The Chronicle of Tewkesbury records that the first Christian worship was brought to the area by Theoc, a missionary from Northumbria, who built his cell in the mid-7th century near a gravel spit where the Severn and Avon rivers join.

[3] In 1087, William the Conqueror gave the manor of Tewkesbury to his cousin, Robert Fitzhamon, who, with Giraldus, Abbot of Cranborne,[4] founded the present abbey in 1092.

[5] Building of the present abbey church did not start until 1102,[2] employing Caen stone imported from Normandy and floated up the Severn.

The abbey's greatest single later patron was Lady Eleanor le Despenser, last of the De Clare heirs of FitzRoy.

[8] The victorious Yorkists, led by King Edward IV, forced their way into the abbey; the resulting bloodshed caused the building to be closed for a month until it could be purified and re-consecrated.

At the dissolution of the monasteries, the last abbot, John Wakeman, surrendered the abbey to the commissioners of King Henry VIII on 9 January 1539.

Insisting that it was their parish church which they had the right to keep, they bought it from the Crown for the value of its bells and lead roof which would have been salvaged and melted down, leaving the structure a roofless ruin.

[30] A semitone bell[30][31] (Flat 6th) and extra treble[32] were also cast by Taylor of Loughborough in 1991 and 2020 respectively, making a total of 14 available for change ringing.

Tewkesbury Abbey Schola Cantorum is a professional choir of men, boys and girls based at Dean Close Preparatory School and sings at weekday Evensongs as well as occasional masses and concerts.

The choir was then re-housed at Dean Close School, Cheltenham, and renamed the Tewkesbury Abbey Schola Cantorum.

However, in more recent times there has been an acknowledgement of the value of less solemn worship, and this is reflected in the two congregational services offered on Sunday mornings.

A said Eucharist also takes place every day of the week, at varying times, and alternating between traditional and modern language.

Each summer since 1969 (with the exception of 2007 when the town was hit by floods) the abbey has played host to Musica Deo Sacra, a festival combining music and liturgy.