Tewkesbury [key], town (1991 pop. 9,454), Gloucestershire, W central England, on the Avon River near its junction with the Severn. Once noted for mustard production, its main industries are boatbuilding, flour milling, and engineering. The site was occupied c.715 by a monastery, refounded in the 12th cent.; it became one of the richest and most widely renowned Benedictine abbeys in England. The church, completed in 1123, is an impressive ruin, with a noteworthy west front. At “Bloody Meadow,” south of the town, Edward IV in 1471 defeated the Lancastrians in the Wars of the Roses.
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