Alstone Lawn

ALSTONE

The area to the north of Gloucester Road as it flows into Tewkesbury Road is called Alstone. It derives its name from the original Old English 'Aelf's tun' or farmstead. It is the site of one of the original settlements around Cheltenham. At the time of the Domesday Book, there were two mills on the river Chelt in Alstone, which was one of the tithings of the royal hundred of Cheltenham. In 1712 it was a hamlet of 30 houses.

In 1809 Mr. Smith discovered a mineral spring in the grounds of his Alstone Villa, near Upper Alstone Mill, close to what is now a junction of Millbrook Street and Great Western Road. He erected an octagonal pump there, surrounded by Jung and Schneider’s Nursery Gardens. Alstone Spa closed in 1834, although it did enjoy a brief revival in the early 1900s, when the waters were dispensed from a timbered shelter opposite the Corporation Swimming Baths.

Alstone boasted many a magnificent building which sadly has since disappeared. Alstone Lawn in Gloucester Road was a large double-bowed house, built before 1820s. Its neighbour, Alstone Lodge, was built in 1810, later remodelled in a fashionable Italianate style.

TEWKESBURY ROAD

Tewkesbury Road was turnpiked in 1726 and by 1809 it carried its present name. Artisan houses in this area were under development for much of the first part of 19th century. St. Peter’s Church was built to offer spiritual guidance to the population of this area in 1849.

The houses in this area were replaced in the latter half of the 1920s as part of the slum clearance scheme. In the 1930s Cheltenham Borough Council bought some 12 acres of orchard land at The Moors, area just south of St Peter's church from A. W. Smith in 1934 for a development of some 130 houses. Some of them were ready for occupation in 1935. Additional housing development includes Maude Elm’s Estate opposite St. Peter’s Church which was built after the Second World War.