The town features many notable Despensers as a family mausoleum, and the Despenser and Neville tombs are stunning examples of small-scale late medieval stonework. The Abbey once had a wooden spire, but it was unfortunately blown off in a heavy storm on Easter Monday 1559. Tewkesbury also lays claim to Gloucestershire's oldest public house, the Black Bear, dating from 1308. Another notable building is the Royal Hop Pole Hotel, mentioned in Charles Dickens's The Pickwick Papers. The historic Abbey Cottages, over 500 years old, were rescued from dereliction in the 1970s; one houses the town museum, the others are residential homes.
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