The South industrial and agricultural region.

This is the most important region in the country in terms of industry, agriculture and population. The region includes all the south of England, both the south-west. It’s the northern border runs from the Bristol Channel to the west. The south is the region of various industries and of the intensive agriculture. At the centre of everything is the city of London and its influence has become so widespread that the south-east has often been called The London City Region.

Today about 6.7 million people live in greater London. The outward movement of people from the inner districts of London is continuing. Its geographical position fitted London to be the chief commercial link of the UK with the outside world. One great advantage of the port, because of its high tides, was the ability of the vessels to sail up the estuary into the heart of the city. London handles the largest part of the country’s overseas trade. From 5 to 10 per cent of the exports (by tonnage) pass through the port of London and 15-20 per cent of imports. The millions of people living in Greater London and its surrounding areas provide a market for many important goods, especially food stuffs.

The importance of London as the industrial centre depends largely upon its situation at the centre of a vast national and international network of communications. The oldest industrial areas are near the city centre here industries such as clothing, furniture making and jewelry have tended to cluster in small distinct areas. The building of the docks near the city centre encouraged the development of a vast range of industries which processed imported row materials. Later the extension of the thee dock system toward the sea lead to the development of such typical port industries, as oil refining, steel-making, cement manufacture, paper making, etc.

As with most capital cities, London’s industries are extremely varied, among them electrical engineering, precision instrument production, radio engineering, aircraft production, manufacture of electronics equipment, the motorcar industry. These high technology industries are also sited in the satellite towns within Greater London. For example, just within Greater London, at Dagenham is the great Ford motor work. The chemicals and munitions industries are also developed in this region. Greater London is a major centre of pharmaceutical products. Greater London accounts for 25 per cent of the industrial goods of the country’s output in terms of value.

London has greater expansion in recent years; especially in the service industries provide employment for twice as many people as manufacturing industries. This is due to the enormous concentration of population in the city and the resultant need for service industries which occur there on a scale found now here else in Britain. For example, more then half of the national labor force employed in banking and insurance, the civil service and scientific research, work in London. Thousands of computers travel to central London each day to work in offices, banks, insurance, companies and shops. Add to this the work force catering for the tourist trade.

The other towns and cities, situated to the north of the Thames, and closely connected with the capital industrial specialization are Oxford, Cambridge and Luton.

Oxford has first mentioned in recorded history in the tenth century. It was a bridging point off the Themes, which made it an important trading centre in medieval times.

Oxford (98000) also became a leading educational centre, and by the end of the thirteenth century the earliest colleges of its world famous university had been founded. For centuries, however, its population drew slowly, and its more rapid development into an industrial centre waited till the twenties century. This come with the establishment of a large motor works in the suburb of Cowley in 1912, which together with other engineering works, was largely responsible for the rapid rise n its population reaching today about a hundred thousand inhabitants.

Cambridge (90000) is also best known for its ancient university. As with Oxford, the fine architecture of its colleges draws many visitors. Its industries, concerned with electronics including the manufacture of radio and television sets and scientific research instruments and printing have links with the university which has as international reputation for scientific research, facilities for high technology research and highly trade labor that can be recruited from the university.

Luton ((164000) provides an example of a town which became famous for one industry but prospered and expanded because of another. Luton became the countries leading hat-making town, straw from the local crop furnishing the raw material. But the demand has shrunk greatly in recent years.

Early this century a motor car firm built its principal factory at Luton. The motor works is the chief employer. It also attracted other engineering industries such as the manufacture of electrical appliances roller, bearing, etc. Nearby there is also one of the largest brickworks in Western Europe. The basic raw material, clay is extracted locally.

The Thames valley in general, between London and Bristol is an area of concentration of high technology industries of the future.

Bristol (384400) dominated south-west England, both as the region’s chief as its largest city. Bristol is a historic inland port situated in the seaport and Bristol Channel. If we look into the history of the port, we find that it once held a far more important position than it does today. Today it accounts for about 2 per cent of the country’s trade. One reason for the decline of Bristol as the seaport as its unfavorable location about 13 km above mouth of the Avon. This meant in course o time its clocks could no longer accommodate the larger vessels that were constantly being built. Outposts to Bristol were built at Avon-mouth and Potsherd: an out port is one that belongs to the main port, but is nearer the open sea and therefore has deeper water and can accommodate larger vessels. Avon-mouth has been specially equipped to handle various goods, such as imported frozen meat, butter, bananas. Import exceeds export. Different ores make a considerable percentage of the import as well as timber, grain, fodder. Automobile, tractors, locomotives, aircraft, cement from the export trade. Imports influence the character of local industries. This is very well seen in the manufacture of tobacco products and chocolate n Bristol is a major centre of non-ferrous metallurgy hardware is also produced in this city. The British version of the supersonic ‘Concor-Norwich Cathedral de ‘was assembled at an aircraft plant in Bristol. The chemical and petrochemical industries are also developing in rapid place.

Of the towns situated on the southern fringe of England the largest ones are Plymouth (244,000), Southampton (204000) Portsmouth (179000), Brighton (146000) and Bournemouth (145000).

Plymouth, situated at the head of Plymouth Sound, has a magnificent natural harbor, and it is well placed to guard the western approaches to the English Channel. Nearly 300 years ago work began on a dockyard nearby and from then on wards the great naval base of the British navy. The city has no major traditional industry and the naval dockyard remains the leading employers of labor. However, in recent years it has attracted a variety of light engineering industries such as the manufacture of television sets. The food industry has also developed due to its role as an importer of fruit and vegetables from France and the Mediterranean area.

Southampton is primarily a seaport, the most important one on the south coast. For a long time it was the leading passenger port in the British Isles, with special significance for its services to North America and South Africa. It was from here on April 12, 1912 that the famous Titanic made its first and last voyage to New York. The distinction belongs to the past, however, for most travelers now cross the Atlantic by air. Southampton continues to serve as a port chiefly because of the development of its freight traffic. Many of the vessels which enter Southampton port are oil tankers carrying petroleum to the great oil refinery at Fawley. Petroleum in fact is the most valuable single item in the imports. This refinery supplies fuel to power stations, raw material to chemical works, and aviation spirit to London Airport (Heathrow). Its expanding petrochemical industry has contributed much to the prosperity of Southampton.

Brighton and Bournemouth are the leading and most popular seaside resorts of the southern fringe of Britain. Brighton offers every kind of holiday accommodation, a generally brisk sunny climate, a variety of amusements. Brighton is a favorite site for the annual congresses of the leading political parties of Great Britain. The town has grown steadily and has acquired a number of light engineering industries. Brighton is also a dormitory town of London, for its houses many commuters. Bournemouth too attracts a lot of holiday-makers in the summer. As a matter of fact, F.Engels frequented this seaside resort in the later years of his life. There are the other numerous resorts on the southern shore very popular with holiday-makers because of the mild climate, warm seas and wonderful beaches.

The south is major agricultural region of Great Britain. However agricultural specialization is different in the south west and south east and east. Owing to the mild, moist climate of the south west, grass grows for a long period in the year, and farming chiefly consists of rearing livestock. On the fertile lowland soils cattle are the principal farm animals, especially dairy breeds which thrive on the lush pastures. Hence, dairying is the main farming activity here. Oats are barley make up the principal cereal. The farmer are grown for fodder for thee cattle. In the very south-west horticulture is developed^ the growing of early vegetables and flowers. In the very south of the country barley is the most important grain crop grown in rotation.

3. The Midlands

 

 

The Midlands is situated in the center of Great Britain between the South Industrial Agricultural region in the south and Lancashire and Yorkshire in the north. For the past two hundred years the Midlands has been one of Britain’s leading industrial regions.

It was the presence of coalfields, especially the South Staffordshire coalfields. Today it is one of the chief industrial areas in the United Kingdom. Quite often it is called the Birmingham /Black Country.

Birmingham itself stands outside the district known as the Black Country: a district lying west and north-west of the city. During the nineteenth century the area emerged as a center of heavy industry and the coal field towns became most important. Exploitation of the coal field devastated large areas of land. Much of the early prosperity depended upon one industry – the iron industry. Today the region produces less than five per cent of the country’s steel output and this small industry depends upon scrap metal and steel brought in from the major producing areas.

Although the basic iron and steel industry has virtually disappeared, the industries which depend upon it, particularly engineering. With the changes in industry have dome changes in surface features, and the Black Country is beginning to lose its image. However many of the problems created in the past still prevail today.

Birmingham is the industrial capital of the Midlands. In population (998,200) it’s the second largest city in Britain.

It has been said that Birmingham makes everything from a pin to a steam roller, but it is best known for its hardware. The motor industry employs thousands of workers.

Birmingham also makes bicycles, but its motor-cycle industry has declined, largely owing to Japanese competition. On the other hand, the city has its long tradition of making guns and has an international trade in sporting guns. Jewelry manufacture became a major industry, and Birmingham remains the country’s leading centre. The city is a major producer of consumer goods, are also developed. Among the manufacture of food products, cocoa and chocolate occupy a prominent place.

The other major city of the West Midlands conurbation is Coventry (310,000). It was already well known in the middle Ages. Trading in wool, and later making woolen cloth, was the chief occupation. During the nineteenth century on the basis of local coal the metal-working and engineering industries developed. During the early years of the century, the first car assembly lines were built, machine tool factories grew up to supply them.

During the Second World War Coventry suffered great damage from Nazi air raids. On the night of November 14.1940 came the greatest raid so far directed against an English provincial city. Nearly 75 per cent of the city’s industry had been seriously damaged and so had over 46,000 houses after the city was rebuilt. Today Coventry is the centre of the British motor industry.

Nottingham lace also became famous. Other industries in Nottingham are the manufacture of bicycles, pharmaceutical products and cigarettes. Derby is an important railway engineering centre because of its central position. Textile manufacture developed with the building of the country’s first silk mill.

At the south-west tip of the Pennines lies a district of the Midlands known as the Potteries with its major industrial centre Stoke-upon-Trent (26,000) famous for its pottery and ceramics industry.

In climate the Midlands has a midway place between the rather wet area to the west (Wales) and the drier, moor continental area to the east (East Anglia). A great deal of the region is under grass, either permanent or in rotation. Largely because of climatic differences, dairy cattle are more numerous in the west. But there is a higher proportion of beef cattle towards the east. Many sheep are also grazed. Nowadays the principal crops are barley and wheat, along with potatoes and sugar rise to market gardening nearby and a great variety of vegetables is produced.

 

Lancashire and Yorkshire

 

Two major industrial regions are situated to the north of the Midlands. They are Lancashire, which is on the western slopes of the Pennines and Yorkshire on the eastern side.

Lancashire is a historic centre of British industry, it the birth place of capitalism and it was here that the Industrial Revolution started.

We may distinguish two major centers in this region: Merseyside and Greater Manchester.

Merseyside is centered on Liverpool. In the space of two hundred years from 1650 to 1850- Liverpool grew from a small fishing village to become Britain’s leading port. The port served the Lancashire cotton industry which was the fastest growing industry in the world. Much of the prosperity was, due to its taking part in the shameful Triangular Trade or slave trade.

The chemical industry is developed, using brine (water is pumped down into the salt deposits, which dissolves the salt and then the water is forced to the surface as brine) from the salt deposits in nearby Cheshire. It expanded rapidly with the development of oil-based chemicals and the soap and detergent industries, which were closely related to it, also grew quickly. In the 1960s the motor-car industry developed here. However, today the car industry is in decline and this in turn contributed to the growth of unemployment. Another important industry, shipbuilding and ship repairing, developed at Birkenhead.

Great Manchester, like Merseyside, was one of the metropolitan counties to be formed in 1947, and includes a number of towns, grouped round the upper Mersey.

At the heart of the region the Manchester itself, a city of ancient origin probably called Mancunium by the Romans. People who live in the city are therefore known as Mancunians.

By the seventeenth century Manchester was the center of a textile industry. It was a great commercial city. Great advances in manufacture were made in the late eighteenth century by several inventions which marked the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. The building of canals encouraged the development of the city.

However, the important was the construction of the Manchester Ship Canal in 1984 which made the city a seaport in spite of it being 50 km from the sea.

Clothing manufacture based on cotton and synthetic fibers and good processing are important activities, but engineering (including electrical engineering) is the principal employer of labour.

Of the towns situated on the shore of the Irish Sea most important is Black pool, which is a popular coastal resort in northern England. Today it houses nearly one hundred and fifty thousand inhabitants. Due to extensive industrial development agriculture is less developed in Lancashire. There is a limited proportion of permanent grassland on the fertile lowlands of south Lancashire. Cattle and sheep are relatively few, but there is a concentration of poultry. Potatoes are an important crop. Other vegetables such as cabbages and peas are also cultivated.

South Yorkshire as a whole lies on the largest and most productive coalfields in the country.

Sheffield and its neighborhood produces almost two-thirds of the country’s alloy steels. Sheffield produces a wide range of steel goods besides cutlery.

Like South Yorkshire, West Yorkshire a large conurbation, and became one of the metropolitan countries formed in 1974. It is also the home of another great industry – the manufacture of woolen goods, and has one large town-Leeds (705,000).

Being the chief commercial and cultural center of West Yorkshire it does not lead in textile. Its main industry is the manufacture of clothing, and engineering is also important. The latter provides work mainly for men, as the ready-made clothing factories do mainly for women. Engineering products are extremely varied.

Bradford (462,500) has long been the leading centre of worsted and woolen manufacture.

In North Yorkshire the largest town is York (100,000). In Roman times it was called Eboracum. It has long been important as a route centre. Railway engineering developed, and another leading industry is the manufacture of confectionery (including chocolate). York attracts many tourists on account of its famous minister and the medieval city walls. In recent years the city’s population has changed little, but is especially swollen by tourists during the summer months.

On the basic of local are the iron and steel industry developed in Scunthorpe (66,000). The expansion of the town was due to the discovery of iron in the neighborhood. The steel provides an essential raw material for the engineering plants. Scunthorpe has large integrated steelworks where all the stages in steel manufacture take place: coal is converted into coke in coke ovens, the ore is smelted in blast furnaces, and the molten pig-iron is converted into steel at the same works. A massive modernization programme was carried out in the 1970s, and Scunthorpe today has become one of the leading steel-making centers in the country.

The estuary of the Humber is one of the most spacious in Britain, and it is also well placed for trade with Europe. Thus a number of seaports have grown up there, and two of them, Immingham and Grimsby, have risen to front-rank importance. Grimsby developed mainly as a fishing post (second places) Grimsby and Hull have long been rivals in the fish trade, (ports) taking first and second places among the country’s fishing ports. Both ports have suffered from the decline in the fishing industry. Grimsby, however, has benefited from the industrial development along the south bank of the estuary. It has also become a leading centre for the preparation of frozen foods.

In the early days prosperity depended largely on fishing and in most recent years the fishing fleet landed a bigger catch than of any other port. Hull had a majority of modern long-distance trawlers. When difficulties arose in the industry, in particular the adjustment of fishing limits, the effects were severely felt in Hull. Fishing and associated occupations no longer retained their leading role. Its industry is closely connected with the imports: timber goes to the sawmills, flour to flour mills, etc.

The economy of Yorkshire was always closely connected with wool. This is vividly reflected in the development of agriculture. The highlands along the Pennines covered with coarse grass form rough pasture for sheep grazing, especially in the western and northern regions. North Yorkshire is mainly a rural farming region. Farming is mixed and includes cattle rearing and cultivation of root crops such as potatoes, carrots and cereals, mainly barley. In the north dairy cattle outnumber beef cattle.

Much of the territory to the east, especially near the coast is under the plough. Barley and wheat are major crops and sugar beet and potatoes are also important.