The Tewkesbury Historical Society

Welcome to our local History Society website

Cross House

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THS formed in 1991 to research and add to our knowledge of the history of the town of Tewkesbury. The Society meets monthly, on the third Thursday, at 7.45pm in the Methodist Church at The Cross. Society Meetings are open to non-members and speakers talk on aspects of history [see Events]. THS publish books and an annual Bulletin of Research, to which contributions are invited. Members have the option of accessing online the Society's extensive Woodard Database of Local History data.

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Please consider joining the Society or renewing your membership

May's Photograph
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War Graves Tour - Conducted by Sam Eedle

April 2025 Meeting

Steve Goodchild

Steve GoodchildClick Image
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At our meeting on 24 April 2025, Steve Goodchild gave a very well received talk on the Battle of Tewkesbury re-examined - many interesting questions were raised and some myths debunked.

A video of the talk is now available to watch in our YouTube Channel.

Sir George Dowty book release invitation

The initial response to the release of the Sir George Dowty Diary book has been most enthusiastic - both here and overseas. It is a most fitting accompaniment to his statue erected a year ago. Few 20th century industrialists have received such international recognition - it reflects the magnitude of his achievements. The formal release of the book is to take place on the 9th June at the Graeme Hick Pavilion at the Worcestershire County Cricket Club. Rhodesian born Graeme played his entire domestic career of over 20 years exclusively for Worcestershire. The event commences at 10.00am in the presence of many distinguished guests and is to be followed by refreshments. The diaries from 1919 to 1975 will be on display including the fully restored 1953 edition. The setting is most appropriate given that Sir George Dowty was Worcestershire born, educated and apprenticed in Worcester and President of the Worcestershire County Cricket Club during their championship winning sides of 1964 and 1965. The Dowty Group acquired Worcester based mining engineers Meco in the late 1960s. To reserve a place at this iconic occasion email willmundy331@icloud.com

Codrington Talk: March 2025

John & Emma

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On 27 March 2025, the Society hosted a well attended meeting at the Methodist Church on behalf of a new organization that we are working with: ‘Tewkesbury Voices’ Town Councillor, Emma Ash is Chair. The new group aims to study various aspects of Black History in Tewkesbury.

In this public meeting, THS President, John Dixon, presented a long-contemplated talk entitled Tewkesbury in the Context of the Codrington Family in partnership with the Group and THS.

Sir William Codrington was MP for Tewkesbury 1761-1792, he loaned the Council funds in 1788 to build the first Town Hall. That is possibly controversial today since the family was also prominent in the use of enslaved labour in Barbados and Antigua in the sugar industry. His death in 1792 prompted a Parliamentary by-election in which the newly formed Anti-Slavery Society presented a candidate. In the event he withdrew, but this did encourage local anti-slavery activities that Derek Benson has studied in his article Anti-Slavery Activism in Tewkesbury which has now been published both in THS Bulletin 34 and as a single article which are available for purchase.

A video of John's talk can be viewed here

[Please note that this video is a reconstruction of the actual talk as the recording of the event is not usable due to technical issues.]

March 2025 Meeting

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At our meeting on 20th March, author and retired local GP, Dr Andrew Chapman, gave an erudite and wide-ranging talk on Imagining History: the case for Historical Fiction.

A video recording of the talk is now available on our YouTube Channel.

Bulletin 34

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Our 2025 Bulletin is now available for purchase.

Details of Bulletin 34 and how to buy can be found in our Publications Section.

It is also available in Alison's Bookshop in the High Street.

Will be available for purchase at our next meeting on 20th March. £7 THS Members, £9 non-members.

February 2025 Meeting

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On 20 February 2025, we welcomed the Shepherd's Crook Folk Choir with their "Songs from the Workhouse". They presented the songs, often collected by Percy Grainger and Cecil Sharp [you can see the poster of Richard Sermon's talk in September 2024 on this subject but we we unfortunately were not able to record that talk.] The choristers each took it in turns to relate relevant history to link the songs. Apart from the one, they came over very well as do the songs performed a capella with no accompaniment.

We, therefore, can only present an audio only video on our YouTube Channel but the sound quality of sections of it does vary. It was, therefore, an excellent oral presentation with lots of valuable information about the history of the Workhouses.

The choir is based in Winchcombe but the choral content is relevant with the history to Gloucestershire audiences. The leader, Carol [carol@sweetsofmay.co.uk], did invite the audience to join the choir which meets on Winchcombe on a Monday evening. If I were 10 years younger, I would have been tempted to respond!

So thank you, Carol and Choristers, for providing a stimulating historical evening!

THS Social Evening

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A very convivial Social Evening, for members and their guests, took place on 23 January 2025 with a Gloucestershire themed quiz compared by Kate Eedle. The 'bring and share' buffet food and drink supplied by those who attended was outstanding - as was everyone's help in running the show and clearing up afterwards.

34th Season - Programme of Talks

The schedule of talks for our thirty-third season is set out below.

At the Methodist Church at The Cross, all are welcome - entrance fee for THS Members is £3.00 and for visitors is £5 (includes tea/coffee/biscuits after the talks).

19 Sep 2024 Richard Sermon - The Leather Bottle: Cecil Sharp (1859-1924) and his Tewkesbury folk song collection

17 Oct 2024 Simon Lawton - Making the Invisible, Visible: The Story of the Old Baptist Chapel, a 17th Century Baptist Meeting House
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

22 May 2025 AGM followed by John Dixon - John Moore's Rogues

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.

Dowty Group

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Now available is a booklet charting the hugely successful careers of the three Dowty Group Chairmen.

A.W. Martin - sometime Chairman of the world renowned wood and stone carvers H.H. Martyn, Gloucester Aircraft and Dowty. Hitherto unpublished material on his life story and his association with businesses of world renown.

Sir George Dowty - his son's thoughts on his father’s amazing career.

Sir Robert Hunt - his daughter's ideas of the reasons for her father’s remarkable life story.

Over 50 pages of riveting history and a fitting sequel to Dowty Days Remembered.

Email Martin Robins on martinrobins@btinternet.com for a copy- £5 posted.

Woodard Award 2024

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Named after the late Bob Woodard, it is awarded each year for an article published in the annual Bulletin of the Society which is deemed by independent judges to have contributed significantly, by the quality of its research and the clarity of its communication, to increasing the knowledge of the history of Tewkesbury and District. The award is a silver bowl with the names of winners inscribed upon it and a medal for the winner to keep.

The winner for 2024 is Joanne Raywood for her article Two Views of the Severn Ham. Joanne is pictured with the independent judges who choose the winner, historians, Steven Blake and David Aldred.

Results of Tree-Ring Dating for Tewkesbury Buildings

Click to view the new dates

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The results are in! During 2020 prominent Tewkesbury buildings were surveyed and tested for tree ring dates by Dr Andy Moir and his team at the Gloucestershire Dendrochronology Project. A fascinating talk was given on the 13th of March which can viewed on the Friends of Tewkesbury Abbey website. This extremely accurate process can give dates down to the season and since green wood was preferred by medieval builders, we can be fairly sure that the year they were cut down was the year (perhaps the next) when the wood was used to construct the timber frames and roofs.

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)

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!

Next Events:

10 May2025Saturday11:00am

Tewkesbury Cemetery War Graves Tour [CWGC - Sam Eedle]

12 May2025Monday7:30pm

Rural Crime and Protest [Historical Association]

War Graves Tour

Tewkesbury Cemetery, CWGC sponsored, free War Graves Tour led by Sam Eedle

Saturday 10 May 2025: book here.

GLHA 'Summer Afternoon'

6 July 2025 at Stonehouse.

Latest Articles!

List of the thirty most recent articles uploaded to this site

News from previous years

2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019

Wheelie Bins

Tewkesbury Civic Society have started a petition calling for Tewkesbury Borough Council to address the issue of wheelie bins permanently stored on pavement areas and alleys. The PDF gives details.

GLHA Summer Afternoon

This year's Gloucestershire Local History Association 'Summer Day' will be at Stonehouse. Click on the PDF for full details and booking.

John Dixon

Tewkesbury Weather

Regal Lily

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It is our great talking point but do our impressions agree with statistics?

Each month I will update the Rainfall and Temperature Statistics and offer my

Monthly Reflection on how the statistics underline or undermine our impressions.

Gloucester Spring History Festival

Remarkable Incidents Relative to Tewkesbury

In the church-warden’s book of accounts, for Tewkesbury, A.D.1578, is the entry – “Pay’d for “the player’s geers, six sheepskins for Christ’s Garments.” And in an inventory recorded in the same book, 1858, are these words, “And order eight heads “of hair for the apostles, and ten beards, and a face or visor for the devil.” – This shews that mysteries, as plays were then called, were probably acted in the churches.

Meetings Videos

Video recordings of talks given at our meetings are often made and can be viewed on our YouTube Channel

Dowtys

Spring 2025 Newsletter of the Sir George Dowty Memorial Committee.

Tewkesbury Civic Society

The Tewkesbury Civic Society have recently updated and republished their website.

Heritage Hub

Upcoming events at Gloucestershire Hub.

BALH Talks

Upcoming virtual talks sponsored by the British Association for Local History.

Tudor House Hotel

A comprehensive building assessment has been published by Johanna Roethe of 'Historic England' - click here to read on their website.

Gloucestershire Dendrochronology Project: Tewkesbury

The Winter of 1962-63

Article from THS Bulletin 3 (1994).

Lionel Walrond

Lionel Walrond, curator of Stroud Museum 1955 to 1990, took many photographs of Gloucestershire. A searchable collection is available on the GlosDocs website.