Bishops Cleeve, Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire - Parish Church - postcard c.1970s

Postcard
• Picture / Image:  The Parish Church, Bishops Cleeve, Gloucestershire
• Publisher:  none given but probably Photo Precision (R6771)
• Postally used:  no
• Stamp:  n/a
• Postmark(s): n/a
• Sent to:  n/a
• Notes / condition: 

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Text from the free encyclopedia WIKIPEDIA may appear below to give a little background information (internal links may not  work) :

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Bishop's Cleeve is an urbanised village in the Borough of Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire, England, near Cheltenham. The village lies at the foot of Cleeve Hill, the highest point in the Cotswolds. Bishop's Cleeve has a population of 15,000 and is surrounded by many hamlets and villages. There are 3 Bishops Cleeve parish wards within the village.

Bishop's Cleeve dates back at least to the 8th century AD, though Iron Age and Roman remains have also been found. At the time of Domesday Book in 1086, about 100 people lived there. The oldest houses still standing are from the 12th and 13th centuries. The centrepiece of the village is the church, St Michael & All Angels, which has many Norman features. The tower and the nave arches were rebuilt in the 17th century when other features were enlarged.

In Saxon times, Bishop's Cleeve was called Wendlescliffe, later this name was shortened to Cliffe. The land around the village was called Timbingctun. A small Benedictine monastery was built in the village around the year 730 and Offa, the King of Mercia, granted 15 hides of land to the monastery in 770. A hide was a medieval unit of land area, which could agriculturally support one household. It was defined according to the land’s arable yield rather than an exact size. The size of the monastery’s lands thus could have been anywhere between 72 and 180 hectares. The monks were renting the land out, getting rich on their income, so much so that in 888 their monastery became a target of Danish invasion. After the invasion, in the late 9th century the monastery was given to the Bishop of Worcester and thus Bishop’s Cleeve got its current name. By the time of the Domesday Book of 1086, the estate measured 30 hides and had about hundred villagers who were farming surrounding land and grazed sheep on Cleeve Hill. The Church of St. Michael and All Angels was built on a site of an older Saxon church in 1170. The Bishop built himself a fine residence in Bishop’s Cleeve in 1215. This building still exists and was used as the Rectory after the reformation.

In 1445, a fire started in the village and many of the houses were damaged. The old timber-framed buildings, which were built after the fire can still be seen standing around the church. In the 16th century, after the dissolution of church institutions, Bishop’s Cleeve became the property of the King, who subsequently sold it to local manor lords. In 1643, during the Civil War, the Parliamentary army passed through the village of Southam, on its way to relieve the siege of Gloucester. In 1788, King George III came to Bishop's Cleeve during his royal visit to Cheltenham. In 1900 Bishop's Cleeve was a popular destination for family day's out, when Denley family opened Eversfield pleasure garden at their home and 4-acre garden in Station Road. The entrance to the swings, roundabouts and see-saws was free, visitors just had to pay for their tea. Business received a boost on 1 June 1906 when the Great Western Railway from Cheltenham to Honeybourne (now part of Gloucestershire-Warwickshire steam railway) opened a station in the village.

At the beginning of the 20th century Bishop's Cleeve had barely 400 people, but by the 2001 census this had increased to 9,944; mainly due not to the close proximity to Cheltenham, but to the arrival of major employers in Bishop's Cleeve itself. The village expanded first in the 1950s with the opening of the nearby Smiths Industries factory: many new houses were built for the workers. Bishop's Cleeve secondary school was opened in 1956. The village expanded again in the mid 1980s. A long-awaited bypass for the main A435 road was constructed in the late 1980s, and further housing was constructed around the new road. At around the same time, a large office building for Eagle Star Insurance (now part of Zurich Financial Services) was constructed alongside the old Priory building. The village used to have a police station on Cheltenham Road until it was closed in 2012, It is now being redeveloped as part of a small housing development.

Oldacres originally started the business 60 years ago.They were farmers who owned some of the land in Bishop's Cleeve. The company which W.J.Oldacre founded,used to make animal feed.They ran seven mills which are spread across the country.People who live in Bishop's Cleeve could smell the feed and hear the grinders. The large mill here had six silos. It was a highly automated business run by computers. 85% of the feed was delivered in bulk and the rest is put in sacks. Oldacres closed in the late 1990s and made way for Bishops Cleeve first major supermarket; TESCO. The new supermarket was the effect of development on the East side of the village.

Bishop's Cleeve was once served by a railway line, a relative latecomer in British railway history, opened on 1 June 1906 by the Great Western Railway and running from Stratford-upon-Avon to Cheltenham, part of a main line from Birmingham to the South West and South Wales. Bishop's Cleeve station along with almost all others on this section closed on 7 March 1960 and was subsequently demolished, but the nearby Cheltenham Racecourse station remained in operation for royal visits to the Racecourse until 1965; through passenger services continued until 25 March 1968, and freight until 1976 when a derailment (rail accident) at Broadway damaged the line.

With the damage done, It was decided not to bring the section back into use and by 1980 the entire line had been dismantled. However the 12-mile (19 km) stretch of track between Laverton and Cheltenham Racecourse had since been reconstructed, reopened and preserved as the Heritage Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway.

Bishop's Cleeve was also served, though less well, by a station, called Cleeve, on the present Birmingham to Bristol main line (ex-Midland Railway, later LMS), about 1.5 miles (2.4 km) to the west, but this station closed on 20 February 1950.

Bishop's Cleeve is bordered by the village of Woodmancote to the east, the former Great Western railway line dividing the two parishes. In November 2012, the population of Bishop's Cleeve was approximately 15,000^[1]

type=printed

city/ region=bishops cleeve

period=post-war (1945-present)

postage condition=unposted

number of items=single

size=continental/ modern (150x100 mm)