The Tewkesbury Historical Society
Welcome to our local History Society website
Cross HouseClick Image
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Annual General Meeting
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All welcome, entry is free.
Commonwealth War Graves Commission Tour
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Tewkesbury Cemetery contains a number of Commonwealth War Graves from WWI, WWII and later.
John Dixon has been asked to lead a tour to let you know more about these graves.
It starts at 11.00 on Saturday 28 May 2022 meeting at the Cholera Memorial [picture attached] near the entrance and will last about 90 minutes maximum.
All tours are free and booked through Eventbrite and you can book online via the website: www.cwgc.org/tours .
Bookings for tours close two days before the event, on 26 May 2022.
You can park at the Borough Council near the Swimming Pool.
April Meeting
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An attempt was made to video the talk but it failed. We do have a video reconstruction of the introduction to the meeting.
March 2022 Meeting
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An attempt was made to video the talk but it failed. We do have a video reconstruction of the introduction to the meeting.
Our Late, Notable Ukrainian Resident, Powlo Kostiuk
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We were very pleased when Alan Snarey, aided by his wife Wendy, interviewed Powlo in 2012, and we published an article based on the interview in THS Bulletin 22 (2013). [click here to read]
In February 2022 it is a suitable time to write about a Ukrainian, who lived and worked in our midst for 40 years. I cannot find the actual date, but Powlo died after this interview – he was then aged 86 and had endured a hard – but happy - life as you can read. He was honoured by having a tank named after him and has work at Ashchurch Camp.
February Meeting
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A video of the talk is now available on our YouTube Channel as is an introduction to the talk and meeting by THS President, John Dixon.
History of the Cenotaph
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John Dixon
Echoes of April 2021
Nicola Nash, our speaker from zoom days and “War Detective” from the MOD, was featured on local BBC TV news today with the reburial of soldiers killed, but missing in action, after the Battle of Passchendaele, 1917.
Keep up the invaluable work!
John Dixon
John Dixon's historical context review of the BBC 1 Sunday Night Drama, Ridley Road [Oct 2021].
Ridley Road
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Read John Moore's 1962 article 'The Day the Nazis came to Gloucestershire'.
John Dixon & Malachy Cornwell-Kelly
Non-Designated Heritage Assets in Tewkesbury
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We have been approached by Nana Pierre, Heritage Engagement Officer, Tewkesbury Borough Council to help her draw up a list of Non-Designated Heritage Assets.
Non-designated heritage assets are locally-identified ‘buildings, monuments, sites, places, areas or landscapes identified by plan-making bodies as having a degree of heritage significance meriting consideration in planning decisions, but which do not meet the criteria for designated heritage assets’ (PPG). It is important to note that some non-designated heritage assets are equivalent to designated heritage assets in terms of significance.
They do not have the status of listed buildings but might contribute to planning debate about a possible development.
There might be some such asset you feel ought to be added to the list Nana is constructing.
For example: Mythe Tunnel and Remnants of the 1864 Railway Station are not included.
You can see A: here the list of listed buildings in our town compiled by Historic England and Tewkesbury Town Council to check if the asset which interests you has already been ‘listed’.
If you wish to submit an asset via THS then please check the B: Published Criteria
And if you think you can make the case, you have to C: Fulfil the Criteria which is quite demanding of your time and knowledge.
If you wish to go ahead, please submit a draft of your proposal [C] to mozartkelly@btinternet.comfor us to consider.
D-Day
6 June is the anniversary of D-Day and the official opening of the new memorial in Normandy.
A video of the official opening is available at the Normandy Memorial Trust.
You can read John Dixon's article on Tewkesbury's own D-Day hero, Edwin J. Davis.
Annual General Meeting
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Woodard Award 2021
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John Dixon
In response to the passing of the Duke of Edinburgh, John Dixon has compiled the attached on Prince Philip's links with Tewkesbury.
The Duke of Edinburgh's Links With Tewkesbury
Also, here is a link to an article on his visit to Tewkesbury Museum in 2006.
Alderton Saxons
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Results of recent Tree-Ring Dating for Tewkesbury Buildings
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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!
UK Census
Stone Stiles Project
Tewkesbury Medical Volunteers at Mitton in WWI
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The new book by John Dixon & Linda Kean-Price, Tewkesbury's War Hospitals is available for sale see How to Buy.
Click here for BALH review of the book.
This is a recording of a Zoom Presentation made recently to
Tewkesbury Civic Society. [Sadly co-author Linda does not do "zoom"] It
gives an idea what might be found in this book. An ideal Historical Present!
Vaccinations
With the vaccinations against Covid in progress, it is interesting to look back towards a big controversy at the end of the 19th Century, when a number of people were taken to court for refusing to accept vaccination against small-pox for their children. Will history repeat itself?Martin Holt researched and wrote this article, "Irresponsible and Self Seeking Faddists" for THS Bulletin 13 [2004] whilst he was a trainee history PGCE student at Tewkesbury School. As a result, he was given an award by the British Association of Local History.
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)An Upsetting Discovery in our Cemetery
Tewkesbury CemeteryClick Image
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Bletchley Girls
Lou Beckett, a Gloucestershire playwright, has written a radio play, Bletchley Girls, based on a true story about two women codebreakers at Bletchley Park. It recently featured as part of the virtual Gloucester History Festival.
The play is made up of three 30-minute episodes and can be accessed free via Lou’s website https://www.loubeckett.com (click on the Performances tab) or on Spotify (search Radio Plays Bletchley Girls) and other podcasts.
The website also has a fascinating 45-minute interview with Tony Comer, GCHQ historian, who advised on the play, and an on-line programme that summarises the historical accuracy of the play.
Bletchley Park Museum has created codebreaking workshops for children aged 11-14 to accompany the play.
'The Making of Miss Brown'
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Message from David Elder, author of joint THS Publication, Literary Tewkesbury
One of the projects I've been doing during these strange times is to write and produce a film version of a play about the life of Elizabeth Brown (1830-99) who was an accomplished amateur astronomer who lived in Cirencester.
The 30-minute film is called ‘The Making of Miss Brown’. It is viewable online for £3 from the Stroud Theatre Festival 2020 web site. To access it:1. Please set up a simple account at http://stfonline.co.uk.
2. Then go to Watch Now! (https://stfonline.co.uk/watch-now/). Please note it will be available for a 24 hour period after registration.
Further information about the play
Cirencester 1883: Like so many dutiful Victorian women,
52-year old Miss Brown lives a mundane life, caring for her sick father. There are bills to be paid, sheets to be washed and, fulfilling one of her
father’s duties, daily meteorological readings to be taken. As a devout
Quaker she follows ‘the light within’, but, with her passion for astronomy,
longs to see the invisible and explore the hidden depths of the universe. While some wing-clipped geese on her neighbour’s farm seem like an accurate
metaphor of her life so far, the dark clouds that constantly hug the Cotswold
horizon look like a vision perfectly predicting her remaining days. Suddenly, Elizabeth’s life changes, and she needs to decide whether to seek a
life of comfortable mediocrity or chase her dream.
VE & VJ Days 75: a Virtual Commemoration
Even though the government moved the May Day Bank Holiday away from the usual Monday so we could commemorate VE75 on 8 May, all public commemorations are now impossible.
THS,
however, wishes to remember all those from Tewkesbury who lost their lives in
this war but, the ‘silver lining’ may be that we can split the Victory
Commemorations in two parts and give more prominence to VJ Day on 15
August 2020 when the public might themselves have been “liberated”. Thus, VJ Day has always been of
secondary importance to the public: this is partly why those who continued
after May to fight the Japanese dubbed it the “Forgotten War”.
In this website's World-War-II Section we shall present
- Biographies of all those who lost their lives fighting the Germans from the Tewkesbury area [including neighbouring villages]
- The context of this war.
(First World War biographies and extensive other material can be found in the World War I Section.)
Ray Base
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Janet Benson (nee Martin)
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We regret to announce that our secretary, Janet Benson, passed away on December 28th. This news is something of a shock to us all, even though Janet had been bravely fighting a long illness. She had been our secretary for many years and will be sadly missed by all her friends here in the Society.
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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Bryan Jerrard Award 2019
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Each year the county Local History Association [GLHA] makes an award for what the judges believe to be the best published article on an aspect of Gloucestershire’s local history. It is named after Bryan Jerrard, the first chairman of the GLHA. In 2005 it was won by Sam Eedle and since then we have been nominated 19 times. The most successful THS nominee has been Derek Benson whose first article appeared in 2005 and, in all, he has been nominated eight times. Derek is runner up in 2019 for his article in THS Bulletin 27 [2018] entitled ‘The 1714 Coronation Riot in Tewkesbury’.
Derek’s article was inspired by a visit to the ‘Secret Garden’ of the Tudor House Hotel where there is a plaque: “This old oak door carries the battle-axe scars inflicted upon it by Jacobite rioters during the Coronation of King George I”.
THS Bulletin 27 is available from Alison’s Bookshop in the High Street.
THS Bulletin 27 is available from Alison’s Bookshop in the High Street.
[Photograph: At the GLHA Local History Day on 11 May when the awards were presented. Bryan Jerrard, Derek Benson, Louise Ryland-Epton, the Jerrard Award winner for her article Cirencester Workhouse under the Old Poor Law published in 'Transactions of the Bristol & Gloucestershire Archaeological Society' 135 (2017)]
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.
19 May2022Thursday7:45pm
THS - Annual General Meeting
28 May2022Saturday10:00am
Richard III Society Study DayGLHA Summer Afternoon
Will be held in Cheltenham 25 June. Details and booking form here.
Meetings Videos
At the February meeting, a talk on 'Restoration of Abbey Cottages' was given. A video of the talk is now available on our YouTube Channel as is an introduction to the talk and videos of earlier talks.
Bulletin 31
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Click here for a preview.
Details of How To Buy or go straight to our 'Shop' .
BALH Jan/Feb 2022 Newsletter
Click this link to read.
Remarkable Incidents Relative to Tewkesbury
In 1602, the monks’ stalls, which were formerly situated in the body of the church, were removed into the chancel; as appears by an old book belonging to the church-warden.
Victoria County History Newsletter January 2022
Photography Competition
The British Association for Local History (BALH) are running a competition for Local History Photographer of the Year - details here.
Healings Mill
The Victorian Society has announced the top ten buildings worthy of saving. Healings Mill is on the list - full details here.
1921 Census
The 1921 census will be published on FindMyPast on 6 January 2022.
Next Season's Talks
Our programme of talks for 2021-2022 has been established and is on our Meetings Page.
The Winter of 1962-63
A Trip on the Mill Avon in the 1960s
Home movie courtesy of Kevin Nickson [poor quality video].
'True Blue Farm'
Account of 1931 Pageant
Tewkesbury Historical Pageant of 1931.
Black Sal
William Thomas Clarke