The town grew following the construction of Tewkesbury Abbey in the twelfth century and played a significant role in the Wars of the Roses.

The town lies on the border with Worcestershire, marked largely by the Carrant Brook (a tributary of the River Avon).

The name Tewkesbury is thought to come from Theoc, the name of a Saxon who founded a hermitage there in the 7th century, and in the Old English language was called Theocsbury.

[2][3] An erroneous derivation from Theotokos (the Greek title of Mary, mother of God) enjoyed currency in the monastic period of the town's history.

The layout of the town centre and radiating trunk roads remains largely unchanged since medieval times.

In 1965, Tewkesbury borough, Gloucestershire, was enlarged by incorporating the then-new Mitton housing estate, on land previously in Bredon parish, Worcestershire, as part of the West Midland Counties Order.

This channel represents one of the biggest projects in Tewkesbury's history, though the present weir dates only from the 1990s, replacing two sluice gates installed in the 1930s.

[10] Other notable large hostelries are the Royal Hop Pole Hotel in Church Street (which has recently been converted into a part of the Wetherspoons pub chain with the discovery of a former medieval banqueting hall in the structure), mentioned in Charles Dickens' The Pickwick Papers, the Bell Hotel, a large half-timbered structure opposite the Abbey gateway, and the House of the Nodding Gables in the High Street.

The Old Baptist Chapel, located off Church Street, is a timber-framed building, formally a medieval hall house dating to the 1480s.

Just to the west of the town is Thomas Telford's Mythe Bridge over the River Severn, a cast-iron structure with a 170 feet (52 m) span, opened in 1826.

Original stonework can still be seen on its north side; the bridge was widened in the 1950s to meet traffic requirements at the time.

The large industrial flour mill site, built in 1865 stands near the confluence of the Avon and Severn rivers, where barges were used to transport goods.

[13] The mill building facing the river is now a well-known "at risk" structure, and can be seen clearly to have sunk on one end of its foundations.

Removal of the railway embankment between Ashchurch and Tewkesbury began in 2013 to aid flood prevention in the town.

[21] A network of bus services serve the town and surrounding district, operated predominantly by Stagecoach West.

Local news and television programmes are provided by BBC West Midlands and ITV Central.

The town is served by these local newspapers:[33] Tewkesbury Borough is twinned with Miesbach in Bavaria, Germany.

[39] Tewkesbury Town has had a sister city relationship twinned with Tewksbury Township, New Jersey, United States of America since 2003 and also has ties with Stoneham-et-Tewkesbury, Quebec, Canada.

During the 1990s the relationship between the town of Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire and Tewksbury, Massachusetts was strengthened and the possibility of a formal twinning was investigated.

The relationship between these two towns resulted in the placing of the Miko Kaufman sculpture called Touching Souls at Tewkesbury Abbey.