Committee Meeting - 24th April 2026
As ever, our April meeting sees us gearing up for our busiest time of the year. With attendance on our regular battlefield walks already rising as the weather improves, we are looking ahead to our anniversary walk from Tredington to Tewkesbury on 3 May. This year’s will be complemented by a pair of talks on Friday and Saturday at the Old Baptist Chapel: Claudia Zimmerman on George Duke of Clarence and Dr Michael Jones on Edmund, Duke of Somerset. Tickets are available now and are advertised on our website and Facebook page – book early as these will be very interesting events.
May will also see our popular banner choosing days in the Town Hall, scheduled for Friday and Saturday, 8 and 9 May. This comes on the heels of the display of banners we are currently mounting in the Abbey. On Saturday 19 June, we’ll be at the Elizabeth Wyatt House in Barton Street, putting the banners on their poles and on Sunday 20 June we’ll be taking to the streets to hang them. Volunteers are very welcome for either or both sessions – the more we get the quicker those banners will be up and beautifying our town.
We’re also taking part in a couple of local events showcasing the breadth of Tewkesbury’s volunteer organisations and the town’s heritage. On 13 June, we’ll be taking part in This is Tewkesbury in the Abbey, and on 21 June, we’ll be conducting a battlefield tour as part of the weekend’s Tewkesbury History Festival.
Those will lead us nicely up to the Medieval Festival on 11 and 12 July, where once again we will be sponsoring the exhibition tent to provide display space for other heritage non-profit organisations, and for a display by artist Graham Turner who continues to lend his talents to both the Society and Festival.
Momentum is building steadily on our project to create a sculpture of Queen Margaret of Anjou in the grounds of the Abbey. We’ve already been successful in securing a number of grants towards the costs, and will soon be launching a crowdfunding appeal to take donations up to 50% of the cost, at which point, the Society will pick up the other half from the funds we’ve put aside. Watch this space for more news and your chance to contribute to a new piece of public art commemorating one of the most influential women in English history who stood on the fields outside Tewkesbury on that fateful day in 1471.
And finally, we’re delighted to announce that we have been awarded this year’s President’s Award for Battlefield Interpretation by the Battlefields Trust, the national umbrella body for the preservation and study of British battlefields. The award represents many years of effort by Society members past and present, along with our partner organisations, to tell the story of the Battle of Tewkesbury and the ground on which it was fought. We’re very proud to be recognized by our peers in this way.
As always, there’s room for more Society volunteers, whether that’s as keen historian, banner painter, or just to play your part in the preservation and promotion of the heritage on our doorsteps. We’d love to hear from you…