TETBURY, a market-town and parish in the hundred
of LONGTREE, county of GLOUCESTER, 20 miles
(S. by E.) from Gloucester, and 99 (W. by N.) from
London, containing 2734 inhabitants. The town is
pleasantly situated on an eminence at the southern
verge of the county, bordering on Wiltshire, and near
the source of the river Avon, over which is a long bridge
or causeway, leading into the main road to Malmesbury:
it consists principally of a long street, crossed at rignt
angles by two shorter ones, with a spacious markethouse
near one of the intersections. An act was obtained,
in 1817, for paving and lighting the town, the
expense of which was defrayed out of the funds in the
hands of trustees appointed in 1814, under the act
"for enclosing certain common fields and waste grounds
within the parish;' £1000 was also appropriated from
the same fund for the repair of the market house. The
poor are chiefly employed by wool staplers, and the
market was formerly noted for the sale of woollen
yarn, but the introduction of machinery has put an
end to the trade. The market is on Wednesday; and
fairs are held on Ash-Wednesday, the Wednesday before
and after the 5th of April, and July 22nd for corn,
cheese, horses, and cattle. A bailiff and a constable
are elected annually at the court leet of the feoffees
of the manor. Petty sessions for the town and hundred
are held here and at Horsley and Rodborough alternately.
The living is a vicarage, in the archdeaconry, and
diocese of Gloucester, rated in the king's books at
£ 36. 13. 4., and in the patronage of the Trustees of
Tetbury charity. The church, which is dedicated to
St. Mary, was rebuilt in 1781, in the early style of English
architecture, at an expense of £6000,"exclusively
of the old tower, which is surmounted by a fine modern
spire, the ancient church having been undermined
by a flood, in 1770; the nave is separated from the
aisles by ornamented clustered pillars, which literally
support nothing, as the principle on which the roof of
the theatre at Oxford was constructed has been applied
to this building. There are places of worship for Baptists
and Independents. A grammar school was endowed
by Sir William Romney, a native of this town,
and alderman and sheriff of London, in the reign of
James I., who bequeathed to certain trustees a lease for
years of the weights of wool and yarn, tolls, and other
profits within the town, with the proceeds of which
lands have since been purchased, and out of the rents
£40 per annum was paid to the master; but since ttie
year 1800 no payments have been made, and the affairs of
the institution are under investigation: there is a small
bequest for books, which is withheld until the school shall
be re-established. Fifteen boys are educated for a rentcharge
of £ 30, devised for that purpose by Elizabeth
"Hodges, in 1723. The Sunday school, open to all the
poor children of the parish, is supported by bequests
of £100 each from Ann Wright, in 1788, Sarah Paul,
in 1795, and Ann Gastrell, in 1797- An almshouse for
eight poor persons was founded and endowed by the
above-mentioned Sir W. Romney. In Maudlin meadow,
which belongs to Magdalene College, Oxford, and is situated
north of the town, is a petrifying spring, impreg-
liated with calcareous earth. Races were formerly held
annually on a common, about a mile eastward from the
town, but they have been discontinued, and the lands
enclosed. A castle is said to have been built here, long
before the invasion of Britain by the Romans; and
ancient British coins and fragments of weapons have
been found within the area of a camp in the vicinity, of
which all traces are now obliterated. Roman coins of
the Lower Empire have also been discovered.