Gloster Javelin FAW9, UK - Air Force AN1357514

Churchdown and Innsworth Police Station - geograph

Innsworth is a suburb of

Gloucester Gloucester ( ) is a cathedral city and the county town of Gloucestershire in the South West of England. Gloucester lies on the River Severn, between the Cotswolds to the east and the Forest of Dean to the west, east of Monmouth and east ...

, it is also a

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authority ...

and forms part of the borough of

Tewkesbury Tewkesbury ( ) is a medieval market town and civil parish in the north of Gloucestershire, England. The town has significant history in the Wars of the Roses and grew since the building of Tewkesbury Abbey. It stands at the confluence of the Riv ...

, in the county of

Gloucestershire Gloucestershire ( abbreviated Glos) is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn and the entire Forest of Dean. The county town is the city of Gl ...

, England. The parish population taken at the 2011 census was 2,468. It contains

Imjin Barracks Imjin Barracks is a military installation situated near Innsworth in Gloucestershire that is home to NATO's Allied Rapid Reaction Corps (ARRC). The Barracks were named after the Battle of the Imjin River because of the connection with the Glouc ...

, the home of

Allied Rapid Reaction Corps The Allied Rapid Reaction Corps (ARRC) is a North Atlantic Treaty Organization High Readiness Force (Land) Headquarters ready for deployment worldwide. History The ARRC was created on 1 October 1992 in Bielefeld based on the former I (Britis ...

, which moved from Germany in 2010. Until 2008, it was best known for

RAF Innsworth RAF Innsworth was a non flying Royal Air Force station, located on the north side of the city of Gloucester in England. The station closed in March 2008 and for the last 13 years of its life it was the headquarters of Personnel and Training Comma ...

, the home of the

RAF Personnel and Training Command Personnel and Training Command (PTC) was one of two commands of the Royal Air Force (the other being Strike Command) that were merged to form Air Command on 1 April 2007. History Formation PTC was formed in 1994 bringing together the r ...

, before its move to

RAF High Wycombe RAF High Wycombe is a Royal Air Force station, situated in the village of Walters Ash, near High Wycombe in Buckinghamshire, England. It houses Headquarters Air Command, and was originally designed to house RAF Bomber Command in the late 1930s ...

to co-locate with

RAF Strike Command The Royal Air Force's Strike Command was the military formation which controlled the majority of the United Kingdom's bomber and fighter aircraft from 1968 until 2007 when it merged with Personnel and Training Command to form the single Air C ...

, forming

RAF Air Command Air Command is the only Command currently active in the Royal Air Force. It was formed by the merger of Royal Air Force Strike and Personnel and Training commands on 1 April 2007, and has its headquarters at RAF High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire. ...

. Innsworth like its neighbouring village, Churchdown, is split into two halves: the military housing side which ends at the junction of Ward Avenue and Swallow Crescent and also Thompson Way again with Swallow Crescent.

History

Many of the

housing association In Ireland and the United Kingdom, housing associations are private, Non-profit organization, non-profit making organisations that provide low-cost "Public housing in the United Kingdom, social housing" for people in need of a home. Any budge ...

homes in Innsworth were either

prefabricated Prefabrication is the practice of assembling components of a structure in a factory or other manufacturing site, and transporting complete assemblies or sub-assemblies to the construction site where the structure is to be located. The term is u ...

, or rapidly built "no fines" structures, as was common in the mid- to late-1940s after the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. The former were only intended to remain standing for two decades, they have now been up for close to 70 years. The majority have had the original prefabricated concrete removed and been refaced with two modern brick walls, some of the distinctive Wimpey and prefab houses still remain. Also in common with many developments at this time, these houses and bungalows are all on roads named according to a theme, in this case they are after birds. New housing developments in the village have followed the tradition with Tern Court at the north of Rookery Road and also Falcon Close 100 yards down the Rookery Road. Innsworth also used to be home to a local pub called The Bullfinch, known locally as "The Bully". The Bully was closed in late 2004 and knocked down in 2010/2011, to be replaced with social housing by th
Severn Vale Housing Society
The old sign for the pub can still be found at the top of Bullfinch Way and its junction with Innsworth Lane.

Governance

Following the Tewkesbury (Electoral Changes) Order 2018 the village falls in the 'Innsworth'

electoral ward A ward is a local authority area, typically used for electoral purposes. In some countries, wards are usually named after neighbourhoods, thoroughfares, parishes, landmarks, geographical features and in some cases historical figures connected to t ...

. This ward stretches between Twigworth, Innsworth and Longford. Two councillors represent the ward. In 2016 3110 electors lived in the Innsworth ward. This is expected to grow to 3885 by 2022. A civil parish called Longlevens was formed on 1 April 1935 from of the parishes of Wotton St. Mary Without,

Barnwood Barnwood is an eastern suburb of Gloucester, lying about from the centre of the city, and former civil parish, now in the unparished area of Gloucester, in the Gloucester district, in the county of Gloucestershire, England. Barnwood was origin ...

Hucclecote Hucclecote is a suburb in Gloucestershire, United Kingdom, comprising a ward (population 8,826) in the City of Gloucester. It is located on the periphery of the city, between Barnwood and Brockworth, along Ermin Way, an old Roman road connectin ...

and Churchdown. On 14 September 1967 the parish was renamed to "Innsworth".

Community Hall

The village now has its own Community Hall on Rookery Road next to the Junior School, which is home to the village youth club and also to the bingo club which is held every Sunday evening and also many Severnvale Housing Association drop-in clinics. The village campaigned for many years to the local H/A and Borough Council for the Hall.

References

External links

Details of parish councilInnsworth Infant School
(formerly Larkfield Infant School)
Innsworth Junior School
*{{oscoor gbx, SO860210 Areas of Gloucester Civil parishes in Gloucestershire Borough of Tewkesbury