Cheltenham is well known as the most complete Regency town in Britain. It boasts a wonderful ensemble of broad streets, handsome terraces and sweeping crescents, as well as a remarkable number of generously proportioned squares and gardens. Grand stuccoed houses of the period are adorned with fine wrought-iron balconies, and the town has an air of openness, lightness and genteel early nineteenth-century affluence. This period was certainly important in Cheltenham's development, a time when the town became firmly established as a fashionable place of residence for the better-off, all the more attractive for being less expensive than nearby Bath. Yet there is much more to Cheltenham than this. For hundreds of years it was a significant market town and trading centre for the surrounding agricultural area. This gave the town a major economic role within its region and also influenced its physical development over the centuries. Then in the eighteenth century Cheltenham's pleasant location began to entice a number of affluent people to settle here, even before Henry Skillicorne inaugurated the Cheltenham spa on his land. Cheltenham's waters were taken by many distinguished visitors including, most famously, King George III in the summer of 1788. Drinking the waters, it was hoped, might alleviate or cure the king's periodic bouts of 'madness'. The king spent several weeks in the town. He enjoyed his stay, and Cheltenham spa's fame was secured. The transformation was profound. Cheltenham's population increased tenfold in the first half of the nineteenth century, and the nature of the town changed radically, from market town to large, residential spa with a unique appeal. In the twentieth century, Cheltenham changed yet again, as the council successfully spearheaded a campaign to bring business and industry to the area. Several organisations established their headquarters here, while the establishment of GCHQ was of considerable significance. Tourism and leisure, too, are crucially important. In March each year almost 250,000 come to watch the races, while festivals and the town's other attractions draw in almost 2 million visitors each year. Cheltenham: A New History sets the town in its wider context. It describes the town's physical development, its changing social mix and character over the centuries. It is illustrated with over 280 photographs and maps, most in colour. It also covers the outlying areas of Charlton Kings, Leckhampton, Prestbury and Swindon.

Table of Contents:
Preface ix Introduction 1 1 Territory 5 The Cheltenham hundred 5 Tithing and township 8 Manors 11 Parishes 15 Boundaries 27 2 Structures 33 Townships and common fields 33 Lords of the manor 42 Cheltenham manor 42 Rectory manors 47 The manor of Charlton or Ashley 53 The manor of Redgrove 54 Lords and vills in 1316 55 Villagers 56 Free holdings 58 Burgages 59 3 Growth 61 Cheltenham in 1294 65 Relative prosperity in the fourteenth century 66 The work of the town 74 Cheltenham in 1453 76 The Military Survey of 1522 82 Reformation 86 The dissolution of the monasteries 86 Suppression of the chantries 87 Cheltenham Grammar School 90 Population in the Chantry Certificates 91 4 Transition 95 The Church after the dissolution 96 Mid-sixteenth-century enclosure 102 The 1617 survey of Cheltenham manor 106 The freeholds 108 The burgages 110 Customary tenants 111 The Copyhold Act, 1625 112 The manor houses 115 5 Commerce 127 Population in the early seventeenth century 127 Men and occupations in 1608 129 Population in the later seventeenth century 135 Political arithmetic 137 Hearths and status 140 Inside and out of doors 143 Craftsmen 146 Maltsters 147 Yeomen and husbandmen 148 The gentlemen and the gentry 150 Retailers and innkeepers 152 6 Myth 159 Population in the eighteenth century 159 The early spa 162 Thomas Robins' pictures of Cheltenham 171 Early guide books 175 Lord Fauconberg and George III 179 An unusual small town 187 The attractions of Cheltenham 192 7 Power 195 Land ownership 197 The Vestry 202 Turnpike Trusts 204 The Paving Commission 207 People and powers 207 Market buildings 210 Enclosure 212 Barriers to expansion 217 Church land and tithes 217 Cheltenham enclosure, 1801-06 221 8 Reality 227 The age of bureaucracy, 1801-21 230 The 1831 census 234 Politics 242 Expansion 246 Early nineteenth-century entrepreneurs 250 The Harwards and the Jearrads 250 The Thompsons and the Jearrads 253 Joseph Pitt 258 Dr Granville's Spas of England 263 9 Improvement 267 Public health 267 Railways 274 Cheltenham's social structure in 1851 279 Private enterprises 282 Churches 282 Schools 285 The incorporated borough 288 Social structure in the later nineteenth century 293 Occupations, 1881-1921 297 Industry 300 Housing as a social duty 304 10 Diversification 307 The Poets' estate 308 Attracting industry 312 Industrial successes 316 Social housing 321 The growth of the suburbs 327 Industrial expansion and decline after the Second World War 328 Housing after the Second World War 335 11 Ethos 343 Municipal enterprise 344 Developing the garden town 353 Leisure and cultural enterprises 358 The races 359 Theatre 362 Music 363 Festivals 366 Conservation 368 Conservation areas 368 Conversion 372 Civic pride 374 Notes and references 376 Bibliography 389 Index 394 Acknowledgements 406