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 Chelthenham, Co. Gloucestershire
A graceful Regency Spa town at the western escarpment of the Cotswolds , Cheltenham is famed today as much for its annual horse racing festival the National Hunt in March.
 Municipal Buildings - Cheltenham
After King George’s visit in 1788, Cheltenham’s fame and prosperity was sealed. The population grew by seven times in the following three decades and around £5million invested in the development of row upon row of glamorous Regency Terraces with classical facades and fine wrought iron balconies. A walk around the town’s wide boulevards of the old Promenade, Imperial Gardens and Montpellier Walk reveals a blend of stylish architecture, of whitewashed Georgian terraces from Cheltenham’s Regency heyday, of contemporary chic and the Victorian Gothic of the famed Cheltenham Ladies’ College and The Pittville Pump Room. Set amidst spectacular parkland, the pump room offers the chance to sample some of the Spa water that made Cheltenham famous.
 Chelthenham Racing Festival
The Cheltenham Art Gallery and Museum, charts the history of the town and exhibits work by the acclaimed local designer and artist, William Morris. Here you can also learn about its famous inhabitants; Edward Wilson who died on Scott's expedition in the Antarctic and who is commemorated with a statue in the Promenade and Gustav Holst composer who was born in Cheltenham.
For many visitors, the word Cheltenham can be literally translated to mean the racing festival and climax of the British and Irish National Hunt season. Indeed a wonderful spectacle of top-class steeple-chasing, the racing, on offer over three days, lingers for months and even years in the memories of 40,000 or so race goers who descend on Prestbury Park each year.
Above Cheltenham is the plateau of Cleeve Common with excellent views across the town and beyond and not far away are the cherished rural villages of the Cotswolds.
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