The three properties that make up the Gloucester Folk Museum are a mixture of Tudor and Jacobean design dating from the fifteenth and sixteenth century.  Two of the buildings were originally a merchant’s house and the oak beams that can be seen at the front of the building today are original to those properties.  The third building was not incorporated in to the museum until the 1970's.

As is often the case, the land on which the museum is located has been important for a longer period of time that the existing buildings.  Tenements have been reported on the land from around 1455, but perhaps more surprisingly, it is believed that buried under the back yard of the museum is a Roman ship from a time when a quay from the River Severn was located at the back of the neighbouring police station.  This is due to be excavated in the very near future.

The first significant owner of all three of the buildings was John Stanford a rich clothier of Gloucester who was a prominent civic figure and leading protestant.  It is believed that he actually owned the entire block of buildings from 93 to 107 Westgate Street by 1548.

The buildings are also sometimes known as Bishops Hooper’s Lodgings due to the understanding that the Bishop lodged in the property on the eve of his death.  In 1555 Bishop Hooper was burned at the stake in Gloucester, only a short distance from the Folk Museum for his protestant leanings.

In the eighteenth century two of the properties were being used as a pin making factory, established by William Cowcher.  The forge that was used can still be seen in the museum and hundreds of pins have been discovered under the floorboards during various renovations.

Other uses of the building have included an ironmongers, china and glass dealers, booksellers, boot and shoemakers, undertakers and the regimental museum that is now located near the docks.

The artefacts contained in the museum are, in the main, linked to the lives of people in Gloucester from round 1500 to the present day.