Gloucestershire

Gloucestershire is a county situated in West Country. It spans the Cotswold Hills, Forest of Dean and the River Severn. The county town is Gloucester and it is also home to a number of large towns including Stroud, Cheltenham, Circencester and Tewkesbury. It is bordered by the counties of Gwent, Herefordshire, Worcestershire, Oxfordshire, Warwickshire and Somerset. Until 1973 Bristol was part of the county of Gloucestershire but has since become a part of Avon.

The county flower is a wild daffodil.

Gloucestershire is recovering after the July 2007 flood which hit the county and were the worst in recorded history to hit the region. The RAF rescued more than 120 residents from the floods, which caused damage in excess of 2 billion pounds. There has been a conscious effort to attract tourism to the region since, so that it may benefit from the injection of funds that this would bring.

It is an historic county and boasts many attractions for visitors to the area. Some of these include the Abbey Church of Tewkesbury, the Cathedral of Gloucester, the Forest of Dean and Sudeley Castle. There are a lot of market towns in the county and a good number of them have very fine churches. Gloucestershire is a favourite retreat for the Royal Family who have homes in at Gatcombe Park and Highgrove House.

The film Hot Fuzz was set in a fictional village in Gloucestershire called Sandford. In reality it was filmed in Wells, in Somerset.