GLOUCESTERSHIRE as composer crucible: Ralph Vaughan Williams, Gustav Holst, Hubert Parry, Gerald Finzi, Herbert Howells and Ivor Gurney—these are only the headliners for the county’s contribution to the renaissance of British composing talent from the later 19th century. All six lived in Gloucestershire, four of them born there. What is in the air? ‘Gloucestershire has a contrasting array of beautiful landscapes to match any other county,’ says Adrian Partington, director of music at Gloucester Cathedral. ‘And if Worcestershire has the Malverns, we have the Cotswolds!’
There are so many resonant sites to visit. The straggling village of Down Ampney in south Gloucestershire is where Vaughan Williams was born in October 1872. His birthplace, the solid Old Vicarage, stands at a distance from 13th-century All Saints’ Church, where the composer’s father, Arthur, was the incumbent. He and his wife, Margaret, a
