TDL, Drug for worshipping DNA. oh dear
Gloucestershire is only 3 syllables: "GLOS-ter-sheer". Have you ever heard of "Worcestershire sauce"? Well, WOOS-ter-sheer is an actual place, as are Worcester (WOOS-ter) and Gloucester (GLOS-ter). Yeah, to pronounce a lot of town names in England, you need to get used to the silent letters and syllables.
And why the move? It was mostly because the cost of living in the UK was (and still is) rather high, even higher than the cost of living in CA. Back in 2004 or so (when last I visited England, on holiday), petrol equated to about $4.70 per gallon, when it was only $3 or so in CA. I can't imagine what it's like now.