Exhibitions

My name is Mary Davies and although I am proud to be Welsh by birth and language, I have lived in Tewkesbury for 40 years, which, I am told, well nigh makes me ‘local~. I was married to Dewi, a true son of Wales, for 39 years until his sudden death in 1993. Our son, Alun, who is married to Karen and her three sons from a previous marriage, Mathew, Steven and Adam live in Cheltenham. They are all loving and supportive of my artwork and me, as indeed, is my partner, Roger who lives near Upton-on-Severn. I have no training in Art .. indeed .. I have been strongly advised not to get any as I have my own individual style. You will see that my work is varied and complex .. dependent on mood and emotions. I have been an ardent admirer of L S Lowry for many years and it was he who inspired me to draw and cut out caricature silhouettes in black paper in 1977, that received local acclaim. I did not take up Art after that until I joined the Tewkesbury Art Society in 1990. 1 work mostly in watercolour, apart from my head and shoulder silhouettes that are now in pen and Indian ink. I have been fortunate in being accepted as a member of the Glouceatershire Society of Arts and I have recently become a member of Nature in Art’s Walsworth Art Society. I find the talks and demonstrations given by visiting artists and Art Historians fascinating and very inspiring. Although I am naturally pleased when someone wants to buy one of my paintings .. it helps to pay for the art materials .. the greatest pleasure I have is when someone tells me that they make people smile .. what better testimony could one have! I do hope you will enjoy looking at my work. Mary Davies

With memorabilia of his life in Tewkesbury, collected by his grand-daughters, Mary Blake and Delia Gaze. On Saturday, 16 April Mary Blake and her cousin, Delia Gaze were in the Museum hoping to meet townspeople who can contribute more knowledge about the life and work of their grandfather. Reginald Augustus Gaze was Mayor of Tewkesbury during all but two years of the 1930s. Having started in the dairy business in his native Cardiff and, after serving in the Great War, he moved to Tewkesbury. Before long he had moved to Gubshill Manor where he managed a branch of his father's dairy business and also ran a large farm. Managed by their elder son, Frank, Gubshill Farm developed the prize-winning Lincoln Green Herd of pedigree Friesians that, in 1930, won the coveted Shirley Cup for the highest yielding cow at the London Dairy Show. The business expanded and he established a dairy for distributing milk to the town, which was situated alongside the River Avon. Now this site is part of the garden of the Black Bear Inn.
Gubshill Manor developed as a hostelry after Mrs Gaze started selling teas to passing motorists. From this enterprising start, Mrs. Gaze went on to develop the Ancient Grudge tea rooms whilst Reg Gaze went on to own the Bell Hotel. In 1945, he sold his dairy company and the Bell Hotel and moved to Weston-super-Mare, thus ending a dynamic period of enterprise in Tewkesbury. However, it was this enterprise which was the foundation for his illustrious politic career in the Town, commencing with his election to the Council in 1928. By 1931, he had embarked on his long periods as Mayor, during which time he was appointed an Alderman and County Magistrate. Reg Gaze died in 1964 aged 73 and is buried with his wife in her village of Bentham. Mary Blake, and Delia Gaze, have collected an impressive amount of memorabilia to illustrate his two decades in Tewkesbury, but there is surely much more to learn. They look forward to meeting people who remember Reg. Gaze on 16 April at the Town Museum.