ECONOMIC HISTORY.
The economic importance of Tewkesbury, through most of the town's
history, has resulted mainly from the navigability of
the Severn, enabling the grain of the neighbourhood
that was brought to market there, and the malt,
textiles, and leather goods manufactured there, to be
carried fairly easily to the coast. Conversely, the
inadequacy of the Severn as a highway in the 19th
century hastened Tewkesbury's commercial and
industrial decline. The River Avon provided power
for corn-mills, but not enough as is evident from the
use of windmills. The town was also the centre of a
large agricultural parish, and the agricultural history
is described first below.
Agriculture. The demesne estates of Tewkesbury manor, together with those of the customary
tenants holding directly of the manor, lay partly in
Ashchurch and Tredington, and up to 1375 or later
were administered as a single group. The information that follows, therefore, up to the late 14th
century, relates to Ashchurch and Tredington as
well as to Tewkesbury. In 1066 Tewkesbury manor
comprised a large demesne farm supporting 12
ploughs and worked by 50 male and female serfs.
Despite despoliation at the Conquest and a consequent fall in value, in the following twenty years
another plough was added and 22 more serfs. The
16 bordars on the estate appear to have been more
than usually dependent on the demesne farm, and
were not recorded as having any ploughs; there were
no other agricultural tenants, though an estate at
Southwick of three hides, of which no further details
were given, was separately entered in the survey. (fn. 1)
The demesne increased in extent: in 1220 the bailiffs
of the Earl of Gloucester had to answer for 28
plough-teams in Tewkesbury. (fn. 2) In the late 13th
century the Earl of Gloucester's demesne was still
large, amounting to 740 a. of arable land, in addition
to 200 a. of parkland, 176 a. of meadow, and 50 a. of
several pasture. (fn. 3) Between 1296 and 1307 the
demesne was reduced, (fn. 4) apparently either by
distributing it among free tenants or by granting it
to the abbey. Nevertheless, in 1363 there were still
460 a. of demesne arable, 85 a. of mowing meadow,
80 a. of parkland, and 50 a. of pasture. (fn. 5) By 1375
there had been some rearrangement of the demesne
land, and while it had not grown significantly less
in acreage a large part of the tenants' works had
been commuted for rents. (fn. 6) A century later the
honor of Gloucester seems to have had no land in
demesne, and Elizabeth Despenser (d. 1409) was the
last medieval owner of the manor recorded as keeping
any considerable acreage in hand. (fn. 7) In 1291 the only
land that Tewkesbury Abbey had in demesne in the
parish was two yardlands in the Mythe and one in
Oldbury; (fn. 8) in 1535, however, the abbot had 130 a.
in hand. (fn. 9)
In the early 14th century the free tenants of
Tewkesbury manor (excluding burgesses) numbered
19, though the land of some was mainly, and of
others entirely, outside the parish of Tewkesbury.
The customary tenants were divided into several
groups. The main group was of 56, described as
customary tenants of the greater tenure in 1296, as
natives in 1307, and later simply as customary
tenants. Forty-one of them held 1 yardland each
and 15 held ½ yardland, doing for each yardland 221
winter works, 59 summer works, and ploughing,
harrowing, sowing, carrying, threshing, and maltmaking services; each also paid 1d. for the carriage
of salt from Droitwich, a quantity of grain for seed
called 'boonseed', and 4 hens at Christmas. Another
17 customary tenants were called 'Enches', (fn. 10) of the
lesser tenure, in 1296; they were described simply as
customary tenants in 1307, and thereafter as plough-
men (carucarii); 9 held 1 yardland each and 8 held
½ yardland, owing for each yardland 6 days' ploughing or other work a week (festival days excepted)
and 4 hens at Christmas. A group of 4 cottars had
each a cottage and an acre or two for which he owed
59 works and 16 bedrips a year. Another 9 cottars
recorded in 1296 may have been the same group as
the 8 fisherman-tenants of 1307. In 1307 there were
also miscellaneous tenants who held from 2 a. to 2
yardlands and performed various services, including
carrying writs. Some of those tenants were presumably comparable with the 7 tenants by serjeanty of
1327. In 1307 also Nicholas the smith held 1 yardland in villeinage by service of making the ironwork
for the 9 ploughs of the lord of the manor, for which
he received 4s. a year for coals (carbonum). (fn. 11)
By 1375 a large part of the services performed by
the tenants had been commuted. Whereas earlier
the rents of the free tenants had amounted to
£12 12s. 3d. and the customary tenants had paid
very little rent in cash, in 1375 the rents of free and
bond tenants together were £58 6s. 10d. and the
tenures by serjeanty were producing a cash rent of
£3 11s. (fn. 12) A hundred years later the whole income of
the manor was apparently received in the form of
rents, fines, tolls, and perquisites of courts. (fn. 13) Both in
the town and in Southwick and the Mythe copyhold
tenure of Tewkesbury manor (fn. 14) and of the abbey's
fee (fn. 15) remained important until the mid-16th century,
and appears to have lapsed fairly soon afterwards.
One of the services which the tenants performed
in the early 14th century was work in the lord of the
manor's vineyard, both at the grape harvest and at
other times. (fn. 16) Work on the Earl of Gloucester's
vineyard was recorded in 1185, (fn. 17) and the vineyard
fence and ditch were still there in the mid-16th
century. (fn. 18) The abbey also had a vineyard, mentioned
c. 1195 (fn. 19) and shown in 1504 to be on the south side
of the town. (fn. 20)
The size of the plough-land in Tewkesbury manor
was small: in 1307 the demesne maintained 9 ploughs
for 520 a., (fn. 21) and the 8 plough-lands of 1375, if valued
at 4d.-6d. an acre, were each only 60 a.-90 a. During
that period a third of the arable acreage lay fallow
and in common each year. (fn. 22) Selions of arable land in
the fields of Southwick were mentioned from 1315
onwards. (fn. 23) In the mid-16th century the selions there
may have averaged c. ¼ a., and by that time some of
them lay in small consolidated blocks and were
inclosed. (fn. 24) The Gaston field included the area
between Southwick Park and Gubshill, and stretched
north-east to the Swilgate. Southwick field lay south
of the park. (fn. 25) In each area traces of ridge and furrow
remained in pasture in 1964. In the Mythe there are
traces of ridge and furrow where the land slopes
down to the meadows beside the Severn, and it is
anyway unlikely that the Mythe was all pasture,
woodland, and meadow in the early 14th century.
The Mythe appears to have been wholly inclosed by
the mid-16th century; a gradual process of inclosing
the open-field land of Southwick had begun by then
and was completed after 1686. (fn. 26)
The land held by the burgesses of Tewkesbury was
distinct from the rest, as they alone held in Oldbury
field, immediately east of the town. The Oldbury
was evidently an open field in the 12th century, (fn. 27) and
in 1314 it was reckoned to comprise 705/6 a. held at
rents of 6d. an acre. (fn. 28) In 1337 the total rent of 35s. 5d.
was described as a fee farm. (fn. 29) In the mid-16th
century holdings in Oldbury field were usually
divided evenly between the three furlongs, Upper,
Middle, and Nether, but there was a fourth furlong,
Hollam furlong, perhaps representing a small expansion of arable into Hollam meadow. The parcels of
land were usually between 2 and 4 lands, each land
averaging ½ a. A high proportion of the land was
kept as pasture, (fn. 30) indicating the burgesses' need for
pasture for their animals rather than crops. Another
source of pasture was the Severn Ham, on which
the commoners were entitled to pasture their beasts
after the hay had been taken, from 31 July to 2
February. In 1610 the borough corporation decided
to reduce its debt by lowering the number of
commons on the ham and charging a fee for each
beast pastured, (fn. 31) but it is not clear whether the
resolution took effect, or if it did, for how long. In
origin the commoners of the ham are likely to have
been only the burgesses of the town, (fn. 32) but, partly
because of the difficulty of distinguishing former
burgage-tenures from others, (fn. 33) once the precise
differentiation of economic groups and of tenures
had become blurred, the commons came to be
enjoyed by a wider range of inhabitants. In the late
17th century the ham was said to be a free common
from Lammas to Candlemas, on which each freeman
could pasture 3 horses, 6 cows, or 10 sheep —
provided they were his own — and each free burgess
twice as many. (fn. 34) The freedom referred to was
presumably freedom of the borough, and the burgess
a member of the corporation. In the late 18th century
the right of common both in the Severn Ham and
in Oldbury field and its adjoining meadows was said
to be in the resident freeholders and occupiers, for
their cattle only. (fn. 35) The Severn Ham and Oldbury
field were both inclosed in 1811 under an Act of
1808, by which commoning rights in Oldbury were
extinguished and those in the aftermath of the ham
regulated. (fn. 36)
Two features of husbandry in Tewkesbury in the
17th century were market-gardening and tobaccogrowing. In 1540 a large number of gardens in and
around the town was recorded. (fn. 37) In 1678 a writer
drew attention to the suitability of the soil for
gardening, and to the quantity of garden produce,
notably excellent carrots, sent up the Severn to
Worcester and elsewhere. (fn. 38) That form of husbandry
may have declined over the next hundred years as
market-gardening expanded at Evesham, (fn. 39) which
the Avon navigation (fn. 40) had connected with the towns
and ports of the Severn. Tobacco that was growing
in Tewkesbury was ordered to be destroyed in
1627, (fn. 41) and in 1636 tobacco was said to be planted
there 'in great store,' (fn. 42) when much of it that was
grown locally was sold in the town. (fn. 43) In 1664 the
constable of Tewkesbury was indicted at Quarter
Sessions for neglecting an order to cut down and
destroy tobacco crops. (fn. 44)
In the early 19th century the proportion of the
population supported by agriculture increased up to
1831, and fell by half before 1841. (fn. 45) Though there
were few landowners the farms were mostly small,
and in 1834 there was said to be only one large farm. (fn. 46)
In 1841 there were 13 agricultural occupiers employing between them 84 labourers, and another 6 who
employed no labour. (fn. 47) There was one farm of 400 a.
in 1850 and half a dozen of 50–100 a.; the rest were
of 10–40 a. The produce of market gardens was sent
mainly to Birmingham and Cheltenham. (fn. 48) Already
the proportion of arable land was low, 321 a. or
one-seventh of the land-area of the parish in 1834, (fn. 49)
and it had fallen lower by 1901; (fn. 50) in 1933 there was
no arable land in the Mythe and only c. 150 a. in
Southwick. (fn. 51) In 1939 3 of the 10 farmers named in
the area of the ancient parish had over 150 a. (fn. 52)
Mills. There were two mills in Tewkesbury
belonging to the manor in 1066. (fn. 53) They were
presumably the mills belonging to the honor of
Gloucester in the early 13th century, and then
referred to as the mills of the town (fn. 54) to distinguish
them from the abbey mills. The Borough Mills,
standing between the Old Avon and the Mill Avon
towards the north end of the town, were apparently
the two mills granted to Edward Hazlewood and
Edward Tomlinson in 1581 (fn. 55) and the mill called Mr.
Blackburn's mill in 1733. (fn. 56) The mill was rebuilt in
1865, and another building was added in 1889. (fn. 57)
By 1870 the mills belonged to members of the
Healing family, and in 1964, when the business had
expanded beyond milling alone, the Healings
remained active in running what is usually known
as Healing's mill. (fn. 58) Grain was brought to the mill
by barges from Avonmouth, and the mills, which
were driven by steam from 1865, and later by
electricity, employed over 100 people. (fn. 59)
Two mills were granted to the abbey about the
time of the abbey's foundation, (fn. 60) and they are
unlikely to have been different from the two mills
belonging to the abbot in 1291 (fn. 61) or from the two
water corn-mills on the Avon near the end of the
town, occupied by the monks, whose profits in 1535
went to the cellarer of the abbey. (fn. 62) Those, the Abbey
Mills, were leased with Tewkesbury Park, (fn. 63) and
were granted with the park by the Crown in 1554. (fn. 64)
By 1594 they had been increased to four mills, (fn. 65)
but they formed a single range across the Avon; a
fifth mill was added to the range, but Francis Popham
agreed in 1617 to demolish it. (fn. 66) The mills remained
the property of the owners of Tewkesbury Park
until 1710 (fn. 67) or later. In 1793 they were rebuilt with
8 pairs of stones and 4 wheels, (fn. 68) and in 1799 may
have been part of the Abbey House estate. (fn. 69) The
Abbey Mills appear to have been out of use as mills
in the mid-19th century, but they were in use in
1883 and 1921. (fn. 70) In 1964, when the mill building
housed a tea-shop and was called 'Abel Fletcher's
Mill' (from John Halifax, Gentleman), some pieces
of the mill machinery survived. Another mill
belonging to the abbey paid rent to the kitchener in
1291. (fn. 71) It appears in 1540 to have been on the
Swilgate (fn. 72) near the Gander Lane bridge; (fn. 73) record
of it at a later date has not been found.
In 1291 the abbot received rent from a windmill
in Tewkesbury, (fn. 74) which was presumably a precursor
of the windmill held with the abbey's water-mills
in the 16th century and later. (fn. 75) In 1747 Edward
Popham pulled down an old wooden windmill
on Windmill Hill, south of Holm Bridge, and
replaced it with a brick building; near-by, in the
Hill Garden, John Wilson had built a brick windmill
in 1742. (fn. 76) One of the two was the house formerly a
windmill mentioned in 1774, (fn. 77) and a map of 1825
marked a windmill or the remains of one opposite
the workhouse. (fn. 78) Perhaps in the same part of the
parish stood the windmill held at farm from the
Earls of Gloucester in 1296 and 1327, (fn. 79) said to be
worth nothing in 1337 because it was so broken that
it could not grind, (fn. 80) and recorded again at its former
value in 1349 and 1359. (fn. 81)
River Traffic. The use of the Severn as a highway, and obstructions caused by weirs for fishing or
milling, may have been the issue in the dispute
between Mauger, Bishop of Worcester, and Tewkesbury Abbey that was resolved in 1207 when the
abbey agreed to prepare two fit ways by the water
called Avon for the bishop, one towards Worcester
and one towards Gloucester. (fn. 82) The needs of river
traffic prompted the destruction or modification of
the abbot's weir in the Severn in 1292. (fn. 83) Until 1842
the Severn was a free river, as had been declared by
statute in 1431, (fn. 84) and the carriers on it, notwithstanding the many navigational hazards of natural
formation, prized the freedom from tolls and manmade obstacles. (fn. 85) In the 16th century the burgesses
and inhabitants of Tewkesbury asserted and established their freedom from tolls at the bridges at
Worcester (fn. 86) and Gloucester. (fn. 87)
There are references to cargoes of timber being
brought down the Severn through Tewkesbury in
the 13th century, (fn. 88) and in 1407 Thomas Bridges of
Tewkesbury had seven trees lying at the quay there. (fn. 89)
In 1401 Tewkesbury, like Norwich, Lincoln, and
Kingston upon Hull, was ordered to supply one
barge for the king's forces. (fn. 90) Boats appear to have
been made at Tewkesbury in that period: in 1519 a
gift for the repair of the town quay was made on the
condition that two new slips were made. (fn. 91) In the
mid-16th century the town quay was said to be for
boats called picards. (fn. 92) In addition to the town quay,
on the Old Avon, there was a warehouse by the
wharf of the Upper Lode; (fn. 93) and much later, in 1839,
there was a wharf at the Lower Lode ferry. (fn. 94)
In 1580 Tewkesbury was declared a 'creek' of the
port of Gloucester. (fn. 95) In 1579 some inhabitants of
Tewkesbury were accused of piracy on a Spanish
ship, (fn. 96) and in 1588 Tewkesbury was ordered to join
with Gloucester in providing an 80-ton ship for the
navy. Tewkesbury refused to contribute money, and
was ordered instead to make available a 25-ton
pinnace, locally manned and supplied, but the
pinnace failed to join the navy and was anyway
inadequately fitted out. (fn. 97) The town's refusal to
co-operate with Gloucester may have been stimulated
by jealousy of Gloucester's predominance in trade
on the river. (fn. 98)
Tewkesbury's share of the trade was not small:
in 1584 the Gloucester port-books recorded nine
Tewkesbury boats, ranging from 10 tons to 20 tons
burden and averaging 15, which carried varied
cargoes in which grain, malt, metheglin, and hides
bulked large. The cargoes were entered in the names
of 8 merchants, 5 trowmen, and a maltster; most of
them were bound for Bristol, but several were going
to North Devon and South Wales. About one-third
of the entries in the Gloucester port-book for that
year related to Tewkesbury. (fn. 99) In 1595 Tewkesbury
had a rather smaller proportion of the river traffic,
but the variety of cargoes and of ports to which the
boats were destined was wider. (fn. 100) It has been
estimated that nearly half the down-river cargoes in
1601–2 were carried by Tewkesbury boats, but the
proportion fell to less than one-fifth during the 17th
century. (fn. 101)
Trows were being built at Tewkesbury in the
early 17th century. (fn. 102) In 1643 the Tewkesbury ship
John True was employed by parliament in the
crossing to Ireland, (fn. 103) and at the end of the 17th
century Tewkesbury was said to send more ships
than any other Severn town to Ireland. (fn. 104) By 1668
there was a stone causeway near the Quay that was
used as a coal-wharf. (fn. 105) In 1683 the port-books
recorded 7 ships from the town carrying varied
cargoes, including stockings, chairs, and candles, but
with grain and malt predominating as earlier, to
Bristol and the ports of the Bristol Channel. (fn. 106)
Regular passenger travel by river to and from
Gloucester had been established by 1703. (fn. 107)
Many people employed on the river are recorded
among the inhabitants of the town: for example, a
waterman received a royal grant of protection in
1519, (fn. 108) 31 mariners, trowmen, and carriers were
listed in 1608, (fn. 109) there was a ship's carpenter in 1747
and 1768, (fn. 110) and 3 barge-masters and 6 watermen
subscribed a petition of 1773. (fn. 111) It is not clear
whether boat-building continued in Tewkesbury in
the 18th century, and no record of it has been found.
In 1842, however, there was a boat-yard (fn. 112) and boatbuilding remained one of the local industries. (fn. 113)
During the Second World War there was a temporary increase in the number and size of craft built
at Tewkesbury; in 1964 there were four yards
employing c. 50 people in making and maintaining
pleasure-craft. (fn. 114) The decline in river-borne freight
had begun by 1835, when it was attributed to improvements in the docks at Gloucester and to the
development of railways, the chief railway in
question being the Moreton-in-Marsh and Stratfordupon-Avon horse tramway, (fn. 115) which linked north
Gloucestershire with the canal network of the
Midlands. The improvements of the river channel,
however, in the mid-19th century (fn. 116) made it possible
for the Severn to retain much of its tonnage as larger
vessels came into use. In 1961 16,000 tons and in
1962 22,000 tons were carried by river between
Gloucester and Tewkesbury. (fn. 117)
Most of that traffic was grain, and grain had been
the chief cargo since the 13th century. In 1211
grain, (fn. 118) and in 1213 grain and hay, was sent from
Tewkesbury to Bristol. (fn. 119) In 1330 John Browne of
Tewkesbury was trading in corn and other merchandise in various parts of the realm, (fn. 120) and in 1334
the Crown licensed four other inhabitants to export
grain. (fn. 121) In 1348 merchants shipping corn regularly
at Tewkesbury for Bristol, as they averred, were
suspected of unloading it into ships anchored at sea
out of Bristol. (fn. 122) In 1398 Tewkesbury was one of the
main suppliers of corn to Bristol, (fn. 123) and in 1429 the
wheat and malt sent there from Tewkesbury each
year was valued at £500. (fn. 124) In 1550 it was ordered
that Tewkesbury should relieve the shortage of grain
at Bristol, (fn. 125) and in 1629 corn was exported to
Ireland. (fn. 126) Corn was ordered to be taken to Tewkesbury, as a centre for its distribution, c. 1630 and in
1638. (fn. 127) The grain trade, connected with the local
malting industry, (fn. 128) remained an important part of
the economy of the town until the 19th century: in
1852 there were eight corn-dealers there. (fn. 129)
Although much the greater part of the river
traffic of Tewkesbury was carried on the Severn,
the traffic on the Avon, after that river had been
made navigable in 1636, was not negligible, as is
evident from the need for an Act of Parliament in
1751. (fn. 130) In the mid-19th century barges used the Mill
Avon to reach the Abbey Mills. (fn. 131) In 1950 the Avon
immediately above Tewkesbury became the object
of attention of the Lower Avon Navigation Trust
Ltd., which set out to maintain the navigation from
Tewkesbury to Evesham, primarily for recreational
use. (fn. 132) In 1964 one grain barge still plied between
Pershore and Tewkesbury.
Markets and fairs. The development of the
town as a market centre appears to have been fairly
rapid after the establishment of the market in the
late 11th century. (fn. 133) In 1180 or 1181 a charter of
Bordesley Abbey (Worcs.) referred to a standard
measure of grain, the 'bishop's quarter at Tewkesbury'. (fn. 134) In 1207 the Crown bought 69 bulls at
Tewkesbury. (fn. 135) By 1199 the honor of Gloucester
included a fair at Tewkesbury. (fn. 136) The markets and
fairs belonged to the lords of the manor; they were
granted with the manor to the borough corporation
in 1610, (fn. 137) but already in 1579 the bailiffs of the town
had won their struggle, which they had waged since
incorporation in 1575, to act as clerks of the Tewkesbury markets. (fn. 138) In 1757 the corporation leased the
tolls of grain; (fn. 139) in the same year, and again in 1805
and 1809, the corporation successfully resisted at
law a contention that tolls were not due on the whole
quantities of corn sold in the market by sample
instead of being pitched there in bulk, but in 1813
the question was finally decided against the corporation. (fn. 140) In 1837 the corporation sold the reversion of
the market-house and the tolls on the sale of all dead
stock to a local auctioneer. (fn. 141)
In the 13th century the fair may have been held
at mid-summer, for in 1324 Hugh le Despenser had
a grant of a fair on 19 June lasting 10 days. (fn. 142) In or
before 1441, when there was another grant, the
mid-summer fair was replaced by two eight-day
fairs, at the feasts of St. Matthias (24 Feb.) and St.
Bartholomew (24 Aug.). (fn. 143) The two fairs were confirmed in 1575, when a third, on 25 April, was added.
In 1605 the fair on 25 April was replaced by one on
3 May, and in 1610 additional fairs, with a court of
pie-powder, on 11 June and 29 Sept. (later called
Barton Fair) were established. (fn. 144) Those five fairs
continued, (fn. 145) their dates modified by the change in
the calendar, into the early 19th century, when there
were also two other fairs, on the second Wednesday
of April and the first Wednesday of December. In
1827 the June and December fairs were replaced,
to avoid clashing with neighbouring fairs, by 'great
markets' on the same days, and a third 'great market'
was held on the second Wednesday in August. There
were also hiring fairs on the Wednesdays before and
after Barton Fair on 10 Oct. (fn. 146) By 1870 the traditional
dates of most of the fairs had been abandoned, and
fairs were held on the second Monday of every
month except October, when Barton Fair and the
two hiring fairs were held as before, as were also
the three great markets. (fn. 147) By 1885 all but Barton
Fair had been replaced by fairs held on alternate
Wednesdays except in October. (fn. 148) In 1964 Barton
Fair survived as a pleasure fair in Barton Street,
and the others were in effect fortnightly sales. (fn. 149)
In the late 16th century the borough corporation
asked to be allowed to hold a market every Wednesday for cattle, wool, and yarn, as they had one
already for grain and other things. (fn. 150) By the end of
the 17th century markets were held on Wednesday
and Saturday, (fn. 151) and perhaps then as in the early
19th century and later the Wednesday market was
for corn and livestock, the Saturday market for
provisions. (fn. 152) In the late 19th century the main
Wednesday market lost its identity by merging with
the fortnightly fairs, and the Saturday market
dwindled away. (fn. 153) The buildings connected with the
markets are mentioned above. (fn. 154) In the early 18th
century the grain market was held in High Street
between the 'White Hart' and the 'Quart Pot', (fn. 155) but
with the growth of the practice of selling by sample (fn. 156)
the grain market moved off the open street.
Industry and trade. Not many references have
been found to inhabitants of medieval Tewkesbury
described as merchants. Only three were listed for
the taxation of 1341, (fn. 157) but those three did not include
Philip the merchant mentioned in 1348, (fn. 158) and clearly
there were others living by merchandise. John the
spicer, for example, was one of those licensed to
export corn in 1334. (fn. 159) Others belonging to the
provisioning trade included many butchers, (fn. 160) bakers,
brewers, (fn. 161) and several innkeepers. (fn. 162) Vintners mentioned in the 12th and 13th centuries (fn. 163) may have
been employed in making wine from the grapes
of the demesne vineyard, for accounts of the honor
of Gloucester included expenses on the vintner's
press and the vintner's salary. (fn. 164) In the early 16th
century many inhabitants were presented for selling
bad salt, (fn. 165) and it seems that the lord of the manor's
owning a salt-pit at Droitwich gave Tewkesbury a
share in the salt trade. (fn. 166)
The medieval clothing industry in the town is
represented mainly by the large number of references
to dyers in the 13th, 14th, and 15th centuries. (fn. 167)
Fullers had given a name to Walker's Lane by
1257, (fn. 168) and Philip the walker was sued in 1328 for
detaining a bale of cloth. (fn. 169) Tailors occur in the 14th
century, (fn. 170) and hosiers, mercers, and chapmen in the
15th. (fn. 171) The tailors' was the one trade known to have
been associated in a guild or company before the 16th
century. (fn. 172) In 1521 there was a dispute between two
inhabitants dealing in cloth in England and abroad. (fn. 173)
Tanners in Tewkesbury were recorded in the 13th
and 14th centuries, (fn. 174) and in 1386 the abbey had a
tannery (fn. 175) which was perhaps the same as the abbey's
tan-house scheduled for destruction in 1542. (fn. 176)
Various metal-workers are recorded in the town
in the Middle Ages. Apart from smiths there were a
lorimer (fn. 177) and a cutler in 1327, (fn. 178) an ironmonger in
1478, (fn. 179) and braziers who had given a name to
Braziers' Lane by the 15th century. (fn. 180) The most
frequently recorded metal-workers were goldsmiths,
who lived in the town between the mid-12th and the
mid-14th century. (fn. 181) In the 15th century two bellfounders were recorded. (fn. 182) A glasswright was
recorded in 1327 (fn. 183) and a slater in 1350. (fn. 184)
In the 16th century incidental references to
occupations tend to show the cloth and leather
trades as predominant in the town. The clothiers
and mercers included Giles Geast, who owned looms
and houses occupied by weavers, and John Geast. (fn. 185)
There are also references to dyers, cappers, many
tailors, (fn. 186) drapers, shearmen, (fn. 187) carders, card-makers, (fn. 188)
and a woolwinder. (fn. 189) The leather trades were
represented by tanners, skinners, glovers, and
saddlers, (fn. 190) but most of all by shoemakers, of whom
there were from 12 to 20 trading on their own account
at any time in the late 16th century. (fn. 191) Of metalworkers there were a goldsmith and a locksmith in
1540, (fn. 192) and a pinner in 1544. (fn. 193) Other 16th-century
occupations recorded were those of painter, (fn. 194) harper,
wax-maker, (fn. 195) chandler, bowyer, (fn. 196) and bookbinder. (fn. 197)
Only one 16th-century maltster has been encountered, (fn. 198) but the quantity of malt shipped to
South Wales in the period 1566–1602 (fn. 199) shows that
he was one of many. Some maltsters presumably
doubled as brewers; a horse-driven brewing-mill in
Quay Lane was recorded in 1540. (fn. 200) There were
presumably also more coopers than the one recorded
in 1546. (fn. 201)
The predominance of the cloth and leather trades
and the presumption that maltsters and coopers
were more numerous than the haphazard records
show is confirmed by the list of able-bodied male
inhabitants in 1608, which gave 74 men working in
cloth and clothing (including 27 tailors and 8
weavers), 63 in leather (including 28 shoemakers, 18
glovers, and 12 tanners), 14 maltsters, and 12
coopers. The metal trades were also well represented,
with 19 men, including 5 cutlers and 2 pewterers.
Two salters in 1608 recall the medieval salt trade,
and a parchment-maker, 3 paper-men, and a
stationer formed a well-defined group. (fn. 202)
Although the tailors had a form of guild by 1488, (fn. 203)
the other trade guilds seem to have originated in the
16th century and later. The arrangement of guilds
further confirms the predominance of the cloth and
leather trades. After the tailors' guild the earliest
recorded was the cordwainers', which was in existence by 1562. (fn. 204) A guild of haberdashers and mercers
existed by 1569, and one of weavers by 1575.
Other guilds, paying fee-farm rents to the
borough corporation instead of to the Crown, were
evidently established by the corporation, exercising
the function given it by its charter of 1575 of
regulating trade. A guild of whittawers, glovers,
pointmakers, pursers, and pouchmakers existed by
1579, one of coopers and joiners by 1581, one of
shearers and cutters by 1603, and one of spurriers
also by 1603. In or before 1581 (fn. 205) the drapers and
dyers, who had once been members of the tailors'
guild, formed a separate guild which was, however,
re-united with the tailors' in 1601. (fn. 206) Guilds of
butchers and bakers were recorded in 1677 and 1686
respectively, (fn. 207) and are unlikely to have been in
existence then for very long. By 1698 the organization of trades by guilds was in a muddle, and the
borough corporation attempted to reintroduce some
order. (fn. 208) In 1699 seven guilds were effective for
ceremonial purposes and provided their proper
flags for the bailiffs' procession. (fn. 209) Guilds of smiths,
recorded in 1705, and of brewers, recorded in 1743, (fn. 210)
may have been created in 1698, but even if they were
formed later at least three of the ten earlier guilds,
not counting the drapers and dyers, had ceased to
flourish by 1699. After 1743 the only guilds recorded
were the tailors' and the cordwainers': the reorganization of 1698 may have been ineffective or shortlived.
The guild of drapers, dyers, and tailors comprised
3 drapers, 3 dyers, 13 tailors, and 1 other in 1642.
There were 19 members in 1647 and 16 in 1698,
including two masters at each time, and in 1698 the
borough corporation promised not to give the
freedom to tailors from outside so long as there were
14 or more tailors trading in the town. From 1550
the guild owned two houses in High Street. In
1813 (fn. 211) the one surviving member of the guild sold
the houses and any other property for nearly £600,
for a few years earlier the guild had become a sort
of tontine when the only three members agreed to
admit no new members. (fn. 212)
The cordwainers' guild became a social club in
the early 18th century, with local gentry among its
members; it reverted to its character as a craft guild
from 1756 to 1787, and having become once again
a social club assumed c. 1840 the functions of a local
Conservative club. In that form it survived actively
until after the First World War, but in 1941 the four
surviving members dissolved the guild on the
grounds that its legitimate functions had ceased. (fn. 213)
In the late 16th century Camden noted the manufacture at Tewkesbury not only of woollen cloth but
also of 'smart biting mustard'. (fn. 214) Tewkesbury
mustard was noted for its pungency: the literary
association of Tewkesbury with mustard draws its
strength mainly from Falstaff's allusion. (fn. 215) An earlier
figurative use of the phrase 'Tewkesbury mustard',
in 1591, (fn. 216) is also slightly later than Camden's
reference. A possible hint that mustard was made in
the town in the 15th century comes from the record
of financial links of inhabitants of Tewkesbury with
grocers and spicers of London and elsewhere. (fn. 217)
'Tewkesbury mustard' became a jocular metaphor, (fn. 218)
and mustard-making appears to have left the town (fn. 219)
long before George III asked facetiously about it on
his visit there in 1788. (fn. 220) References to Tewkesbury
mustard were more allusive than informative; but it
appears to have been made from wild mustard,
pounded and made into balls the size of a hen's egg
which were sold either plain or gilt to be dissolved
in vinegar as a condiment or as a cure for ailments. (fn. 221)
Local tradition has claimed more than one place as
'the mustard factory', (fn. 222) but the manufacture is likely
to have been no more than a marginal and spasmodic
cottage industry. (fn. 223)
In the 17th and 18th centuries the woollen cloth
industry of the town declined and was largely
replaced by stocking-knitting, but the other main
industries survived: the malting trade appears to
have expanded, the manufacture of leather goods to
have declined a little, and metal-work to have
continued as a significant part of the town's industry
though on a smaller scale than textiles, malt, or
leather. Admissions to the freedom of the borough
and indentures of apprenticeship support the conclusions drawn from less concise evidence, but the
admissions and indentures are so far from complete
and so often uninformative about occupations that
they do not afford any statistical evidence. (fn. 224)
The clothing trade remained important through
most of the 18th century. The 'decay and loss of that
staple trade' described as 'a great detriment' in the
early 18th century was not a total loss. The mercers
and tailors, numerous in the 17th century, (fn. 225) continued to be numerous in the 18th. In 1773 the
signatories of a partisan petition included two
mercers and seven tailors, and no fewer than 20
weavers, (fn. 226) to whom references in earlier times are
few. (fn. 227) Other clothing trades recorded were those of
draper, haberdasher, dyer, feltmaker, and flaxdresser. (fn. 228) Both in the early 18th century and in 1774
reliable authors linked woollen manufacture with
stocking-knitting as the chief trade of the town, (fn. 229)
suggesting that there was exaggeration in the statement of 1792 that the clothing manufacture had long
since been lost. (fn. 230) That industry may have largely
disappeared from the town between 1773 and 1792,
for there is no substantial evidence of it in the 19th
century. (fn. 231)
In 1641 the first hosier was admitted a freeman,
by apprenticeship, (fn. 232) and in the sixties several hosiers
were among the many tradesmen of Tewkesbury
who issued tokens. (fn. 233) Although in the 19th century
stocking-framework knitting was said to have been
on a small scale until c. 1760, (fn. 234) it was said to be the
chief trade of the town, with cotton-working and
woollen manufacture, c. 1710, (fn. 235) and Defoe described
Tewkesbury as 'famous for a great manufacture of
stockings'. (fn. 236) That there was an increase of framework-knitting during the 18th century is nevertheless evident from the growth of the number of frames
from 50 in 1714 to 650 in 1782. (fn. 237)
The large number of maltsters in the town that
may be inferred from the frequency with which they
occur incidentally in records (fn. 238) is corroborated by
other evidence. In 1608 the borough corporation
found it necessary to make a by-law specifically
about the waste from malt-houses, (fn. 239) suggesting that
the 14 maltsters listed the same year (fn. 240) were driving a
considerable trade. In 1718 a petition for duties to
protect the malting trade claimed that the trade of
Tewkesbury consisted chiefly in malting, (fn. 241) an
exaggeration with some truth behind it. (fn. 242) In 1781
there were 45 malt-houses in the town; one had been
converted into tenements, several held stocks of malt
belonging to people who were not primarily
maltsters, and several maltsters had stocks in more
than one malt-house. (fn. 243)
The number of tanners seems to have shrunk
after the early 17th century, (fn. 244) and few records of
them have been found. In 1717, however, a petition
from the town prayed for the prohibition of the
export of bark, to protect the English tanning
industry. (fn. 245) In 1781 there were four tan-yards. (fn. 246) The
number of glovers kept high until after the mid-17th
century, (fn. 247) and four were among the token-issuers of
Tewkesbury later in the century. (fn. 248) In 1756 a glover,
Richard Allen, contracted to keep the poor-house. (fn. 249)
One glover was recorded in 1773, (fn. 250) 1781, (fn. 251) and
1820, (fn. 252) but in 1830 it was said that gloving had long
since ceased in Tewkesbury. (fn. 253) Other leather trades
recorded were those of saddler, collar-maker, and
whip-maker, (fn. 254) but much more important was shoemaking. During the 17th century, when it retained
the function of a craft guild, the cordwainers'
company had between 10 and 20 members. During
the century over 100 boys were bound apprentices
to shoemakers. The change in the character of the
guild may have reflected a contraction of the trade in
the late 17th or early 18th century, and in the period
in the 18th century when the guild regained its
original function its membership was smaller than
in the 17th century. (fn. 255) That may, however, have
resulted only from membership being no longer
obligatory, and in 1773 the shoe trade in Tewkesbury
included 6 cordwainers, 4 cobblers, 4 heel-cutters,
2 shoemakers, a currier, and a clog-maker. (fn. 256)
Metal-workers do not figure much in the records
of the 17th century, though they included a
pewterer c. 1660 (fn. 257) and a brazier in 1697. (fn. 258) Iron-mills
in Tewkesbury were conveyed in 1720, (fn. 259) and nailmaking may have been introduced by then. Nailshops by the Avon, forming Nailers Square, were
mentioned in 1781, (fn. 260) and three nailers signed the
petition of 1773. Other signatories included 5 blacksmiths, 5 whitesmiths, a cutler, and a brazier. (fn. 261) There
was a goldsmith in 1733 (fn. 262) and an ironmonger in
1756 and 1768. (fn. 263)
Metal-working and light engineering survived the
19th century in Tewkesbury when nearly all the
other considerable industries failed. In 1805 nails
were said to be made in great quantity in the
Quadrangle (fn. 264) (presumably Nailers Square), but the
industry lapsed, to be revived between 1820, when
there were no nailers in the town, (fn. 265) and 1830. (fn. 266) In
1835 nail-making employed c. 50 people, (fn. 267) and there
were 5 nail-shops in 1842, off Barton Street. (fn. 268) Thereafter the manufacture declined, and only one nailer
was recorded in 1870. (fn. 269) In the mid-19th century
there were braziers, cutlers, gunsmiths, millwrights, blacksmiths, and whitesmiths in the town. (fn. 270)
A pin factory was built by Beard & Co. in 1849 near
the bottom of High Street, but it did not last long. (fn. 271)
Another pin factory, in Oldbury, recorded in 1852, (fn. 272)
may have been the forerunner of the Oldbury
Engineering Works, recorded in 1876, (fn. 273) which until
after the First World War made fair-ground
machinery. Part of the site was in use in 1964 as an
agricultural machinery depot. In the late 19th
century and early 20th there were several engineering firms; some of them of little permanence, (fn. 274) but
others were active in 1964. There were also workshops and small factories belonging to the Dowty
Group, which during the Second World War had
established works at Ashchurch, where its production of mining equipment and seals was centred. (fn. 275)
St. Mary's Works, a chemical factory in 1870 and
1885, was an engineering works in 1897. (fn. 276) It was out
of use by 1921, (fn. 277) and in 1964 the site in St. Mary's
Lane was occupied by a car park.
Stocking-framework knitting was the chief
industry of the town in the early 19th century. (fn. 278) In
1810 there were 800 frames, in 1819 559, and in 1830
700 employing a quarter of the population. (fn. 279) In 1834
most of the women and children were said to be
employed in stocking-making. (fn. 280) In 1841, when there
were 13 stocking manufacturers, (fn. 281) Tewkesbury was
one of the chief centres of the cotton hosiery
industry, (fn. 282) but recessions and competition from
other centres slowly undermined the industry in
Tewkesbury. In 1842 220 frames were laid off
work; (fn. 283) in 1844 there were only 380 frames in use,
with 550 idle; (fn. 284) and in 1852 only 8 stocking manufacturers were recorded. (fn. 285) The number of manufacturers had dropped to 4 by 1885, and to 2,
working part-time, by 1897. (fn. 286) The trade had died
completely by the end of the First World War. (fn. 287)
One of the biggest stocking factories was off East
Street, where its buildings survived, converted
partly into dwellings, in 1964; (fn. 288) another, on the
corner of High Street and Smith's Lane, with a shaft
135 ft. high, was built in 1861, (fn. 289) and later became
first a brewery, (fn. 290) and then a garage.
Connected with the stocking industry were
factories for cotton-thread lace, silk-throwing, and
small linen articles. A lace factory was established in
the Oldbury in 1825 with good buildings and up-todate machinery; (fn. 291) it provided employment for
women and children, (fn. 292) and had c. 150 hands in
1835 when, however, the machinery had become
obsolete. (fn. 293) In 1841 there were 50 bobbin-net
machines, (fn. 294) but by 1850 the factory employed only
80 people, (fn. 295) and it closed soon afterwards. (fn. 296) The silk
factory in the Oldbury started in 1847 (fn. 297) and closed
in 1870 when the firm moved to Coventry; (fn. 298) in 1850
it employed c. 200 people. (fn. 299) A silk-finishing factory
was built c. 1840 on the site of a tan-yard on the
Avon north of St. Mary's Lane; after a few years it
became a shoe factory, the 'Halifax Works'. For
some years it was closed, and it was re-opened after
1883 by the Tewkesbury Manufacturing Co. which,
with several changes of ownership, employed c. 300
people, making collars, shirt-fronts, and wrist-bands,
until the First World War. (fn. 300) The building, known
as the Eagle Factory, was out of use in 1921. (fn. 301) By
1964 most of the building had long been in ruins;
one small part of it was used as a dress factory, and
another as the headquarters of the St. John's
Ambulance Brigade.
The leather industry also dwindled in the 19th century. Edmund Rudge, the miserly tanner who died in
1843 reputedly worth £140,000, (fn. 302) belonged to an
earlier and, for the industry, more prosperous age.
There had been still three tan-yards in 1842, (fn. 303) but
only one tanner was recorded in 1870, and none by
1885. (fn. 304) A tannery on the Avon, behind St. Mary's
Lane, which had possibly once been Rudge's, was
out of use in 1883; in 1921 it housed the electricity
works, (fn. 305) and in 1964 a boat-builder's yard. The
other leather trades also declined during the 19th
century: curriers, of whom there were 5 in 1842,
saddlers, of whom there were 3, (fn. 306) and shoemakers
became fewer. Saddlers and shoemakers survived
into the 20th century: in 1910 there were 2 saddlers
and 13 boot- and shoemakers, (fn. 307) but 19th-century
attempts to establish boot and shoe factories had not
succeeded: in addition to the short-lived shoe factory
in the Halifax Works there was in the sixties a factory
belonging to Edwin Insall & Co. behind no. 73
Church Street, (fn. 308) which had moved by the nineties
to smaller premises. (fn. 309)
Malting declined in Tewkesbury in the 19th
century, like the other traditional industries. In 1830
the malting trade was said to be considerable, but
smaller than formerly; (fn. 310) in 1842 there were still 26
malt-houses, (fn. 311) though in that year, as in 1852, only
11 maltsters were named. (fn. 312) In 1870 only two
maltsters were named, (fn. 313) and by 1919 there was only
one malt-house in the town, (fn. 314) in Station Street, the
Malt-house in St. Mary's Lane having gone out of
use since 1883. (fn. 315)
Apart from those traditional industries, there were
some smaller manufactures that were by no means
negligible. Rope-making, recorded in the late 16th
century (fn. 316) and presumably connected with the boatbuilding industry already described, was practised
in 1832 (fn. 317) and 1885, (fn. 318) and is recorded in a streetname in the Oldbury. Chairmakers, of whom there
was at least one in 1773, (fn. 319) numbered 5 in 1820 and
1842, (fn. 320) and 2 in 1852. (fn. 321) In addition to 3 hatmakers
in 1842 there were 5 makers of straw-hats, (fn. 322) and the
manufacture of straw-hats, continued until 1885 or
later. (fn. 323) There were brickworks along the left-hand
bank of the Severn; (fn. 324) the works in Mythe Hook were
in use by 1825, (fn. 325) and two brick-makers were among
those who died of cholera in 1832. (fn. 326) The last brickworks were closed in the early 20th century. (fn. 327)
In the 19th century, therefore, Tewkesbury lost
its role as a manufacturing centre. In a small way the
metal industries survived, and they expanded during
the Second World War. In 1964 light engineering
afforded much of the town's employment and
sustenance. In addition there was milling, building,
boat-building, the tourist trade, and the provision of
retail shopping and service facilities for a considerable rural area. By far the most important single
source of employment, however, for the inhabitants
of Tewkesbury were the Dowty works centred in the
neighbouring parish of Ashchurch.