Tewkesbury Abbey

Tewkesbury Abbey was founded as the church of a Benedictine monastery in 1102 by nobleman Robert Fitz-Hamon and consecrated in 1121 by the Bishop of Worcester., The Abbey was built of local Cotswold limestone, which scientific research shows was quarried at nearby Cleeve Hill. At the time of the dissolution - when Henry VIII closed England's monastaries and destroyed many of the buildings associated with them - the Abbey was made up of a large variety of buildings., Tewkesbury's was one of the last monasteries to be closed, in 1540. The Abbey church was saved, except for the Lady Chapel, by the people of the town who paid £483 for it, the value of the lead on its roof. Almost everything else was demolished on the King's orders, but part of the Abbey's original boundary wall still survives and can be seen in the Victoria Gardens., Sales of the monastery's former property in the town provided economic growth and many properties were repaired, improved, or rebuilt. Many houses in Tewkesbury date from the late 16th century.