Together with the routes from London and Wales, the third significant route into the town was that from Bristol which entered by Southgate Street. That street was a site of market trading by the early 13th century when it was the usual pitch for sellers of fish, and by the beginning of the 16th century a covered wheat market stood near its north end. The pillory stood nearby in 1455. (fn. 27) Though Southgate Street, like all the main streets, was closely built up for its full length by the 13th century, there had been little building behind the houses at its southern end; in the 1230s two friaries found sites there, the Franciscan house, on the east side, being given an extensive plot which occupied the whole south-east corner of the intramural area. A side lane, later known as Blackfriars, was built c. 1246 to give access to the Dominican house on the west side of the street. Eastgate (or Ailesgate) Street was originally the least favoured of the four main streets, being the Jewish quarter until 1275. It led out to the two bartons from which the royal and abbey estates adjoining the town were administered and to the small market town of Painswick, but its importance as a route of commerce probably dated only from the end of the Middle Ages with the development of the Stroud Valley clothmaking area.
Gloucester, Southgate Street and Blackfriars description
Together with the routes from London and Wales, the third significant route into the town was that from Bristol which entered by Southgate Street. That street was a site of market trading by the early 13th century when it was the usual pitch for sellers of fish, and by the beginning of the 16th century a covered wheat market stood near its north end. The pillory stood nearby in 1455. (fn. 27) Though Southgate Street, like all the main streets, was closely built up for its full length by the 13th century, there had been little building behind the houses at its southern end; in the 1230s two friaries found sites there, the Franciscan house, on the east side, being given an extensive plot which occupied the whole south-east corner of the intramural area. A side lane, later known as Blackfriars, was built c. 1246 to give access to the Dominican house on the west side of the street. Eastgate (or Ailesgate) Street was originally the least favoured of the four main streets, being the Jewish quarter until 1275. It led out to the two bartons from which the royal and abbey estates adjoining the town were administered and to the small market town of Painswick, but its importance as a route of commerce probably dated only from the end of the Middle Ages with the development of the Stroud Valley clothmaking area.
