PE Way construction heralded arrival of Hesters Way estate
THE picture of a lone road roller in a deserted construction site you see on this page, right, was taken in October 1951 when work had just begun on Princess Elizabeth Way.
This heralded the appearance of Cheltenham’s largest post-second World War housing estate, Hesters Way.
In the middle distance of the picture is a group of farm buildings, long disappeared, which stood about where the junction of Dormer Road is today.
By 1960 some 3,000 new homes had been built at Hesters Way in a continuation of the council’s housing programme that had been interrupted by A Hitler Esq.
Princess Elizabeth Way was the spine road for the new estate. The swathe of tarmac, which joined Tewkesbury and Gloucester Roads, was lined by Scott House, Wilson House and other purpose built flats to its dog-leg at Coronation Square.
Then the broad thoroughfare continued towards the A40.
At this junction was the enclave of single storey buildings that in wartime had been occupied by the American Forces of Supply.
In 1952 this became GCHQ when the organisation transferred to Cheltenham from Bletchley Park via a brief spell in London. Today, of course, the site is locally known as the Doughnut.
This relocation swelled the town’s population and the flats and houses at the lower end of Princess Elizabeth Way were built to accommodate GCHQ employees.
You’ll notice from the late 1950s photo of Princess Elizabeth Way, taken from the Benhall end, that there were no signs to herald the presence of GCHQ in those days.
Only in recent years has the agency allowed itself officially to be announced.
Queen Elizabeth II, then Princess Elizabeth, planted a tree at the Benhall end of the road named in her honour and the foundation stone of another estate landmark, St Aidan’s church, was laid on April 9, 1959 by the Bishop of Gloucester, the Right Rev Wilfred Askwith.
He was attended by G R Woodhams, the vicar of St. Mark’s, three parish curates, the Revs Wilkinson, Betts and Whitehead, plus the community worker Sister Mckemey.
A large congregation gathered for the open air service, wading through the building site mud to stand in the rain and sing hymns.
Copies of the parish magazine and Monkscroft school magazine were set into the mortar beneath the foundation stone.
While the new church was rising on its concrete ribs, Hesters Way worshippers met at the first St Aidan’s church, a single storey prefab affectionately known as “the hut” and erected in 1955.
As St Aidan’s was nearing completion, time was running out for another place of worship in the town centre.
The Friends’ Meeting House in Portland Street was a red brick building with lofty gables and an aptly sober facade, as you can see from the early 1960s picture here.
Unfortunately it was also in the path of the proposed North Place and Winchcombe Street link road.
Within a few years of the camera’s shutter clicking on the scene the meeting house had been reduced to rubble along with the adjacent J Sperry & Son on one side and
A A Motors used cars on the other.
St Aidan’s suffered the same fate as the Friend’s Meeting House a few years ago when it fell victim to (a) concrete cancer and (b) the demolition man’s hammer.