The Tewkesbury Historical Society

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110th Battery Field Artillery at Tewkesbury, "Dismounting", 1901

February 2025 Meeting

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Our next meeting is on 20 February 2025 when the Shepherd's Crook Folk Choir will give a presentation on Songs From the Workhouse.

Welcome to our local History Society website

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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.

                            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! 

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.

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.

Woodard Award 2024

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.

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:

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.

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

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.

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. 

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)

Bulletin 33

Bulletin 33 (2024)
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.

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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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:

Remarkable Incidents Relative to Tewkesbury

Pestilence commonly succeeds famine, accordingly the plague made its appearance the following year (1598), and carried off about forty persons.

Tewkesbury Civic Society

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

BALH Talks

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

Meetings Videos

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

Latest Articles!

List of the thirty most recent articles uploaded to this site

Heritage Hub

Upcoming events at Gloucestershire Hub.

Gloucestershire Dendrochronology Project: Tewkesbury

News from previous years

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.

Tudor House Hotel

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

Tewkesbury Museum Talks: Autumn 2024


The Winter of 1962-63

Article from THS Bulletin 3 (1994).

Friends of Glos. Archives Autumn 2023 Newsletter

Blue Plaques

How to make a nomination to the Blue Plaque scheme.

Dowtys

Summer Newsletter of the Sir George Dowty Memorial Committee.

William Thomas Clarke

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

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. 

'True Blue Farm'

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