Gloucester ( GLOS-tər) is a cathedral city and the county town of Gloucestershire in the South West of England. Gloucester lies on the River Severn, between the Cotswolds to the east and the Forest of Dean to the west; it is sited 19 miles (31 km) from Monmouth, 33 miles (53 km) from Bristol, and 17 miles (27 km) east of the link up with Wales. Gloucester has a population of just about 132,000, including suburban areas. It is a port, linked via the Gloucester and Sharpness Canal to the Severn Estuary.

Gloucester was founded by the Romans and became an important city and colony in AD 97, under Emperor Nerva as Colonia Glevum Nervensis.

It was arranged its first charter in 1155 by Henry II. In 1216, Henry III, aged lonesome nine years, was crowned in the same way as a gilded iron dome in the Chapter House of Gloucester Cathedral. Gloucester’s significance in the Middle Ages is underlined by the fact that it had a number of monastic establishments, including St Peter’s Abbey, founded in 679 (later Gloucester Cathedral); the straightforward St Oswald’s Priory, founded in the 880s or 890s; and Llanthony Secunda Priory, founded in 1136. The town is with the site of the siege of Gloucester in 1643, during which the city held out neighboring Royalist forces in the First English Civil War.

A major fellow feeling of the city is Gloucester Cathedral, which is the burial place of King Edward II and Walter de Lacy; it features in scenes from the Harry Potter films. Other features of engagement include the museum and bookish of art and science, the former county jail (on the site of a Saxon and Norman castle), the Shire Hall (now headquarters of the County Council) and the Whitefield memorial church. A park in the south of the city contains a spa, a chalybeate spring having been discovered in 1814.

Economically, the city is dominated by the help industries and has strong financial, research, distribution and well-ventilated industrial sectors. Historically, it was prominent in the aerospace industry.

In 1926, the Gloucestershire Aircraft Company at Brockworth misused its name to the Gloster Aircraft Company because international customers claimed that the name Gloucestershire was too difficult to spell. A sculpture in the city middle celebrates Gloucester’s aviation history and its involvement in the jet engine.