Gloucester is its county town with Cirencester, Cheltenham, Tewkesbury and Stroud also important and significant cities that are situated here. It is considered a ceremonial county, and Gloucestershire shares its borders with the well stored county of Gwent in Wales.

It also shares its boundaries with the counties of Bristol, Herefordshire, Oxfordshire, Worcestershire, Warwickshire and Wiltshire. The area covered by South Gloucestershire unitary authority is not included and the County flower is declared as a Wild Daffodil by the charity Plantlife in a campaign in 2002.

County of Gloucestershire's name first comes in the chronicle of Anglo Saxon times in the tenth century, whereas the areas that contain Forest of Dean and Winchcombe were not added until the late 11th century. Most of the settlers came her from Port City, which later became known as Bristol and then it later went to the County of Avon.

Industrial revolution changed the face of local settlers and their population grew quite rapidly. An interesting relic that belonged to the abbey of Kingswood is Calcot Barn and Thornbury Castle which is quite a fine example of Tudor remains. The imaginations which gave rise to the jealousy of Cardinal Wolsey against its creator and the man who built it was Edward Stafford, duke of Buckingham, whose head was butchered in 1521.

The very nice 15th-century mansion of Southam de la Bere, is made of timber and stone and is near Cheltenham. Memories of the de la Bere family do seem to appear in the church situated at Cleeve and the massive mansion has a tiled floor taken from Hailes Abbey.

The mansion and sprawled domain of the Beauforts, previously of the Botelers and others is at Great Badminton, which is located on the south east borders of the county. One of the most spectacular and picturesque Tudor manor houses are set in a densely wooded valley of Owlpen. Many royal residences are here in Gloucestershire, including Highgrove House, Gatcombe Park and it initially was called Nether Lypiatt Manor.

After Avon County was abolished in 1996, the area that lay on the north side of Bristol came under the control of unitary authority and ceremonial county of Gloucestershire. The worst flooding recorded in British history of Gloucestershire happened in July of 2007. The floods affected tens of thousands of residents of the county. The Royal Air Force carried out the biggest civil time rescue operations by saving 120 locals from the flood affected areas. Total damage of the county was calculated to be over two billion pounds.