Tetbury
Tetbury is a small town and civil parish within the Cotswold district of Gloucestershire, England. It rests on the site of an old hill ft, on which an Anglo-Saxon abbey was founded, most likely by Ine of Wessex, in 681. The population of the parish was 5,250 in the 2001 census, enhancing to 5,472 at the 2011 census. During the Middle Ages, Tetbury became a vital market for Cotswold wool and thread. The Tetbury Woolsack Races, started 1972, is an annual competition where participants have to bring a 60-pound (27 kg) sack of wool backwards and forwards a high hill (Gumstool Hill). The Tetbury Woolsack Races occur on the "late May Bank Holiday", the last Monday in May annually. Notable buildings in the town consist of the Church House, Market House, integrated in 1655 and the late-eighteenth century Gothic revival parish church of St Mary the Virgin and also St Mary Magdalene and much of the remainder of the town centre, dating from the sixteenth as well as seventeenth centuries. The Market House is a fine example of a Cotswold pillared market residence and is still in operation as a meeting place and also market. Other destinations include the Police Bygones Museum. Chavenage House, Highgrove House and Westonbirt Arboretum lie just outside the town. Tetbury has actually won 5 successive Gold awards in the Regional "Heart of England in Bloom" competitors in 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010 as well as was group champion "Best Small Town" in 2008, 2009 and 2010. In 2010 Tetbury was Overall Winner of Heart of England in Bloom and also won a Juries Discretionary Honor for Community Achievement. Tetbury won Silver Gilt as a first-time entrant in the National Britain in Blossom Campaign in 2009 and a 2nd Silver Gilt in Britain in Bloom in 2011. The Tetbury community crest includes 2 dolphins.
