Gloucestershire

Focused chiefly on the scenic Cotswold area, with its old wool towns and villages, and interesting churches, the main tourist centres are Cheltenham, Cirencester, Northleach, Stow-on-the-Wold, Tewkesbury, Thornbury, and Winchcombe. The Cotswold Way footpath stretches for 161 km (100 mi), from Chipping Campden to Bath, along the western flank of the hills. The historic city of Gloucester, with its cathedral, museums, and recently restored dockyard, is another major centre. Gloucester Cathedral, an 11th-century Norman structure with Gothic additions, houses the tomb of Edward II, who was murdered at nearby Berkeley Castle. Other places of interest include the abbeys of Tewkesbury and Prinknash, the fine castles of Thornbury and Sudeley, and the Clearwell Caves, which are ancient iron mines in the Forest of Dean. The Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust at Slimbridge, founded by Sir Peter Scott, lies to the west of Stroud. Among a wealth of gardens and arboreta open to the public are Hidcote Manor Gardens, near Chipping Campden, the Painswick Rococo Garden, and Westonbirt Arboretum, near Tetbury. At Dyrham Park there is a Baroque mansion, set within 109 hectares (268 acres) of ancient parkland that is grazed by fallow deer. Among the many attractive villages of the county are Bibury, considered by William Morris to be the most beautiful in England, Bourton-on-the-Water, and Upper Slaughter and Lower Slaughter.

Historically, sheep farming was the mainstay of the county, but the modern agricultural trend is towards dairy and arable farming; the main crops are wheat and barley. The aircraft construction industry at Filton, near Bristol, built the Bristol Boxkite (1910) and the Anglo-French Concorde (1969). Other industries, chiefly engineering and timber production, are centred around Gloucester and Stroud. Tourism is today an important source of revenue. Gloucestershire enjoys a strategically advantageous position within easy reach of many metropolitan centres; London to the east, Birmingham to the north, Bristol to the south, and south Wales to the west. With the benefits of good road and rail connections, the county has a well-balanced and broad agricultural, industrial, and commercial base. This mixture of activities has enabled Gloucestershire to develop a healthy economy that has been strengthened by significant growth in the service sector.

Relics of Neolithic settlement have been found, notably the long barrows known as Belas Knap, above Winchcombe, and Hetty Pegler's Tump, near Uley. The grave of an Iron Age princess has been excavated; she was buried with her personal possessions, including an engraved bronze mirror; the “Birdlip mirror” is now in Gloucester City Museum. Gloucestershire is, however, best known for its Roman remains. The Fosse Way, a Roman road that ran from the south Devon coast north-eastwards to Lincoln, crosses the county. Gloucester (Roman name Glevum) and Cirencester (Corinium) were important Roman towns. Two well-preserved Roman villas are nearby, at Chedworth and at Woodchester. In 628 King Penda of Mercia fought a great battle at Cirencester against the local Hwicce (West Saxons) and annexed their territory.

The great castles of Berkeley, overlooking the Severn (where Edward II was murdered in 1327), and St Briavels, overlooking the Wye, were strongholds originally built by the Normans. St Peter's Abbey, which became Gloucester Cathedral, also dates from the Norman period. Before the Norman Conquest there was a thriving seaborne trade in iron operating out of Gloucester; this was later extended to grain and wine. Civil war ravaged the county during the 12th century, and in 1471 Tewkesbury was the site of a great Yorkist victory during the Wars of the Roses.

By the 14th century, Flemish weavers had arrived to help establish the wool trade, which thereafter made the county prosperous. Gloucester was besieged for a month during the English Civil War. Early in the 19th century the Berkeley and Gloucester Canal was dug, giving direct access to the Bristol Channel and allowing transatlantic vessels into the city docks, which brought renewed prosperity. Bristol meanwhile had developed into a major port. The Tudor seafarer Sebastian Cabot and his father John set out from Bristol on their voyage to the New World in 1497, having been authorized by Henry VII to trade from the port. Subsequent trade with the Americas, chiefly in tobacco, sugar, and slaves, brought great wealth to Bristol in the 17th and 18th centuries. Cheltenham became a fashionable spa in the early 18th century, following the discovery there of mineral springs.