Tewkesbury

Coordinates: 51°59′10″N 2°08′10″W / 51.986°N 2.136°W / 51.986; -2.136

Tewkesbury (/ˈtjuːksbri/ TYEWKS-bree) is a town and civil parish in Gloucestershire, England. It stands at the confluence of the River Severn and the River Avon, and also minor tributaries the Swilgate and Carrant Brook. It gives its name to the Borough of Tewkesbury, of which the town is the second largest settlement.

The name Tewkesbury comes from Theoc, the name of a Saxon who founded a hermitage there in the 7th century, and in the Old English tongue was called Theocsbury. An erroneous derivation from Theotokos enjoyed currency in the monastic period of the town's history.

Geography

Nearby places

It is in a rural environment (out of town) and is in lowland which makes it easier to flood, because of the ham, a plain.

Demography

At the 2011 UK census the town itself had a population of 10,704. If the neighbouring parishes of Wheatpieces (3,577), Northway (5,080) and Ashchurch Rural (957) are added, the figure rises to 20,318. The Tewkesbury urban area is divided in two by the north-south running M5 motorway, opened in February 1971. However, the town is generally considered as the built-up area to the immediate east and west of the M5 at junction 9, with the town centre, abbey and old town situated to the west. The close proximity of large areas of land that are prone to flooding, as evidenced by the severe floods that struck the region in July 2007, would make further expansion difficult. However, the present Borough of Tewkesbury, created on 1 April 1974, also contains a large portion of rural north Gloucestershire, extending as far as the edges of Gloucester itself and also Cheltenham, and has a present population of 81,943.

Tewkesbury Borough

Tewkesbury is a local government district and borough in Gloucestershire, in the West Country of England. It is named after its main town, Tewkesbury. Other places in the borough include Ashchurch, Bishop's Cleeve, Churchdown and Winchcombe.

The district was formed on 1 April 1974, under the Local Government Act 1972, from the municipal borough of Tewkesbury, along with Cheltenham Rural District and part of Gloucester Rural District.

Gloucestershire Airport is in the borough, near to Gloucester and Cheltenham.

Railways

Served by Ashchurch for Tewkesbury railway station on the mainline as well as the Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway stations.

Coordinates: 52°0′0″N 2°10′0″W / 52.00000°N 2.16667°W / 52.00000; -2.16667

Tewkesbury (UK Parliament constituency)

Tewkesbury is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since its 1997 recreation by Laurence Robertson, a Conservative.

History

1610 to 1918

Tewkesbury existed in this period, first in the parliamentary borough form. It returned two MPs until this was reduced to one in 1868, then saw itself become instead a larger county division under the Redistribution of Seats Act 1885, and it was abolished in 1918.