A Cheltenham high-street firm, at the same address for fifty years.
Christopher Davidson Solicitors LLP. Founded in 1976 by Bill Davidson, a commercial lawyer trained in the City, to be near the head office of one Cheltenham client. That client is still on our books. Today the firm runs as three partners and five associates from 2-3 Oriel Terrace, a short walk from the Promenade. Conveyancing accredited by the Law Society's CQS scheme. Wills and probate led by a STEP-qualified partner. Employment law led by a longstanding member of the Employment Lawyers Association. Cyber Essentials certified.
Four lines of work. The same solicitor on every file.
A high-street firm with the breadth a 50-year town-centre practice needs and the discipline to keep each file with one named fee-earner. Each line below is led by a named partner or solicitor, not a pooled inbox.
01 · Residential conveyancing
CQS-accredited, fixed-fee conveyancing for Cheltenham and Gloucestershire.
Sale, purchase, transfer of equity, remortgage, freehold and leasehold, new build. Fixed fee from £1,500 + VAT on a straightforward registered-land transaction; an itemised £250,000 example comes to £1,908 in total legal fees. Indicative timeline 8 to 12 weeks. The Conveyancing Quality Scheme is the Law Society’s senior practice-management standard for conveyancing firms; the badge is audited and renewed. Sue Priston, Julie Leake, Martin Priest and Philip Ryder share the files.
£1,500fixed legal fee, the most straightforward transaction £1,908 total legal fees on a £250,000 worked example
Request a quote›02 · Wills, probate and STEP-grade private client
A will written once, reviewed when life changes. Probate sat with the same solicitor for years.
Wills, Lasting Powers of Attorney (property and finance, plus health and welfare), straightforward and contentious probate, estate administration, Inheritance Tax planning. Headed by Steven Felts, who holds the STEP Diploma in Trusts and Estates. Contentious-probate work the firm handles in-house: Inheritance Act 1975 claims, proprietary estoppel claims, capacity disputes, donatio mortis causa claims, and the rest of the categories that most high-street firms refer out. Claire Ellis runs the non-contentious side from her own desk.
STEPfull member, Society of Trusts and Estate Practitioners Contentious probate handled in-house, not referred out
For employees facing a difficult exit. For employers who want to stay out of the tribunal.
Unfair dismissal, settlement agreements, restrictive covenants, tribunal representation, day-to-day HR advice for SMEs. Headed by David Bloxham, a longstanding member of the Employment Lawyers Association who joined Christopher Davidson in November 2016 after thirty years in private practice. The same solicitor advises individuals and employers; the firm does both sides of the practice, although never on the same matter.
ELAEmployment Lawyers Association Settlement agreements often turned the same week
Request a quote›04 · Commercial property, litigation, charity law
Leases, M&A, civil and commercial litigation, IP, defamation, charity-sector work.
Commercial leases (landlord and tenant), business contracts including M&A and corporate property finance with Keith Ellis. Civil court litigation, tribunal disputes, intellectual property, licensing, defamation and charity-sector work with David Mason, who is a member of the Charity Law Association. For the original 1976 corporate client of Bill Davidson, the firm has run the commercial-property and litigation files for fifty years; that client is still a client today.
50yrsoldest client still on the firm’s books Member, Charity Law Association
1976 to 2026, on the same hundred metres of Oriel Road
1976, CWS Bill Davidson, City-trained commercial lawyer, opens the firm in central Cheltenham.
Bill Davidson set the firm up in 1976 specifically to sit near the head office of one Cheltenham client. The firm has moved across the road once in fifty years and remains a few hundred yards from the original address. That first client is still on the books.
The current partnership formed when the firm was incorporated as an LLP at Companies House on 13 January 2010 (number OC351476). Keith Ellis and David Mason were among the founding designated members. Steven Felts joined them as a partner in 2012, two years after the LLP filing and five years after his qualification at the firm. Both Keith and Steven trained here directly, from trainee through to partner. Sue Priston joined the conveyancing team in 1986 and is still on the front line forty years later.
Most of the practice today is repeat clients and referrals from the Cheltenham and wider Gloucestershire catchment. We have only briefly stretched into work the firm cannot do well. The shape of the practice has stayed deliberate: conveyancing, wills and probate, employment, and the commercial property and litigation files that have run on some of the older client relationships for decades.
“Keith was able to clearly explain how much it would cost, what was happening and what the next steps would be. We have settled into our business premises in the knowledge we have a fair lease and we can't thank Keith and the whole team at Christopher Davidson Solicitors enough.”
Managing Director, ReformIT · commercial lease, Cheltenham
The team behind the practice
Five associates and the conveyancing desk that has been here since 1986.
Beyond the three partners, the practice runs on a small group of named solicitors and a conveyancing desk that has been continuous since the 1980s. Each person below has their own files, their own first-name email, and answers their own phone.
Associates
Five solicitors. Each runs their own desk.
David BloxhamSolicitor · Employment
Qualified 1985. Joined the firm in November 2016 after 30 years in private practice. Longstanding member of the Employment Lawyers Association. Currently Chairman of Cheltenham Town Football Club.
Sussex (LLB), Bristol (LPC). At the firm since 2013. Handles the non-contentious side of the private-client practice alongside Steven Felts: wills, Lasting Powers of Attorney, straightforward probate.
Joined in December 2024 with two decades of City property partner experience. Residential and commercial property, leasehold enfranchisement, property finance and development.
Joined November 2025. Midlands-trained, formerly director and co-founder of a multi-practice conveyancing firm. Freehold, leasehold, new build, transfers of equity, remortgages.
Forty years continuous on the conveyancing front line.
Sue PristonConveyancing Executive
At Christopher Davidson since 1986. Forty years on the residential conveyancing front line in central Cheltenham. Freehold and leasehold sales, purchases, remortgages, transfers of equity.
Joined February 2022. Previously in-house at a Gloucestershire house builder. First-time buyers, Help to Buy, retirement-home purchases, freehold and leasehold transactions.
What a fixed-fee CQS-accredited conveyancing file looks like at Oriel Terrace.
Most regional firms publish a “from £” conveyancing scale. We publish the worked example before you ask. Below: the legal fee, the disbursements, the timeline, and what is and is not included.
Freehold residential purchase · worked example
A £250,000 home, registered land, with mortgage. Total legal fees: £1,908.
ItemAmount (inc VAT at 20%)
Legal fees (registered land, most straightforward)£1,800.00
Electronic money transfer fee£42.00
E-conveyancing fee£36.00
Bank transfer for Stamp Duty payment£30.00
Total legal fees£1,908.00
Typical disbursements (search fees, Land Registry fee, AML checks)around £501
Stamp Duty Land Taxon top, per your circumstances
What this fee covers. All the legal work to complete the purchase, including the Land Registry application and Stamp Duty payment. We work to a fixed legal fee, not an hourly rate. Additional charges only apply for genuinely unusual situations (defective title, unregistered land, missing building permissions, new-build complexity, expedited exchange). Indicative timeline 8 to 12 weeks from instruction.
Law Society · Conveyancing Quality SchemeCyber Essentials · 2024 mark
Two accreditations that matter to a conveyancing file
CQS is audited. Cyber Essentials matters because we exchange six-figure sums.
The Conveyancing Quality Scheme is the Law Society's senior practice-management standard for conveyancing firms; member firms are audited on file procedure, anti-fraud measures, lender requirements and client communication, and have to renew. Cyber Essentials covers the email-and-money side: the conveyancing exchange-of-funds risk profile is the most prospect-facing fraud vector in residential practice in 2026, and an audited certification is the right answer to it.
The boardroom · 2-3 Oriel TerraceWhere wills are signed, leases negotiated, and settlement agreements turned the same week.
Send a written enquiry
Tell us briefly what you need a quote on. We come back the same working day.
The form below reaches the office. The right named solicitor will reply from a first-name email address with a written quote and a realistic timetable. There are no hidden fees and no hourly billing on conveyancing, wills or LPA work.
Reply by close of the same working day, Monday to Friday.
Park· pay-and-display on Oriel Road and Wellington Street; Bath Parade public car park is about 200 metres away
Walk from· the Promenade (5 minutes), Imperial Gardens (4 minutes), Cheltenham Town Hall (6 minutes)
2-3 Oriel Terrace, Oriel Road, Cheltenham, Gloucestershire GL50 1XP. Off the Promenade, behind the Imperial Gardens.Open in Google Maps ↗
When we answer
Monday to Friday, working hours. By appointment for first meetings.
Monday to FridayOffice working hours · phone and email answered
Saturday and SundayOffice closed · email triaged Monday morning
First meetingsBy appointment, so a partner can meet you at reception
Out-of-hoursCompletion-day calls coordinated with your fee-earner directly
Snickers, Head of Internal Security. The office dog is the longest-serving non-human at 2-3 Oriel Terrace. The team have published her in the staff directory for years. Tell us in advance if you would rather not be greeted by her, and we will keep her in the back room.
Five questions worth answering before you instruct.
How much will conveyancing on a Cheltenham purchase cost?
Our legal fee is fixed at the start of the file, not billed hourly. For the most straightforward registered-land transaction the legal fee is £1,500 plus VAT. On a worked £250,000 freehold purchase, total legal fees come to £1,908. Search disbursements are itemised separately; on the same £250,000 example, disbursements come to around £501 (search fees, Land Registry fee, anti-money laundering checks). Stamp Duty Land Tax sits on top, calculated against your circumstances. We send a written quote within the same working day, and there are no last-minute disbursement surprises.
Will the same solicitor handle my file from instruction to completion?
Yes. Files are kept with one named fee-earner. On the residential conveyancing side, Sue Priston, Julie Leake, Martin Priest and Philip Ryder each take their own files. On wills and probate, Steven Felts and Claire Ellis do the same. On employment, David Bloxham handles his own files. The person you speak to on the first call is the person whose name will be on the engagement letter, the SDLT return, the AP1 to the Land Registry and the call to the lender on completion day.
What is STEP, and why does it matter for a will or probate file?
STEP is the Society of Trusts and Estate Practitioners, the international professional body for inheritance and succession lawyers. Full membership requires a postgraduate-level STEP Diploma in Trusts and Estates plus a published track record. Steven Felts holds the Diploma and is a full member. For straightforward wills it is the kind of credential you do not strictly need. For contentious probate, Inheritance Act claims, proprietary estoppel, capacity disputes and donatio mortis causa, it is the difference between handling the file in-house and referring it out.
I am facing a workplace exit. Is it worth a conversation, or is it too small?
A first conversation with David Bloxham is short and confidential, no obligation. We see settlement agreements ranging from straightforward redundancies to long-running grievance and disciplinary matters. Many of them are resolved the same week as a documented settlement. We do not push tribunals where a settlement protects you better; we do not avoid tribunals where they are the right course.
Where exactly is the office, and what is parking like?
We are at 2-3 Oriel Terrace, on Oriel Road in central Cheltenham, a short walk from the Promenade and the Imperial Gardens. The what3words location of the front door is ///comet.action.milky. Pay-and-display parking is on Oriel Road and Wellington Street; the nearest public car park is Bath Parade, about 200 metres away. Visit by appointment so a partner can meet you at reception.
