I.

Introduction

Gloucestershire (abbreviation Gloucs or Glos), county, western England, bordered on the north by Herefordshire and Worcestershire, on the north-east by Warwickshire, on the east by Oxfordshire, on the south by Wiltshire, South Gloucestershire, and Swindon, and on the west by the Welsh county of Monmouthshire. A small area in the south-west, including the city of Bristol, was incorporated into the county of Avon under the local government reforms of 1974. The present land area of Gloucestershire is 2,652 sq km (1,024 sq mi). Gloucester is the seat of local government.

Gloucestershire is generally considered to be one of the most beautiful of the English counties. The Cotswold Hills have been designated an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, and the Forest of Dean (3,934 hectares/24,000 acres), lying between the rivers Severn and Wye, became England's first National Forest Park in 1938. The M5 motorway, linking the south-west of England with Birmingham, runs through the county. Cheltenham, famed for its elegant Regency-style architecture, is today a popular conference and tourist centre, as well as the home of one of the United Kingdom's intelligence establishments, the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ).

II.

Land and Resources

Gloucestershire has a mixed geology, but is basically divided into three distinct physical areas: the Cotswolds, the Severn valley, and the Forest of Dean. The limestone ridge of the Cotswold Hills runs from north-east to south-west across the centre of the county. At the highest points, just over 300 m (1,000 ft) above sea level, such as Cleeve Hill and Birdlip, there are panoramic views across the Bristol Channel to the mountains of South Wales. Beechwoods are a feature of the steep slopes, and open grassland has for centuries provided rich pastures for the sheep on which the wealth of the county was founded. Limestone is quarried in the south-west of the Cotswolds for building stone, much used in local ecclesiastical and domestic architecture, and also for traditional drystone walling. This local stone is of a pale honey colour which weathers to grey, and in the setting sun acquires a unique mellow glow.

To the east of the Cotswolds escarpment the land slopes gently down towards the River Thames, its grassy uplands dissected by fertile river valleys and dotted with medieval market towns and picturesque villages. In the south-east former gravel workings have been flooded to create the Cotswold Water Park. The western escarpment is scenically more dramatic, plunging down into the exceptionally fertile clay vales of Evesham and Severn. This area is drained by the rivers Avon and Severn, which join at Tewkesbury and widen to become eventually the Bristol Channel. The narrowing of the estuary causes the celebrated “Severn Bore”, a wave which can rush upstream on peak spring or autumn tides at a speed of up to 20 km/hr (13 mph).

On the western boundary of the county is the beautiful Wye valley, with its spectacular gorges and wooded valleys, leading into the Forest of Dean. A royal hunting ground in medieval times, the Forest was once an important source of iron and coal; coal-mining is still carried out on a small scale. The nuclear power station at Berkeley was decommissioned in 1989.

Gloucestershire enjoys a generally moderate temperate climate, although the winters can be severe on the Cotswold Hills. The average annual rainfall is in the region of 760-1,000 mm (30-40 in).

III.

Population and Administration

The population of the county was estimated in 2001 at 564,559. The main towns are the cathedral city of Gloucester (2001, 109,888), the administrative centre of the county; Cheltenham Spa (2001, 110,025); Cirencester (1991, 15,221); Stroud (2001, 107,899); and Tewkesbury (2001, 76,394).

Gloucestershire has a county council and six local government district councils: Cheltenham, Cotswold, Forest of Dean, Gloucester, Stroud, and Tewkesbury. It was not affected by the work of the Local Government Commission set up by the government in 1992 to review the structure of local administration in England.

IV.

Education and Culture

Cheltenham and Gloucester College of Further Education, founded in 1990 by the merger of the College of St Paul and St Mary with the Gloucestershire College of Arts and Technology, became the University of Gloucestershire in 2001. It has three sites in Cheltenham and one in Gloucester. Cheltenham Ladies' College (founded 1853) is one of England's leading public schools for girls. Other leading schools include Rendcomb College (1920) and Hatherop Castle, a girls' boarding school. The Royal Agricultural College is near Cirencester.

The author Laurie Lee immortalized his Cotswold childhood in Cider with Rosie. The composer Gustav Theodore Holst was born in Cheltenham. The county has also produced three celebrated cricketers, Dr W. G. Grace, Walter Reginald “Wally” Hammond, and Robert (Jack) Russell. Sport plays an important role in the life of Gloucestershire. The Cheltenham Gold Cup, one of the biggest races of the National Hunt season, is held at Cheltenham racecourse every March. The Badminton Horse Trials are held at Badminton Park in May. Field sports and polo are traditional activities in the county. The headquarters of Gloucestershire County Cricket Club is the County Ground in Bristol. Cheltenham Town FC, the county’s only professional football club, plays its home games at Whaddon Road.

Cheltenham is the venue for two annual festivals: the Music Festival, held in June/July, and the Festival of Literature, in the autumn. The choir of Gloucester Cathedral, together with those of Hereford and Worcester cathedrals, participates in the annual Three Choirs Festival, staged in turn in each of the three dioceses.

Gloucestershire is the home of one of the traditional English cheeses, the mild, orange-coloured single and double Gloucester. Cheese rolling competitions are held on Coopers Hill, Brockworth parish, in the spring. Mop fairs, which originated as hiring fairs for agricultural and domestic workers, still take place in October in Cirencester and Tewkesbury.

V.

Places of Interest

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.

VI.

Economy

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.

VII.

History

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.