Gloucestershire has so many beautiful attractions, both natural and man made, to delight the visitor.

Tourism is a huge industry in the county thanks to the scenery of the glorious Cotswolds hills, the adventure playground that is the Forest of Dean, and the spectacular Wye Valley.

The city of Gloucester itself has some of the county’s biggest attractions - the 900 year old Cathedral, the restored Victorian docks, and a warehouse filled with antique shops. The dockland area is home to the National Waterways Museum as well as an important military museum.

Ten miles away is Cheltenham, the refined culture capital of the county with its wide, tree-lined boulevards, smart hotels and restaurants and delightful speciality shops. Cheltenham hosts a series of international festivals of Literature, Music, Folk, Science and National Hunt Racing through the year.

The mellow yellow stone of the Cotswolds villages is famous worldwide and towns like Cirencester, Stow on the Wold and Chipping Campden are filled with pretty, picture postcard, houses and buildings.

Gloucestershire is also home to the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust, founded at Slimbridge by Sir Peter Scott, and the National Birds of Prey Centre at Cliffords Mesne, nr Newent.

We at the Gloucestershire News Service know all these attractions well and report regularly on them.