VOL. XIX. (l) 
EXCURSION— TEWKESBURY 
15 
The name “ Tewkesbury ” at once brings to mind the fine old Abbey 
Church and the picturesque half-timbered houses of the town (Plate III.). 
The history of the Abbey has indeed been closely interwoven with that 
of the town. It is probable, however, that there were habitations at Tewkes- 
bury before the Abbey was founded. Probably the Britons had a settle- 
ment here, and, judging from the number of coins that have been found in 
the part of the town called the “ Oldbury ” and in the neighbourhood of the 
Abbey, the Romans as well. 
The Saxons established themselves here, and two of their nobles, Oddo 
and Doddo, in 715 founded the monastery, some say on the site of a chapel 
and dwelling erected by a recluse named Theocus. 
The Danes came up the Severn on their marauding expeditions, and it 
is generally held that they scarped and heightened a natural protuberance 
on the My the Hill, which has long been known as the My the “ Toot ” or 
“ Tute.”i 
The Danes so damaged the monastery that in 980 it became a cell, 
dependent on the Abbey of Cranbourne, in Dorset. In 1087 the patronage 
of the Tewkesbury monastery came into the hands of Robert Fitz-Hamon. 
Giraldus — who was appointed Abbot of Cranbourne by William Rufu.s — 
secured Fitz-Hamon’s interest in Tewkesbury, and, with his aid, built the 
noble Abbey and transferred thither the monks of Cranbourne, making that 
■\bbey in turn a cell dependent on Tewkesbury. The main part of the present 
.\bbey is usually assigned to 1123. In 1234 the principal gateway was 
burnt down. The present Abbey Gateway is perpendicular work. 
In 1539 came the Dissolution, and the greater portion of the monastic 
buildings were destroyed. The gateway, however, was preserved, as well as 
the “ great barn next the Avon.” The heavily-buttressed wall at the Victoria 
Pleasure Ground formed part of this ‘‘great barn,” which, in 1899, was pur- 
chased by the Corporation so as to belong to the town and be kept in good 
repair. 
Mr Davies stated that the old high road to Gloucester used to run be- 
tween this wall and the river and along the site of the present Victoria Pleasure 
Ground. 
The mill they were near, continued Mr Davies, was known as the Abbey 
Mill. There was one here at the time of the battle of Tewkesbury, for Holin- 
shed states that the carnage ‘‘ was terrible at a mill in the meadow fast by 
the town.” 
Mr Davies said that they were not going to visit the site of the Battle of 
Tewkesbury. They would recollect, however, that it was fought between 
Edward IV. and Margaret (Consort of Henry VI.), representing the houses of 
York and Lancaster, on May 4th, 1471. The Lancastrians were defeated. 
Margaret fled across the river, and, some say, hid for two days at Payne’s 
Place, Bushley. Her young son, the Prince of Wales, was taken prisoner, 
brought before Edward IV., tradition has it, in a house in Church Street 
(number 102), and there stabbed to death by the Dukes of Gloucester and 
Clarence. 
The Abbey Mill figures in ‘‘ John Halifax, Gentleman ” — a work that was 
again brought to mind by a visit to the site of a portion of the tan-yard of 
‘‘ Abel Fletcher.” 
Tanning had a lengthy history in Tewkesbury, but now the trade is ex- 
tinct. There was an Abbey tannery in 1385, and by the i6th century various 
dependent leather industries had grown up. Tewkesbury then had its com- 
pany of cordwainers and shoe-makers, besides ‘‘ whittawyers,” glovers, pouch- 
makers, and point — or shoe-lace — makers. 
I W. Johnson, in “ Byways in British Archaeology” (p. 70), derives “Toot” from A.S.totiaTi, 
“ to project, to peep,” in allusion to the swelling or protuberance of the ground. 
