The Doughnut

Government Communications Headquarters, commonly known as GCHQ, is an intelligence and security organisation responsible for providing signals intelligence (SIGINT) and information assurance (IA) to the government and armed forces of the United Kingdom. Primarily based at "The Doughnut" in the suburbs of Cheltenham, GCHQ is the responsibility of the country's Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs (Foreign Secretary), but it is not a part of the Foreign Office and its Director ranks as a Permanent Secretary. GCHQ was originally established after the First World War as the Government Code and Cypher School (GC&CS) and was known under that name until 1946. During the Second World War it was located at Bletchley Park, where it was responsible for breaking the German Enigma codes. There are two main components of the GCHQ, the Composite Signals Organisation (CSO), which is responsible for gathering information, and the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), which is responsible for securing the UK's own communications. The Joint Technical Language Service (JTLS) is a small department and cross-government resource responsible for mainly technical language support and translation and interpreting services across government departments. It is co-located with GCHQ for administrative purposes. In 2013, GCHQ received considerable media attention when the former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden revealed that the agency was in the process of collecting all online and telephone data in the UK via the Tempora programme. Snowden's revelations began a spate of ongoing disclosures of global surveillance. The Guardian newspaper was forced to destroy computer hard drives with the files Snowden had given them because of the threats of a lawsuit under the Official Secrets Act.

Dowty Arle Court is a cricket ground in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire. The first important match on the ground was in 1988, when the Gloucestershire Second XI played the Warwickshire Second XI in the Second XI Championship. Between 1988 and 1995, the ground held a combined total of 11 Second XI fixtures for the Gloucerstershire Second XI in both the Second XI Championship and the Second XI Trophy.In 1992, Gloucestershire played 2 List-A matches at the ground. The first of which saw them play Leicestershire and the second of which saw them play a combined Minor Counties team. Both matches came in the 1992 Benson and Hedges Cup.In local domestic cricket, the ground is the home venue of Dowty Arle Court Cricket Club.

Benhall is a small district within the town of Cheltenham, Gloucestershire. It lies south-west of the town centre, just south of the A40, the main road to Gloucester, and north of the district of Up Hatherley. It falls mainly within the Anglican parish of St Mark. Much of the area consists of the Benhall (originally Benhall Farm) Estate, developed mainly in the late 1950s and early 1960s on land that had previously been farmland (mainly pasture), and takes its name from the farm that formerly stood there (at the site of the current Notgrove Close). The district is divided in two by a stream with steep banks, surrounded by a narrow area of grass and woodland. Many of the roads are named after villages in the surrounding countryside. "Robert Burns Avenue" was named after the Scottish poet, after complaints that he was not among the poets with roads named after them in the older St Mark's estate (Tennyson, Byron, Shakespeare, etc.), even though he had a personal link with Cheltenham (his sons retired to the town). St Mark's Church of England Junior School and Benhall Infants School, along with a playgroup, are located on Robert Burns Avenue in Benhall. The last census recorded the population of Benhall at 3260. The area has an active residents' association. In local government it forms part of the ward of Benhall and the Reddings. The population of this Ward in the 2011 Census was 5,071.There are 1,362 households within the Benhall district and an average unemployment rate of 1.7%.[1] Benhall is the location of 'The Doughnut', the nickname given to the headquarters of the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), the British intelligence agency who specialise in signals intelligence and cryptography.

Pate's Grammar School is a grammar school with academy status in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, England. It caters for pupils aged 11 to 18. The school was founded with a fund bestowed to Corpus Christi College, Oxford, by Richard Pate in 1574. The school became co-educational in 1986, when Pate's Grammar School for Girls merged with Cheltenham Grammar School. Pate's has been awarded 'State Secondary School of the Year’ twice by The Sunday Times in their Good Schools Guide in 2012 and 2020. In 2013, the school was given an Outstanding judgement by Ofsted.

Cheltenham West is an area in the western part of Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, England. It is the generic name for an area which includes the council wards of Hesters Way, Springbank, Arle, Rowanfield, Alstone, Fiddlers Green, St Mark's and some of St Peter's and the Moors. This area has a population of about 30,000 and includes large amounts of social housing.

St Philip and St James, Up Hatherley is the Church of England parish church in Up Hatherley, Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, England. The church is part of the Anglican Diocese of Gloucester. The present church is a Grade II listed building and has been a centre for worship since 1886.

Up Hatherley is a civil parish and a suburb of the spa town of Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, England. Formerly a hamlet in the parish of Shurdington, it became a parish in 1887 and became a part of Cheltenham in 1991.

Badgeworth SSSI (grid reference SO 911206) is a 3.08-hectare (7.6-acre) biological Site of Special Scientific Interest in Gloucestershire notified in 1954 and renotified in 1983. Part of this site (grid reference SO910206) is owned and managed by the Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust as a nature reserve.There are two units of assessment. The nature reserve is unit 1 and the northerly field is unit 2.It is one of only two sites in the United Kingdom where the Adder's-tongue Spearwort (Ranunculus ophioglossifolius) occurs; in Gloucestershire this species has acquired the name "Badgeworth buttercup" through its association with this site. The site is near the Gloucestershire village of Badgeworth. The other known population is at Inglestone Common near Wickwar in South Gloucestershire.The site is a depression on Blue Lias clay, which fills seasonally with rain water and run-off from adjoining pasture to create the wetland habitat which is needed for the plant.

The Bacon Theatre is a medium-scale venue on the site of Dean Close School, Cheltenham. The theatre provides a teaching and leisure resource for the school as well as being available to hire for local community groups and providing a full programme of professional events.

Dean Close School is a public school in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, England. The school is divided into pre-prep, preparatory and senior schools located on separate but adjacent sites outside Cheltenham town centre, occupying the largest private land area in the town. The school is now co-educational, with both day and boarding pupils, who may be enrolled as young as 3 in the pre-preparatory school, and continue through to 18 at the senior school. Dean Close is a member of the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference. The Headmaster of the Senior School is Bradley Salisbury and the Headmaster of the Preparatory School is Paddy Moss. DCPS is a member of the IAPS and the Choir Schools' Association. Fees are currently £26,940 pa for day pupils and £41,700 pa for boarders in the senior school. Fees in the prep school are up to £20,550 pa for day pupils and up to £29,100 pa for boarders.

Rowanfield is a neighbourhood in Cheltenham, England. It consists primarily of a social housing estate of Wimpey no-fines houses and low-rise flats, built around 1953, with Rowanfield School and a playing field to the West separating it from Hesters Way and also the older Rowanfield Road to the East. To the south-west Rowanfield borders the district of St Mark's. Rowanfield is located 1.5 miles west of the centre of Cheltenham.

Uckington is a village west of Cheltenham in Gloucestershire. The population of the parish taken at the 2011 census was 605.Not having a church, Uckington was formerly a hamlet in the parish of Elmstone-Hardwicke but is now a civil parish in its own right. The two villages share a village hall.Uckington is in the borough of Tewkesbury, the Cheltenham post town, and on the Coombe Hill, Cheltenham, telephone exchange. Nearby villages include Elmstone-Hardwicke and Boddington.