LGBTQ history in Gloucestershire online exhibition

Between September 2013 and March 2014 Gloucestershire Archives ran a LGBTQ history project to explore the previously hidden histories of LGBTQ residents in Gloucestershire and South Gloucestershire.

The results have been published as an online LGBTQ history exhibition and include:

• Pubs in Cheltenham and gay discos at the Racecourse.
• Hugh Despenser the Younger, a ‘favourite’ of King Edward II,  buried in Tewkesbury Abbey.
• A 1716 charge of sodomy against a Cotswold tenant and a visiting farm labourer.
• Suffragette Mary Blathwayt whose diaries can be interpreted to refer to lesbian relationships.
• Music producer and ‘Telstar’ songwriter Joe Meek born in the Forest of Dean.

The exhibition is presented by geographical district – just click on the map to learn it’s history.