Created in 1997, the Cotswolds constituency was made mostly from the former seat of Cirencester and Tewkesbury. The Cotswolds is a safe Conservative seat in an area of natural beauty and heritage, with its market towns constructed of rare cream Cotswold stone. The area is welcoming to tourists and tourism has overtaken agriculture as the largest single employer in the area. The largest town in the constituency is Cirencester, a compact and traditional town. The seat also has the highest number of listed buildings of any constituency in Britain. It also contains eight of the twenty most popular attractions in Gloucestershire, including Westonbirt Arboretum, Hidcote Manor, and Chedworth Roman Villa.
The constituency has been represented in the House of Commons by Geoffrey Clifton-Brown since 1997.
