The History of GCAB

At over 150 years old, Gloucestershire County Association for the Blind is Gloucestershire's oldest existing charity, and has been supporting blind and visually impaired people throughout the County since its inception in Cheltenham in 1858.

1858 was a fairly eventful year; Queen Victoria marked 21 years on the throne, Big Ben was winched into position at Westminster, The Royal Opera opened in Covent Garden and the Can-Can was first performed in Paris.

But the relatively sleepy spa town of Cheltenham had its own problems. Industrial revolution and the ensuing urban pulled had ensured that the town's small population of 3000 in 1801 had soared to over 35,000 in 1858.

It was against this backdrop that nine good ladies of Cheltenham decided to help the following number of blind adults and children who were begging on the streets. The ladies formed a society through which they endeavoured to provide meaningful occupation for the town's blind people, and to teach them to read.

Initially known as the Cheltenham Home Teaching Society for the Blind, whilst the charity had a ladies committee and lady founders, we must remember that this was half a century before women were given the vote, and initially the society's trustees were all men of the cloth.

After initially offering a home-tuituin service, it soon apparent that a workshop with an attached shop would be an ideal way to provide employment for the 40 working blind people that the charity supported, as well as providing financial support to those who were unable to work.

The charity acquired premises in Winchcombe Street, just a stone's throw from where the offices are today. The workshops which were established in the 1850's continued in existence until as late as the 1950's. A variety of items were produced including baskets and wickerwork of every description, servant's and gardeners' kneeling mats, knitted socks and stockings, wool mats and even beehives.

Within time other Gloucestershire parishes were taken under the charity's wing and it became the countywide concern which it continues to be to this day. The forty or so blind people who were originally in receipt of support from the charity in 1858 has now grown to over 3,500 visually impaired people within a now larger county of Gloucestershire.

In essence we aim to improve the lives of the county's VIPs and to help them live with dignity, self-respect and independence.