Leckhampton Court

LECKHAMPTON COURT

The earliest recorded mention of Leckhampton comes from the 8th century, as the home farm of the royal manor of Cheltenham. By the time of the Domesday Book in 1086, the settlement has been divided among three landowners. It was recorded as Lechametone and Lechantone, meaning `homestead where garlic or leeks were grown'. During the 12th century the principal manor of Leckhampton belonged to the powerful Norman family of Despenser, who were the indirect ancestors of the Spensers of Althorpe Park, including Diana, Princess of Wales. Soon after 1316 the manor was acquired by John Giffard of Brimpsfield. The old village was situated close to Leckhampton Court, one of the oldest medieval houses in Gloucestershire, now Sue Ryder Care hospice, and St. Peter's church, both built in the 14th century by Sir John Giffard, the then Lord of the Manor. Local roads are named after the families that lived in the Court - the Giffards, the Norwoods and the Tryes.

GLOUCESTER AND CHELTENHAM TRAMROAD

At the end of the 18th century, Charles Brandon Trye developed the quarries at Leckhampton Hill and in 1811 he built a horse-drawn railway to carry the stone into Cheltenham and later all the way to Gloucester Docks. Line defined by the rail road is now Leckhampton Road, which was probably built at same time as the tramway. At the Norwood, the tramway veered to follow Norwood Road.

The Gloucester and Cheltenham Tramroad also brought Forest of Dean coal from Gloucester Docks to coal sidings off Norwood Road until its route via Westal Green was closed in 1861, and became present Queen's Road and Andover Road in Tivoli.

Souvenir Handbook from 1925

LECKHAMPTON QUARRIES

Leckhampton quarries employed about fifty people and supplied stone for many local churches that were built in the 19th century as well as other local buildings. Stone transported on a plateway was used to build Shire Hall in Gloucester in 1818, and via Gloucester docks reached building sites in Bristol and other cities. Magdalen College chapel in Oxford was also built from Leckhampton stone.

Leckhampton Hill had been for centuries a place of recreation for people of Cheltenham. In 1894, the hill and quarries were bought by Henry J. Dale and he outraged the public by building Tramway Cottage on land off Daisy Bank Road that had long been the location for a fun fair each Good Friday. He also fenced off 26 acres of the hill. In March 1902 a group of protesters, 10,000 strong, tore down the fences and razed Tramway Cottage to the ground. The ringleaders were arrested and sent to Gloucester Prison. The things came to a head on Good Friday 1906. Crowds once more gathered on the slopes of the hill to tear down Dale's obstructions. The Riot Act had to be read and eight men were arrested and sentenced to hard labour. Public access to the common was assured in 1929, however, when it was bought by Cheltenham Town Council.

LECKHAMPTON RAILWAY

Leckhampton had its own railway, which is now commemorated only in street names, such as Old Station Drive. Leckhampton station opened on 1st June 1881 along with the Bourton-on-the-water to Cheltenham stretch of the Banbury and Cheltenham Direct Railway, which became later known as the Kingham line as it lead through Charlton Kings, Andoversford, Bourton-on-the-Water, Stow-on-the-Wold to Kingham. When the Newcastle - Swansea express service was introduced the station was renamed Cheltenham South & Leckhampton as some trains then didn't have to call into Cheltenham. The express ceased to run at the beginning of the Second World War and when re-introduced after the war it had been diverted away to run via Oxford. In 1952 the station was renamed again to become just Cheltenham Leckhampton. The end of the Leckhampton line came in the evening of 15th October 1962 when the last passenger train called on its return from Kingham. Goods services on the line ceased at the same time.

Leckhampton Station

Pilley Bridge, now a nature reserve, once part of the line, was one of the places which were bombed during the Second World War. On the night of 11th December 1940 the worst bombing of Cheltenham took place when approximately 2,000 incendiary bombs and over 100 high explosives were dropped, killing 23 people. Cyril Price, Cheltenham cricket player, was watching the events of that faithful night from Pilley railway bridge, when a bomb fell on it. The device exploded on the line below him, leaving Cyril unharmed. Pilley Bridge then became the last war-damaged bridge in the country to be repaired more than ten years later in 1954.

SOUTH TOWN

The area that centres on Bath Road was once called South Town. Attractive streets of South Town, a mainly artisan area to the west of Bath Road were created from about 1810 onwards. Stonemasons worked on the limestone from Leckhampton Hill, which was brought to a yard there. The pubs which served the people then survived till today: The Norwood, The Brown Jug, The Exmouth Arms, Five Alls, and The Jolly Brewmaster. Here lived the tradesmen, school teachers, stone masons, laundresses, coachmen and straw-bonnet makers.

At the centre of South Town, the area around Westal Brook remainded the only green open space within South Town at the end of the 19th century. It was the Exmouth Arms' bowling-green and pleasure ground. The pub dates back to 1816 and commemorates Admiral Viscount Exmouth's stay in the spa, after he famously suppressed notorious Barbary pirates in Algiers.