Tetbury Trivia Some (including at one point, this website) believe St Mary's Church in Tetbury to possess the fourth highest church spire in the United Kingdom. Sadly this story is complete nonsense. One theory is that the statistic was dreamed up by workmen who were installing scaffolding around the spire, and were rather exasperated by the size of it. But it's not that big. Sir William Romney's School - at the end of Lowfield Road - used to be situated in the middle of Long Street, in the building now occupied by Romney House Doctors' Surgery. The words "Sir William Romney's School" still appear above the door. Many of the fields around the town are part of the Highgrove estate, owned by Prince Charles. Tetbury’s name is most commonly thought to derive from a religious community on the site of the present Church of St. Mary which was led by an Abbess Tetta. However it could also have come from the word Tedd which is a celtic word for an open space and Bury which is Saxon for a fortress. A gumstool was a Middle-age instrument of punishment, much like the ducking stool. It got it’s name because it was used to punish people who spoke rudely as “gummy” appears to be to be the middle-age equivalent of today’s “mouthy”. People who had offended were placed on the gumstool and probably ducked in the pond which lay at the bottom of today’s Gumstool Hill. In 1633 the town of Tetbury was sold by its then owner Lord Berkeley to four local residents who were described as the Feoffees in the legal bill of sale. This document also formalised the Thirteen, literally thirteen townsfolk to serve as elected town wardens. Today the Feoffees have charitable status owning a number of sites in and around the town and continue to run as a committee of thirteen with the four most senior as the Feoffees. Despite being founded on the wool industry and being many miles from the open sea, Tetbury’s town coat of arms features two dolphins and no-one is quite sure why. The dolphins can be seen all around Tetbury, noticeably on the weather vane on top of the Market House and the crest of Sir William Romney’s School. They first appeared on the Town’s coat of arms in the late 17th century but quite why these creatures feature in a land-locked town coat of arms remains unclear. Possible explanations involve the Romans, as a mosaic featuring dolphins was found nearby or possibly the dolphins featured in the livery of the Berkeley family who owned the area in the 16th century. There is also a story involving another local family, one of who was allegedly saved from drowning by dolphins as he crossed the Irish sea. The only truth about the origins however is that no-one knows the truth. Tetbury is near to Malmesbury, a town which has two famous sons: Thomas Hobbes, the famous 17th Century philosopher who formed the basis of almost all Western political theory since, and James Dyson, inventor of the Dyson vacuum cleaner. The flag on top of the Town Hall has to be replaced two or three times each year due to weather damage.
Tetbury Online, (c) 2006