As the name suggests, this constituency covers a large part of the Cotswold Hills - a large Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. River valleys cut through the hills and provide the setting for many villages and small towns, built in honey-coloured stone and with wealth generated by the medieval wool trade. The Cotswolds has a huge number of listed buildings and villages such as Upper and Lower Slaughter and Bourton-on-the-Water are famous for their many appearances on calendars and book covers. The largest settlement is Cirencester in the south - it is a lively market town and known as the "Capital of the Cotswolds". It is home to one of Britain's best agricultural colleges. Cotswold council has its headquarters in Cirencester. Smaller towns in the constituency include the attractive Chipping Campden in the north and Moreton-in-Marsh. Tourism has overtaken agriculture as the biggest single employer. Other businesses include defence and a host of electronic and financial services as well as a range of small manufacturing companies. This has been rock-solid Conservative territory. Tory Geoffrey Clifton-Brown's majority went up in 1997 from the notional 1992 result - though that was largely due to a drop in the Lib Dem vote and corresponding rise in the Labour vote.
