The history of Tredworth, Gloucester.
When we think of Tredworth, Gloucester, we imagine an area enclosed by Barton Street to the north running to Stroud Rd on the
south and Eastern Avenue/Finlay Road on the east down to the junction of Tredworth Rd/Stroud Rd or Midland Road to the west
with High Street roughly at its centre. How wrong can we be? Our research has found that it once covered an area much larger.
We started with a map dated 1799. At one time Tredworth was made up of two fields known as Upper and Lower Tredworth
respectively. Upper Tredworth Field belonged to Saintbridge House and ran east to roughly the area of Conduit Street, then
known as Barton Lane, north to upper Barton and to Tuffley at its southern end. Lower Tredworth Field belonged to the
Llanthony estate. This too was a large field that joined the Upper Tredworth Field at its eastern end and west as far as the canal.
To the north it too meet lower Barton and an area on which part of the Park now sits, but then known as Little Worth. Its southern
end stretched as far as Podsmead. Of course, all of these points were outside the City limits.
The 1814 Inclosure Act awarded the Duke of Norfolk open field land in Lower Tredworth Field. Seven other people also received
land in Lower Tredworth. This Act denied people their rights to graze animals.
In the 1500s, on the slop of Robins Wood Hill, west of Saintbridge where Reservoir Rd now meets Finlay Rd, there was a
farmhouse owned by Upton St. Leonards manor called Boddenhams. It was bought by John Robins in 1619 and was known
as Starveall Farm. In 1780 the Hyett family owned it and gave it the name Tredworth Farm.
Building work in the area we now know as Tredworth started around the mid 1800s In 1837 Richard Helps laid out plans for
terraced housing in Victoria Street. In 1843 there was a turnpike in Goose Lane, but the name was changed to Millbrook St,
and prior to that building started in Ryecroft Street. A conduit ran from the reservoirs at Robins Wood Hill to feed water to
part of the city. It ran along what we now know as Conduit Street. A corn merchant named Joseph Sturge built a row of
semidetached cottages in what was to be Falkner Street. Barton Terrace became Tredworth High Street as building work
continued.
In the area that is now Wheatstone Rd, Huxley Rd and up to Hartland Rd was known as Newtown and consisted of huts
inhabited by the poor who were evicted from High Orchard. They worked or were seeking work at a local pipe factory.
Barton lane became Parkend Road and Samuel Bowly built two cottages near an old farmstead by what is now the Elim Church.
Hence the names Farm Street and Farm Mews which lead to Midland Road today.
In the 1850s, more streets were laid out for terraced houses in the High Street area. Sandy Lane became Tredworth Road.
Samuel Bowly, a cheese maker, temperance man and member of the Gloucester Mutual Benefit Building Society founded in 1852,
developed two estates in the area. The first was in 1853 and was south of Falkner Street. It was known as Barton Lane Estate and
would have encapsulated Regent Street, Brook Street and the lower part of Howard Street. The second Mr Bowly developed
was the Painswick Road Estate in 1854. It was east of High Street, boarded Sud Brook on the south and east by the railway.
The Society built several houses including a row dated 1855 in Melbourn Street, but sold most of the plots to its members.
The development of these estates was slow and only 63 houses were built by 1865. However, they introduced semidetached
dwellings and villas to the area which became known as California.
So where exactly is Tredworth? We know of Upper and Lower Tredworth Fields which were very large, the building of estates
namely Painswick Road estate, California estate, Barton estate and the Newtown, but no mention of a singular Tredworth.
Does it exist or has it ever existed? Could the name have come about by the renaming Sandy Lane to Tredworth Road?
Do you have any comment about this?