Tewkesbury
Tewkesbury names 2 different subjects across the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf. Each is set out below.
Tewkesbury an old market town of Gloucestershire
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
an old market town of Gloucestershire, England; on the Avon at its confluence with the a the Severn; 9 miles N. N. W. of Cheltenham, and 15 S. by E. of Worcester r. On the . site of the cell of the hermit Theoc, from whom the place got its name, was founded in 715 a monastery, refounded in 1102 by Robert Fitzhamon as a great Benedictine abbey. Its noble church, consecrated in November, 1123, measures 317 feet by 124 feet across the transepts, and remains essentially Norman, in spite of later additions-Early English, Decorated, and Perpendicular. It was restored by Scott in 1875-1879. Special features are the W. front and the massive central tower, 132 feet high. Many of the Clares, Despencers, Beauchamps, and other lords of Tewkesbury are buried here, as also the murdered Prince Edward and (possibly) Clarence; and in 1890 a tablet was erected to Mrs. Craik, the scene of whose "John Halifax" is laid in Tewkesbury. The place has also a town hall (1788), a corn exchange (1856), Telford's iron bridge over the Severn (1824) with span of 176 feet, a free grammar school, etc. Manufacture of mustard was previously the chief industry. It has now been replaced by the shoe trade. Within half a mile was fought (May 4, 1471), the battles of Tewkesbury, in which the Yorkists under Edward IV. gained a crowning victory over the Lancastrians. keeled and striated; first dorsal of numerous feeble spines, and continuous with the second. It is a rare fish, more frequently met with in the Mediterranean than in the Atlantic. Nothing is known of its habits, but as, when young, it accompanies the Meduse, it must be regarded as a pelagic form. At a later period of its existence it probably descends to greater depths, coming to the surface only at night. It attains a length of about 18 inches.
Tewkesbury an old market town of Gloucestershire
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
an old market town of Gloucestershire, England; on the Avon at its confluence with the Severn; 9 miles N. N. W. of Cheltenham, and 15 S. by E. of Worcester. On the site of the cell of the hermit Theoc, from whom the place got its name, was founded in 715 a monastery, refounded in 1102 by Robert Fitzhamon as a great Benedictine abbey. Its noble church, consecrated in November, 1123, measures 317 feet by 124 feet across the transepts, and remains essentially Norman, in spite of later additions-Early English, Decorated, and Perpendicular. It was restored by Scott in 1875-1879. Special features are the W. front and the massive central tower, 132 feet high. Many of the Clares, Despencers, Beauchamps, and other lords of Tewkesbury are buried here, as also the murdered Prince Edward and (possibly) Clarence; and in 1890 a tablet was erected to Mrs. Craik, the scene of whose "John Halifax" is laid in Tewkesbury. The place has also a town hall (1788), a corn exchange (1856), Telford's iron bridge over the Severn (1824) with span of 176 feet, a free grammar school, etc. Manufacture of mustard was previously the chief industry. It has now been replaced by the shoe trade. Within half a mile was fought (May 4, 1471), the battles of Tewkesbury, in which the Yorkists under Edward IV. gained a crowning victory over the Lancastrians.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
The abbey Collier's described in 1921 still stands essentially as written — Norman core, 132-foot tower, the Despencer and Beauchamp tombs, Scott's 1870s restoration — and it serves today as the parish church, one of the largest in England without cathedral status. What has gone is the working town Collier's sketched: the mustard trade it called displaced, and the shoe trade that replaced it, have both vanished, and Tewkesbury is now a commuter town of roughly 20,000 near the M5, several times its size in 1921. Its most famous modern moment came in July 2007, when the Severn and Avon floods that Collier's confluence made inevitable left the abbey standing in an island of water, an image carried worldwide. The 1471 battlefield "within half a mile" is now partly built over, and the battle is re-enacted each July at the town's medieval festival.
Written for this edition, 2026.