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).