PLACE NAME
Tewkesbury Abbey is a former Benedictine monastery in the town of Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire. The town has been a site of Christian worship since the 7thCentury when Theoc, a Saxon missionary from Northumbria, founded a hermitage there. Theoc gives his name to the area, which in Old English was called Theocsbury, the suffix -bury being the old word for a house or manor. A priory was established there in the 10thCentury, and the present day church, which has served as the local parish church since the priory’s closure in 1539, dates from the 12thCentury. It is considered one of the finest examples of Norman architecture in the country. Like many of the roads on the St Helier’s estate this is named after British monasteries and abbeys in remembrance of the area’s historic ownership by Westminster Abbey. The road names are in alphabetical order, of which Aberconway Road in the north west of the estate is first.
