Now a suburb, area still has a strong identity
ECHO readers this week in 1966 learned that the population of Charlton Kings was rapidly rising.
“In his annual report the medical officer of health for Charlton Kings Urban District Council, Dr Stephen Knight, states that the population was estimated to be 8,870, the largest annual increase which has taken place in the area.”
Allaying suspicions that this might be due to something in the water, the report continued: “Dr Knight states that the increase of 660 is largely accounted for by the extensive housing development which has taken place”.
The population of Charlton Kings today is about 11,500 incidentally.
The council had built a dozen homes for the elderly, the report said “as the proportion of elderly people in the community continues to become larger”, a trend as familiar today as it was then.
Other matters mentioned included a measles epidemic of the previous 12 months and that finding places to dump local rubbish was a problem. However, a solution to the latter issue was in sight.
The council was in talks with British
Rail about filling the recently defunct railway cutting between Leckhampton and Charlton Kings’ stations with locals’ refuse.
Ending the report, the council’s public health inspector and surveyor Mr Masling said that ways to improve local food hygiene were being explored.
“Some form of simple and prescribed date coding on pie wrapping to enable, at least, retailers to determine the age of the product is long overdue”.
Interesting, or otherwise, though you might find this glimpse into Charlton Kings over half a century ago, the report is a reminder that what is now a suburb of Cheltenham used to be an entity of local government in its own right.
It took 80 years for Charlton Kings to be officially absorbed into Cheltenham, although even today the village has a distinct and separate character.
In 1894, by Local Government Board order, part of the civil parish of Charlton Kings was added to Cheltenham.
Then in 1935 the County of Gloucester Review Order transferred a further section of Charlton Kings to its larger neighbour.
But until the reorganisation of local government in 1974, Charlton Kings had its own elected council and officers who met in the Urban District offices at Lexham Lodge in Copt Elm Road.
Residents paid their rates (the equiv
alent of council tax) to Charlton Kings, not Cheltenham. The Urban District Council ran its own fire service and was responsible for the maintenance of roads, street lighting, utilities and sewers.
Sewers, in particular, caused a major rift between Cheltenham and Charlton Kings.
Before mains sewers were installed, it was commonplace to empty human effluent into streams and rivers.
Charlton Kings is upstream of Cheltenham.
So the River Chelt and its tributaries, relieved Charlton Kings residents of a nuisance and a mile down the hill later presented it to the people of Cheltenham.
The problem wasn’t resolved for decades. In about 1950 Charlton Kings Urban District council produced a guide to the village, which is pictured here.
From it we learn that one of the major issues being considered by the council was whether to install electric street lighting in the village.
When Charlton Kings finally became part of Cheltenham, strong opposition was voiced by the smaller of the two communities.
The same outrage at the loss of local identity was reported by the Citizen in 1961 when a Local Government Boundary Commission recommended extending Gloucester’s official sphere to include Longlevens and Hucclecote.