Curry & Colonels

A guided walking tour around Cheltenham and its Anglo-Indian past.
Cheltenham once called an ‘Anglo-Indian Paradise’ and the ‘Calcutta of the Cotswolds.’
Outside London, Cheltenham had the most Anglo-Indian residents in Britain.
In the nineteenth century, many military officers and British Raj administrators came to the town with their families to rest, recuperate, or retire, enjoying its pleasant climate and health-giving benefits of the waters, much-needed after the excesses of their lives in India.
As the popularity of the spa began to decline, their presence carried the town forward into a new era – many of the town’s finest villas and clubs were built for them, and the artisan dwellings for the people who served them.
Join our reenactor guide, dressed as Captain Henry Skillicorne, the man who developed the first spa in Cheltenham, as he takes you on a leisurely promenade through Cheltenham, stopping to admire the beautiful buildings, glorious gardens and sites of many of its spas.
Hear anecdotes and stories about the people who visited and lived in the town – King George III, The Duke of Wellington, Alfred Lord Tennyson, to name but a few – and explore the town’s unique connection with East India Company and the British Raj.