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The volume describes the history of Tewkesbury and 22 other parishes lying mainly between the Severn and Bredon and Cleeve Hills. Tewkesbury itself was once an important centre for communications, manufacture, trade, and administration; its great abbey church remains, and the many timber-framed houses recall its past prosperity. Bishop's Cleeve had a monastery in the 8th century and later became a demesne manor of the Bishop of Worcester. There was an early minster church at Beckford, and at Deerhurst a Saxon monastery with a remarkable church that is still in use. At Forthampton part of the Abbot of Tewkesbury's manor-house survives. There were also substantial lay estates, not only the great manor of Tewkesbury, long owned by the Earls of Gloucester, but also those of lesser baronial families, like the Beauchamps, Pauncefoots, and Cardiffs. The land, once densely wooded, has mostly long been agricultural,though in Corse and Tirley parts of the former chase were not inclosed until 1797, and there were large sheep-pastures in the hills. Prestbury was becoming residential by the late 18th century and later on engineering works stimulated the growth of other places in the area.

THE Victoria History of the Counties of England has been in progress for 70 years and has recently seen the publication of its 150th volume. The General Introduction provides a conspectus of all that has been published up to and including 1970, with a bibliographical survey, lists of the contents of each volume, and indexes of the titles of articles and of authors. It opens with an account of the origin and progress of the Victoria History, from its confident beginning at the close of Queen Victoria's reign, through its quiescence between the two World Wars, to its renewed vigour and expansion under the wing of the University of London and with the support of Local Authorities.

The History of Parliament - The House of Commons 1558-1603 contains 2.668 biographical articles and 241 constituency articles. The biographies include many of the powerful political figures of Elizabeth's reign such as SirWilliam Cecil, Sir Robert Dudley, Sir Amias Paulet, Thomas Sackville and Sir Christopher Hatton, as well as the middling figures like Laurence Tomson and Richard Topcliffe, the 'parliament men' Thomas Norton and William Fleetwoodand the firebrand Peter Wentworth.

"All writers of Elizabethan history shall now refer to these biographies for the most reliable information about the leaders of the Elizabethan polity who served out their time in the Commons" declared the British Book News on the first publication of this three volume set.