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Tewkesbury is a town in Gloucestershire, England. It stands at
the meeting point of the River Severn and the River Avon, and also minor
tributaries the Swilgate and Carrant Brook.
Tewkesbury
is named after a
Saxon hermit, who may have founded a hermitage here in the 7th century. In
the Saxon tongue, it was called Theocsbury. Evidence suggests that a
considerable settlement rose up on the site previous to the Norman
Conquest of 1066 (invasion of the Kingdom of England by William the
Conqueror, Duke of Normandy). It was the site of the Battle of Tewkesbury
on 4 May 1471. At the Bloody Meadow, south of the town, Edward IV's
Yorkist forces defeated the House of Lancaster in an historic and bloody
battle of the Wars of the Roses. Tewkesbury was incorporated during the
reign of Elizabeth I.
Tewkesbury expanded
following World War II, and today has a small and significant high
technology industry. It has also been a centre for flour milling for many
centuries, and was once thought to be the place of the largest and most
modern flour mill in the world. The area also hosts a large Armed forces
vehicle supply/maintenance depot at nearby Ashchurch. The town has had
recent cycles of prosperity and decline with a few local shops and
businesses opening and closing, which included the town's Roses
Theatre which re-opened in 1996.
The town features many notable Tudor (1485 - 1603) buildings, with its
major claim to fame being Tewkesbury
Abbey.
In July 2007 the area came to national and international prominence, when
it suffered from some of the worst
flooding in recorded British history. The Severn and Avon were
overwhelmed by the 5 inches of rain that fell in the surrounding areas on one day, Friday 20th July. All 4 access roads to the town, the Gloucester
road (old A38) from the South, the A38 to the North West, the B4080 North
East to Bredon and the A438 east were flooded and impassable. The only
major remaining access was via what was once a railway line, the
embankment allowing for access via foot or cycle. Despite the lack of access several businesses remained open,
notably the Old Plough Pub on Barton Street, where the clientele
lined much of the street.
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The Abbey of the Blessed Virgin Mary is the second largest
parish church in the country and a former benedictine monastery. The
church itself is one of the finest Norman buildings in England. In 1087,
William the Conqueror gave the manor of Tewkesbury to his cousin, Robert
Fitzhamon, who, with Giraldus, Abbot of Cranbourne, founded the abbey in
1092. Building of the present Abbey church did not start until 1102, using
Caen stone imported from Normandy and floated up the Severn. Fitzhamon
died in 1102, but his son-in-law, Robert FitzRoy, the natural son of Henry
I who was made Earl of Gloucester, continued to fund the building work.
The Abbey's greatest single later patron was Lady Eleanor le Despenser,
last of the De Clare heirs of FitzRoy. The people of Tewkesbury saved the
abbey from destruction, during the Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1539.
Some restoration was undertaken in the 19th century under Sir Gilbert
Scott, a British architect. Flood waters reached inside the Abbey in
severe floods in 1760, and again on 23 July 2007.
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