Rowanfield is a

neighbourhood A neighbourhood (Commonwealth English) or neighborhood (American English) is a geographically localized community within a larger town, city, suburb or rural area, sometimes consisting of a single street and the buildings lining it. Neighbourh ...

Cheltenham Cheltenham () is a historic spa town and borough adjacent to the Cotswolds in Gloucestershire, England. Cheltenham became known as a health and holiday spa town resort following the discovery of mineral springs in 1716, and claims to be the mo ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

. It consists primarily of a

social housing Public housing, also known as social housing, refers to Subsidized housing, subsidized or affordable housing provided in buildings that are usually owned and managed by local government, central government, nonprofit organizations or a ...

estate of Wimpey no-fines houses and low-rise flats, built around 1953, with Rowanfield School and a

playing field Play is a range of Motivation#Intrinsic and extrinsic, intrinsically motivated activities done for recreation. Play is commonly associated with children and juvenile-level activities, but may be engaged in at any life stage, and among other high ...

to the West separating it from Hesters Way and also the older Rowanfield Road to the East. To the south-west Rowanfield borders the district of St Mark's. Rowanfield is located 1.5 miles west of the centre of Cheltenham.

History

Until the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, the area between Brooklyn Road and Rowanfield Road was an

orchard An orchard is an intentional plantation of trees or shrubs that is maintained for food production. Orchards comprise fruit tree, fruit- or nut (fruit), nut-producing trees that are generally grown for commercial production. Orchards are also so ...

primarily producing

cider apple Cider apples are a group of apple cultivars grown for their use in the production of cider (referred to as "hard cider" in the United States). Cider apples are distinguished from "cookers" and "eaters", or dessert apples, by their bitterness or ...

s. All the names of the avenues were named after the counties of England (except ''Cambridge Avenue'' and ''Bedford Avenue'', presumably since ''Cambridgeshire'' and ''Bedfordshire'' were considered too long). There is a grass square on Norfolk Avenue (at times known as ''Norfolk Square'' or the nickname of the "green") in the middle of the estate where the council put up swings and a roundabout. These were taken away sometime in the 1950s after complaints of misuse late at night. Cheltenham's King George the Fifth playing field is set to the west of the estate. The road layout has a geometric style typical of planned social housing.

Facilities

Rowanfield has a small collection of local shops known as Rowanfield Exchange, located near the northern end of Devon Avenue. It includes a

fish and chip shop A fish and chip shop, sometimes referred to as a chip shop or chippy, is a restaurant that specialises in selling fish and chips. Usually, fish and chip shops provide takeaway service, although some have seating facilities. Fish and chip shop ...

, newsagent,

Launderette A self-service laundry, coin laundry, or coin wash, is a facility where clothes and some household textiles are washed and dried without much personalized professional help. They are known in the United Kingdom as launderettes or laundrettes, ...

and

bookmaker A bookmaker, bookie, or turf accountant is an organization or a person that accepts and pays out bets on sporting and other events at agreed-upon odds In probability theory, odds provide a measure of the probability of a particular outco ...

. The

pub A pub (short for public house) is in several countries a drinking establishment licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption on the premises. The term first appeared in England in the late 17th century, to differentiate private ho ...

opposite (at the time ''Cotterills Bar'', named after the manager of Cheltenham Town Football Club and boldly decorated in the club's colours, previously ''The Golden Miller'') was demolished in 2004 and is now small flats.

Political

Rowanfield falls within the Cheltenham parliamentary constituency and the local council ward of ''Rowanfield and St Marks''. Prior to

Brexit Brexit (, a portmanteau of "Britain" and "Exit") was the Withdrawal from the European Union, withdrawal of the United Kingdom (UK) from the European Union (EU). Brexit officially took place at 23:00 GMT on 31 January 2020 (00:00 1 February ...

in 2020, it was in the South West England European Parliament constituency.

Other information

Around half of the houses in Rowanfield are owner-occupied as of 2006; the remainder are owned by the

local authority Local government is a generic term for the lowest tiers of governance or public administration within a particular sovereign state. Local governments typically constitute a subdivision of a higher-level political or administrative unit, such a ...

, Cheltenham Borough Council. Council-owned no-fines houses benefitted from the installation of clearly visible external insulation panelling and improved ventilation to address perceived disadvantages with the no-fines construction.

References

{{Coord, 51, 54, 10, N, 2, 6, 10, W, scale:10000, display=title Areas of Cheltenham Housing estates in Gloucestershire