Tetbury, Gloucestershire

Description
Tetbury, a small market-town, the head of a poor-law union and petty sessional division, and a parish in Gloucestershire. The town stands on a rising-ground, near the source of the Lower Avon and the border of Wiltshire, 5 miles NW of Malmesbury, 10 SW of Cirencester, and 92 by railway and 97 by road from London. It has a head post office and a station at the terminus of a short branch of the G.W.R. from Kemble. It is supposed to occupy the site of an ancient military station, and Roman coins and fragments of weapons have been found. A Cistercian monastery, afterwards called flacket Court, was founded here in the 12th century. The town consists of four principal streets, meeting in the centre of the market-place, and contains a town-hall and market-house, an assembly room, a bank, a cottage hospital, a dispensary, a police station, and a workhouse. The parish church of St Mary Magdalene is a large modern building in the Decorated style. It was erected in 1781 on the site of the old Norman church, and retained the tower and spire of that church; the tower was rebuilt in 1893. St Saviour's 'Church is a chapel of ease erected in 1848. There are Baptist, Calvinistic Methodist, Congregational, and Primitive Methodist chapels, and a place of worship for the Brethren. Markets are held on Wednesdays, cattle markets on the second Wednesday in the month, and fairs on Ash Wednesday, the third Wednesday in July, and the Wednesday before or after 10 Nov. for cattle, &c., and hiring fairs on the Wednesday before 5 April and the Wednesday before and after 3.1 Oct. The town is governed by an urban district council, and is a seat of petty sessions. The parish includes the tithings of Charlton, Doughton, Elmstree, and Upton. Acreage, 4627; population, 3057. The manor belongs to trustees called " the feofees for charitable purposes." Elmstree House, Upton Grove, Highgrove, Charlton, Bartons, and the Priory are chief residences. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Gloucester and Bristol; gross value, £1000 with residence.