the junction of Stroud Road and Bristol Road still proudly shows its origins.

Now this is a small trading estate. But originally, it was the home of England's Glory matches, made originally by Samuel J Moreland who built a factory not far from here in 1867. This building was erected in 1911, a few years before the company was taken over by Bryant & May. Matches were produced here until the 1970s. There's a good deal of local support for illuminating the "England's Glory" sign, which was originally lit at night but which has been switched off since the factory closed.

The area's main industrial survival is Moreland's Match Factory, "founded 1868, mostly rebuilt by E.A. Pryer, 1911-12". Now Moreland's Trading Estate, above the sign of which are references to the building's origins.

This is all that remains of the Gloucester Carriage & Wagon Company's 1937 works. The company was in operation for 126 years and built all manner of railway rolling stock. At its peak 2400 people were employed here. Much of the 11 acre site has now become a rather depressing retail park, complete with litter - strewn car park and a boarded up cinema, and these buildings are the only tangible reminder of a bygone age. Well, that and the fact that the road junction near here is known as "Wagon Works Junction".

At the junction of Stroud Road and Bristol Road is this line of nice old buildings. The impressive co-op is now a window showroom.

An eclectic group of early C19th houses sandwiching a former Co-op of 1922, by A.W. Probyn. The ends, nos. 5-7 and 13-15, are grade II listed. Occupied by pizza chain, Papa John's, Warmseal Windows and Sapphire Carpets.

They used to build railway rolling stock here. The company were a big local employer, and in common with many similar companies, had a company brass band. I can't imagie that Toys 'R' Us features a company band. The only other notable thing about this picture is the amount of litter people think it acceptable to leave lying around. The whole car park was strewn with Burger King wrappers.

This is the former England's Glory Moreland's Match Factory on Bristol Road in Gloucester. The building was founded in 1868 and largely rebuilt by E A Pryer in 1911-12. The building is now a trading estate. As a child I can remember passing this building at night in a car with the sign illuminated. As a footnote to this, at Christmas time 2012 I bought a box of England's Glory matches and was amused by the words 'Made in Sweden' on the lower part of the logo on the front of the box. The words are as large as the brand name above it. Is this symbolic of Britain's manufacturing decline!