Tewkesbury Museum is a small community museum dedicated to the

social history Social history, often called the new social history, is a field of history that looks at the lived experience of the past. In its "golden age" it was a major growth field in the 1960s and 1970s among scholars, and still is well represented in his ...

and heritage 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 ...

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 museum is housed in a 17th-century half-timbered building at 64 and 64a Barton Street in property which was given to the Borough of Tewkesbury in 1956 on the express condition that it be used as a museum; but the museum did not open until 1962, after all of the previous tenants of the building had left. Complications introduced by local government reform in 1974 almost led to its demise. The ancient Borough of Tewkesbury was dissolved and incorporated into the new District Council covering North West Gloucestershire. The first Clerk for the new Council persuaded Councillors that it should be named Tewkesbury Borough and he transferred as much of the old Borough as he could to the new Borough. This included an attempt to transfer the Museum. After some legal advice, the Museum reverted to the Town Council’s control. The building is Grade II*

listed Listed may refer to: * Listed, Bornholm, a fishing village on the Danish island of Bornholm * Listed (MMM program), a television show on MuchMoreMusic * Endangered species in biology * Listed building, in architecture, designation of a historicall ...

English Heritage English Heritage (officially the English Heritage Trust) is a charity that manages over 400 historic monuments, buildings and places. These include prehistoric sites, medieval castles, Roman forts and country houses. The charity states that i ...

. An active society of Friends of Tewkesbury Museum supports the work of the museum.

Exhibits

Exhibits include: *Early Roman artefacts discovered when the

Roses Theatre The Roses Theatre is an arts centre located in the centre of Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire, England. Its main auditorium seats 375 and accommodates 35mm film / digital projection as well as live performance. It offers patrons music, theatre, film ...

was built, including a Roman skeleton *A diorama of the

Battle of Tewkesbury The Battle of Tewkesbury, which took place on 4 May 1471, was one of the decisive battles of the Wars of the Roses in England. King Edward IV and his forces loyal to the House of York completely defeated those of the rival House of Lancaster ...

*Exhibits about the Tewkesbury

mop fair Hiring fairs, also called statute or mop fairs, were regular events in pre-modern Great Britain and Ireland where labourers were hired for fixed terms. They date from the time of Edward III, and his attempt to regulate the labour market by the St ...

*A 1950s vintage model funfair *Pieces relating to the Antarctic explorer

Raymond Priestley Sir Raymond Edward Priestley (20 July 1886 – 24 June 1974) was an English geologist and early Antarctic explorer. He was Vice-Chancellor of the University of Birmingham, where he helped found The Raymond Priestley Centre on the shores ...

, from Bredon's NortonMuseum's artefacts suffering from cold.
thisisdorset.co.uk 11 November 2010. Retrieved 16 September 2011. In 2010 excerpts from the diary of the British soldier Lieutenant Mark Evison of the

Welsh Guards The Welsh Guards (WG; cy, Gwarchodlu Cymreig), part of the Guards Division, is one of the Foot Guards regiments of the British Army. It was founded in 1915 as a single-battalion regiment, during the First World War, by Royal Warrant of George V ...

, who died after being wounded in Afghanistan in 2009, were displayed at the museum alongside letters from previous generations of soldiers."Museum to display war victim's diary"
thisisgloucestershire.co.uk. 5 October 2010. Retrieved 16 September 2011.

References

External links

* {{coord, 51.9926, -2.1553, type:landmark_region:GB, display=title Local museums in Gloucestershire Tewkesbury 1962 establishments in England Grade II* listed buildings in Gloucestershire Museums established in 1962

Exhibits

See also

References

External links