Cheltenham (/ˈtʃɛltnəm/) is a spa town and borough on the edge of the Cotswolds in Gloucestershire, England. Cheltenham became known as a health and holiday spa town resort following the discovery of mineral springs in 1716, and claims to be the most complete Regency town in Britain.[3]
Cheltenham stands on the small River Chelt, which rises nearby at Dowdeswell and runs through the town on its way to the Severn.[6] It was first recorded in 803, as Celtan hom; the meaning has not been resolved with certainty, but latest scholarship concludes that the first element preserves a Celtic noun cilta, 'steep hill', here referring to the Cotswold scarp; the second element may mean 'settlement' or 'water-meadow'.[7] As a royal manor, it features in the earliest pages of the Gloucestershire section of Domesday Book[8] where it is named Chintenha[m]. The town was awarded a market charter in 1226.
Though little remains of its pre-spa history, Cheltenham has been a health and holiday spa town resort since the discovery of mineral springs there in 1716. Captain Henry Skillicorne (1678–1763), is credited with being the first entrepreneur to recognise the opportunity to exploit the mineral springs.[9] The retired "master mariner" became co-owner of the property containing Cheltenham's first mineral spring upon his 1732[10] marriage to Elizabeth Mason.[11] Her father, William Mason, had done little in his lifetime to promote the healing properties of the mineral water apart from limited advertising and building a small enclosure over the spring.[9] Skillicorne's wide travels as a merchant had prepared him to see the potential lying dormant on this inherited property. After moving to Cheltenham in 1738, he immediately began improvements intended to attract visitors to his spa. He built a pump to regulate the flow of water and erected an elaborate well-house complete with a ballroom and upstairs billiard room to entertain his customers. The beginnings of Cheltenham's tree-lined promenades and the gardens surrounding its spas were first designed by Captain Skillicorne with the help of "wealthy and traveled" friends who understood the value of relaxing avenues. The area's walks and gardens had views of the countryside, and soon the gentry and nobility from across the county were enticed to come and investigate the beneficial waters of Cheltenham's market town spa.[11]
The visit of George III with the queen and royal princesses in 1788 set a stamp of fashion on the spa.[12] The spa waters can still be sampled at the Pittville Pump Room, built for this purpose and completed in 1830;[13] it is a centrepiece of Pittville, a planned extension of Cheltenham to the north, undertaken by Joseph Pitt, who laid the first stone 4 May 1825.[14]
Cheltenham's success as a spa town is reflected in the railway station, which is still called Cheltenham Spa, and spa facilities in other towns that were inspired by or named after it.[15]
Alice Liddell and Lewis Carroll were regular visitors to a house in Cudnall Street, Charlton Kings – a suburb of Cheltenham. This house was owned by Alice Liddell's grandparents, and still contains the mirror, or looking glass, that was purportedly the inspiration for Lewis Carroll's novel Through the Looking-Glass, published in 1871.[16]
The Promenade, Cheltenham (postcard 1918) by A. R. Quinton
Horse racing began in Cheltenham in 1815, and became a major national attraction after the establishment of the Festival in 1902.[17] Whilst the volume of tourists visiting the spa has declined, the racecourse attracts tens of thousands of visitors to each day of the festival each year,[18] with such large numbers of visitors having a significant impact on the town.
In the Second World War, the United States Army Services of Supply, European Theatre of Operations established its primary headquarters at Cheltenham under the direction of Lt. Gen. John C. H. Lee, with the flats of the Cheltenham Racecourse[19] becoming a giant storage depot for countless trucks, jeeps, tanks and artillery pieces. Most of this materiel was reshipped to the continent for and after the D-Day invasion. Lee and his primary staff had offices and took residence at Thirlestaine Hall in Cheltenham.[20]
The first British jet aircraft prototype, the Gloster E.28/39, was manufactured in Cheltenham. Manufacturing started in Hucclecote near Gloucester, but was later moved to Regent Motors in Cheltenham High Street (now the Regent Arcade), considered a location safer from bombing during the Second World War.
Cleeve Hill, overlooks the town and is the highest point in the county of Gloucestershire and the Cotswold Hills range, at 1,083 feet (330 m).
The town is near the northeastern edge of the South West of England region being 88 miles (142 km) west-northwest of London, 38 miles (61 km) northeast of Bristol and 41 miles (66 km) south of Birmingham.[21]
Parts of the town has green belt along its fringes, and this extends into the surrounding Tewkesbury district, helping to maintain local green space, prevent further urban sprawl and unplanned expansion towards Gloucester and Bishop's Cleeve, as well as protecting smaller villages in between. West of the Greenfield Way and Fiddlers Green Lane roads, along with much of the open space up to the Civil Service Sports Ground, as well as the Cheltenham Racecourse and surrounding green park, along with St Peter Leckhampton parish church and Brizen Playing Fields/Haven and Greenmead parks along the south of the borough, are covered.
Cheltenham Borough Council is the local authority for Cheltenham; it is split into 20 wards, with a total of 40 councillors elected to serve on the borough council. Since 2002, elections have been held every two years with half of the councillors elected at each election.
Administrative history
Cheltenham was an ancient parish.[22] Until 1786 it was administered by its vestry, in the same way as most rural areas. The vestry was supplemented by a body of unelected improvement commissioners in 1786 known as the Paving and Lighting Commission, initially charged with paving, lighting and repairing the streets, which later gained other powers including providing a watch and setting standards for new buildings. The commissioners were reformed in 1852 to be partly-elected and were eventually replaced in 1876 when the town was incorporated as a municipal borough.[23]
As with the vast majority of the British Isles, Cheltenham experiences a temperate oceanic climate (Cfb in the Köppen climate classification). It has warm summers and cool winters. The town held the British maximum temperature record from 1990 to 2003—temperatures reached 98.8 °F (37.1 °C).[26] The absolute minimum is −4.2 °F (−20.1 °C), set during December 1981. During a typical year, 145.6 days will report at least 1 mm of rain, and some 42.2 nights will record air frost.
A number of design agencies and businesses are located in the town. Weird Fish was founded in Cheltenham. The multinational design house Meri Meri has its European headquarters in Cheltenham. SuperGroup plc, owner of the Superdry label, has its headquarters in Cheltenham.
The unemployment rate in Cheltenham was 2.7%[31] in 2010 compared to the UK national unemployment level of 7.9%.[32] The average GVA per head in Cheltenham was £21,947.27 in 2011[31] compared to the national average of £26,200.[33]
In 2012, The Guardian found that, at the end of 2011, 41 multi-millionaires lived in Cheltenham, which was the fourth-highest rate in the UK of multi-millionaires per 100,000 people at 35.44.[34]
According to the Office of National Statistics, employment in Cheltenham has decreased in comparison with the previous year. Cheltenham's employment rate was higher than across the South West as a whole in the year ending September 2023. The employment rate remains now at 81.3%, for ages 16-64. Unemployment (people looking for work) has risen since a year earlier. The most recent unemployment rate for Cheltenham was about the same as across the South West as a whole.[35]
The town is known for its Regency architecture and is said to be "the most complete regency town in England".[36] Many of the buildings are listed, including the Cheltenham Synagogue, judged by Nikolaus Pevsner to be one of the architecturally best non-Anglican places of worship in Britain.[37]
The Cheltenham Art Gallery & Museum, also called The Wilson, hosts a programme of art exhibitions running throughout the year. The Wilson was named after polar explorer Edward Wilson, who was born in Cheltenham.
In 2014, many of the town's historic cultural and leisure buildings were put under the control of The Cheltenham Trust,[39] a charity set up to manage and develop the buildings on behalf of the town. Along with The Wilson, the Trust now manages the Town Hall, the Pittville Pump Room, the Prince of Wales Stadium and Leisure @, a large fitness and swimming complex. A volunteer board of Trustees controls the Trust.[40]
The Cheltenham Paint Festival[41] attracts hundreds of mural artists from dozens of countries worldwide and is a highlight of the Gloucestershire arts calendar[42]. In 2014, a piece of graffiti by street artist Banksy appeared next to a telephone box in a residential street in Cheltenham. The graffiti depicted three men in trench coats and dark glasses apparently listening in to calls made in the telephone box.[43] In 2016, it was removed – possibly destroyed – ahead of the sale of the house on which it had been painted.[44]
Cheltenham features several sculptural artworks of note, including:
Neptune's FountainThe mechanical clock in the Regent Shopping Arcade, designed by Kit Williams. The distance from the duck to the fish is 14 metres.
Neptune's Fountain in the Promenade, built in 1893 and designed by Joseph Hall[45]
The Hare and the Minotaur, also in the Promenade, created in 1995 by Sophie Ryder[46]
A life-size bronze of an Emperor Penguin by Nick Bibby and placed in the foyer of The Wilson art gallery and museum in 2015[47]
The Wishing Fish Clock in the Regent Shopping Arcade, unveiled in 1987 and designed by Kit Williams
In 2010, Cheltenham was named the UK's fifth "most musical" city (sic) by PRS for Music.[48]
Musicians Brian Jones, guitarist and founding member of the Rolling Stones, and Michael Burston, nicknamed 'Würzel' of Motörhead were both born in Cheltenham, with Jones buried in the town's crematorium following his death in 1969. [49] Other Cheltenham-born musicians of international renown include Gustav Holst,[50] for whom there is a dedicated museum and a monument in the town, and FKA Twigs.[51]
History
The collection's of the Cheltenham Art Gallery & Museum include decorative arts from the era of the Arts and Crafts Movement. The collection enjoys National Designation by the Arts Council of England.[52]
The Holst Birthplace Museum contains personal belongings of the composer of The Planets, including his piano. It also includes a working Victorian kitchen and laundry, Regency drawing room and an Edwardian nursery.
The Cheltenham Civic Society has been responsible for erecting commemorative plaques in the town since 1982: blue plaques to celebrate well-known people and green plaques to celebrate significant places and events.
Several other cultural festivals, including the Cheltenham International Film Festival, Cheltenham Paranormal Festival, the Cheltenham Design Festival, Cheltenham Folk Festival, Cheltenham Poetry Festival, The True Believers Comic Festival and Cheltenham Comedy Festival are separately organised but also attract international performers and speakers. A more local event, the Cheltenham Festival of the Performing Arts (formerly Cheltenham Competitive Festival) is a collection of more than 300 performance competitions that is the oldest of Cheltenham's arts festivals, having been started in 1926.
Two sporting events are also routinely described as the "Cheltenham Festival" or "the Festival": the Cheltenham Cricket Festival, which features Gloucestershire County Cricket Club, and National Hunt racing's Cheltenham Festival.
In 2021 the Cheltenham 7s festival began and is held at the end of July each year at the Newlands Rugby club opposite the main GE Aviation (ex Smiths Industries site) works between Southam and Bishops Cleeve. It is a festival of 7s sport, which includes Netball, Rugby, Dodgeball and Hockey amongst others and incorporates drinking and musical acts over the weekend to compliment the sport.[54]
Film and television
Cheltenham has played host to and featured in a number of film and TV series:[55][56]
Cheltenham has four theatres: the Everyman, the Playhouse, the Bacon and the Parabola Arts Centre.
Demography
According to mid-2021 population figures published by the ONS, the population of Cheltenham stood at 118,866, making it the second largest settlement in Gloucestershire by population, after the city of Gloucester.[58]
Ethnicity and religion
According to the 2021 census, the population ethnicity breakdown is as follows:
There are numerous Protestant and Catholic churches throughout the town, and a Hindu Temple and a Mosque can also be found in the northern area of the town near St Pauls.[59][60][61]
Crime and public safety
In 2013, Cheltenham was named one of the safest towns for university students to live in the UK by the Complete University Guide.[62]
Based on data from 2023-2024, Cheltenham was described by CrimeRate.co.uk as "the safest major town in Gloucestershire", although its crime rate was 55% higher than the county's overall average.[63]
The most famous school in the town, according to The Good Schools Guide, is Cheltenham Ladies' College (founded in 1853).[69][70]Dean Close School was founded in 1886 in memory of the Reverend Francis Close (1797–1882), a former rector of Cheltenham.[71] The town also includes several campuses of the University of Gloucestershire, two other independent and six other state secondary schools, plus institutions of further education.
The town's football teams are the professional team Cheltenham Town F.C., who play in the Football League One, and semi-professional sides Bishop's Cleeve, who play in the Hellenic League Premier, Cheltenham Saracens F.C. in the Hellenic League Division One and more recently Montpellier Football Club, founded in 2021 by Liam Bond and Sam Collier and currently boasting a senior first team, a development team and a newly founded women's team.
The town has one golf course, Lilley Brook, in Charlton Kings.
Cheltenham has one of the largest croquet clubs in the country, and is home to the headquarters of the national body of the sport, the Croquet Association. The East Glos tennis, squash and women's hockey club, which was founded in 1885, is also located in the town.
Sandford Parks Lido is one of the largest outdoor pools in England. There is a 50 m (164 ft) main pool, a children's pool and paddling pool, set in landscaped gardens. Sandford Parks Lido is the home of Cheltenham Swimming and Water Polo Club. In 2021, Cheltenham Borough Council gave Sandford Parks Lido a new 35-year lease to continue operating the lido.[75]
Cheltenham Festival is a significant National Hunt racing meeting,[76] and has race prize money second only to the Grand National. It is an event where many of the best British and Irish trained horses race against each other, the extent of which is relatively rare during the rest of the season.
The festival takes place annually in March at Cheltenham Racecourse. The meeting is often very popular with Irish visitors,[77] mostly because of that nation's affinity with horse racing, but also because it usually coincides with St. Patrick's Day, a national holiday in celebration of the patron saint of Ireland.
Large amounts of money are bet during festival week, with hundreds of millions of pounds being gambled over the four days.[78] Cheltenham is often noted for its atmosphere, most notably the "Cheltenham roar", which refers to the enormous amount of noise that the crowd generates as the starter raises the tape for the first race of the festival.
Transport for Wales operates services between Cheltenham Spa and South Wales, usually running through to Maesteg via Gloucester, Chepstow, Newport, Cardiff Central and Bridgend.
The Cheltenham Spa Express, once known as the Cheltenham Flyer, is a named passenger train connecting Cheltenham with London. The former Cheltenham Flyer was, for a time, the fastest passenger train in scheduled service in the world.[81]
At its peak, the town had eight railway stations,[82] only one of which survives. It is a matter of local controversy that trains are not run directly to London but instead via Gloucester; although routes do exist for a direct and therefore much faster service, as demonstrated during 2023 when a bridge closure in Oxfordshire led to some services to Hereford stopping at Cheltenham.[83]
Cheltenham is adjacent to the M5 motorway, between Bristol and Birmingham. Junction 10 serves the north of the town, via the A4019; junction 11 links to the south, via the A40 which continues towards Oxford and London.
National Express operates a number of coach services from Cheltenham including route 444 to London and Heathrow Airport. Before becoming part of National Express, Cheltenham was a major hub for Black and White Coaches, with routes throughout the country, many of which formed a mass exodus through the town at 14:30 each day.
The first parish church is Cheltenham Minster, St Mary's, which is the only surviving medieval building in the town. As a result of expansion of the population, absorption of surrounding villages, and the efforts of both evangelical and Anglo-Catholic missions, the town has a large number of other parish churches,[85] including Trinity Church and All Saints', Pittville, where the composer Gustav Holst's father was the organist.
The town has three rings of bells hung for change ringing. One is located in St Mark's Church - a ring of 8 bells, with the heaviest being some 16cwt. These were originally a ring of 5 bells cast at John Taylor of Loughborough in 1885, extensively overhauled and augmented in 8 in 2007.[87] Another is at St. Christopher's (Warden Hill), the lightest ring of church bells in the world.[88] The other is a ring of 12 bells hung in St. Mary's Church (the Minster). These were the venue in 2008 for the eliminators of the National 12 Bell Striking contest, in which teams of campanologists from around the world compete to win the Taylor Trophy. In 2017 the old ring of 12 was completely replaced with new bells cast by John Taylor & Co. The tenor bell is just over a ton in weight, and the new ring also includes a thirteenth bell, a sharp 2nd, to provide a lighter 8. The towers in the locality of Cheltenham belong to the Cheltenham branch of the Gloucester & Bristol Diocesan Association of Church Bell Ringers.
Twin towns
A fingerpost in Cheltenham Township, Pennsylvania, highlighting Cheltenham as the "Official Twin." The signpost points to other cities in the world named "Cheltenham".
^ abGoding, John (1863). Norman's History of Cheltenham. London: Longman. pp. 124–25.
^at Long Ashton, Somerset on 4 January; note in family bible
^ abHembry, Phyllis May (1900). The English Spa, 1560–1815: A Social History. Madison, New Jersey: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press. p. 179. ISBN978-0838633915.
^Greenbelt moved away in 2014 due to redevelopment at the Racecourse; there is no commitment to return."Home - Greenbelt". Archived from the original on 5 November 2016. Retrieved 2 April 2014. and emails to supporters, March 2014)
^Geake, Simon. "Crossroads". SimonGeake.co.uk. Archived from the original on 13 August 2016. Retrieved 13 August 2016. After the in-story destruction of the motel by fire, the revamped motel was filmed from 1982 at The Golden Valley Hotel in Cheltenham; from 1985 filming moved to the Penns Hall Hotel (now Ramada Jarvis Birmingham) in Sutton Coldfield, the changed appearance explained as being due to rebuilding.
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