Gloucester Cathedral stands on the site of an early monastery established in 678 or 679. The present abbey church was created between 1072 and 1104 as a part of a Benedictine monastery. Gloucester is one of 6 former monasteries that were re-founded as cathedrals in the period of Henry VIII. It was probably selected as it has the tomb of a former English King, Edward II, and the coronation took place here of Henry III.
The Benedictine monks would have washed here in preparation for Mass.
This has been a place of Christian worship continuously for over 1300 years, since Osric, an Anglo-Saxon prince, founded a religious house here in 678-9 AD. Little is known for certain about the communities which worshipped here or the buildings they used over the next 400 years although it is believed that the Benedictine Rule was introduced here early in the 11th century.