CHELTENHAM, a municipal and parliamentary borough and watering-place of Gloucestershire, England, with railway sta tions on the L.M.S. and G.W. railways. Pop. 49,385. The town is well situated in the valley of the Chelt, a small trib utary of the Severn, under the high line of the Cotswold hills to the east.
Cheltenham (Celtanhomme, Chiltham, Chelteham), an early settlement, had a church in 8o3. The manor belonged to the crown; it was granted to Henry de Bohun, earl of Hereford, in the 12th century, but in 1199 was exchanged for other lands with the king. In 1252 the abbey of Fe camp purchased the manor, and it afterwards belonged to the priory of Cormeille, but was confiscated in 1415 as the possession of an alien priory, and was granted in 1461 to the abbey of Lyon, by which it was held until once more returning to the Crown at the Dissolution, it went to the family of Dutton. The town is first mentioned in 1223, when the benefit of the markets, fairs and hundred of Cheltenham was leased to the men of the town for three years ; Henry III. renewed the lease in 1226, and in 1230 granted a Thursday market and a fair on the vigil, feast and morrow of St. James. A market town in the time of Camden, it was governed by commissioners from the 18th century till 1876, when it was incorporated. It became a parliamentary borough in 1832. After the discovery of mineral springs in 1716, and the erection of a pump-room in 1738, Cheltenham rapidly became fashionable, the visit of George III. and the royal princesses in 1788 ensuring its popularity.
The Montpellier and Pittville Springs supply handsome pump rooms in public gardens, and are the property of the corporation. The parish church of St. Mary is 14th century, but is almost completely modernized. The town, moreover, is wholly modern in appearance. A new town hall, including a central spa and assembly rooms, was opened in 1903. The free grammar school (1568) is the oldest local school. The public schools for boys (Cheltenham college 1842) and for girls (Ladies' college, Chelten ham, 1854) are very well known. A training college for teachers was founded 1846. The parliamentary borough, but not the municipal borough, includes Charlton Kings (pop. [1921] 4,3 79)