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	County Town: Gloucester County Population: 560,000 (estimate)
	Gloucestershire is divided into three distinct physical areas: the Cotswolds, the Severn Valley, and the Forest of Dean. The Cotswold Hills, an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, run from the north east to the south west of the county. To the west of the Cotswold escarpment, the land plunges steeply down into the fertile vales of Evesham and Severn. The Wye valley on the western boundary of the county has spectacular gorges and wooded valleys that lead into the Forest of Dean, a royal hunting ground in medieval times.
	Gloucestershire is best known for the Roman habitation that left behind the towns of Gloucester and Cirencester, and also two well-preserved Roman villas at Chedworth and Woodchester. The Normans later built Berkeley Castle and St Briavels Castle, overlooking the Severn and Wye rivers respectively.
	Gloucestershire was devastated by civil war during the 12th century, but by the 14th century the county was prospering from the wool trade introduced by the Flemish. Gloucestershire's prosperity was further boosted when the Berkeley and Gloucester Canal was dug, giving direct access to the Bristol Channel and the transatlantic vessels in the city's docks. Trade with the Americas, initiated by the Tudor seafarers John and Sebastian Cabot, brought great wealth to Bristol in the 17th and 18th centuries and Cheltenham benefited from this, emerging as a fashionable spa in the early 18th century. Today, the cathedral city of Gloucester is the administrative centre of the county.
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