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Gloucester is a historic, multicultural, cathedral city that is largely urban but surrounded by picturesque rural countryside including the Forest of Dean and the Cotswold Hills. The county town of Gloucestershire, it has a population of around 110,000 and is situated in the South West of England directly off the M5 with easy access to the M40 and M4. Birmingham, Bristol, Oxford and Cardiff are within an hour's drive.
Gloucester is rich in history with Roman foundations, Victorian docklands and the Norman cathedral, used for scenes in the first Harry Potter films. It is a redeveloping city and county town that marries its past with its future.
The county of Gloucestershire is home to the headquarters of a number of businesses as well as the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS) and the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) whose work relates to that of QAA.
The sporting community is well served by Gloucester Rugby Football Club and Cheltenham racecourse, home of national hunt racing. Within the city and county as a whole there are theatres, cinemas, numerous pubs, clubs and restaurants, and sports and leisure facilities.
Further information about Gloucester and Gloucestershire is available at www.gloucester.gov.uk and www.gloucestershire.gov.uk; the website for the main newspapers is www.thisisgloucestershire.co.uk