Made In England

Our county is famed the world over for its glorious countryside. Somewhat less well-known is how many works of art - from great music to bestselling books - have their roots in Gloucestershire.

Music

Its musical heritage includes two of the world's best-known tunes. Composer Sir Hubert Parry, who grew up at Highnam Court, wrote the music to England's favourite hymn Jerusalem.

The Gustav Holst statue in Cheltenham

And the American national anthem, The Star-Spangled Banner, was set to a tune composed around 1780 by Gloucester-born John Stafford Smith. The Stars and Stripes flies over his memorial in Gloucester Cathedral.

Gustav Holst, composer of the hugely popular orchestral suite The Planets, was born in Cheltenham in 1874. His birthplace, a Regency house in Clarence Road, is now a museum and in April 2008 a statue was erected in the town's Imperial Gardens.

The quintessential English composer Ralph Vaughan Williams was born in 1872 at Down Ampney, where his father was vicar.

Composer and poet Ivor Gurney was born in Gloucester in 1892 and was a chorister and student of organist and composer Herbert Brewer at Gloucester Cathedral. He served in the Gloucestershire Regiment in the First World War, and is buried at Twigworth, where his gravestone commemorates him as 'poet composer of the Severn and Somme'. Another of Brewer's pupils was Lydney-born composer Herbert Howells.

Gloucester Cathedral - hosts the 3 Choirs Festival

Gloucester Cathedral plays host every third year to the Three Choirs Festival - Worcester and Hereford share the honours in the years in between. It's Europe's longest-running music festival with earliest records dating back to 1719.

More recent Gloucestershire contributions to the musical life of the nation have included Cheltenham-born founder-member of the Rolling Stones, Brian Jones, and Forest of Dean band EMF, whose 1990 single Unbelievable topped the US charts.

Many musicians have made their home in the Cotswolds including Steve Winwood, Mike d'Abo and Alex James of Blur.

Literature

Gloucestershire's literary heritage is impressive too. One of its best-known sons is Laurie Lee, whose childhood in Slad formed the basis of his autobiographical novel Cider With Rosie. 

Dennis Potter

The writer Dennis Potter was born near Coleford and frequently used the Forest of Dean as a setting in his work, most notably in The Singing Detective, Blue Remembered Hills and Karaoke/Cold Lazarus. 

The Dean was also home to the Dymock poets. Robert Frost, Lascelles Abercrombie, Rupert Brooke, Edward Thomas, Wilfrid Wilson Gibson, and John Drinkwater made their home in the area between 1911 and 1914.

Writer and naturalist John Moore is commemorated by the countryside museum that bears his name in his home town of Tewkesbury. In the 1930s, long before conservation became fashionable, he wrote of the threat to our countryside from technological progress.

JK Rowling

More recently Gloucestershire has also given the world JK Rowling, author of the phenomenally successful Harry Potter books. Joanna Kathleen Rowling was born in the county in 1965 and attended primary school at Tutshill and Wyedean Comprehensive School, both in the Forest of Dean.

Another best-selling Gloucestershire writer is Jilly Cooper, who lives near Bisley.

Arts and Crafts

Gloucestershire has also long been an inspiration to artists and craftspeople. The Cotswolds became an important centre for the Arts and Crafts Movement in the early 20th century. Craftsmen and women followed in the footsteps of William Morris, whose country home was at Kelmscott Manor. Leading Arts and Crafts practitioners were drawn to the Cotswolds by its rich craft tradition and the cultivated charm of the landscape.

Rodmarton Manor, near Cirencester, is the supreme example of a house built and all its furniture made according to Arts and Crafts ideals and was one of the last country houses to be built and furnished in the old traditional style when everything was done by hand with local stone, local timber and local craftsmen.

Damien Hurst came to prominence in the 1990s as one of the leading artists in the BritArt movement. Responsible for works of art including a dead shark in formaldehyde, and more recently a human skull made of platinum and diamonds, he now works from his studio in Chalford, near Stroud.

Laurie Lee

Today Cirencester's New Brewery Arts centre has been recognised as a regional and national centre of excellence in arts and crafts with a £2.8 million redevelopment part-funded by Arts Council England. It now houses a gallery showcasing the best in contemporary craft, a sculpture studio and 12 on-site craft worker studios. Its importance was recognised by Turner Prize winning ceramicist Grayson Perry when he was guest of honour at its official launch in April 2008.

Stroud also lays claim to being the arts and crafts capital of the Cotswolds, and has variously been described as 'the Covent Garden of the Cotswolds' (by Jasper Conran) and 'the artistic equivalent of bookish Hay-on-Wye' by the Daily Telegraph.

It has a long tradition as a centre for artists, writers - including Laurie Lee - poets and craftspeople. It hosts annual arts and music festivals. Made in Stroud is a co-operative that provides a shop window for crafts makers living and working in the area and its founders also run Made in Gloucestershire, a city centre gallery in Gloucester where around county-based craftspeople and artists sell their wares.

Crispin Thomas - Football Poet

In keeping with its 'alternative' arts reputation, Stroud also spawned the Football Poets, referred to by Radio 4 as "...the world's only known collective of football poets".

The town has also become a popular canvas for 'guerilla graffiti' of the kind made famous by cult street artist Banksy which has fuelled a lively local 'art or vandalism debate'. It recently inspired town councillors to launch a bold new initiative aimed at giving people a way to leave a positive mark on the town - and turned an underpass that transformed one of Stroud’s most notorious graffiti black spots into a rural fantasy world.

Made in England

Made in England is a joint partnership between BBC English Regions and Arts Council England to bring audiences and artists together in unique collaborations to provide exciting new cultural experiences.

It is a project dedicated to exploring how England – the place and the people - is expressed through creative and artistic forms.

Think about the Lake District - dramatic and elegant, the lush greens and icy blues depicting an unspoilt England. William Wordsworth was so inspired by the landscape he wrote poems, sonnets and ballads dedicated to it.

Non-traditional art is just as important to recognise - graffiti on the streets, estates built in the Sixties, and even regional accents. Does this architecture, history and culture inspire you to think of all things English?

If you’re bursting with enthusiasm at the thought of creating something - why don’t you see how you can get involved? Visit the main Made in England site (link at top right of this page) to find out how you can get your creative juices flowing...