This is the part of Berkeley which has probably changed the least since Jenner's time.  Houses on this part of High Street are reputed to be amongst the oldest in the town, set in a thoroughfare connecting the Town and Castle. As with most 'High Streets' it was the principal shopping area at one time and boasted those trades and businesses required by the people of the town and surrounding area.  Drapers, confectioners, bakers, haberdashers, grocery and provision merchants all plied their trade and inevitably included a chemist and pharmacy.  Records show that there was a pharmacy in this building for at least 150 years.

The Old Pharmacy’s place in the town is recorded in deeds dating back to 1681.  In his book Berkeley a Town in the Marshes (2003), local author David Tandy confirms that when the building was being renovated in the 1960's, the front part of which is a timber and brick construction, indicated a building dating back to at least 1660.  He goes on to opine, that “a recent inspection of the roof timbers however, confirmed there had been a fire in the roof in its earlier life and that the style of construction of those timbers could be as early as 1545”.  Interestingly, it is recorded that half of the town had been put to the torch by the Earl of Warwick in a dispute with the Berkeley family over inheritance of the land and estates, promised in a contract of marriage between himself and Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas, Earl of Berkeley.  Upon Warwick’s death his daughter Margaret, who was by then married to the Earl of Shrewsbury, renewed the claim and the town of Berkeley was burnt to the ground in 1422 and again in 1455.

In its earlier guise as a Brewhouse the building benefited from its own well, some 10 metres deep and 0.8 metres in diameter. The Diary of George Smith, Custodian of the Berkeley Castle in 1821, shows a payment of £17 and 3 shillings to Stephen Jenner, Edward’s nephew “for medicine for the household”.  Stephen was recorded as the Town “druggist” in 1830.
 
Standing in front of the Old Pharmacy and looking back across High Street in Jenner’s time, the view would have been of more shops and the rear entrance to the yard and stables of the Berkeley Arms Hotel.  
 
From the front of the shop, walk a few paces further down High Street to the next location, the White Hart Court, on your left hand side.  You can click the QR code on the Plaque or click here for information on Location 4.