50 articles
Bath, Somerset
Bath, Somerset: English spa city founded by the Romans as Aquae Sulis around the UK's hottest thermal springs (46 °C), famed for Georgian Palladian architecture; UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1987 and Great Spa Town of Europe since 2021.
Bournemouth
Bournemouth, a south-coast English seaside resort founded in 1810 by Lewis Tregonwell, largest of England's seaside towns (196,455 residents, 2021 Census), part of BCP unitary authority, with tourism, Silicon Beach tech, and Victorian resort heritage.
Bristol
Bristol (Brycgstow, "place at the bridge") is a city and port in South West England, 120 miles from London; founded 1155, county 1373, major Atlantic slave-trade port, population 495,300 (2025).
Calne
Calne is a market town in Wiltshire, England, on the River Marden, first recorded in 955 as a West Saxon royal estate, a Domesday borough, later a cloth town and home of the Harris bacon factory, closed 1983.
Castle Cary
Castle Cary is a small market town in south Somerset, England, recorded in the Domesday Book in 1086 and known for its honey-colored Ham stone buildings.
Cheltenham
Cheltenham, often called Cheltenham Spa, is a town and borough in Gloucestershire, England, at the foot of the Cotswolds, known for its Regency architecture and annual festivals.
Chippenham
Chippenham is a market town in northern Wiltshire, England, on the River Avon near the M4. A Saxon royal villa recorded from 853, chartered in 1554, it had 35,830 parish residents in 2011.
Cirencester
Cirencester (Corinium Dobunnorum) is a Cotswolds market town in Gloucestershire, England, the second largest town of Roman Britain and 4th-century capital of Britannia Prima, later a medieval wool town of about 20,000 people.
Coleford, Gloucestershire
Coleford, Gloucestershire: a market town of about 10,500 people in the Forest of Dean, three miles from the Welsh border. First recorded as Colevorde in 1275; noted for its Georgian Conservation Area, 1643 Civil War battle, Mushet family ironworks and Dennis Potter links.
Colerne
Colerne is a village and civil parish in the Cotswolds Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty in north Wiltshire, England, known locally as "the village on the hill".
Combe Down
Combe Down is a plateau village situated 1.5 to 2 km south of Bath, Somerset, distinguished by its Roman villa and the Bath stone that supplied Georgian Bath.
Crewkerne
Crewkerne: South Somerset market town of about 7,300 people near the Dorset border; Saxon royal estate with minster and mint, Domesday market, sailcloth and webbing industry, Grade I St Bartholomew's church, and a Waterloo–Exeter railway station.
Dartmouth, Devon
Dartmouth, Devon: a deep water port town at the mouth of the River Dart, a medieval wine-trade and military harbour, site of the 1243 tide-mill dam, a 1646 Civil War surrender, and a protected conservation area in the South Devon AONB.
Dorchester, Dorset
Dorchester, Dorset, the county town on the River Frome, is Roman Durnovaria and Thomas Hardy's Casterbridge: a walled Roman civitas capital of the Durotriges with eight museums, Maiden Castle nearby, and the Poundbury extension.
Exeter
Exeter (Isca Dumnoniorum, Escanceaster) is a Devon cathedral city on the River Exe: Roman walled town, Decorated Gothic cathedral with a 96 m vault, 130,700 residents (2021), and from 2028 the center of a new unitary council.
Fairford
Fairford: Cotswold market town on the River Coln, Gloucestershire, near Cirencester; known for St Mary's Church medieval stained glass and RAF Fairford, a US-operated bomber base hosting RIAT.
Falmouth, Cornwall
Falmouth (Cornish: Aberfala) is a port town and civil parish on Cornwall's south coast at the Fal estuary, founded after 1613, chartered 1661, Royal Mail packet station from 1688, home to the world's third-largest natural deep-water harbour, Falmouth Docks, and Falmouth University.
Frome
Frome (pronounced "Froom") is a market town in eastern Somerset, England, founded around St Aldhelm's 7th-century monastery, once a major woollen cloth town, now known for independent shops, markets and the arts, population 28,569 (2021).
Glastonbury
Glastonbury, Somerset market town shaped by Glastonbury Abbey (wealthiest in Domesday 1086, burned 1184, dissolved 1539) and Glastonbury Tor; nearby Worthy Farm hosts the Glastonbury Festival, distinct from the town itself.
Gloucester
Gloucester, cathedral city in Gloucestershire, south west England, on the River Severn; Roman colonia Glevum, site of the 1643 Civil War siege, Gloucester Cathedral, and major regeneration projects.
Halstock
Halstock, Dorset village with a Romano-British villa (Halstock Roman Villa) excavated 1967–1985 by Ron Lucas, occupied c. AD 140–400; also St Juthware legend and 847 grant to Sherborne Abbey.
Keynsham
Keynsham, Somerset, a town between Bristol and Bath, site of the possible Roman town Traiectus at Somerdale, the Durley Hill courtyard villa excavated 1922-24, and medieval Keynsham Abbey.
Lamyatt
Lamyatt is a small Somerset hamlet near Castle Cary and Bruton, mentioned in Domesday. Its hill, Lamyatt Beacon, held a Romano-Celtic temple with votive figurines and a later sixth-to-eighth-century cemetery of mainly female burials.
Lyme Regis
Lyme Regis is a small Dorset seaside town on the Jurassic Coast, known for the Cobb harbour wall (first recorded 1328), its 1284 royal charter, Mary Anning's fossils, Lyme Regis Museum (1902), and major coastal defence works.
Melksham
Melksham: market town in west Wiltshire, England, on the Bristol Avon; 18,113 residents (2021). Domesday royal manor, 1219 market charter, cloth and rubber industries, railway since 1848.
Minchinhampton
Minchinhampton is a small Cotswold town and civil parish in Gloucestershire, England, about 4 miles south of Stroud, with a population of 5,096 at the 2021 census.
North Wraxall
North Wraxall: Wiltshire parish (Upper Wraxall, Ford, Mountain Bower, The Shoe) on the Fosse Way, known for the Truckle Hill Roman villa excavated by Scrope 1859-60 and its 2000s bath-house digs.
Padstow
Padstow (Cornish: Lannwedhenek) is a harbour town and resort on the west side of the Camel estuary, north Cornwall. Ancient fishing port tied to St Petroc's monastery; now tourism-led, with the Camel Trail, Prideaux Place, the Obby 'Oss festival and Rick Stein's seafood restaurants.
Penzance
Penzance (Cornish Pennsans, "holy headland") is west Cornwall's largest town and historic port on Mount's Bay. Borough chartered 1614, market rights 1332, Spanish burning 1595, Golowan Festival, Jubilee Pool, 2020 Great Town Award.
Plymouth
Plymouth, Devon coastal city and naval port; recorded as Sudtone in 1086, Mayflower departure 1620, Devonport dockyard, population 264,700 (2021), University contributes £819m to UK economy.