AA GGEEOOGGRRAAPPHHIICCAALL HHIISSTTOORRYY OOFF HHEESSTTEERR’’SS WWAAYY Updated JULY 2015 COPYRIGHT INFORMATION: Produced by DAVID EDGAR. All of my researches here may be freely used or adapted by anybody else - no acknowledgements necessary - but please note that strictly speaking this does not apply to the late Mrs Hyett’s interviews, nor to newspaper quotes, nor to unacknowledged photographs. Readers, please send comments to [email protected]. Picture: aerial view of the new GCHQ under construction c.2001. OVERALL INTRODUCTION This is a history project that’s got a bit out of hand. My own interests are geographical, especially the interpretation of maps. And also to some extent archaeological, the things that left a mark. I find it hard to get excited about ancient things unless they have left a visible mark on the modern-day landscape. Apart from my own interpretation of maps, I have brought together the scraps of lore to be found in other peoples’ works. Douglas Trapp’s “History of Arle” produced for Dowty in 1971 was the last attempt to cover the early history. Phyllis White had set herself the task of updating that text, but her researches and those of Mrs Margery Hyett were barely touched in the five volumes Hester’s Way Neighbourhood Project finally produced commencing in March 1999, The History of Hester’s Way. I should here give credit to those two individuals - and also Sheila Forrest, Aylwin Sampson and others who attended our Local History Group – for some incidental facts that I jotted down then and have included here. It’s very easy to let one document lead to another, and there seems an infinity of material available for research. But, somewhere and somehow, the research has to be condensed, written up and finalised. Otherwise, it becomes more unintelligible than the original documents:- a considerable danger. “History is (mostly) bunk.” (Henry Ford). History hasn’t stopped of course. There seems to be a strange belief that it has stopped, which permeates most local history books and, unfortunately, tends to obstruct the vital recording of recent dates and of things as they happen. I hope that I will show that it is possible to tell a story, without having to manufacture - as books often do - a melodramatic finale set in the “Good Old Days,” that era which always seems to lie one generation earlier than the date of publication! I am aware that this volume is already too large. As Sellars & Yeatman commented: “History is not what you thought. It is what you can remember.” “In between the old days and the new ways, And some other thoughts as well.” (Johnny Coppin: Midwinter) INTRODUCTION TO THE GEOGRAPHICAL HISTORY On the geographical side, I have tried to establish here a date for all our roads, and a significance for all road-names. This task has been half-completed by James Hodsdon in his An Historical Gazetteer of Cheltenham (1996). Dates throughout the text should be treated as accurate to within a year either way. Even this small task produced so much material that I have divided the text of the geographical history “Hester’s Way’s Yesterdays” into ten chapters. The chapter division itself follows simple geography, and indeed, an area with 6000 or so households inevitably is not a single entity. One researcher showed that 600-800 households define a typical “community,” and on that basis, Cheltenham would consist of 50 or more communities, and this would seem to be true. Congratulations are therefore due to the Hester’s Way Neighbourhood Project for uniting several suburbs under one (unpromising) umbrella. A note regarding the area covered, that I define as Hester’s Way. The map below shows the similarity between the area of the ancient administrative agricultural unit (the tything) known as Arle with the area of the post-War housing estate. Chapters 2.1 through to 7.2 correspond to the former administrative district known as Hester’s Way Ward. In 2001, the administrative wards were redivided, with the north of the area becoming Springbank Ward and the south of the area becoming Hester’s Way Ward (now including the areas in chapters 8.1 and 10.1). The Neighbourhood Project’s attempts to bring a sense of unity to this urban sprawl have taken a boundary that also includes chapters 9.2, 10.2, 1.1 and part of 1.2, but excludes 8.1. In the text, I apologise for the rather business-like system of numbering the paragraphs throughout the text. But it makes for much easier cross-referencing than by numbering the pages. The underlining of addresses signifies those that are still standing. I originally made little mention of inhabitants, but have now in particular tried to find out who was resident at the older dwellings in the early 1920s, by making use of electoral registers and directories. Earlier records still, such as the 1911 census return, can in due course be compared with these. This will help establish dates of construction for these dwellings, which are mostly recorded in earlier documents only by the name of their inhabitants. Paragraphs which have - in the main - already been published are here coloured violet. I have given a yellow background to text items which could have been ideal for a Volume Six. Green text in italics is for things still being researched. “Personal Reminiscences” have become another subject. Since I spoke to Ivy Grace, the potential for this type of study has become more apparent to me. I originally put all the memories I could find as an appendix, but have now merged these where possible into the geographical description. WHAT’S IN A NAME? I originally relegated the study of our old place-names to an appendix, but have now brought the subject into the main text at the appropriate locations. It’s a subject I find fascinating, but is a little technical for readers primarily interested in social history. In my text following, paragraphs numbered with a 0 and printed in dark red relate to the origins of place-names. OUR LAND Most of the geographical study is recent history, say post-1870. But that does not mean that earlier history is non-existent or hard to research. Chapters from 11 onwards are grouped together as “Our Land,” covering any subjects that interfere with the flow of the Geographical History. But in particular, it leads into the study of field-names, which I see as a linguistic and archaeological exercise. One characteristic of agricultural areas was that fields had names. In centuries gone by, fields needed names, in the absence of maps. I did try to produce a combined study, relating the old field boundaries to the present landscape, but I have opted to relegate that study to a separate supplement, as the subject became far too big. The groundwork and inspiration for “The Fields Around Hester’s Way” is in Barbara Rawes’s article in Cheltenham Local History Society Journal 6 (page 1). I did publish one field-name study, on Ashlands Meadow, in The History of Hester’s Way Vol.3 p.36. Thanks are due to Margery Hyett who, by opening her researches to the general public through the Neighbourhood Project, drew my attention to the 1834 Inclosure Act record with its field-names. I have studied the Inclosure Act in some depth at the Gloucestershire Archives. The loss of the countryside here might be regrettable. But a feel for how the area used to look, or at least how it might otherwise have looked, can be gained from a stroll through Hayden or Uckington. ABBREVIATIONS Also see the Bibliography following. Abbreviations in italics are book titles - e.r Electoral Registers 1920-2001 (for Cheltenham; these exclude Swindon Village) P.E. Way Princess Elizabeth Way G.C.H.Q. Government Communications Headquarters HWNP Hester’s Way Neighbourhood Project BGAS/TBGAS The Bristol & Gloucestershire Archaeological Society (I have used TBGAS to refer to the transaction publications, but BGAS to refer to all their other publications) MCB Manor Court Books of Cheltenham (I have used MCB to refer to the original document, but MCB in italics to refer to Hodsdon’s BGAS publication of extracts) G.R.O. Gloucestershire Archives: Barbara Rawes’ researches are at reference GLC 48030/Y114 & Y115 (Shelf) boxes 1-3 AAI Arle & Alstone Inclosure Act 1830-1835 [G.R.O. reference Q/RI41]. Numbers refer to the act's allotments. BIBLIOGRAPHY & SOURCES CLHS = Cheltenham Local History Society publications (see especially Journal articles by Phyllis White and Barbara Rawes, and Journal 5 for maps) HHW = The History of Hester’s Way Volumes 1, 2, 3, 4 & 5, edited by Chris Green. Discovering Alstone Volume 1 by Margery Hyett, David Edgar, Jill Waller and Volume 2 (How The Other Half Lived) and Volume 3 (The Ever-Changing Scene) A History of Cheltenham by Gwen Hart, page references are to the 2nd edition (1981) An Historical Gazetteer of Cheltenham by James Hodsdon Dowty History of Arle (compiled by Douglas Trapp) Cheltenham: A New History by Anthea Jones (2010) The Story of Cheltenham by Robin Brooks (2003) A Century of Cheltenham by Robin Brooks (2001) publ. W.H. Smith Cheltenham: A Biography by Simona Pakenham The Gloucester & Cheltenham Tramroad by David E. Bick (1987) Ordnance Survey maps Hester’s Way News especially nos.3-7 (Note that this refers to the newspaper published from c.1995, not to the newsletter produced from 2012) Cheltenham’s Lost Heritage by Oliver Bradbury Place Names of Gloucestershire (PNG) by Smith A Chronology of Cheltenham 200 BC – 2000 AD by Stephen Osmond Kelly’s Directories 1924-1975, and earlier: Davies’ Annuaires, Harper’s Directories and others Census returns at Cheltenham Reference Library or on Ancestrylibrary.com See also: Norman's History of Cheltenham (1863) by John Goding (and other old guide-books e.g.