Tetbury
From Free net encyclopedia
Image:Tetbury, United Kingdom.jpg Template:GBdot Tetbury is a town and civil parish located in Cotswold (district), Gloucestershire, England. It lies on the site of an ancient hill fort, on which an Anglo-Saxon monastery was founded, probably by Ine of Wessex, in 681. The population of the parish was 5,250 according to the 2001 census.
In the Middle Ages, Tetbury became the most important market for Cotswold wool and yarn. The Tetbury Woolsack Races, in which competitors must carry a 60 pound sack of wool up a steep hill, were founded and are still contested annually.
Notable buildings in the town include the market hall, built in 1655 and the late-eighteenth century Gothic revival parish church, and much of the rest of the town centre, dating from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Other attractions include the Police Bygones Museum. Chavenage House, Highgrove House and Westonbirt Arboretum lie just outside the town.
Famous local residents
- Prince Charles, lives at Highgrove, near Tetbury
- Laurens van der Post, owned a nearby farm in the 1930s
- Brian Trubshaw, first British test-pilot of Concorde
- Anne Hooper, journalist, author and counsellor