Editing Cheltenham (section)

==History==
[[File:Cheltenhammap 1933.jpg|thumb|left|Cheltenham in 1933]]
Cheltenham is located at [[River Chelt]], which rises nearby at [[Dowdeswell]] and runs through the town on its way to the [[River Severn|Severn]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=50869 |title=Chedgrave – Cheltenham &#124; A Topographical Dictionary of England (pp. 562–569) |publisher=British-history.ac.uk |date=22 June 2003 |access-date=4 February 2014}}</ref> It was first recorded in 803, as ''Celtan hom''; the meaning has not been resolved with certainty, but latest scholarship concludes that the first element preserves a Celtic noun ''cilta'', 'steep hill', here referring to the Cotswold scarp; the second element may mean 'settlement' or 'water-meadow'.<ref>R Coates, English Place-Name Society ''Journal'' 16 (1983–84)</ref> As a royal manor, it features in the earliest pages of the [[Gloucestershire]] section of [[Domesday Book]]<ref>John Morris (ed.), ''Domesday Book, 15 Gloucestershire'' (1982) p162 {{ISBN|0850333210}}</ref> where it is named ''Chintenha[m]''. The town was awarded a market charter in 1226.

Though little remains of its pre-spa history, Cheltenham has always been a health and holiday spa town resort since the discovery of [[mineral spring]]s there in 1716. Captain [[Henry Skillicorne]] (1678–1763), is credited with being the first entrepreneur to recognise the opportunity to exploit the mineral springs.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|title = Norman's History of Cheltenham|last = Goding|first = John|publisher = Longman|year = 1863|location = London|pages = 124–25}}</ref> The retired "master mariner" became co-owner of the property containing Cheltenham's first mineral spring upon his 1732<ref>at Long Ashton, Somerset on 4 January; note in family bible</ref> marriage to Elizabeth Mason.<ref name=":1">{{Cite book|title = The English Spa, 1560–1815: A Social History|last = Hembry|first = Phyllis May|publisher = Fairleigh Dickinson University Press|year = 1900|isbn = 978-0838633915|location = Madison, New Jersey|page = 179}}</ref> Her father, William Mason, had done little in his lifetime to promote the healing properties of the mineral water apart from limited advertising and building a small enclosure over the spring.<ref name=":0" /> Skillicorne's wide travels as a merchant had prepared him to see the dormant potential on this inherited property. After moving to Cheltenham in 1738, he immediately began improvements intended to attract visitors to his spa. He built a pump to regulate water flow and erected an elaborate well-house complete with a ballroom and upstairs billiard room to entertain his customers. The beginnings of Cheltenham's tree-lined promenades and the gardens surrounding its spas were first designed by Captain Skillicorne with the help of "wealthy and traveled" friends who understood the value of relaxing avenues. The area's walks and gardens had views of the countryside, and soon the gentry and nobility from across the county were enticed to come and investigate the beneficial waters of Cheltenham's market town spa.<ref name=":1" />

In 1795, Captain Powell Snell raised the First Troop of Gloucestershire Gentleman and Yeomanry ([[Royal Gloucestershire Hussars]]) at the Plough Inn (now Regent Arcade) in Cheltenham.<ref>{{Cite web |title=RGH History |url=http://www.rghya.org.uk/history.html |access-date=2025-01-09 |website=www.rghya.org.uk}}</ref> 

[[File:Thomas Gainsborough (1727-88) - George III (1738-1820) - RCIN 400935 - Royal Collection.jpg|thumb|left|upright|King [[George III of Great Britain|George III]] in the 1780s]]
The visit of [[George III of Great Britain|George III]] with the queen and royal princesses in 1788 set a stamp of fashion on the spa.<ref>Lewis 1848.</ref> The spa waters can still be sampled at the [[Pittville Pump Room]], built for this purpose and completed in 1830;<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/gloucestershire/interactive/interactive_map/cheltenham/pitville.shtml|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081215144940/http://www.bbc.co.uk/gloucestershire/interactive/interactive_map/cheltenham/pitville.shtml |archive-date=15 December 2008|title=One of Cheltenham's finest – the Pittville Pump Room }}</ref> it is a centrepiece of [[Pittville]], a planned extension of Cheltenham to the north, undertaken by [[Joseph Pitt]], who laid the first stone 4 May 1825.<ref>Lewis, 1848.</ref>

Cheltenham's success as a spa town is reflected in the railway station, still called [[Cheltenham Spa railway station|Cheltenham Spa]], and spa facilities in other towns inspired by or named after it.<ref>For example, the Cheltenham Baths at [[Ossett#Spa]], see [http://www.larkshill.org.uk/ossett_spa.html History of Ossett Spa] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081121050738/http://www.larkshill.org.uk/ossett_spa.html |date=21 November 2008 }}</ref>

[[Alice Liddell]] and [[Lewis Carroll]] were regular visitors to a house in Cudnall Street, [[Charlton Kings]] – a suburb of Cheltenham. Alice Liddell's grandparents owned this house, and still contains the mirror, or looking glass, that was purportedly inspired for Lewis Carroll's novel ''[[Through the Looking-Glass]]'', published in 1871.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.cotswolds.info/places/cheltenham.shtml|title=Cheltenham Tourist Information Guide|work=cotswolds.info}}</ref>
[[File:A. R. Quinton, The Promenade, Cheltenham.jpg|thumb|The Promenade, Cheltenham (postcard 1918) by [[A. R. Quinton]]]]
Horse racing began in Cheltenham in 1815 and became a major national attraction after the establishment of the [[Cheltenham Festival|Festival]] in 1902.<ref>{{cite web |title=History |url=https://www.cheltenhamfestival.net/subcategory/guide/history/ |publisher=Cheltenham Festival |access-date=26 October 2019}}</ref> The racecourse attracts tens of thousands of visitors to each day of the festival each year,<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.sportingchronicle.com/blogger/2007/07/cheltenham-festival-attendance-figures.html|title=Sporting Chronicle: Cheltenham Festival Attendance Figures 2005|publisher=Sporting Chronicle|access-date=4 February 2014}}</ref> with such large numbers of visitors having a significant impact on the town.

In the [[Second World War]], the [[United States Army Services of Supply]], European Theatre of Operations established its primary headquarters at Cheltenham under the direction of [[John C. H. Lee|Lt. Gen. John C. H. Lee]], with the flats of the Cheltenham Racecourse<ref>{{cite web|url=http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cheltenham.racecourse.arp.jpg|title=Cheltenham Racecourse|work=wikimedia.org|date=17 June 2006 }}</ref> becoming a giant storage depot for countless trucks, jeeps, tanks and artillery pieces. Most of this material was reshipped to the continent for and after the [[Normandy landings|D-Day invasion]]. Lee and his primary staff had offices and took residence at [[Thirlestaine Hall]] in Cheltenham.<ref>{{cite web |title=Thirlestaine Hall, Thirlestaine Road Concept Statement |url=http://www.cheltenham.gov.uk/download/downloads/id/2307/thirlestaine_hall_thirlestaine_road-concept_statement |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150412075511/http://www.cheltenham.gov.uk/download/downloads/id/2307/thirlestaine_hall_thirlestaine_road-concept_statement |archive-date=12 April 2015 |access-date=4 April 2015}}</ref>

The first British jet aircraft prototype, the [[Gloster E.28/39]], was manufactured in Cheltenham. Manufacturing started in [[Hucclecote]] near Gloucester, but was later moved to Regent Motors in Cheltenham High Street (now the Regent Arcade), considered a location safer from bombing during the Second World War.