Gloucestershire

Gloucestershire (pronounced ; GLOSS-ter-sher) is a in. The county comprises part of the, part of the flat fertile valley of the , and the entire.

The is the  of, and other principal towns include , , , and.

When considered as a, Gloucestershire borders the of  in , and in England the ceremonial counties of , , , , ,  and.

According to a 2002 campaign by the charity, the of Gloucestershire is the.

History
Historically, Gloucestershire, The area of was made part of the administrative  in. Upon the abolition of Avon in, it became a , and is now part of the of Gloucestershire.

The official former postal county abbreviation was "Glos.", rather than the frequently used but erroneous "Gloucs." or "Glouc.".

2007 Flooding
In in recorded British history, with tens of thousands of residents affected. The conducted the largest peace time domestic operation in its history to rescue over 120 residents from flood affected areas. The damage has been estimated at over 2 billion pounds.

The county is recovering rapidly from the disaster, investing in attracting tourists to visit the many sites and diverse range of shops in the area.

Economy
This is a chart of trend of regional gross value added of Gloucestershire at current basic prices published (pp.240-253) by Office for National Statistics with figures in millions of British Pounds Sterling. Also the river severn was damaged

Antiquities and other places of interest

 * , an example of a feudal stronghold.

The cathedrals of and, the magnificent  of , and the church of  with its great  porch, are described under their separate headings. Of the abbey of near, founded by , in 1246, little more than the foundations are left, but these have been excavated with great care, and interesting fragments have been brought to light.

Most of the old market towns have fine parish churches. At near Tewkesbury, and  near, there are churches of special interest on account of the pre-Norman work they retain. The Perpendicular church at is unusually perfect; and that at  was built (c. 1500), according to tradition, to contain the remarkable series of stained-glass windows which are said to have been brought from the. These are, however, adjudged to be of English workmanship, and are one of the finest series in the country.

Barn is an interesting relic of the abbey of. is a fine ruin, the pretensions of which evoked the jealousy of   against its builder,, who was  in 1521. Near Cheltenham is the fine 15th-century mansion of, of timber and stone. Memorials of the de la Bere family appear in the church at Cleeve. The mansion contains a tiled floor from. At Great Badminton is the mansion and vast domain of the Beauforts (formerly of the Botelers and others), on the south-eastern boundary of the county. At is one of the most picturesque Tudor manor houses set in a densely-wooded valley.

There are several s in Gloucestershire, including, , and (formerly).

Gloucestershire in popular culture

 * In, 's family estate is in Gloucestershire.
 * Laurie Lee's novel  is set in Gloucestershire.
 * Loise Lawrence's apocalyptic novel  begins in Gloucestershire, and the following chapters are presumably set near the destroyed city.
 * The movie  is set in Gloucestershire, in a fictional town called Sandford. It was actually filmed in in the city of.