Berkeley (/ˈbɑːrkli/ BARK-lee) is a market town and civil parish in the Stroud District in Gloucestershire, England.

Recent archeological evacuations on the grounds of Berkeley Castle have uncovered remains of a significant Anglo-Saxon minster which was attached to a monastery of nuns.

[4] After the Norman Conquest, a Flemish noble named Roger de Tosny was appointed Provost of the manor of Berkeley by his brother-in-law (or perhaps uncle) Earl William FitzOsbern.

A younger son of the elder Roger, John de Berkeley, went north to Scotland with Queen Maud, becoming the progenitor of the Scottish Barclay family.

[6] It included the tithings of Alkington, Breadstone, Ham, Hamfellow and Hinton, and the chapelry of Stone, which became a separate parish in 1797.

Since its decommission, SGS Berkeley Green UTC has opened nearby and serves as a technical college.

A local legend tells that the town was once home to the Witch of Berkeley, who sold her soul to the Devil in exchange for wealth.

After studying medicine in London he returned home to work as the local doctor, and in 1796, realising that milkmaids didn't catch smallpox, he performed a pioneering experiment by inoculating his gardener's son James Phipps with cowpox, thus preventing infection from smallpox.

Jenner inoculated local people, free of charge, in a one-room hut in the garden, which he called the "Temple of Vaccinia".