TEWKESBURY

town (parish), Tewkesbury borough, administrative and historic county of Gloucestershire, England, at the confluence of the Severn and Warwickshire Avon rivers. A small Benedictine abbey was founded in 715 on the site of the present Abbey Church of St. Mary's. The later medieval abbey was consecrated in 1123 and rebuilt after a fire in 1178; considerable additions were made in the 15th century. At the time of the dissolution of the monasteries (153639), the choir, transepts, and square Norman tower of the abbey were purchased by the townsfolk, but much of the remainder of the building was destroyed. The feudal earls of Gloucester made Tewkesbury a free borough in the 12th century, and the royal charter of liberties granted in 1698 remains in force. In 1471, during the Wars of the Roses, the Battle of Tewkesbury was an important Yorkist victory. Among buildings of architectural interest is the Black Bear (1308), perhaps the oldest inn in Gloucestershire; another inn, the Hop Pole, is mentioned in The Pickwick Papers by the 19th-century novelist Charles Dickens. Tewkesbury, reputedly famous for mustard in William Shakespeare's day, is a centre for boating and angling, especially on the slow-flowing Avon. The town's main industries are flour milling, engineering, and boatbuilding. Pop. (1991) 9,488. borough (district), administrative county of Gloucestershire, England, north of the city of Gloucester. Most of the borough belongs to the historic county of Gloucestershire, but the villages of Teddington and Chaceley and the surrounding areas belong to the historic county of Worcestershire. The borough covers mainly low-lying land along the River Severn but extends east into the northwestern reaches of the Cotswolds. The borough is predominantly rural and has 54 parishes, the largest of which is the town of Tewkesbury. The borough adjoins and very nearly surrounds both Gloucester and the borough of Cheltenham. The M5 motorway passes through the borough. Area 160 square miles (414 square km). Pop. (1998) 74,500.