close nap on the face, and made of all shades of colour, but chiefly black, blue and scarlet. The principal centre of the industry lies in and at the foot of the south-western Cotteswolds. Stroud is the centre for a number of manufacturing villages, and south-west of this are Wotton-under-Edge, North Nibley and others. Machinery and tools, paper, furniture, pottery and glass are also produced. Ironstone, clay, limestone and sandstone are worked, and the coal-fields in the forest of Dean are important. Of less extent is the field in the south of the county, N.E. of Bristol. Strontium sulphate is dug from shallow pits in the red marl of Gloucestershire and Somersetshire.
Communications.—Railway communications are provided principally by the Great Western and Midland companies. Of the Great Western lines, the main line serves Bristol from London. It divides at Bristol, one section serving the south-western counties, another South Wales, crossing beneath the Severn by the Severn Tunnel, 413 m. in length, a remarkable engineering work. A more direct route, by this tunnel, between London and South Wales, is provided by a line from Wootton Bassett on the main line, running north of Bristol by Badminton and Chipping Sodbury. Other Great Western lines are that from Swindon on the main line, by the Stroud valley to Gloucester, crossing the Severn there, and continuing by the right bank of the river into Wales, with branches north-west into Herefordshire; the Oxford and Worcester trunk line, crossing the north-east of the county, connected with Cheltenham and Gloucester by a branch through the Cotteswolds from Chipping Norton junction; and the line from Cheltenham by Broadway to Honeybourne. The west-and-north line of the Midland railway follows the vale from Bristol by Gloucester and Cheltenham with a branch into the forest of Dean by Berkeley, crossing the Severn at Sharpness by a great bridge 1387 yds. in length, with 22 arches. The coal-fields of the forest of Dean are served by several branch lines. In the north, Tewkesbury is served by a Midland branch from Ashchurch to Malvern. The Midland and South-western Junction railway runs east and south from Cheltenham by Cirencester, affording communication with the south of England. The East Gloucester line of the Great Western from Oxford terminates at Fairford. The Thames and Severn canal, rising to a summit level in the tunnel through the Cotteswolds at Sapperton, is continued from Wallbridge (Stroud) by the Stroudwater canal, and gives communication between the two great rivers. The Berkeley Ship Canal (1612 m.) connects the port of Gloucester with its outport of Sharpness on Severn.
Population and Administration.—The area of the ancient county is 795,709 acres, with a population in 1891 of 599,947 and in 1901 of 634,729. The area of the administrative county is 805,482 acres. The county contains 28 hundreds. The municipal boroughs are—Bristol, a city and county borough (pop. 328,945); Cheltenham (49,439); Gloucester, a city and county borough (47,955); Tewkesbury (5419). The other urban districts are—Awre (1096), Charlton Kings (3806), Circenester (7536), Coleford (2541), Kingswood, on the eastern outskirts of Bristol (11,961), Nailsworth (3028), Newnham (1184), Stow-on-the-Wold (1386), Stroud (9153), Tetbury (1989), Westbury-on-Severn (1866). The number of small ancient market towns is large, especially in the southern part of the vale, on the outskirts of the forest, and among the foot hills of the wolds. Those in the forest district are mostly connected with the coal trade, such as Lydney (3559), besides Awre and Coleford; and, to the north, besides Newnham, Cinderford and Mitcheldean. South from Stroud there are Minchinhampton (3737) and Nailsworth; near the south-eastern boundary Tetbury and Marshfield; Stonehouse (2183), Dursley (2372), Wotton-under-Edge (2992) and Chipping Sodbury along the western line of the hills; and between them and the Severn, Berkeley and Thornbury (2594). Among the uplands of the Cotteswolds there are no towns, and villages are few, but in the east of the county, in the upper Thames basin, there are, besides Cirencester, Fairford on the Coln and Lechlade, close to the head of the navigation on the Thames itself. Far up in the Lech valley, remote from railway communication, is Northleach, once a great posting station on the Oxford and Cheltenham road. In the north-east are Stow-on-the-Wold, standing high, and Moreton-in-the-Marsh near the headwaters of the Evenlode. In a northern prolongation of the county, almost detached, is Chipping Campden. Winchcomb (2699) lies 6 m. N.E. of Cheltenham. In the north-west, Newent (2485) is the only considerable town. Gloucestershire is in the Oxford circuit, and assizes are held at Gloucester. It has one court of quarter sessions, and is divided into 24 petty sessional divisions. The boroughs of Bristol, Gloucester and Tewkesbury have separate commissions of the peace and courts of quarter sessions. There are 359 civil parishes. Gloucestershire is principally in the diocese of Gloucester, but part is in that of Bristol, and small parts in those of Worcester and Oxford. There are 408 ecclesiastical parishes or districts wholly or in part within the county. There are five parliamentary divisions, namely, Tewkesbury or northern, Cirencester or eastern, Stroud or mid, Thornbury or southern, and Forest of Dean, each returning one member. The county also includes the boroughs of Gloucester and Cheltenham, each returning one member; and the greater part of the borough of Bristol, which returns four members.
History.—The English conquest of the Severn valley began in 577 with the victory of Ceawlin at Deorham, followed by the capture of Cirencester, Gloucester and Bath. The Hwiccas who occupied the district were a West Saxon tribe, but their territory had become a dependency of Mercia in the 7th century, and was not brought under West Saxon dominion until the 9th century. No important settlements were made by the Danes in the district. Gloucestershire probably originated as a shire in the 10th century, and is mentioned by name in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle in 1016. Towards the close of the 11th century the boundaries were readjusted to include Winchcomb, hitherto a county by itself, and at the same time the forest district between the Wye and the Severn was added to Gloucestershire. The divisions of the county for a long time remained very unsettled, and the thirty-nine hundreds mentioned in the Domesday Survey and the thirty-one hundreds of the Hundred Rolls of 1274 differ very widely in name and extent both from each other and from the twenty-eight hundreds of the present day.
Gloucestershire formed part of Harold’s earldom at the time of the Norman invasion, but it offered slight resistance to the Conqueror. In the wars of Stephen’s reign the cause of the empress Maud was supported by Robert of Gloucester who had rebuilt the castle at Bristol, and the castles at Gloucester and Cirencester were also garrisoned on her behalf. In the barons’ war of the reign of Henry III. Gloucester was garrisoned for Simon de Montfort, but was captured by Prince Edward in 1265, in which year de Montfort was slain at Evesham. Bristol and Gloucester actively supported the Yorkist cause during the Wars of the Roses. In the religious struggles of the 16th century Gloucester showed strong Protestant sympathy, and in the reign of Mary Bishop Hooper was sent to Gloucester to be burnt as a warning to the county, while the same Puritan leanings induced the county to support the Parliamentary cause in the civil war of the 17th century. In 1643 Bristol and Cirencester were captured by the Royalists, but the latter was recovered in the same year and Bristol in 1645. Gloucester was garrisoned for the parliament throughout the struggle.
On the subdivision of the Mercian diocese in 680 the greater part of modern Gloucestershire was included in the diocese of Worcester, and shortly after the Conquest constituted the archdeaconry of Gloucester, which in 1290 comprised the deaneries of Campden, Stow, Cirencester, Fairford, Winchcombe, Stonehouse, Hawkesbury, Bitton, Bristol, Dursley and Gloucester. The district west of the Severn, with the exception of a few parishes in the deaneries of Ross and Staunton, constituted the deanery of the forest within the archdeaconry and diocese of Hereford. In 1535 the deanery of Bitton had been absorbed in that of Hawkesbury. In 1541 the diocese of Gloucester was created, its boundaries being identical with those of the county. On the erection of Bristol to a see in 1542 the deanery of Bristol was transferred from Gloucester to that diocese. In 1836 the sees of Gloucester and Bristol were united; the archdeaconry of Bristol was created out of the deaneries of Bristol, Cirencester, Fairford and Hawkesbury; and the deanery of the forest was transferred to the archdeaconry of Gloucester. In 1882 the archdeaconry of Cirencester was constituted to include the deaneries of Campden, Stow, Northleach north and south, Fairford and Cirencester. In 1897 the diocese of Bristol was recreated, and included the deaneries of Bristol, Stapleton and Bitton.
After the Conquest very extensive lands and privileges in the county were acquired by the church, the abbey of Cirencester alone holding seven hundreds at fee-farm, and the estates of the principal lay-tenants were for the most part outlying parcels of baronies having their “caput” in other counties. The large estates held by William Fitz Osbern, earl of Hereford, escheated to the crown on the rebellion of his son Earl Roger in 1074–1075. The Berkeleys have held lands in Gloucestershire from the time of the Domesday Survey, and the families of Basset, Tracy, Clifton, Dennis and Poyntz have figured prominently in the annals of the county. Gilbert de Clare, earl of Gloucester, and Richard of Cornwall claimed extensive lands and privileges in the shire in the 13th century, and Simon de Montfort owned Minsterworth and Rodley.
