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Tewkesbury Civic SocietyProtecting Tewkesbury's Architectural Heritage and ensuring today's developments add positively to it.
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Issues
Spring Gardens redevelopment
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The following selections from a history of the area are taken from the Historical Society’s website:
Spring Gardens, to many people, is just a huge expanse of tarmac. It has always been located adjacent to - but not quite in - the centre of Tewkesbury’s life. I am still uncertain of the location of the "spring" but, in the medieval town plan, the area was indeed used as a plot of garden land owned by the richer burgesses who lived in large houses on the three main streets. It was Tewkesbury’s medieval ‘open field’ which was enclosed in 1808-11, with land legally allotted to certain individuals.
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However, the land was soon prey to the developers of the industrial revolution and, gradually, much of the area was consumed by industrial buildings. The northern strip was consumed by the branch railway, built from Ashchurch around 1840 along with Downing’s large Malthouse. In the south, land was given in 1837 for the building of Holy Trinity Church to accommodate the spiritual needs of the growing number of working people attracted into the town’s textile industry and to Holy Trinity School to cater for their education needs. To accommodate their physical needs, immediately to the south of the railway appeared between 1833 and 1861 a housing development known as Spring Gardens. Know to locals as the "Rabbit Warren", this neglected area of housing was demolished in 1955.
Much of the remainder of the area stayed as gardens until the twentieth century with the exception of Samuel Barnes’ Almshouses, built on the Chance Street edge. However, in 1908 Thomas Walker’s Factory in Oldbury Road, then famous for building fairground machinery, was spectacularly burned down, an event which prompted Walker to build his new factory on the gardens to the north and east of Holy Trinity Church. However, it was only a short time before Walker’s death and international competition caused Walkers to go out of business. However, his site was promptly filled by Hone’s new cattle market which was opened in 1927 amidst great fanfare by the local M.P.
After World War II, the area came under the protective embrace of the historic Town Council which gradually cleared the area of buildings and replaced it with a car park. Significantly in 1968 however, it joined with the people of Tewkesbury to build a swimming pool, now known as Cascades, whilst the Lodge of Free Masons bought the former school and headmaster’s house of Trinity School.
The overall site was maximised by the demolition of the now “middle aged” Cascades swimming pool complex when it was replaced quite recently by the new Leisure Centre on Gloucester Road.
Click on image to see TBC's update.
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Tewkesbury Borough Council (TBC), the owners of the whole site, are intent on developing it. The site features strongly as a redevelopment prospect in both the Tewkesbury Town Regeneration MasterPlan (a Supplementary Planning Document (SPD)) and in the submitted Borough Plan.
Mace Consultants https://www.macegroup.com/ have been appointed by the council as its regeneration advisor. This role will involve carrying out a review of the current options for Spring Gardens, and investigating the wider town opportunities, while also considering how aspirations for the town’s regeneration can be met. The Society and other partner groups have already been involved with Mace in fact and opinion finding exercises. |
The fact that in more recent years the annual Mop Fair has overflowed into that area is not something to be considered in planning the area’s future, in our view. The Fair is important of course but in its historic street context not in Spring Gardens. The twice weekly markets are held there and desirably might continue so, but there are other town sites that could be utilized for that purpose if necessary.
There have over the years been several initiatives for this area, all of which came to nothing, including the fairly recent application by McCarthy Stone for retirement flats on part of the site (the Car Park in Station Street), withdrawn after a hostile reception. Let us hope that this latest effort meets with success.
The likely outcome will be a mixed-use development (homes and businesses) whilst retaining sufficient car-parking facility. However, it is of paramount importance in our view that there is little direct competition with businesses in the main retail area, the High Street.
There have over the years been several initiatives for this area, all of which came to nothing, including the fairly recent application by McCarthy Stone for retirement flats on part of the site (the Car Park in Station Street), withdrawn after a hostile reception. Let us hope that this latest effort meets with success.
The likely outcome will be a mixed-use development (homes and businesses) whilst retaining sufficient car-parking facility. However, it is of paramount importance in our view that there is little direct competition with businesses in the main retail area, the High Street.
