Obituary Cedric Rich
Summary
Gloucester city centre has lost a direct link with its heritage with the passing of Cedric Rich . The last owner, landlord and manager of Westgate Street’s Fleece Hotel passed away at home with his family on May 20 at the age of 88, the landmark hotel he is closely associated with having been in the Rich family’s ownership for almost a century.
Details
Cedric’s grandfather, Samuel, moved to the city from Okehampton to acquire the hotel in 1908, his son, Cyril taking over the business before passing it on in the 1970s to his own son, Cedric. A spokesperson for the Rich family told Punchline-Gloucester.com : “Cedric was extremely proud of being the custodian of The Fleece and would refer to the weight of expectations of past generations upon him.
“However, in October 2002, with the threat of a compulsory purchase order being triggered on the property for the ultimately unsuccessful Blackfriars development, along with discovering that £150,000 of electrical works were required on the building, the family concluded that to sell was the only option.
“This was a decision that deeply upset Cedric and he would often lament it, but he recognised that the Rich family had played their part and it was time to pass the baton on.” The Fleece was acquired by the South West Regional Development Agency in April 2003, ownership passing to Gloucester City Council when the agency was disbanded in 2011.
Since then, there have been several failed attempts to redevelop the site, but its regeneration remains elusive. The Fleece first opened in 1497 as a hostelry and one of the three ‘Great Inns’ built by the Abbey of St Peter (now Gloucester Cathedral) to cater for pilgrims who came to visit the tomb of King Edward II in the wake of his grisly murder in Berkeley Castle.
Cedric’s mother, Sheila, travelled down to Exeter to be supported by her family for the birth of Cedric in November 1937, Sheila and her new son soon returning to Gloucester, where he was christened in St Mary de Crypt church and attended Wycliffe School in Stonehouse.
Prior to being a hotelier, Cedric served with the Royal Berkshire Regiment, mainly in Cyprus in the mid 1950s, thereafter training as a hotelier at the Three Kings Hotel in Basel, Switzerland. Early in his career, he became the Assistant Manager at the Tudor House, just outside Maidstone, where he was friends with the James Bond author Ian Fleming up until Ian’s death, in 1964.
Cedric’s unusual path to his first meeting with Barbara, his future wife, is also now a renowned episode in the family history. “He was sent to Durham to take on a hotel there owned by the brewery he was working for at the time. Whilst on route, he forgot that he was going to Durham and drove to Doncaster instead.
Report source: Punchline Gloucester