Historic Gloucestershire is often regarded as the epitome of the English countryside. Covering 3150 square kilometers, the county includes the greater part of the Cotswold Hills, a significant stretch of the broad Severn Valley and the Forest of Dean. Its towns and villages were by and large not heavily industrialized in the modern sense – although the Forest of Dean was notable for its coal mines until quite recent times – but the county has played a key role through the centuries in the growing of wool and the manufacture of cloth.

Money from these sources helped to fund the building of many attractive and now mellow country houses and some of the most spectacular churches in England. Towering above them all, of course, being the great cathedral at Gloucester and the abbey at Tewkesbury. From the late eighteenth century Gloucestershire developed its own rival to Bath with the growth of Cheltenham Spa, its terraces and houses being some of the best examples of Regency architecture anywhere in Britain. Today Cheltenham is also renowned both for its racecourse and the brooding presence of GCHQ.

But Gloucestershire was and remains a predominantly pastoral scene. Celebrated in music by Vaughan Williams, Holst and Howells, who were all born here, and in words by Laurie Lee, Winifred Foley and Edward Thomas, the county has one of the strongest traditions of living landscape, its hills and valleys, woods and rivers, market towns and gentle villages, being what so many think of as the true soul of England.

The fascinating aerial photographs in this book by internationally-renowned photographer Jason Hawkes are selected to provide the reader with an overview of a variety of landscapes and settlements,with historic sites included. There can be no better way of appreciating the many glories of Gloucestershire than to view the county from above.

Jason Hawkes is one of the country’s best-known photographers specialising in aerial photography. From his base near London he travels worldwide to produce images for books, advertising and design. Since 1991 he has provided photographs for major international companies including Nike, HSBC, Ford, Rolex, Toyota and BP. The images in this book and the sister publications in the series were specially commissioned by Halsgrove.

Imprint: Halsgrove. ISBN 978 0 85704 002 2, hardback, 214x230mm, 144 pages. Published June 2010.