The Tewkesbury Historical Society
Welcome to our local History Society website
November 2024 Meeting
Hazel Crisp
Woodard Award 2024
2025 Dowty Themed Calendar
A 2025 calendar featuring images related to the Dowty Company and its founder, Sir George Dowty is available for purchase at £15 included postage and packaging. Click on the PDF to view the calendar and contact Martin Robins on martinrobins@btinternet.com for details of how to buy.Bishops Walk Plaque
October 2024 Meeting
April 2024 Meeting
GLHA Local History Day 2024
Gloucestershire Local History Association Local History Day was held on Saturday July 27th 2024. At the Graze building at Hartpury University, Gloucester.80th Anniversary of D-Day
Lionel Perry
May Meeting - THS Annual General Meeting
Bulletin 33
Sir George Dowty
Event at Pershore Abbey to commemorate Sir George Dowty and will include visiting the newly erected statue of him. Full Details.1832 Cholera Epidemic in Tewkesbury
One of our members, Dr Peter Raggatt, who is a retired NHS Clinical Biochemist at Addenbrookes Hospital and Lecturer in Cambridge University School, was moved to research and write an article about this epidemic with its comparisons with the present pandemic. [see attached PDF above] It links in with previous research on Cholera in Tewkesbury. Such was the impact of these two epidemics on the town that a monument was commissioned which now resides in the Cemetery, adjacent to the ‘Cholera Pit’ where many victims received a mass night burial [see attached]. Although John Snow, clean water for the Mythe Waterworks and improved housing conditions have ensured that 1849 was the last appearance of cholera, the brutality which occurred in World War II Japanese POW camps caused the death of several Tewkesbury soldiers of cholera in 1943-44. Here is a biography of one of them, Frederick Key.
Smallpox was another medical curse of the18-19th centuries but by the late 19thC vaccinations were made compulsory and a significant number of people in Tewkesbury became anti-vaccination. For more on this familiar tale, see Martin Holt's award winning article.
History is always so topical!
February Meeting
Joan Smith
34th Season - Programme of Talks
21 Nov 2024 Andrew Mellor - Cider Making in Gloucestershire - from Fox Whelps to Firkins!
23 Jan 2025 Social - For Members, Friends & Guests
20 Feb 2025 Carol Davies - Workhouse Songs
20 Mar 2025 Andrew Chapman - Imagining History: the case for Historical Fiction
24 Apr 2025 Steve Goodchild - The Battle of Tewkesbury newly r-examined
Dowty Group
Results of Tree-Ring Dating for Tewkesbury Buildings
Tewkesbury Workhouse
Aspects of Hidden Tewkesbury
Two large scale maps of Tewkesbury from 1811 and 1880
We are proud to present two maps on our site using new zoom and pan technology.We have the 1811 Enclosure Map of Tewkesbury and the huge 1:500 scale map of Tewkesbury created in the 1880s, both full of amazing detail. Use your mouse wheel to zoom and left mouse to drag.
Even more Census Data
We are pleased to announce that the Tewkesbury Census Data for 1841 to 1891 has doubled in size. We now have 37,608 people spread over 9,575 property records. Take a look here.Cemetery and Burials database for Tewkesbury
Over the years we have collated information from the various burial grounds in the town and now is the time to release a one-stop location for all of them on this site. The new Burials Database in our Research section tries to do this. There is also an accompanying history and guide to finding the resting place of persons buried in the town. There are currently an impressive 18,564 records. For the decades 1841 to 1881 we can also link to the Census Database (not guaranteed they are same people)Remarkable Incidents Relative to Tewkesbury
And on the 2d of July 1638, the assizes were held here again, before sir Humphry Davenport, chief baron of the Exchequer, and Sir Williams Jones, kt. when the court made the follow order :- Glouc.ss.Where was there is a certeyne Bridge called the Long-Bridge, lying att the North-end of the Towne of Tewkesbury, and leading towards the Cittie of Worcester, conteyning above seven hundred yards in length, which is growne into great decay, and so hath beene for many years last past, be reason whereof divers of his majesties subjects travelling that was have beene unfortunately drowned: And for that it doth not appeare who in the memory of Man have repayed the said Bridge, nor who by Law ought to doe itt: Therefore to the end soe necessary a worke should bee effected, It is ordered by assent, that the County of Gloucester shall forthwith some of money, towards the repayre of the sayde bridge, which being once effected, the Corporation of Tewkesbury doth offer to keepe and maynteyne the same. Provided that the contribution of the whole County with the Parish of Tewkesbury bee noe prejudice to the County, nor drawne into example for the future. Per Curiam