VOL. XIX. (l) 
EXCURSION— TEWKESBURY 
13 
EXCURSION TO TEWKESBURY. 
Thursday, June 3rd, 1915. 
Directors : The Rev. William Davies and L. Richardson. 
{Report by L. Richardson.) 
The following Members attended this Meeting : Mr W. R. Carles, C.M.G. 
(Vice-President), L. Richardson (Hon. Secretary), the Rev. J. J. D. Cooke, 
the Rev. P. M. C. Johnstone, Lieut. Col. J. C. Duke, Messrs. F. H. Bretherton, 
F. J. Cullis, J. M. Collett, G. M. Currie, J. M. Dixon, T. S. Ellis, J. C. Frith, 
E. W. Fyffe, C. I. Gardiner, F. Hannam-Clark, E. Hartland, A. E. Hurry, 
E. Lawrence, F. J. Mylius, H. H. Knight, J. A. Smithin, Charles Upton, etc. 
The Members arrived at Tewkesbury at 1.50 p.m., and at once proceeded 
to the Senior Council School to the School Gardens and the Domestic Science 
Centre. In the absence of the Headmaster, owing to ill health, the Hon. 
Secretary explained briefly the objects of the School Garden, and then led 
the way into the Domestic Science Room, where a cookery demonstration 
was in progress. 
From the school the Members walked to the Tewkesbury Pumping 
Station of the Cheltenham Corporation Waterworks. Mr J. S. Pickering, 
M. Inst. C.E., the Borough Surveyor, wrote expressing his regret at being 
unable to meet the Members himself, as he was going to Scotland, but he had 
instructed the Works Manager, Mr Walker, to meet them and show them 
round. No pumping or filtering was going on, as Cheltenham was at the 
time being supplied from its reservoirs.^ 
From the Pumping Station the Members went on to the Mythe Tute, 
whence splendid views are obtained over a reach of the Severn to Pull Court 
and the serrated ridge of the Malvern Hills beyond ; of Bushley and Sarn Hill ; 
the Severn Ham and the site of the battle of Tewkesbury (between Edward IV. 
and Queen Margaret, May 4th, 1471) ; and of Tewkesbury and its historic 
Abbey. 
The fine Mythe Bridge, which spans (170 feet) the Severn close at hand, 
was designed by Thomas Telford, the great engineer, and erected in 1823-26. 
With its long road approaches it cost ;^3 5,000, which was subscribed by share- 
holders. In spite of heavy tolls on the traffic — which fell far short of ex- 
pectation — the venture failed as a commercial enterprise, and in 1891, by 
the combined efforts of the Gloucestershire and Worcestershire County 
Councils, the bridge was thrown open free of toll. 
The Hon. Secretary made some remarks on the geology of the district. 
The country to the west of a line running approximately north and south 
through Tewkesbury, and between this line and the Malverns, is composed 
of Upper-Keuper rocks — principally marl like that seen in the Mythe Cliff. 
In the marls, however, is a bed of sandstone — the “Arden Sandstone.’’* 
Sandstone and marls have been flexured to a considerable extent by crust- 
pressures, and the result of “ differential denudation ’’ upon these rocks has 
been the undulating and pleasing countryof to-day.® At Heath Hill, Sarn Hill, 
and Berrow Hill, are outliers of Rhaetic and basal Lower-Lias beds."* The 
Keuper beds are of great thickness, as the deep and costly boring for water 
at Upton-on-Severn has proved. 
1 A full account of these Works, by Mr Pickering, will be found in Trans. Inst. Water Engineers, 
vol. xiii. (1912), pp. 7I-75- ^ 
2 Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc., vol. Ixviii. (1912), pp. 252-280. 
3 L.R.,Proc. CotteswoldNat. F.C., vol. XV., pt. 2(1905), pp. 93-100. ^ 
4 L.R., Trans. Worcestershire Nat. Club, vol. iii.,pp. 192-195 ; Quart. Journ. Geol. boc., vol. Ixi. 
(1905), pp. 425-430. 
