WINCHCOMB  , a

market town in the northern parliamentary division of Gloucestershire, England, 7 M . N.E. of Cheltenham . Pop . (1901) 2864 . It is picturesquely situated among the Cotteswold Hills, in the narrow valley of the Isbourne stream . The Perpendicular church of St Peter, cruciform, with a central tower, is a good example of its period . In the vicinity is Sudeley Castle, originally built by Thomas Boteler, Lord Sudeley (d . 1398) . By gift of Edward VI. it came into the hands of Sir Thomas Seymour, fourth husband of Catherine Parr; this queen died here and was buried in the chapel . The castle suffered severely at the hands of the parliamentarians in 1644, and remained ruinous until 1837, when a careful restoration was begun . There are a tower of the 14th century, and considerable remains of the 15th, the inhabited portion being mainly of Tudor date . There are flour mills, paper-works and tanneries at Winchcomb .

Excavations prove that there were both

British and Roman settlements at Winchcomb (Wincelcumbe, Winchelcumbe) . It owed its growth to the foundation of religious houses by Offa and Coenwulf of Mercia in the 8th century . It became a borough in Saxon times, was the chief town of a shire to which it gave its name, and was the seat of government of the Mercian kings . 1,Witenagemots were held there in 771 and 942 . Harold, earl of Wessex, was the first overlord . It had become a royal borough by 1087, and was granted by a charter of 1224 to the abbots of St Mary's to be held of the king by a rent of £50 . Winchcomb never received a charter and was not incorporated, but as a borough by prescription it was governed by 2 bailiffs and ro chief burgesses until the corporate body was dissolved by act of parliament in 1883 . It was never represented in parliament except by its mitred abbots before the dissolution of the monasteries . There is no trace of the original grant of a fair on July 17 (now held on July 28), but it is mentioned as already existing in a charter of 1221, which changed the market day from Sunday to Saturday . Elizabeth granted another fair on April 25 by charter in 1575 . A Tuesday market was also granted under this charter, but the Saturday market only is now held . Both the modern fairs are horse and cattle fairs, but in the middle ages they were centres of the cloth manufacture .

Tanning has been a

local industry since the beginning of the 19th century, and paper and silk factories were introduced about 1830 . Winch-comb took the side of the king in the Civil War and was twice plundered . See Victoria County History, Gloucestershire; Emma Dent, Annals of Winchecombe (1877) ; David Royce, Winchecombe Cartulary (1892) .