Hesters Way is an area in the western part of Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, England. It is home to Gloucestershire College's Cheltenham campus (formerly Gloscat) and Pate's Grammar School. According to the last Census the district has a population of 5,605 and an average unemployment rate of 4.75% of people who are of economically active age (16-74). Hesters Way is also the generic name for a larger area which includes the council wards of Hesters Way, Springbank and some of St Peter’s and St Marks. This larger area has a population of about 15,500[1] and includes the largest social housing area in Gloucestershire. The first Anti-Social Behaviour Order in the UK is believed to have been issued by Cheltenham Borough Council (through the courts) for a resident of Hesters Way. [2]
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Hesters Way has a relatively large retail centre within it named Coronation Square which includes a supermarket, an opticians, a dental practice, a newsagent, charity shops, betting shops and a variety of fast food outlets. There is also a public library with free internet access and DVDs for hire.
It was originally built as a Wimpey no-fines council area in the 1950s and 1960s to house people working for GCHQ and local engineering companies. Changes that took place over the following thirty years adversely affected the area and reflected changes in society in general. Owner occupation, structural changes in the economy and the make up of the housing stock and subsequent housing allocations led to a concentration of relative poverty in this area of predominantly social housing.
Hesters Way has been the focus of regeneration over the last decade with a newly built community resource centre and the demolition of several blocks of council flats (most recently Pakistan House and India House) which were derelict and deemed an eyesore. They are systematically being replaced by a mix of private and housing association houses and flats.
In addition several new private housing developments are currently in progress, the largest of these being on the site vacated by GCHQ, when it moved to its new site, also located in Hesters Way.
More information about Hesters Way including text and pictures from three volumes of local history is available on the Hesters Way Neighbourhood Project website
Claims that the pupils of Cheltenham Ladies College, had coined the term "chav" (abbreviated from Cheltenham Average) as a disparaging term for people who lived in the area, form one of the several folk etymologies of the term.
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