ABSTRACT
Introduction The name of Cheltenham Spa has long conjured up images of colonels, spa water, leisure, festivals, the Ladies’ College and Regency architectural grandeur (Little, 1952). These images are not unfounded. Situated at the foot of the Cotswolds, its scenic surroundings have proved to be a constant source of attraction for tourists. But the current Cheltenham area of some 106,000 people (Cheltenham Policy Area, OPCS, 1981) bears only a deceptive resemblance to the picture described above. Such is the suggestive power of human artefacts. In the 1980s the locality has constituted an archetypal green-field economy in one sense, but a specific culture in another, which has depended not only upon a diverse industrial structure, but also on national state connections and on the locality’s unique ambience.The fundamental purpose of this chapter is to demonstrate how such elements have been intertwined with the ideological goals of global restructuring and Thatcherism. We also delve beneath the surface of images which have been transmitted as unambiguous symbols of the locality’s public culture. In the process we hope to trace the genesis of such images and their significance for contemporary change in Cheltenham. This involves looking at Cheltenham’s longer-term history, at the creation of its industrial structure and at the more recent changes that have transformed its economic and social contours. A key theme running through such an inquiry will be the interplay between the locality’s unique ambience and industrial restructuring, with its more global reference points. 1 School of Environmental Studies, Gloscat, Oxstalls Lane, Gloucester.
