Clearing out the office of an old colleague that passed away, just came across a lot of old newspapers and files etc, including some old notes on the building of Cheltenham. I think the notes are from the 60's or 70's and were taken from a lecture at the University of Bristol.
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Early 1700 - Small well established.
1740 - Small market town, one street - High Street.
1780 - Visit by King George III
1788 - Some of the houses on the east side of St Georges Place started. This was the first development off the High Street.
Cheltenham formed where the A46 Winchcombe to Gloucester Road crossed the River Chelt.
1800 - Some large buildings started
1801 - Population of Cheltenham '100' (larger area than the borough) Census showed 3,076 persons. 710 houses complete and 15 houses being built.
1851 - CENSUS. Population of Cheltenham Parish i.e. not Leckhampton or Charlton Kings etc. 35,062. Completed houses 6,343. It is thought that visitors and all temporary residents were included.
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That's just most of the first page. There are 17 in total all about the growth of Cheltenham, who built which buildings/roads/crescents and when, the types of architecture, how many shops there were, etc, through the 17 and 1800's.
I don't know about you lot but I find it weird to think that just 100 years before the football club that we support was born, the town was nothing more than a High Street. Just goes to show I guess that since around that time things have progressed fast in all aspects. Back then it was building and infrastructure and now it's moved on to technology.
If anyone's got an interest in this kind of thing let me know and I can scan it in and email you a copy.
Also, in other news in the notes, Joseph Pitt owned 142 acres of land in Cheltenham. He laid the first stone in 1825 as he began to extend Cheltenham to the north, and obviously Pitt-ville is named after him. A very, very rich man, I would imagine.
The History of Cheltenham
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Really? That's a hell of a lot of money. Do we know whether he just pissed it all away or just put too much into building?
Just some corrections to make to my post:
In 1805 Joesph Pitt owned 184 acres, whilst the 42 acres of Fairview were owned by 10 different owners.
Just some corrections to make to my post:
In 1805 Joesph Pitt owned 184 acres, whilst the 42 acres of Fairview were owned by 10 different owners.
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