Grant Awarded to Repair St Michael's Tower, Gloucester
Historic England has awarded a grant of £137,600 to Gloucester City Council to carry out repairs to St Michael’s Tower, the 15th century landmark at the heart of the city.
The Grade II* listed building and scheduled monument, known locally as The Tower, currently has scaffolding surrounding it due to masonry deterioration. The building was placed on Historic England’s Heritage at Risk Register in November 2023.
The grant is a major contribution to the restoration project, with the rest being funded by Gloucester City Council.
The project will see the Tower’s lead roof and stonework repaired and architectural fragments replaced by stonemasons skilled in conservation.
Gloucester is a beautiful and historic city, so it’s important that we conserve its heritage for future generations. We’re delighted that Historic England has recognised the importance of St Michael’s Tower, and this grant enables us to undertake the necessary repairs.
St Michael’s Tower has been vital to the successful operation of the Civic Trust since 2009. We are pleased that this work is being undertaken to stabilise the historic structure, so helping our operation to continue to deliver an important Heritage Centre in the very centre of the city for many more years.
Wonderful news – well done, Historic England, for helping Historic Gloucester, and the only building linked to Richard of Gloucester (a.k.a Richard III), who gave the City of Gloucester our charter without a fee 'because of the special affection which we bear towards the said town of Gloucester'.
St Michael’s Tower is the only surviving fabric of the former parish church of St Michael and All Angels, built between 1455 and 1472. The parish church was demolished in 1849 and rebuilt in 1851, but it closed in 1940 and was demolished in 1955, leaving the tower an isolated monument at the crossroads of Gloucester’s 4 main streets.
Since then, the tower has been used as offices, a bell museum, and a Tourist Information Centre. It is now a Heritage Centre run by the Gloucester Civic Trust.
