THS Bulletin 17

Tewkesbury Historical Society

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T.H.S. Bulletin No.17, 2008 

Contents

President's Foreword and Editorial

It was a relief to publish the first digitally printed Bulletin in September 2007. After much soul searching, we were able to make use of new technology and produce a shortened version but with even higher quality of presentation. Now having to print only as many copies as we feel we can sell, we were able also to offer it to members at £5. We hope that you agreed that these changes were worthwhile. The disadvantage of the date change was that it was too late for consideration for the County Jerrard Award and it is only as we go to print that we know that our own Woodard Award was won by Janet Devereux.

One of the reasons for the investment by our printers, Fleet Graphics, is proof that even the blackest of clouds do provide a silver lining. The factory was inundated by the disastrous deluge of 20 July 2007 and the machinery was destroyed; hence the new machinery. Also destroyed in the flood, were all our stock of Bulletins which Fleet were kindly storing for us in good conditions until that catastrophic event which has rewritten all the old assumptions. Fortunately our insurance policy provided by the British Association of Local History was invoked for the first time in seventeen years and now we are gradually replacing the back numbers by digitally reprinting them and ordering them in small batches as our outlets demand.

Floods have played such a significant part in our Town’s history that it is not surprising that members write about them. This year Derek Round recalls the Flood of 1959 in some photographs discovered by Mrs. Durrant O.B.E. which recall not only a frequent event but also now an all-too-rare event when, in 1962-3, the Avon froze. Perhaps corruption in political life is another recurrent theme? Having studied two allegedly corrupt M.P.s, this year your President, aided by the superb research of Wendy Snarey, has turned his attention to a corrupt official, W.H. Gray, the Borough surveyor who absconded to South Africa in 1898 with a huge gap left in local finances.

I was delighted that Dr. Richard Morris, the Abbey’s honorary archaeological consultant, offered an article on the Easthope Tomb. Not only are we honoured that he wished to write for our Bulletin but he sheds light on a Tewkesbury ‘alley brat’ who worked his way up to become an M.P. for Leicester. Our other eminent archaeologist, Richard Sermon, has turned the spotlight on the origins of Theoc, whose name is used so often in our town for modern purposes.

Another feature of this year’s Bulletin is the contribution of ‘Ex-Pat’ members. The website is becoming an increasingly valuable means of communicating with people who appreciate the history of our town but do not live here. Thanks to the internet, we can now despatch copies of our most recent publications without the slow and expensive mail. We can now send Bulletins via ‘Podmail’ and use the secure system of ‘PayPal’ to receive payments. So we welcome articles for the first time from Mike Everley from Swansea. His family connection prompted him to follow up Cliff Burd’s article on the Stockingers by writing the history of Thomas Holland, who lost both his hands in an industrial accident yet still made models which we can enjoy in our Town Museum. Adrienne Roche lives in London but, through a friendship emerging out of a World War II Prisoner of War Camp, she became involved with the family of the Headmaster of Trinity School at the turn of the 20^th century. Adrienne has written a biography of George Dyson which demonstrates the greater professionalism of teachers of that epoch. We have also received an article from Mike Page about the Christadelphian group that sheds new light on Nelson Street.

A longstanding ‘Ex-Pat’ is Dr. James Freeman who has written the history in instalments of his ancestor Halsey Freeman and made available the fascinating photographs that he took during his career. One graced last year’s cover and started a successful quest to meet the alluring cover girl, Loreen Neale, who is now in her 80s and was a delight to meet along with the shawl from that fateful day. This year, we have used one of Halsey’s Remnants as our cover picture and, once again, we are deeply indebted to Sam Eedle for his professional skill in designing our sequence of covers.

We are also deeply appreciative of not only the speed and skill of our compiler, Derek Benson, who presents the typing in such an attractive way, but who is also willing to learn new skills and master Microsoft Publisher which, in the long run, may enhance the presentation of our publications for a wider public.

We hope that you enjoy Bulletin 17.                                                                                                                  John Dixon  

Note: We are very grateful to Mrs Margaret Hawkins of Oxford for filling this gap in our knowledge with an excerpt from the Tewkesbury Register 26 August 1865 (click on link to view).

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