The Gloucestershire Society is a charitable society founded on 1 December 1657 by 50 "Gloucestershire Gentlemen that Inhabit within the City of Bristol". It is a registered charity. Its early activities included helping local apprentices. The song "The stwuns that built George Ridler's oven" was sung at meetings causing historians to see the society as a covert royalist organisationGibbs, J. Arthur (1929) A Cotswold Village, or, Country Life and Pursuits in Gloucestershire. 3rd edition. London: Jonathan Cape. pp. 73-76 & 313-316. but that view is rejected by the society.
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