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. 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

21 November 2024 Meeting

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Andrew Mellor at our November Meeting when he gave an excellent and well-received talk on Cider Making in Gloucestershire: from Fox Whelps to Firkins! 

Hazel Crisp


The Society is sad to report that our long-standing Member, Hazel Crisp, has passed away.

Woodard Award 2024

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.

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

Plaque Unveiling
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On the 28th March 2024, a plaque was formally unveiled opposite Tesco exit on the wall of the Sue Ryder shop. The plaque was a joint venture by THS and The Tewkesbury Civic Society and commemorates the history of the Upper High Street shopping centre. Click on the 'Read More' link to view the plaque and read further details. 

Photograph left to right: John Dixon (THS), Angela Devereux (John Moore Society), Maureen Turland (Civic Society), Alan Purkiss (Civic Society). 

October 2024 Meeting

Simon Lawton
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At our meeting on 17th October, Simon Lawton gave a revealing talk on the history and fabric of the Old Baptist Chapel along with a very informative summary of the history of the Baptists and other non-conformist religious denominations. 

A video of the talk is now available to view on our YouTube Channel:

September 2024 Meeting

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The first meeting of our 34th Season took place on Thursday 19th September 2024. Richard Sermon gave a well attended and knowledgeable talk on The Leather Bottle: Cecil Sharp (1859-1924) and his Tewkesbury Folksong collection. 
John Dixon

Prior's Park Plaque

Tourist Plaque
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We have added to our Plaques Section the tourist sign that is now in place at Prior's Park, which commemorates Queen Margaret's Camp at the Battle of Tewkesbury, 

April 2024 Meeting

Michael Trott
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At our meeting on 18th April, Michael Trott, the author of several books, including, The Elgar Society, 1951-2001 and Hubert Parry: A Life in Photographs, gave a very knowledgeable and well-received  talk on his latest book, Ann Greening, the Mother of Edward Elgar. A video of the talk can be viewed on our YouTube Channel
You can read a review by John Dixon of Michael's book by clicking on 'Read More'.

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.
The event was very successful and was attended by 92 people. Thanks to the two speakers, Maureen Anderson and Steve Blake, and to the 17 groups (including THS) who brought displays - which were much admired by all. Also thanks to all the volunteer helpers who helped to make the Day go smoothly.
The Society was represented on the day by our Chairman, Sam Eedle.

80th Anniversary of D-Day

The members of Tewkesbury Branch of The Royal British Legion wish to extend an invitation to members of the Tewkesbury Historical Society to attend a service of Commemoration and Thanksgiving for the above anniversary.
This will be held at Tewkesbury Methodist Church on Sunday 9th June commencing at 3pm, with any attendees requested to be seated in the church by 2.45pm.
The service will be followed by a short Act of Remembrance at The Cross War Memorial to remember those who gave the ultimate sacrifice during Operation Overlord.
To assist with seating at the church, could any attendees please email me as soon as possible.

Rod Gurney, Honorary Vice-Chairman, Tewkesbury Branch, The Royal British Legion.

Queen Margaret's Camp

Formal unveiling of the new tourist sign in Manor Place 17th May - click on PDF for full details.

Lionel Perry

Long time member of the Society, Lionel Perry, passed away peacefully after a long illness at Cheltenham General Hospital on Saturday 16th December 2023, aged 86 years.
Dearly loved Husband to Erna, Step-father to Mark and Paulette, Grandfather to Emma and Tom, Brother to Glenys and Uncle to Nicola.
A private cremation will take place followed by a service of thanksgiving at Tewkesbury Abbey on Thursday 11th January 2024 at 2.30pm.
Family flowers only, donations if desired for the Salvation Army and Air Ambulance may be sent c/o B Sweet & Sons Funeral Directors 12a Oldbury Road, Tewkesbury GL20 5LZ. Telephone 01684 293180.

May Meeting - THS Annual General Meeting

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Our AGM was held on Thursday, 23rd May. Business was followed by a talk from Georgia Smith, Tewkesbury Borough Council's High Street Heritage Action Zone Programme Manager who gave a very informative update on the progress of the project. [This was a change to the previously advertised talk by John Dixon.]

March 2024 Meeting

David Elder
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At our meeting on 21st March David Elder gave an absorbing talk on some of the people and places that feature in his book Secret Tewkesbury

Bulletin 33

Bulletin 33 (2024)
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Our latest annual Bulletin magazine is now available to purchase - use this Link for methods of purchase.
Click on Read More to see the Forewords which give details about the articles.

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

Kat Keldeen
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Kat Keldeen of the John Moore Museum gave an excellent and very well received talk on Tasting the Tudors: Food and Drink in the Tudor Period. [This talk was in place of the scheduled talk on the Baptist Chapel, which was cancelled due to unavoidable circumstances]. 
John Dixon

Joan Smith

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We have learned, sadly, of the death of Mrs. Joan Smith, late of the Maltings, who volunteered to use her secretarial experience to type up information for the Woodard Database. If you search for “Joan Smith” in the database, you will find her work, especially on the Tewkesbury Register. She fell ill with pneumonia in early December and died in Tewkesbury Hospital on 22 January 2024 – her daughter is very impressed with the care she received there and asks that any donation in her honour be made in favour of our Hospital. Her funeral is on Friday, 9 February 2024 at the Willow Chapel, Crematorium, followed, at 14.00, by the Bell Hotel.
I met Joan after her son, David, volunteered to use his computer skills to produce the exhaustive Burial Records, which we maintain on the website and were on the DVD rom which accompanied our History of the Tewkesbury Cemetery.
THS thus passes on our condolences to the family of this reliable volunteer over so many years.

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

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.

THS Social Evening

The Spread!
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A very successful Social Evening, for members and their guests, took place on 25 January 2024 with a quiz and surprise Burn's Night recitation. The 'bring and share' buffet food and drink supplied by those who attended was outstanding - we even had a haggis quiche!

Results of Tree-Ring Dating for Tewkesbury Buildings

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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. 

Tewkesbury Workhouse

Tewkesbury Workhouse
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In our History pages on this website, we have two articles written by the late Janet Devereux on the subject of the Poor Law and Tewkesbury Workhouse in particular. You can read them via these links: On the parish: Outdoor Relief in the Tewkesbury Union, 1836-1843 (Bulletin 7, 1998); "The Most Harsh and Unkind Friend" Glimpses into Tewkesbury House of Industry c.1832 to 1850 (Bulletin 9, 2000 - winner of the Woodard Award 2001).
John Dixon

Aspects of Hidden Tewkesbury

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Talk by John Dixon at the Baptist Church, Station Road, Tuesday 20th February 7:00pm.

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.
Click to view Click to view

November 2023 Meeting

Caroline & Andrew Mellor
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At our meeting on 16 November, Andrew Mellor gave a very well received and engaging talk on The Dymock Poets, with recitations from their work by Caroline Mellor.

Sir George Dowty

A Statue has been commissioned to honour engineer Sir Georg Dowty who founded the Cheltenham-based Dowty Aviation company.

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)

Latest Articles!

List of the thirty most recent articles uploaded to this site

Remarkable Incidents Relative to Tewkesbury

The winter of 1784 was very severe. It began snowing on Christmas day, 1783, and continued snowing and freezing, with little intermission, ‘till the beginning of April. Notwithstanding which, there were great crops of hay and corn the next harvest, and the greatest fruit season known for many years; yet provisions of all kinds, except vegetables, bore very great prices.


News from previous years


Heritage Hub

Upcoming events at Gloucestershire Hub.

Victoria County History

July 2024 Newsletter.

Tewkesbury Museum Talks: Autumn 2024

Meetings held at the Baptist Church, Station Road, entry £3.

BALH Talks

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

Friends of Glos. Archives Autumn 2023 Newsletter


Meetings Videos

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

Dowtys

Summer Newsletter of the Sir George Dowty Memorial Committee.

Tudor House Hotel

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

Sir George Dowty

BBC Points West had a feature on the statue of Sir George Dowty that was erected in 2024. The recording can be viewed on YouTube  Also visit their website at dowtyheritage.org 

Gloucestershire Dendrochronology Project: Tewkesbury


Blue Plaques

How to make a nomination to the Blue Plaque scheme.

John Dixon

Tewkesbury Weather

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.

Monumental Brass Society’s Jonathan Ali Essay Prize

An annual prize of £350 has been instituted by the Monumental Brass Society in memory of Jonathan Ali (1969-2019), a distinguished journalist and member  of the Society. 

William Thomas Clarke

WWI death of soldier born in Tewkesbury but whose family left the town permanently. 

The Winter of 1962-63

Article from THS Bulletin 3 (1994).

'True Blue Farm'

Article on 'True Blue Farm' in Kinsham Worcs. by Joyce Tole-Moir.

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

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