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Borough of Gloucester Order and letter book 1639-1661 (GBR/H2/3)

In 1646, at the end of the First Civil War, the City Council undertook a Grand Inquest to determine the financial impact of the war on the city.  The Mayor and Aldermen all agreed that in order to save the city from being taken by the King in the siege, the Governor and Council of War had no option but to destroy the suburbs and to flood the meadows on the north and north-west sides of the city.  The inquest calculated that the overall losses that the city sustained came to £28,760 (just under £3 million today), but that other inhabitants suffered losses over that and ‘are in much want and misery'.  This image, taken from the borough’s Order & Letter book, details the losses that occurred in Kingsholm, which amounted to 12 houses, 3 barns, 2 stables being destroyed or burnt plus orchards and trees being cut down and crops in barns being destroyed.  While the cost of this was estimated to be £2,310, the damage to the fields – ‘for grounds being drowned’ – was put at £2,000, bringing the total for Kingsholm to £4,310 (about £446k today).