Welcome to Cheltenham Local History Society

Welcome and thank you for looking at our website. Here you will find a wealth of ideas and information about the abundant and varied history of our town for you to enjoy.

The free resources available include many articles from our annual journals, a collection of local newspapers, street directories, written records, research papers, newsletters and publications. Then there is information about our projects, walks and visits, and our popular talks programme.

We are also active in the community, positively promoting local history with our input to The Wilson, our support for Gloucestershire Archives, and input to Cheltenham’s Heritage Action Plan.

Contact us

General queries about the Society, or to contact any of the committee...

Local History Enquiries

We can help with enquiries about the history of Cheltenham and its inhabitants...

Award for our sister website – Cheltenham Southtown

Our sister website, Cheltenham Southtown, has been given an award by the Library Services Trust and the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals. The Alan Ball Award 2025 is for the Runner-Up prize in the E publication category. The judges said of the website: “It contains excellent well researched…

Membership

Become a member today...

Events

Local history talks, Summer walks and visits, Local History afternoons...

Publications

The Journal, Newsletters, Chronologies and books...

Database

Newspapers, directories, transcriptions & research articles...

Resources

Library, Donated Books Shop, self-guided walks and website links...

Projects

Victoria County History (VCH), Volunteer Group, Oral History Recordings...

Schools

Local History Resources for Cheltenham primary schools...

Southtown

Our sister website with illustrated historical commentaries on shops and businesses...

Our banner image is Thomas Robins’ 1748 West Prospect of the Spaw & Town of Cheltenham and we are grateful to Alex Clark for granting permission to use it. Steve Blake’s article on page 11 of our November 2021 Newsletter explains its origins.

We are grateful to Jill Waller and Sue Rowbotham for allowing us to use views of Cheltenham from their collections.