Fighting for Charity

The White Tiger Martial Arts academy based in Tewkesbury, have just donated over £1000 to the Midlands Air Ambulance. The money was raised after the chief instructor, Paul Wanklyn 6th Dan organised for the students to compete in 100 rounds of sparring.

The charity was chosen after one of the students, Mr Christopher Purnell suffered a cardiac arrest during training. He has thankfully gone on to make a speedy recovery thanks partly to the quick arrival of the Midlands Air Ambulance where he received critical care after the instructors had performed CPR.

Mr Wanklyn praised all of the students taking part and also the parents who donated to the final amount. He said, without the contributions from the public, the service would not be able to provide the critical care provided to those that need it when they are most vulnerable. We are pleased that we can make a small difference to the charity.

Railways

In happier times the sign was heraldic from the Middle Ages, when it was paired with the Black Bear which possibly in the 19th century were both owned by Alexander John’s Brewery – the intervening estate is also “Twixt Bears” or that reason.

In this age, the pub has suffered just too many inundations, yet a local businessman wishes to learn from its history to restore it somehow to a viable future.

The White Bear was firstly named as a licenced inn in 1854 when local magistrates started to grant permission as is recorded by the late Brian Linnell in his invaluable History of Tewkesbury Pubs - he listed 127 establishments in the Town at different times.

The pub was sold in 1864 just after the Malvern railway was built which intruded on its land. As well as being a public house, it possessed the outbuildings of a farm some of which were demolished in World War II, sparing the barn which has done good service during and after lockdown.

Older readers will remember when it hosted meetings and dinners for local societies like

Darts teams, the “Buffs” and one of the last meetings was hosted Sir Raymond Priestley in 1954. There is possibly an apocryphal story of intrepid drinkers insisting on play “water-pool” during the devastating 2007 floods.

A local businessman reports: “At present a local brewer, Inferno Brewery, is managing to make some use of the premises, but only on a temporary and irregular basis under a short-term goodwill only arrangement.

“The site continues to require substantial refurbishment following the previous flood damage and then more regular use to generate the required revenue to recover the refurbishment expenditure and the future ongoing maintenance.“