Cheltenham

Cheltenham in 1933

Cheltenham stands on the small River Chelt, which rises nearby at Dowdeswell and runs through the town on its way to the Severn.[4] It was first recorded in 803, as Celtan hom; the meaning has not been resolved with certainty, but latest scholarship concludes that the first element preserves a pre-British noun cilta, 'steep hill', here referring to the Cotswold scarp; the second element may mean 'settlement' or 'water-meadow'.[5] As a royal manor, it features in the earliest pages of the Gloucestershire section of Domesday Book[6] where it is named Chintenha[m]. The town was awarded a market charter in 1226.

Though little remains of its pre-spa history, Cheltenham has been a health and holiday spa town resort since the discovery of mineral springs there in 1716. Captain Henry Skillicorne (1678–1763), is credited with being the first entrepreneur to recognise the opportunity to exploit the mineral springs.[7] The retired "master mariner" became co-owner of the property containing Cheltenham's first mineral spring upon his 1732[8] marriage to Elizabeth Mason.[9] Her father, William Mason, had done little in his lifetime to promote the healing properties of the mineral water apart from limited advertising and building a small enclosure over the spring.[7] Skillicorne's wide travels as a merchant had prepared him to see the potential lying dormant on this inherited property. After moving to Cheltenham in 1738, he immediately began improvements intended to attract visitors to his spa. He built a pump to regulate the flow of water and erected an elaborate well-house complete with a ballroom and upstairs billiard room to entertain his customers. The beginnings of Cheltenham's tree-lined promenades and the gardens surrounding its spas were first designed by Captain Skillicorne with the help of "wealthy and traveled" friends who understood the value of relaxing avenues. The area's walks and gardens had views of the countryside, and soon the gentry and nobility from across the county were enticed to come and investigate the beneficial waters of Cheltenham's market town spa.[9]

King George III in the 1780s

The visit of George III with the queen and royal princesses in 1788 set a stamp of fashion on the spa.[10] The spa waters can still be sampled at the Pittville Pump Room, built for this purpose and completed in 1830;[11] it is a centrepiece of Pittville, a planned extension of Cheltenham to the north, undertaken by Joseph Pitt, who laid the first stone 4 May 1825.[12]

Cheltenham's success as a spa town is reflected in the railway station, which is still called Cheltenham Spa, and spa facilities in other towns that were inspired by or named after it.[13]

Alice Liddell and Lewis Carroll were regular visitors to a house in Cudnall Street, Charlton Kings – a suburb of Cheltenham. This house was owned by Alice Liddell's grandparents, and still contains the mirror, or looking glass, that was purportedly the inspiration for Lewis Carroll's novel Through the Looking-Glass, published in 1871.[14]

Horse racing began in Cheltenham in 1815, and became a major national attraction after the establishment of the Festival in 1902.[15] Whilst the volume of tourists visiting the spa has declined, the racecourse attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors to each day of the festival each year,[16] with such large numbers of visitors having a significant impact on the town.

In the Second World War, the United States Army Services of Supply, European Theatre of Operations established its primary headquarters at Cheltenham under the direction of Lt. Gen. John C. H. Lee, with the flats of the Cheltenham Racecourse[17] becoming a giant storage depot for countless trucks, jeeps, tanks and artillery pieces. Most of this materiel was reshipped to the continent for and after the D-Day invasion. Lee and his primary staff had offices and took residence at Thirlestaine Hall in Cheltenham.[18]

On 1 April 1974, under the Local Government Act 1972, the borough of Cheltenham was merged with Charlton Kings urban district to form the non-metropolitan district of Cheltenham. Four parishes—Swindon Village, Up Hatherley, Leckhampton and Prestbury—were added to the borough of Cheltenham from the borough of Tewkesbury in 1991.[19]

The first British jet aircraft prototype, the Gloster E.28/39, was manufactured in Cheltenham. Manufacturing started in Hucclecote near Gloucester, but was later moved to Regent Motors in Cheltenham High Street (now the Regent Arcade), considered a location safer from bombing during the Second World War.

Cheltenham is on the edge of the Cotswolds, an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty in the South-West region of England. The small River Chelt flows under and through the town.

Cleeve Hill, overlooks the town and is the highest point in the county of Gloucestershire and the Cotswold Hills range, at 1,083 feet (330 m).

The town is near the northeastern edge of the South West of England region being 88 miles (140 km) west-northwest of London, 38 miles (61 km) northeast of Bristol and 41 miles (65 km) south of Birmingham.[20]

Neighbourhoods

The districts of Cheltenham include: Arle, Benhall, Charlton Kings, Fairview, Fiddler's Green, Hesters Way, Lansdown, Leckhampton, Lynworth, Montpellier, Oakley, Pittville, Prestbury, the Reddings, Rowanfield, St Luke's, St Mark's, St Paul's, St Peter's, Springbank, Swindon Village, Tivoli, Up Hatherley, Whaddon and Wyman's Brook.

Montpellier

Located at the end of the Promenade South of the town centre, affluent Montpellier is known for its bars, restaurants and specialist shops. Surrounded by many grade one listed buildings, Montpellier Gardens are part of the Cheltenham Central Conservation Area.[21]

View of Pittville showing the park and the Pump Room

Pittville

Similarly affluent, but more a garden suburb in nature, is Pittville, known for its large park (the southern part of which is lined with large Regency terraces and villas) and the Pump Room, the largest of Cheltenham's former spa buildings, now a concert and events venue.

Lansdown Crescent

Lansdown Crescent is a Regency period terrace, designed by John Buonarotti Papworth for R.W. and C. Jearrad and constructed in the 1830s. The terrace is convex, and opposite the north-eastern part stands Lansdown Court, an Italianate villa possibly designed by Papworth but more probably by the Jearrads and built about 1830.

Charlton Park

Charlton Park is a former 72-acre (29 ha) historic park with mansion house,[22] about a mile south-east of the town centre. From 1935 the parkland gradually became a private residential area, the main housing development taking place between 1976 and 1983. The original mansion house dated from the 13th century; alterations throughout the centuries transformed it from a medieval, timber-framed hall-house into an 18th-century brick-faced mansion in the classical style. In the 1780s the estate was emparked for deer and had magnificent Dutch-style water gardens. After 1935 the old house became part of Charlton Park Convent, and since 1987 has been part of St Edward's School.

Cheltenham Borough Council is the local authority for Cheltenham; it is split into 20 wards, with a total of 40 councillors elected to serve on the borough council. Since 2002, elections have been held every two years with half of the councillors elected at each election.

GCHQ

Government Communications Headquarters (2017)

The head office of the British Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), known to locals as The Doughnut, is located in Cheltenham.

As with the vast majority of the British Isles, Cheltenham experiences a temperate oceanic climate (Cfb in the Köppen climate classification). It has warm summers and cool winters. The town held the British maximum temperature record from 1990 to 2003—temperatures reached 37.1 °C (98.8 °F).[23] The absolute minimum is −20.1 °C (−4.2 °F), set during December 1981. During a typical year, 145.6 days will report at least 1 mm of rain, and some 42.2 nights will record air frost.

Cavendish House department store on the Promenade (October 2008)

As a Regency spa town, tourism is an important sector in Cheltenham's economy, but it also has some light industry, including food processing, aerospace and electronics businesses. The Government's electronic surveillance operation Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), known for its "doughnut-shaped" building, is in Cheltenham. Vertex Data Science, GE-Aviation, Chelsea Building Society, Endsleigh Insurance, Archant, Nelson Thornes, UCAS (Universities & Colleges Admissions Service), Kohler Mira, Zürich Financial Services, Douglas Equipment, Volo and Spirax-Sarco Engineering all have sites in and around Cheltenham.

A number of design agencies and businesses are located in the town. Weird Fish was founded in Cheltenham. SuperGroup plc, owner of the Superdry label, has its headquarters in Cheltenham.

Cheltenham is a regional shopping centre, home to department stores, the oldest being Cavendish House, from 1823,[25] and the Regent Arcade.

The Beechwood Shopping Centre in the town centre was demolished in 2017 to make way for a £30million, 115,000 square foot John Lewis store.[26]

Cheltenham has a Michelin one-star restaurant, Le Champignon Sauvage.

Architecture

Cheltenham's Municipal Offices, an example of Regency architecture.

The town is known for its Regency architecture and is said to be "the most complete regency town in England".[31] Many of the buildings are listed, including the Cheltenham Synagogue, judged by Nikolaus Pevsner to be one of the architecturally best non-Anglican ecclesiastical buildings in Britain.[32]

Cheltenham Town Hall, erected in 1902 to commemorate the coronation of King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra

Cheltenham Town Hall was built in 1902 to commemorate the coronation of King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra.

Art

The Cheltenham Art Gallery & Museum, also called The Wilson, hosts a programme of art exhibitions running throughout the year. The Wilson was named after polar explorer Dr Edward Wilson, who was born in Cheltenham.

In 2014, many of the town's historic cultural and leisure buildings were put under the control of The Cheltenham Trust,[33] a charity set up to manage and develop the buildings on behalf of the town. Along with The Wilson, the Trust now manages the Town Hall, the Pittville Pump Room, the Prince of Wales Stadium and Leisure @, a large fitness and swimming complex. A volunteer board of Trustees controls the Trust.[34] The Trust's CEO is Julie Finch, former director of museums in Bristol.[35]

In 2014, a piece of graffiti by street artist Banksy appeared next to a telephone box in a residential street in Cheltenham. The graffiti depicted three men in trench coats and dark glasses apparently listening in to calls made in the telephone box.[36]

Cheltenham features several sculptural artworks of note, including:

Neptune's Fountain

The mechanical clock in the Regent Shopping Arcade, designed by Kit Williams. The distance from the duck to the fish is 14 metres.

• Neptune's Fountain in the Promenade, built in 1893 and designed by Joseph Hall[37]
• The Hare and the Minotaur, also in the Promenade, created in 1995 by Sophie Ryder[38]
• A life-size bronze of an Emperor Penguin by Nick Bibby and placed in the foyer of The Wilson art gallery and museum in 2015[39]
• The Wishing Fish Clock in the Regent Shopping Arcade, unveiled in 1987 and designed by Kit Williams

Music

Cheltenham hosts the annual Cheltenham Music Festival, Cheltenham Jazz Festival and the Ukulele Festival of Great Britain.

In 2010, Cheltenham was named the UK's fifth "most musical" City by PRS for Music.[40]

History

The collection's of the Cheltenham Art Gallery & Museum include decorative arts from the era of the Arts and Crafts Movement. The collection enjoys National Designation by the Arts Council of England.[41] The Holst Birthplace Museum contains personal belongings of the composer of The Planets, including his piano. It also includes a working Victorian kitchen and laundry, Regency drawing room and an Edwardian nursery.

The Cheltenham Civic Society has been responsible for erecting commemorative plaques in the town since 1982: blue plaques to celebrate well-known people and green plaques to celebrate significant places and events.

Festivals

Every year, Cheltenham Festivals organises music, jazz, literature and science festivals in the town, attracting names with national and international reputations in each field. Events take place at venues including the town hall, the Everyman Theatre, the Playhouse Theatre and the Pittville Pump Room.

Several other cultural festivals, including the Cheltenham Paranormal Festival, the Cheltenham Design Festival, Cheltenham Folk Festival, Cheltenham Poetry Festival, The True Believers Comic Festival and Cheltenham Comedy Festival are separately organised but also attract international performers and speakers. A more local event, the Cheltenham Festival of the Performing Arts (formerly Cheltenham Competitive Festival) is a collection of more than 300 performance competitions that is the oldest of Cheltenham's arts festivals, having been started in 1926.

Greenbelt, a Christian arts and music festival, and Wychwood Festival, a family-friendly folk and world music festival, were held at Cheltenham Racecourse.[42] The town also hosts the multi-venue Walk the line festival.

Two sporting events are also routinely described as the "Cheltenham Festival" or "the Festival": the Cheltenham Cricket Festival, which features Gloucestershire County Cricket Club, and National Hunt racing's Cheltenham Festival.

Film and television

Cheltenham has played host to and featured in a number of film and TV series:[43][44]

• Butterflies location work was predominantly filmed in Cheltenham.[43][44]
• If.... (1968) was filmed at Cheltenham College (and other locations).[43][44]
• The Whistle Blower, a spy thriller, was largely filmed in Cheltenham, as GCHQ is central to the plot.[43][44]
• The Full Monteverdi, a 2007 British film written and directed by John La Bouchardière, was partly filmed in Cheltenham.[43][44]
• The House of Eliott, a British television series produced and broadcast by the BBC between 1991 and 1994, was partly filmed in Cheltenham.[43][44]
• Vanity Fair, a BBC serialised adaptation of William Makepeace Thackery's novel of the same name, was partly filmed in Cheltenham.[43][44]

The Thistle Golden Valley Hotel (now the Jurys Inn) was used by the ITV soap opera Crossroads for outdoor location filming from 1982 to 1985.[45]

The Everyman Theatre

Theatre

Cheltenham has four theatres: the Everyman, the Playhouse, the Bacon and the Parabola Arts Centre.

Population

According to 2010 estimates from the Office for National Statistics, Cheltenham's population is 115,300, ranked 186th out of 326 English districts based on population, with a population density of 6,410 people per square mile (2,473/km²), placing it 72 out of 326 English districts based on population density. Inhabitants of Cheltenham are known as "Cheltonians".

Ethnicity

According to the 2011 census,[46] the ethnic breakdown of the population of Cheltenham is as follows:

• White British: 88.3%
• White Irish: 0.9%
• White, other: 5.0%
• Mixed: 1.9%
• Asian : 3.2%
• Black : 0.6%

In 2013, Cheltenham was named one of the safest towns for university students to live in the UK by the Complete University Guide.[47]

The oldest school in Cheltenham is Pate's Grammar School (founded in 1574).[49] Cheltenham College (founded in 1841) was the first of the public schools of the Victorian period.[50] The school was the setting in 1968 for the classic Lindsay Anderson film if.....[51] It also hosts the annual Cheltenham Cricket Festival, first staged in 1872, and the oldest cricket festival in the world.[52]

The most famous school in the town, according to The Good Schools Guide, is Cheltenham Ladies' College (founded in 1853).[53][54] Dean Close School was founded in 1886 in memory of the Reverend Francis Close (1797–1882), a former rector of Cheltenham.[55] The town also includes several campuses of the University of Gloucestershire, two other independent and six other state secondary schools, plus institutions of further education.

The racecourse from Cleeve Hill

Cheltenham Racecourse, in the nearby village of Prestbury, is the home of National Hunt, or jumps, racing in the UK. Meetings are hosted from October to April. The highlight of the season is the Cheltenham Gold Cup, which is normally held in the middle of March, during the Cheltenham Festival.

The town's football teams are the professional team Cheltenham Town F.C., who play in the Football League One, and semi-professional sides Bishop's Cleeve, who play in the Hellenic League Premier, Cheltenham Saracens F.C. in the Hellenic League Division One and more recently Montpellier Football Club, founded in 2021 by Liam Bond and Sam Collier and currently boasting a senior first team, a development team and a newly founded women's team.

Amateur rugby union clubs include Cheltenham R.F.C., Cheltenham Saracens RFC, Cheltenham North R.F.C., Old Patesians R.F.C., Smiths Rugby and Cheltenham Civil Service R.F.C.

In rugby league, university side Gloucestershire All Golds were admitted into the semi-professional Championship 1. The Cheltenham Rugby Festival is a rugby league nines event held in May.

The town has one golf course, Lilley Brook, in Charlton Kings.

Cheltenham has one of the largest croquet clubs in the country, and is home to the headquarters of the national body of the sport, the Croquet Association. The East Glos tennis, squash and women's hockey club, which was founded in 1885, is also located in the town.

Sandford Parks Lido is one of the largest outdoor pools in England. There is a 50 m (164 ft) main pool, a children's pool and paddling pool, set in landscaped gardens. Sandford Parks Lido is the home of Cheltenham Swimming and Water Polo Club. In 2021, Cheltenham Borough Council gave Sandford Parks Lido a new 35-year lease to continue operating the lido.[56]

The first parish church is Cheltenham Minster, St Mary's, which is the only surviving medieval building in the town. As a result of expansion of the population, absorption of surrounding villages, and the efforts of both evangelical and Anglo-Catholic missions, the town has a large number of other parish churches,[60] including Trinity Church and All Saints', Pittville, where the composer Gustav Holst's father was the organist.

St Gregory's Roman Catholic church is an example of the work of the architect Charles Hansom.[61] The Gothic Revival building was built 1854–57, the porch was added in 1859, the tower and spire were completed in 1861 and the nave was extended to join the tower in 1877.[61] The church's s stained glass is by Hardman & Co.[61]

A fingerpost in Cheltenham Township, Pennsylvania, highlighting Cheltenham as the "Official Twin." The signpost points to other cities in the world named "Cheltenham".

Cheltenham is twinned with:[63]

• Annecy, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, France
• Cheltenham, Pennsylvania, United States
• Göttingen, Lower Saxony, Germany
• Weihai, Shandong, China

Twinning with Sochi, Russia was suspended in response to 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.[64]

• HMS Cheltenham, a Racecourse-class minesweeper of 1916
• Acclaim Cheltenham, a game studio that made Extreme-G 3 and XGRA: Extreme-G Racing Association
• List of spa towns in the United Kingdom
• Cheltenham (UK Parliament constituency)
• Cotswold Brewing Co., a brewery based in Cheltenham
• Arle Court Transport Hub

Bibliography

• David Verey, Gloucestershire: The Vale and the Forest of Dean, The Buildings of England edited by Nikolaus Pevsner, 2nd ed. (1976) ISBN 0-14-071041-8
• Commemorative Plaques of Cheltenham by Peter Smith & Sue Rowbotham (Reardon, 2009) ISBN 1-873877-93-5.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Cheltenham.

Wikivoyage has a travel guide for Cheltenham.

• Cheltenham Borough Council
• Visit Cheltenham
• Genealogical Web site including many relevant references on Cheltenham
• BBC archive film of Cheltenham from 1985
• Explore Cheltenham Explore Cheltenham Spa - Online guide to the 'Festival Town of England'