The Tewkesbury Historical Society
Welcome to our local History Society website
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Mythe Row, Flooded cottages near King John’s Bridge
Codrington Talk - 27 March 2025
THS Life President, John Dixon, will be giving a talk on Tewkesbury in the Context of the Codrington Family which will explore Tewkesbury's involvement in the Slave Trade and the town's part in its abolition.
The talk has been organised by Tewkesbury Voices, a relatively new historical research group in the town which focuses on researching and publishing British black history, led by Cllr Emma Ash AKC FRSA. Their website can be viewed at tewkesburyvoices.com
John's talk will be on Thursday 27th March 2025, 7:45pm at the Methodist Church at the Cross, GL20 5PA. There will be no charge for entry but donations will be very welcome to help defray costs that are being shared by THS and the Tewkesbury Civic Society. Complimentary tea/coffee/biscuits will be provided in a similar way as at regular THS meetings.
A synopsis of the talk can be read here.
Printed copies of Derek Benson's article Anti-Slavery Activism in Tewkesbury will be available at £4. THS Bulletin 34, 2025, will also be available for purchase at the meeting at the reduced price of £7 for THS Members and £9 for non-Members.
We hope you will come along and support John's talk and also visit Tewkesbury Museum to view the Tewkesbury Abolition Medal that is on display there from March-June 2025 (on loan from Bolton Library and Museum Services).
March 2025 Meeting
Bulletin 34
February 2025 Meeting
THS Social Evening
October 2024 Meeting
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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
2025 Dowty Themed Calendar
Dowty Group
Woodard Award 2024
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Results of Tree-Ring Dating for Tewkesbury Buildings
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Bulletin 33
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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.
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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!
Remarkable Incidents Relative to Tewkesbury
The year 1770 produced the greatest flood ever remembered at Tewkesbury, occasioned by a prodigious fall of snow, which was succeeded by a heavy rain, that continued for three days and three nights, without intermission. On Saturday, the 17th of November, the water came up the Gander-lane and St. Mary’s lane, and met, in a place called the Bull-ring in Church-street. And on Sunday, the 18th, it rose so high that large boats, with twelve or fourteen people at a time, were passing and repassing from the New Inn (now the Hop-Pole) to the Mason’s Arms; and other boats were employed in supplying with necessaries, those who were confined to their upper rooms. Seven or eight boats were often seen, at one time, in the street. In St. Mary’s-lane the lower stories were entirely under water, and many of the inhabitants were taken out of their chamber windows, together with their beds and other furniture. The flood was also in the church, so that divine service could not be performed; and the graves in the church were shocking to behold, for scares a stone was to be seen, that was not removed from its proper situation. Several parts of this venerable building were materially injured, particularly the large pillar next the seats of the corporation, and the arch over the same. Two houses, near the mills, were washed down, but providentially, no lives were lost.
Gloucester Spring History Festival
Meetings Videos
Video recordings of talks given at our meetings are often made and can be viewed on our YouTube Channel
Heritage Hub
Upcoming events at Gloucestershire Hub.
Dowtys
Tudor House Hotel
A comprehensive building assessment has been published by Johanna Roethe of 'Historic England' - click here to read on their website.
The Winter of 1962-63
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.
William Thomas Clarke
'True Blue Farm'