The city became an important inland port after the opening of the Gloucester and Sharpness Canal in 1827, which linked the city to the Bristol Channel.
The docks have been redeveloped and include the Robert Opie Museum of Advertising and Packaging (opened in 1984) and the National Waterways Museum. The Mariners' Church, located on the quayside, was built in 1848-9 for the seamen and boatmen who visited the Port. The regional offices of the British Waterways Board are located in Gloucester, with responsibility for navigable waterways.

Slimbridge, home to Peter Scott's Wildfowl Trust, the World's largest and most varied collection of wildfowl. Paradise, named by Charles I who described it as the most delightful spot he had ever seen.

Berkeley Castle, where Edward II was murdered; Prinknash Abbey, where pottery is made; Cotswold Farm Park, near Stow-on -the-Wold, which has rare and ancient breeds of farm animals; pre- Norman churches at Cheltenham and Cleeve; Tewkesbury Abbey, with early 12th - century nave. There are Roman and early British remains, mainly in the Cotswolds. The county is mentioned in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle of 1016. Gloucestershire's geology is varied, and includes gneissic rocks at the southern end of the Malvern Hills; greenstone at Damory, Charfield, and Woodford; sandy shales and sandstone at Dymock; and iron deposits in the Forest of Dean. Celestine, clay, limestone, and sandstone are all quarried. Rocks dating from the Quaternary period are found in the county. Dover's Hill, a spur of the Cotswolds not far from Chipping Campden, commanding an extensive view over the Vale of Evesham, was bought by public subscription. Gloucestershire was important in Roman times. Camps were established at Gloucester, and also at Cirencester, a station on the Fosse Way known as Corinium, which became the second city of Roman Britain.