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Tewkesbury| Market town in Gloucestershire, southwest England, between Cheltenham and Worcester; population (2001) 76,400. It is situated on the River Avon close to the point where it joins the Severn, 16 km/10 mi northeast of Gloucester. It is an agricultural centre. Its abbey church, begun in 1092, was part of a Benedictine abbey erected here on an Anglo-Saxon foundation. |
| Tewkesbury was settled in Roman times and in 1087 was a borough and market. The ‘Bloody Meadow’ on the southern side of the town was the site of the Battle of Tewkesbury in the Wars of the Roses. |
| Monuments in the abbey church include the Beauchamp Chantry (1422) and the tomb of Hugh Le Despenser, Earl of Winchester (died 1349). Prince Edward, son of Henry VI, is reputed to be buried under the tower. A grammar school was founded in Tewkesbury in the 16th century. In Tudor times the town produced mustard. Mrs Craik's novel John Halifax, Gentleman (1856) is set in Tewkesbury. |
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