COTSWOLDS or COTTESWOLDS, a range of hills in the western midlands of England. The greater part lies in Gloucester shire, but the system also extends into Worcestershire, Warwick shire, Oxfordshire, Wiltshire and Somersetshire. It lies on a line from north-east to south-west, forming a part of the great Oolitic belt. On the west the hills are steeply scarped by the vales of Evesham, Gloucester and Berkeley (valleys of the Worcestershire Avon and the Severn). On the east they slope more gently towards the basins of the upper Thames and the Bristol Avon. The water shed lies close to the western line, except where the Stroud valley, with the Frome, draining to the Severn, strikes deep into the heart of the hills. The principal valleys are those of the Windrush, Lech, Coln and Churn, feeders of the Thames, the Thames itself, and the Bristol Avon which forms the southern boundary of the hills. The crest-line from Bath, in the south, to Meon Hill, in the north, measures 57m. The breadth varies from 6m. in the south to 28 towards the north, and the area is some 3oo sq.m. The features are rolling plateaux or wolds and bare limestone uplands, rich in remains of prehistoric times, alternating with deep narrow valleys, well wooded and traversed by shallow, rapid streams. The average elevation is about 600ft., but Cleve Cloud, above Cheltenham, and Broadway Hill, in the north, are well over i,000ft. The hills are famous for the breed of sheep which takes its name from them. The wealth accruing from wool from the i4th to the i7th centuries is preserved in the wonderful Perpendicular churches of the area, e.g., at Chipping Campden. Near this town the once famous Cots wold games were founded by Robert Dover in the 17th century.