4Hotels.co.uk: Cheltenham Spa - More Than Just A Racecourse Town!

GLOUCESTERSHIRE, ENGLAND, March 12, 2011 (Press-News.org) Everyone has heard of the Cheltenham Festival - the 4 day extravaganza of horse racing that takes place every year in March - but did you know there are four other festivals that Cheltenham is world renowned for, as well as it being a town made famous by its architecture and numerous other points of historical interest?

Situated on the edge of the Cotswolds, in the south-west region of England, Cheltenham is a wealthy spa town which became a health and holiday resort in 1716 when mineral springs were discovered. The spring waters are the only consumable alkaline waters in Great Britain and are still taken to this day at the Pittville Pump Room, a splendid example of Regency architecture of which Cheltenham is richly blessed. In fact, Cheltenham has been described as "the most complete regency town in England," the Cheltenham Synagogue being one of many other notable buildings that have Listed status.

Lansdown Crescent is a typical example of the Regency style, being a convex terrace constructed in the 1830s that lies opposite Lansdown Court, an Italianate villa, while the wealthy district of Montpellier is home to a number of bars, restaurants and specialist shops, as well as Regency properties hitting the one million pound mark. There are a number of Cheltenham hotels in the Montpellier area that you can see at http://www.4hotels.co.uk/uk/cheltenham.html

Montpellier Terrace is also noted as being the birthplace of Edward Adrian Wilson, one of the five explorers' in Scott's ill-fated party that reached the South Pole on January 18, 1912. Wilson has been described as Scott's closest companion on the expedition to Terra Nova and in fact when their frozen bodies were discovered a year later by a search party, Scott was found lying with his arm across Wilson's chest.

Other famous Cheltenham-born figures include Gustav Holst composer of The Planets, actors Sir Ralph Richardson, Robert Hardy and Mark Lester, The Rocky Horror Show's Richard O'Brien, and founding member of the Rolling Stones Brian Jones, as well as WW2 hero Arthur 'Bomber' Harris, and a certain Eddie 'The Eagle' Edwards, the first competitor to represent Great Britain in Olympic ski jumping.

Cheltenham is also famous for its exclusive all-girls school, an "academic hothouse" labelled the most exclusive in the whole country. Cheltenham Ladies College for girls aged 11-18 was founded in 1853 and boasts artist Bridget Riley, actress Kristen Scott Thomas, and fashion designer Katherine Hamnett amongst its former pupils, as well as Lady Mary Archer wife of author Jeffrey.

But back to the horses, and Cheltenham first came under "starter's orders" for racing in 1815, with the instigation of the Cheltenham Festival in 1902, and the rise in popularity of the Cheltenham Gold Cup to become one of the world's most prestigious events in the horse racing calendar.

Although some 67,000 'punters' descend upon the local 'Cheltonians' in their droves with millions to spend on horse racing bets during the 4-day Gloucestershire festival, the celebrations of jazz, literature, music and science are just as popular and attract a combined audience of 126,000 throughout the year during their individual days of speciality.

The Cheltenham Music Festival was founded in 1945 featuring the likes of Sir Peter Maxwell-Davies and Kathryn Tickell; The Literature Festival in 1949 (the longest-running literature festival in the world) with luminaries such as Ruth Rendell, Sir Richard Attenborough, and Ian Rankin; The Jazz Festival in 1996 with artists such as Ornette Coleman, Herbie Hancock, and Jamie Cullum, and The Science Festival in 2002 which has had Richard Dawkins, Richard Hammond and Robert Winston to the podium.

Of course, if all that sounds like far too much culture, then one can simply unwind in front of the mechanical masterpiece, The Wishing Fish Clock, said to be the tallest clock in the world. Situated in the Regent Arcade Shopping Centre, it weighs three tons and has a 14 metre-long mechanism. It was designed by inventor Kit Williams and built by famous clockmaker Michael Harding in 1987, and "chimes" every hour to the sound of 'I'm Forever Blowing Bubbles' accompanied by a 12-foot fish which indeed does blow bubbles.

With a quarter of a million people visiting the clock, and thousands flocking to the horses and other festivals each year, the town of Cheltenham Spa could really be said to be a place to get the pulses racing! You can find a hotel in Cheltenham at http://www.4hotels.co.uk/uk/cheltenham.html