Nineteenth-Century Cheltenham

             Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, England was situated on a large plain protected on the north and east by the Cotswold Hills. It was less than ten miles northeast of the county seat, Gloucester, in the southwest region of England and experienced a temperate climate with cool summers and mild winters.[1]

            Prior to the 1832 marriage of William Hobbs and Ann Owen, Cheltenham had grown from a royally chartered market town into a thriving tourist destination. [2] Over the previous hundred years numerous mineral springs had been discovered and several enterprising capitalists built spas, promenades, and other places of resort to entice wealthy visitors. The spas offered "warm, cold, medicated, and vapor baths furnished with all the requisite appendages" required by those seeking to benefit from the healing waters. Cheltenham became a place well-appointed with libraries, concert halls, and luxury homes. It was a charming city with beautiful architecture, paved streets, and gas lights by the time of William and Ann's marriage. Gentry, and the laborers that supported them, were drawn to Cheltenham by its sophisticated atmosphere. Cheltenham was easily accessible to tourists as the "Birmingham and Bristol railway had one of its principal stations there." During the temperate seasons the number of visitors in Cheltenham swelled its population, at times, by fifty percent.[3] As a result of these favorable conditions, the population of Cheltenham grew from 15,870 in 1821 to 43,666 in 1861.[4]

Download image for full zoom capability

            In contrast to areas of the city that enjoyed broad tree-lined streets leading to relaxing promenades in beautiful gardens, William and Ann lived on Rutland Street in 1841.[5] Then after William's 1846 death, Ann lived on Park Street which, despite its name, had no amenities for the privileged.[6] It was located just off High Street—the main market street (see areas of interest highlighted on map image).[7] It was comprised of tightly packed burgage plots with tenement housing meant to accommodate large numbers of poor laborers who flocked to the city in search of employment.[8] Despite the remarkable development of Cheltenham, areas crowded with poor laborers were often overlooked when it came to constructing the adequate infrastructure that was needed to supply fresh water and drain sewage. The residents had little means to pay the taxes that would support the work. However, during a country wide cholera epidemic in 1832, Park Street and others like it were the targets of a concentrated effort by resident doctors and the local Board of Health to remedy unsanitary conditions. "In the poorest streets houses were lime-washed; the privies, cesspools, and dry wells [were] emptied and purified with lime." Because of these efforts Cheltenham was spared from much of the epidemic's devastation.[9]

           

            Sixteen years later, these neighborhoods still needed attention and suffered because warring jurisdictions would not compromise their agendas or authority in order to make necessary improvements. A government official was finally summoned from London to investigate the problems. The resulting inquiry report recorded the following conditions found in a list of twenty streets that included Park and Rutland:

Streets not well cleansed; dirty, unventilated lodging-houses letting accommodation at threepence a night for a bed, and sometimes allowing four or five persons in one bed; tenement houses with insanitary yards and the inevitable pig-sties…some of the lodging-houses in the poorer areas were in a pestilential condition…The river Chelt was polluted with sewage from the town.[10]

           

            It took four more years before compromise and cooperation would prevail enough to reach an agreement to apply for a Parliamentary bill to consolidate the "conflicting jurisdictions of the last century." The Improvement Act passed in 1852 and granted Cheltenham its first opportunity for "self-government." Finally, the critical water and sewer systems would be upgraded for the benefit of the Ann Hobbs family and all residents of Cheltenham. [11]

            Despite the difficult circumstances of the environment, the general health of even the poorest class was good. Aside from the wealthy upper-class residents of Cheltenham, the population consisted of "farmers, gardeners, builders, laborers and shopkeepers." These sturdy people thrived in the clean air of Cheltenham as there was no industrial plants in the area. They ate garden vegetables and meat they raised in their small plots—bacon and mutton were in especially abundant supply.[12] The numerous taverns and public houses advertised in city directories illustrated the prevalence of home-breweries.[13] Ale and cider were the principle source of drinks.[14]

---

[1] Samuel Lewis, ed., “Chedgrave - Cheltenham,” A Topographical Dictionary of England, (London: S. Lewis and Co., 1848),  562-569. British History Online, (www.british-history.ac.uk accessed: 22 September 2014). 

[2] Church of England, Diocese of Gloucester (Gloucestershire, England), "Bishops Transcripts for the Diocese of Gloucester, 1813-1909," A-Ch 1832, FHL microfilm #394303, BYU HBL Family History Library, William Hobbs-Ann Owen marriage, 6 March 1832. 

[3] Lewis, A Topographical Dictionary of England, 562-569. 

[4] Great Britain Historical Geographical Information System, University of Portsmouth, "Cheltenham District Through Time," population statistics, A Vision of Britain through Time (www.visionofbritain.org.uk accessed: 23 September 2014). 

[5] 1841 England Census, Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, Civil Parish Cheltenham, ED 15, p. 61, digital image, Ancestry.com (www.ancestry.com accessed 18 October 2013). William Hobbs household indexed as Halls. 

[6] 1851 England Census, Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, civil parish Cheltenham, ED 1w, digital image, Ancestry.com (www.ancestry.com  accessed 18 October 2013), Ann Hobbs household. 

[7] “This Plan of the Town of Cheltenham, and Its Vicinity,” Map, (Bristol: Bristol and Gloucestershire Archaeological Society, 1997), BYU Harold B. Lee Library, G 5754 .C4 1834 .M47x. 

[8] Brian S. Smith, A History of Bristol and Gloucestershire, (Chichester, Sussex: Phillimore, 1982), 44, BYU Harold B. Lee Library, DA 670 .G5 S62 1982; Gwen Hart, A History of Cheltenham, (Leicester, England: Leicester University Press, 1965), 195-6, BYU Harold B. Lee Library, DA 690 .C48 H3. 

[9] Gwen Hart, A History of Cheltenham, 283-4. 

[10] Gwen Hart, A History of Cheltenham, 324. 

[11] Gwen Hart, A History of Cheltenham, 325-7. 

[12] Gwen Hart, A History of Cheltenham, 169. 

[13] "Cheltenham and Neighbourhood, Gloucestershire," Pigot's Directory of Gloucestershire, 1830, transcription of names and occupations, GENUKI (www.genuki.org.uk accessed 28 October 2014). 

[14] Gwen Hart, A History of Cheltenham, 169.