Description
Tewkesbury, a market-town, a municipal borough, the head of a poor-law union, petty sessional division, and county court district, and a parish, in Gloucestershire. The town stands on the river Avon at its influx to the Severn after receiving the small streams Carron and Swilgate, 8 miles NW of Cheltenham, 10 NNE of Gloucester, and 103 by road and 171 by railway from London. It has a head post office and a station half a mile NE of the town, on the Tewkesbury and Malvern branch of the M.R., which connects at Ashchurch Junction with the Bristol and Birmingham section. Tewkesbury took its name from the Saxon hermit Theoc, rose around a monastery founded in 715 by Odo and Dodo, dukes of Mercia, belonged after the Norman Conquest to the Conqueror's wife Matilda and to Robert Fitzhamon, was known at Domesday as Teodechesberie, passed to successively the De Clares, the Despencers, the Beauchamps, Warwick the king-maker, Henry VII., and the Seymours, is noted for the great defeat of the Lancastrians in 1471 by Edward IV. at the Gastons, about half a mile to the S, followed by the capture of Queen Margaret and the murder of her son. It is noticed by Shakespeare both in connection with Prince Edward's murder and for the manufacture of " Tewkesbury mustard." It was ravaged by the plague in 1592-93, and suffered from the conflicting forces, both Royalist and Parliamentarian, in the Civil Wars of Charles I. It gives the title of Baron to the Earl of Munster. Its ancient monastery was the burial-place of Britric, king of Wessex, became annexed in 980 to Cranborne Abbey, was rebuilt by Robert Fitzhamon soon after the Norman Conquest, became then the head-house of the Cranborne monks, and one of the greatest Benedictine abbeys in England, had long the privilege of sending its abbots to the upper house of Parliament, was given at the dissolution to T. Strowde, W. Erie, and J. Paget, suffered then a demolition of its Lady chapel and its cloisters, and is now represented by its church, its chapter-house, and a gate-house. The church was completed in 1123 by Robert, Earl of Gloucester, who had married the daughter of Fitzhamon. Large additions were made in the 15th century by the Despencers. At the dissolution the church was purchased by the inhabitants, and became the parish church. Between 1875 and 1879 it was thoroughly restored by Sir Gilbert Scott, and various additions have been made up to the present date. It consists of a nave of eight bays with aisles and north porch, north transept with chapels on the east and north-east, south transept with eastern apsidal chapel, choir of two bays with three others forming the eastern apse, an ambulatory surrounded by five polygonal chapels, and a massive central square tower 132 feet high. The total length is 331 feet, and 124 feet along the transepts. It is one of the finest Norman churches in the kingdom, and exhibits beautiful examples of Decorated and Perpendicular work. It is especially remarkable for the number of chantry chapels containing the tombs of members of the noble families who have held the manor, and of the abbots of the monastery. The most interesting of these are the tombs of the founder, Robert Fitzhamon, and, of Hugh Despencer, the favourite of Edward II., the Warwick chantry, erected by Isabel Despencer to her husband Richard Beauchamp, Earl of Abergavenny and Worcester, and the gorgeous cenotaph erected by Abbot Wakeman for himself shortly before the dissolution. A little distance west of the church is the " Abbey House," a fine fragment of Perpendicular work, now the vicarage, and farther west is the abbey gate-way, also of Perpendicular date. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Gloucester and Bristol; net. value, £228 with residence. Patron, the Lord Chancellor. Holy Trinity Church was built in 1837. It is a lofty edifice of red brick in the Perpendicular style, and has eight stained-glass windows, and careful and considerable outlay has been bestowed on the interior. In 1884 the body of the church was reseated and new lighting and heating arrangements were adopted. Holy Trinity has been constituted an ecclesiastical parish, with a population of about 1600. The living is a vicarage in the gift of trustees; gross value, £350 with residence.
The town comprises three principal streets, with a number of lanes and alleys, and contains many quaint old timber houses. It has undergone considerable modern improvement, and is well paved and well drained. The town-hall in the High Street was erected in 1788 at the expense of Sir William Codrington, M.P. for the borough. The borough and county petty sessions and county courts are held here. The corn exchange is adjacent to the town-hall. A handsome one-arched iron bridge, 176 feet in span, was built by Telford in 1824 over the Severn at the Mythe, 1 mile N of the town. There are Roman Catholic, Baptist, Congregational, and Wesleyan chapels. The cemetery, a little S of the town, was opened in 1857, and enlarged in 1880, and now comprises 16. acres. The Philharmonic Hall, formerly a meeting-house of the Society of Friends, is used for concerts and theatrical entertainments. There are a dispensary, a rural hospital, a workhouse, almshouses, and an endowed grammar school. Two weekly newspapers are published. A weekly market is. held on Wednesday; fairs are held every alternate Wednesday for cattle; a pleasure fair is held on 10 Oct., and hiring fairs on October 10 and Wednesday following. The manufacture of linen collars and fronts, stockings, and nails is carried on. The town is a borough by prescription, was first chartered by Elizabeth, is governed by a mayor, 4 aldermen,. and 12 councillors, who act as the urban district council. It has a commission of the peace and a separate court of quarter sessions. Tewkesbury sent two members to Parliament from 1609 till 1867, was deprived by the Reform Act of the latter year of one of its members, and by the Redistribution of Seats Act of 1885 its representation was merged in that of the county. Acreage of the municipal borough, 2532; population, 5269.
The old parish for civil purposes, though nominally conterminous with the town, includes the hamlets of the Mythe and Southwick. Well-preserved remains of a Roman road are at the Mythe and near the Severn, and fine mineral springs similar to those of Cheltenham are in the adjoining parish of Walton Cardiff.
Tewkesbury or Northern Parliamentary Division of Gloucester was formed under the Redistribution of Seats Act of 1885, and returns one member to the House of Commons. Population, 50,340. The division includes the following : - Tewkesbury - Ash church, Deerhurst, Elmstone-Hardwicke (except Uckington Hamlet), Forthampton, Kemerton, Leigh-with-Evington, Oxenton, Tirley and Haw, Tred-ington, Twyning, Walton Cardiff; Gloucester-Ashleworth, Barnwood, Barton (St Mary), Barton (St Michael), Brockthrop, Brockworth, Bulley, Churcham, Churchdown, Down Hatherley, Elmore, Harescombe, Hartpury, Hasfield, Hempstead, Highnam (Over) and Linton, Hucclecote, Kingsholm (St Catherine) and Kingsdom (St Mary-so much as is in the county of Gloucester), Lassington, Longford (St Catherine), Longford (St Mary), Maisemore, Matson, Minsterworth, North Hamlet, Norton, Prinknash, Rudford, Sandhurst, South Hamlet, Tuffley, Twigworth, Upton (St Leonard's), Whaddon, Wotton (St Mary), Wotton Ville; Berkeley- Alkington, Berkeley, Breadstone, Hamfallow, Hinton and Ham, Stone; Cheltenham-Badgworth, Bishop's Cleve, Boddington, Charlton Kings, Cheltenham, Cowley, Cubberley, Gotberington, Leckhampton, Prestbury, Shurdington (Great), Southam and Brockhampton, Staverton, Stoke Orchard, Swindon, Uckiugton, Up-Hatherley, Witcomb (Great), Woodmancote, Woolstone; Winchcombe-Alderton and Dixon, Alstone, Ashton-under-Hill, Aston Somerville, Beckford, Buckland and Laverton, Charlton Abbots, Childswickham and Murcott, Didbrook, Dumbleton, Guiting Power, Guiting Temple, Hailes, Hawling, Hinton-on-the-Green, Pinnock and Hyde, Prescott, Roel, Snowshill, Stanley Pontlarge, Stanton, Stanway, Sudely Manor, Toddington, Washbourne (Great), Washbourne (Little), Winchcombe, Wormington; Whitminster (part of)-Arlingham, Frampton-on-Severn, Fretherne, Hardwick, Haresfield, Longney, Moreton Valence, Quedgley, Saul, Standish, Wheatenhurst; Dursley (part of)-Slimbridge; Tewkesbury, municipal borough; Gloucester, municipal borough.
