24 Iconic Buildings to Explore in Gloucestershire

The Ancient Ram Inn is a former priest's residence, inn and public house, which was built in 1145. is also the oldest building in England's Wotton-Under-Edge. It is known as one of the most unique properties in the region and has its fair share of strange history and mystery, plus a host of unique residents.

Beverston Castle, also known as Beverstone Castle or Tetbury Castle built-in 1229 by Maurice de Gaunt.,It was constructed as a medieval stone fortress in the village of Beverston, Gloucestershire, England. The property is a mix of manor house, various small buildings, extensive gardens and the medieval ruins of the fortified building.

An eighteenth-century Costwold house with a fine garden. The garden's structure is like that of a renaissance garden but the planting design is Arts and Crafts. It has lawns, fountains, a topiary, sculptures, an orchard, a knot garden, a kitchen garden, a raised walk and herbaceous borders. The garden has been open to the public since 1987.

Chavenage is a wonderful Elizabethan house of mellow grey Cotswold stone and tiles which contains much of interest for the discerning visitor. Chavenage has featured in so many feature films and television dramas over the years that to list them all here would take ages. The interior rooms feature historic tapestries, Cromwellian relics, and fine period furnishings.

The stone villa was first built in the early 2nd century and expanded in the 4th century. The luxurious features and precious marble mosaics lead archaeologists to believe the dwelling belonged to a very wealthy and high-status Romano-Briton family. It is one of the largest and most elaborate Roman villas so far discovered in Britain and one with the latest occupation beyond the Roman period.

Cheltenham Town Hall is now home to an impressive all-year-round program of major festivals, entertainment, exhibitions and functions. Built in 1902-1903 as a venue for social events, it replaced the Assembly Rooms on the High Street, which had been demolished to make way for a bank. Interestingly, unlike most Town Hall's, this grand building in Cheltenham was not built as the seat for a Borough Council, which is instead found in the Municipal Offices across the road on the Promenade.

The Cirencester amphitheater is one of the largest known examples surviving from the Roman occupation of Britain. It was built just outside the walls of the town. There was also an area for standing spectators and it is estimated that the amphitheater had a capacity of around 8,000 people. A wall separated the spectators from the arena, which was floored with fine gravel and sand. early in the 2nd century AD.

It was originally laid out in the 1700s as a deer park by the first Earl Bathurst. Cirencester Park has been a deer park, a military base, a hospital and the venue for a Glenn Miller concert. The park is 8 km long and 4.8 km wide. Stephen Switzer may have advised on the design. Alexander Pope came here over a 30 year period and invested money in the afforestation. Its planting was Lord Bathurst's major achievment.

The Dean Heritage Centre is located in the valley of Soudley, Gloucestershire, England. Discover the history of the Forest in a grade 2 listed mill building nestled in a valley in the heart of the glorious Forest of Dean. Explore our beautiful five-acre site and experience for yourself the splendour of the Forest that surrounds us.

This is the house where Edward Jenner, pioneer of vaccination against smallpox, lived and told the world about his work. Less than 200 years later, smallpox had been eradicated, with countless lives saved in the process. Today you can see Jenner’s Study, explore his garden, including the historic Vinery and the modern Physic Garden, and stand in the Temple of Vaccinia, where Jenner vaccinated the people of Berkeley free of charge.

Great Witcombe Roman Villa was one of the largest Roman houses in Britain and was part of a cluster of very wealthy villas in the Cotswolds area. A rich family lived here, together with their slaves and freedmen, for around 200 years, until the end of the Roman period in Britain. The remains include a bathhouse complex and perhaps the shrine of a water spirit. Mosaic pavements hint at the villa’s opulence in Roman times.

Highgrove is the private residence of TRHs The Prince of Wales and The Duchess of Cornwall, near Tetbury in Gloucestershire. The house is noted for its extensive gardens, which receive more than 30,000 visitors a year.

Hidcote is an Arts and Crafts garden in the north Cotswolds, a stone’s throw from Stratford-upon-Avon. Created by the talented American horticulturist, Major Lawrence Johnston its colourful and intricately designed outdoor ‘rooms’ are always full of surprises. It’s a must-see if you’re on holiday in the Cotswolds. It is one of the best-known and most influential Arts and Crafts gardens in Britain and it is owned by the National Trust and is open to the public.

The National Trust's Lodge Park and Sherborne Estate, Gloucestershire, is a Cotswold country estate and 17th century grandstand. It houses the best of the Sherborne collection, inherited from Lord Sherborne in 1982, highlights include Kent furniture and family portraits. It is England's only surviving 17th-century deer course and grandstand.

The National Trust's Snowshill Manor and Garden, Gloucestershire, is a Cotswold manor house packed with extraordinary treasures. It is a sixteenth-century country house, best known for its twentieth-century owner, Charles Paget Wade, an eccentric who amassed an enormous collection of objects that interested him. He gave the property to the National Trust in 1951, and his collection is still housed there.

Designed in the 1740s as a fanciful pleasure garden for the owner of Painswick House and his guests, today it’s a place to roam free, to get up close and personal with nature, or to feel the warmth of the sun on your face as you take in the spectacular views of the Cotswold countryside and magical follies.

Pittville Park is the largest ornamental park in Cheltenham and features the magnificent Pittville Pump Room and lakes. This park is given a grade 2 listing under the English Heritage register of historic parks and gardens, with the Pump Room as a grade 1 historic building. Pittville Park provides 33ha of parkland, including an ornamental lake with elegant bridges dating from 1827 and a boating lake, formerly known as Capper's Fish Pond.

Rodmarton Manor is a unique Arts and Crafts Manor House containing furniture made locally and with a stunning early 20th-century garden. The garden was laid out as the house was being built (1909-1929) as a series of outdoor rooms covering about 8 acres. Each garden room has a different character and is bounded by either walls or hedges.

Sezincote is unique. At the heart of a traditional, family-run estate covering 3,500 acres of rolling Cotswold countryside stands a 200-year-old Mogul Indian palace, set in a romantic landscape of temples, grottoes, waterfalls and canals reminiscent of the Taj Mahal.

St Briavel’s was an important royal castle on the frontier with Wales and the administrative and judicial centre of the Forest of Dean – a royal hunting ground where the game was protected and the king alone allowed to hunt. It was originally built between 1075 and 1129 as a royal administrative centre for the Forest of Dean. During the 13th century the castle became first a favourite hunting lodge of King John, and then the primary centre in England for the manufacture of quarrels, large numbe