1.
Grammar school
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The original purpose of medieval grammar schools was the teaching of Latin. Over time the curriculum was broadened, first to include Ancient Greek, and later English and other European languages, natural sciences, mathematics, history, geography, and other subjects. In the late Victorian era grammar schools were reorganised to provide secondary education throughout England and Wales, Grammar schools of these types were also established in British territories overseas, where they have evolved in different ways. With the move to comprehensive schools in the 1960s and 1970s, some grammar schools became fully independent and charged fees. In both cases, many of these schools kept grammar school in their names, more recently, a number of state grammar schools still retaining their selective intake gained academy status, meaning that they are independent of the Local Education Authority. Some parts of England retain forms of the Tripartite System, some of the remaining grammar schools can trace their histories to before the 16th century. The schools were attached to cathedrals and monasteries, teaching Latin – the language of the church – to future priests, other subjects required for religious work were occasionally added, including music and verse, astronomy and mathematics and law. With the foundation of the ancient universities from the late 12th century, grammar schools became the point to a liberal arts education. Pupils were usually educated in schools up to the age of 14, after which they would look to universities. An example of a grammar school founded by a medieval borough corporation unconnected with church or university is Bridgnorth Grammar School. During the English Reformation in the 16th century, most cathedral schools were closed and replaced by new foundations funded from the dissolution of the monasteries. For example, the oldest extant schools in Wales – Christ College, Brecon, with the increased emphasis on studying the scriptures after the Reformation, many schools added Greek and, in a few cases, Hebrew. The teaching of languages was hampered by a shortage of non-Latin type. Many of these are commemorated in annual Founders Day services and ceremonies at surviving schools. The usual pattern was to create an endowment to pay the wages of a master to instruct boys in Latin. The school day ran from 6 a. m. to 5 p. m. with a two-hour break for lunch, in winter, school started at 7 a. m. Most of the day was spent in the learning of Latin. To encourage fluency, some schoolmasters recommended punishing any pupil who spoke in English, by the end of their studies at age 14, they would be quite familiar with the great Latin authors, and with Latin drama and rhetoric
2.
Plymouth
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Plymouths early history extends to the Bronze Age, when a first settlement emerged at Mount Batten. This settlement continued as a trading post for the Roman Empire, until it was surpassed by the prosperous village of Sutton founded in the ninth century. In 1620, the Pilgrim Fathers departed Plymouth for the New World, during the English Civil War the town was held by the Parliamentarians and was besieged between 1642 and 1646. The combined town took the name of Plymouth which, in 1928, the citys naval importance later led to its targeting and partial destruction during World War II, an act known as the Plymouth Blitz. After the war the city centre was rebuilt and subsequent expansion led to the incorporation of Plympton. The city is home to 262,700 people, making it the 30th most populous area in the United Kingdom. It is governed locally by Plymouth City Council and is represented nationally by three MPs, Plymouths economy remains strongly influenced by shipbuilding and seafaring including ferry links to Brittany and Spain, but has tended toward a service-based economy since the 1990s. It has the largest operational base in Western Europe – HMNB Devonport and is home to Plymouth University. An unidentified settlement named TAMARI OSTIA is listed in Ptolemys Geographia and is presumed to be located in the area of the modern city, at the time this village was called Sutton, meaning south town in Old English. The name Plym Mouth, meaning mouth of the River Plym was first mentioned in a Pipe Roll of 1211, the name Plymouth first officially replaced Sutton in a charter of King Henry VI in 1440. See Plympton for the derivation of the name Plym, during the Hundred Years War a French attack burned a manor house and took some prisoners, but failed to get into the town. In 1403 the town was burned by Breton raiders, on 12 November,1439, the English Parliament made Plymouth the first town incorporated. The castle served to protect Sutton Pool, which is where the fleet was based in Plymouth prior to the establishment of Plymouth Dockyard. In 1512 an Act of Parliament was passed for further fortifying Plymouth, defences on St Nicholas Island also date from this time, and a string of six artillery blockhouses were built, including one on Fishers Nose at the south-eastern corner of the Hoe. This location was further strengthened by the building of a fort in 1596, during the 16th century locally produced wool was the major export commodity. According to legend, Drake insisted on completing his game of bowls on the Hoe before engaging the Spanish Armada in 1588. In 1620 the Pilgrim Fathers set sail for the New World from Plymouth, during the English Civil War Plymouth sided with the Parliamentarians and was besieged for almost four years by the Royalists. The last major attack by the Royalist was by Sir Richard Grenville leading thousands of soldiers towards Plymouth, the civil war ended as a Parliamentary win, but monarchy was restored by King Charles II in 1660, who imprisoned many of the Parliamentary heroes on Drakes Island
3.
Devon
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Devon, also known as Devonshire, which was formerly its common and official name, is a county of England, reaching from the Bristol Channel in the north to the English Channel in the south. It is part of South West England, bounded by Cornwall to the west, Somerset to the northeast, combined as a ceremonial county, Devons area is 6,707 km2 and its population is about 1.1 million. Devon derives its name from Dumnonia, which, during the British Iron Age, Roman Britain, the Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain resulted in the partial assimilation of Dumnonia into the Kingdom of Wessex during the eighth and ninth centuries. The western boundary with Cornwall was set at the River Tamar by King Æthelstan in 936, Devon was constituted as a shire of the Kingdom of England thereafter. The north and south coasts of Devon each have both cliffs and sandy shores, and the bays contain seaside resorts, fishing towns. The inland terrain is rural, generally hilly, and has a low density in comparison to many other parts of England. Dartmoor is the largest open space in southern England at 954 km2, to the north of Dartmoor are the Culm Measures and Exmoor. In the valleys and lowlands of south and east Devon the soil is fertile, drained by rivers including the Exe, the Culm, the Teign, the Dart. As well as agriculture, much of the economy of Devon is linked with tourism, in the Brittonic, Devon is known as Welsh, Dyfnaint, Breton, Devnent and Cornish, Dewnens, each meaning deep valleys. One erroneous theory is that the suffix is due to a mistake in the making of the original letters patent for the Duke of Devonshire. However, there are references to Defenascire in Anglo-Saxon texts from before 1000 AD, the term Devonshire may have originated around the 8th century, when it changed from Dumnonia to Defenascir. Kents Cavern in Torquay had produced human remains from 30–40,000 years ago, Dartmoor is thought to have been occupied by Mesolithic hunter-gatherer peoples from about 6000 BC. The Romans held the area under occupation for around 350 years. Devon became a frontier between Brittonic and Anglo-Saxon Wessex, and it was absorbed into Wessex by the mid 9th century. This suggests the Anglo-Saxon migration into Devon was limited rather than a movement of people. The border with Cornwall was set by King Æthelstan on the east bank of the River Tamar in 936 AD, the arrival of William of Orange to launch the Glorious Revolution of 1688 took place at Brixham. Devon has produced tin, copper and other metals from ancient times, Devons tin miners enjoyed a substantial degree of independence through Devons Stannary Parliament, which dates back to the 12th century. The last recorded sitting was in 1748, agriculture has been an important industry in Devon since the 19th century
4.
Cornwall
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Cornwall is a ceremonial county and unitary authority area of England within the United Kingdom. It is bordered to the north and west by the Celtic Sea, to the south by the English Channel, Cornwall has a population of 551,700 and covers an area of 3,563 km2. Cornwall forms the westernmost part of the south-west peninsula of the island of Great Britain, and this area was first inhabited in the Palaeolithic and Mesolithic periods. It continued to be occupied by Neolithic and then Bronze Age peoples, there is little evidence that Roman rule was effective west of Exeter and few Roman remains have been found. In the mid-19th century, however, the tin and copper mines entered a period of decline, subsequently, china clay extraction became more important and metal mining had virtually ended by the 1990s. Traditionally, fishing and agriculture were the important sectors of the economy. Railways led to a growth of tourism in the 20th century, however, the area is noted for its wild moorland landscapes, its long and varied coastline, its attractive villages, its many place-names derived from the Cornish language, and its very mild climate. Extensive stretches of Cornwalls coastline, and Bodmin Moor, are protected as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, Cornwall is the homeland of the Cornish people and is recognised as one of the Celtic nations, retaining a distinct cultural identity that reflects its history. Some people question the present constitutional status of Cornwall, and a nationalist movement seeks greater autonomy within the United Kingdom in the form of a devolved legislative Cornish Assembly. On 24 April 2014 it was announced that Cornish people will be granted minority status under the European Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities. The modern English name Cornwall derives from the concatenation of two ancient demonyms from different linguistic traditions, Corn- records the native Brythonic tribe, the Cornovii. The Celtic word kernou is cognate with the English word horn. -wall derives from the Old English exonym walh, the Ravenna Cosmography first mentions a city named Purocoronavis in the locality. This is thought to be a rendering of Duro-cornov-ium, meaning fort of the Cornovii. The exact location of Durocornovium is disputed, with Tintagel and Carn Brea suggested as possible sites, in later times, Cornwall was known to the Anglo-Saxons as West Wales to distinguish it from North Wales. The name appears in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle in 891 as On Corn walum, in the Domesday Book it was referred to as Cornualia and in c.1198 as Cornwal. Other names for the county include a latinisation of the name as Cornubia, the present human history of Cornwall begins with the reoccupation of Britain after the last Ice Age. The area now known as Cornwall was first inhabited in the Palaeolithic and Mesolithic periods and it continued to be occupied by Neolithic and then Bronze Age people. The Common Brittonic spoken at the time developed into several distinct tongues
5.
Royal Navy
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The Royal Navy is the United Kingdoms naval warfare force. Although warships were used by the English kings from the medieval period. The modern Royal Navy traces its origins to the early 16th century, from the middle decades of the 17th century and through the 18th century, the Royal Navy vied with the Dutch Navy and later with the French Navy for maritime supremacy. From the mid 18th century it was the worlds most powerful navy until surpassed by the United States Navy during the Second World War. The Royal Navy played a key part in establishing the British Empire as the world power during the 19th. Due to this historical prominence, it is common, even among non-Britons, following World War I, the Royal Navy was significantly reduced in size, although at the onset of the Second World War it was still the worlds largest. By the end of the war, however, the United States Navy had emerged as the worlds largest, during the Cold War, the Royal Navy transformed into a primarily anti-submarine force, hunting for Soviet submarines, mostly active in the GIUK gap. The Royal Navy is part of Her Majestys Naval Service, which includes the Royal Marines. The professional head of the Naval Service is the First Sea Lord, the Defence Council delegates management of the Naval Service to the Admiralty Board, chaired by the Secretary of State for Defence. The strength of the fleet of the Kingdom of England was an important element in the power in the 10th century. English naval power declined as a result of the Norman conquest. Medieval fleets, in England as elsewhere, were almost entirely composed of merchant ships enlisted into service in time of war. Englands naval organisation was haphazard and the mobilisation of fleets when war broke out was slow, early in the war French plans for an invasion of England failed when Edward III of England destroyed the French fleet in the Battle of Sluys in 1340. Major fighting was confined to French soil and Englands naval capabilities sufficed to transport armies and supplies safely to their continental destinations. Such raids halted finally only with the occupation of northern France by Henry V. Henry VII deserves a large share of credit in the establishment of a standing navy and he embarked on a program of building ships larger than heretofore. He also invested in dockyards, and commissioned the oldest surviving dry dock in 1495 at Portsmouth, a standing Navy Royal, with its own secretariat, dockyards and a permanent core of purpose-built warships, emerged during the reign of Henry VIII. Under Elizabeth I England became involved in a war with Spain, the new regimes introduction of Navigation Acts, providing that all merchant shipping to and from England or her colonies should be carried out by English ships, led to war with the Dutch Republic. In the early stages of this First Anglo-Dutch War, the superiority of the large, heavily armed English ships was offset by superior Dutch tactical organisation and the fighting was inconclusive
6.
River Tamar
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The Tamar is a river in south west England, that forms most of the border between Devon and Cornwall. The area is a World Heritage Site due to its mining activities. The Tamars source is less than 6 km from the north Cornish coast, the total length of the river is 61 miles. At its mouth, the Tamar flows into the Hamoaze before entering Plymouth Sound, tributaries of the river include the rivers Inny, Ottery, Kensey and Lynher on the Cornish side, and the Deer and Tavy on the Devon side. The name Tamar was mentioned by Ptolemy in the century in his Geography. The name is said to mean Great Water, the Tamar is one of several British rivers whose ancient name is assumed by some to be derived from a prehistoric river word apparently meaning dark flowing and which it shares with the River Thames. The seventh century Ravenna Cosmography mentions a Roman settlement named Tamaris, Plymouth, Launceston and the Roman fort at Calstock have been variously suggested. The river is designated as a Site of Special Scientific Interest, a European Special Area of Conservation, and it is also designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site as part of the Cornwall and West Devon Mining Landscape. In November 2013, South West Water was fined £50,000 after it admitted permitting the discharge of sewage from its Camels Head treatment plant into a tributary of the River Tamar for eight years. Together, the Tamar, Tavy and Lynher form the Tamar Valley, the Tamar Valley Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty covers around 195 km2 around the lower Tamar and its tributaries the Tavy and the Lynher. It was first proposed in 1963, but was not designated until 1995, the highest point in the AONB is Kit Hill,334 metres above sea level. The Plymouth Sound and Estuaries are a European Special Area of Conservation, rocky reefs in low salinity estuarine conditions far inland on the Tamar are very unusual and support species such as the hydroid Cordylophora caspia. The Tamar is one of few estuaries where zonation of rocky habitats can be observed along an estuarine gradient, the Tamar–Tavy Estuary is a Site of Special Scientific Interest covering the tidal estuaries of the River Tamar and the River Tavy. Part of the Tamar estuary also forms the Tamar Estuary Nature Reserve, the site was designated in 1991 for its biodiversity and varying habitats that support a large number of wader and wildfowl species, as well as the special interest of its marine biology. The site supports an important wintering population of avocet and supports species such as black-tailed godwit, whimbrel, greenshank, spotted redshank, green sandpiper. The valley, with the town of Tavistock was added to the World Heritage List during the 30th Session of the UNESCO World Heritage Committee in Vilnius. According to Ordnance Survey mapping, the source of the Tamar is at Woolley Moor, approximately 3.5 miles from the north Cornish coast, at 50. 9235°N4. 4622°W /50.9235, -4.4622. The location of the spring is a windswept plateau largely devoid of farmland
7.
Emergency evacuation
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Emergency evacuation is the urgent immediate egress or escape of people away from an area that contains an imminent threat, an on-going threat or a hazard to lives or property. Examples range from the small scale evacuation of a due to a storm or fire to the large scale evacuation of a city because of a flood. In situations involving hazardous materials or possible contamination, evacuees may be decontaminated prior to being transported out of the contaminated area, a benchmark evacuation time for different hazards and conditions is established. These benchmarks can be established through using best practices, regulations, or using simulations, such as modeling the flow of people in a building, proper planning will use multiple exits, contra-flow lanes, and special technologies to ensure full, fast and complete evacuation. Regulations such as building codes can be used to reduce the possibility of panic by allowing individuals to process the need to self-evacuate without causing alarm, proper planning will implement an all-hazards approach so that plans can be reused for multiple hazards that could exist. The particular phases are different for different objects, e. g. for ships a distinction between assembly and embarkation is made and these are separate from each other. The decision whether to enter the boats or rafts is thus usually made after assembly is completed, the strategy of individuals in evacuating buildings was investigated by John Abrahams in 1994. The independent variables were the complexity of the building and the movement ability of the individuals, with increasing complexity and decreasing motion ability, the strategy changes from fast egress, through slow egress and move to safe place inside building, to stay in place and wait for help. The last strategy is the notion of using a designated Safe Haven on the floor and this is a section of the building that is reinforced to protect against specific hazards, such as fire, smoke or structural collapse. Some hazards may have Safe Havens on each floor, while a hazard such as a tornado, typically persons with limited mobility are requested to report to a Safe Haven for rescue by first responders. In most buildings, the Safe Haven will be in the stairwell, the most common equipment in buildings to facilitate emergency evacuations are fire alarms, exit signs, and emergency lights. Some structures need special emergency exits or fire escapes to ensure the availability of alternative escape paths, commercial passenger vehicles such as buses, boats, and aircraft also often have evacuation lighting and signage, and in some cases windows or extra doors that function as emergency exits. Commercial emergency aircraft evacuation is also facilitated by evacuation slides and pre-flight safety briefings, military aircraft are often equipped with ejection seats or parachutes. Water vessels and commercial aircraft fly over water are equipped with personal flotation devices. The evacuation of districts is part of disaster management, many of the largest evacuations have been in the face of war-time military attacks. Modern large scale evacuations are usually the result of natural disasters, the largest peace-time evacuations in the United States to date occurred during Hurricane Gustav and the category-5 Hurricane Rita in a scare one month after the flood-deaths of Hurricane Katrina. Despite mandatory evacuation orders, many people did not leave New Orleans, United States, even after the city was flooded and uninhabitable, some people still refused to leave their homes. The longer a person has lived in an area, the less likely they are to evacuate
8.
Penzance
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Penzance is a town, civil parish and port in Cornwall, in England, United Kingdom. It is well known for being the most westerly town in Cornwall and is about 75 miles west of Plymouth and 300 miles west-southwest of London. The civil parish includes the town of Newlyn and the villages of Mousehole, Paul, Gulval, granted various royal charters from 1512 onwards and incorporated in 1614, it has a population of 21,200. There are no early documents mentioning an actual dedication to St Anthony which seems to depend entirely on tradition, until the 1930s this history was also reflected in the choice of symbol for the town, the severed holy head of St John the Baptist. It can still be seen on the civic regalia of the Mayor of Penzance, about 400 prehistoric stone axes, known as Group 1 axes and made from greenstone, have been found all over Britain, which from petrological analysis appear to come from west Cornwall. Although the quarry has not been identified, it has suggested that the Gear. A significant amount of trade is indicated as many have been elsewhere in Britain. The earliest evidence of settlement in Penzance is from the Bronze Age, the defensive earthwork known as Lescudjack Castle is not excavated, but almost certainly belongs to the Iron Age. A single rampart encloses three acres of hilltop, and would have dominated the approach to the area from the east, there are no signs of the additional ramparts reported by William Hals in about 1730, and the site is now surrounded by housing with allotments. Until recently, there was evidence for anything but an early and short Roman occupation of Cornwall. In August 1899 two coins of Vespasian were found in an ancient trench in Penzance Cemetery, the coins were eight feet below ground together with some cow bones, and are now in the Penlee House Museum. A1934 find from the Alverton area is described as a ″coin of the reign of Constantine the Great″, a 30 mm sestertius was found on a building site in or around Penzance about ten years previously, and was presented to the Royal Institution of Cornwall. The Hundred of Penwith had its ancient centre at Connerton, now buried beneath the sands of Gwithian Towans at Gwithian, a Hundred was a Saxon administrative unit which was sub-divided into tithings. The Manor of Alverton, with an area of 64 Cornish acres, the manor included Penzance as well as parts of Madron, Paul, St Buryan and Sancreed. Although Penzance is not mentioned in the document the Domesday Book. Domesday records that in 1066 the Manor of Alwarton was owned by Alward who was dispossessed by Robert, Count of Mortain, the name Alward and tun, a personal name combined with a town or settlement suffix, indicate Saxon land ownership. In around 1800 the chapel was converted to a fish cellar, a carving in Ludgvan granite thought to be of St Anthony was removed in about 1830 and was used in the wall of a pig sty which was further vandalised in 1850 when a stranger. Taking fancy to the countenance and rough hands, they were broken off
9.
Formula One
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Formula One is the highest class of single-seat auto racing that is sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de lAutomobile. The FIA Formula One World Championship has been the form of racing since the inaugural season in 1950. The formula, designated in the name, refers to a set of rules, the F1 season consists of a series of races, known as Grands Prix, held worldwide on purpose-built F1 circuits and public roads. The results of each race are evaluated using a system to determine two annual World Championships, one for drivers, one for constructors. The racing drivers are required to be holders of valid Super Licences, the races are required to be held on tracks graded 1, the highest grade a track can receive by the FIA. Most events are held in locations on purpose-built tracks, but there are several events in city centres throughout the world. Formula One cars are the fastest road racing cars in the world. Formula One cars race at speeds of up to approximately 375 km/h with engines currently limited in performance to a maximum of 15,000 RPM, the cars are capable of lateral acceleration in excess of five g in corners. The performance of the cars is very dependent on electronics – although traction control and other driving aids have been banned since 2008 – and on aerodynamics, suspension, the formula has radically evolved and changed through the history of the sport. F1 had a global television audience of 425 million people during the course of the 2014 season. Grand Prix racing began in 1906 and became the most popular internationally in the second half of the twentieth century. The Formula One Group is the holder of the commercial rights. Its high profile and popularity have created a major merchandising environment, since 2000 the sports spiraling expenditures and the distribution of prize money favoring established top teams have forced complaints from smaller teams and led several teams to bankruptcy. On 23 January 2017 it was confirmed that Liberty Media had completed its $8 billion acquisition of Delta Topco, the Formula One series originated with the European Grand Prix Motor Racing of the 1920s and 1930s. The formula is a set of rules that all cars must meet. Formula One was a new formula agreed upon after World War II during 1946, the first world championship race was held at Silverstone, United Kingdom in 1950. A championship for constructors followed in 1958, national championships existed in South Africa and the UK in the 1960s and 1970s. Non-championship Formula One events were held for years, but due to the increasing cost of competition
10.
South West England
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South West England is one of nine official regions of England. It is the largest in area, covering 9,200 square miles, five million people live in South West England. The region includes the West Country and much of the ancient kingdom of Wessex, other major urban centres include Plymouth, Swindon, Gloucester, Cheltenham, Exeter, Bath, Torbay, and the South East Dorset conurbation. There are eight cities, Salisbury, Bath, Wells, Bristol, Gloucester, Exeter, Plymouth and it includes two entire national parks, Dartmoor and Exmoor, and four World Heritage Sites, including Stonehenge and the Jurassic Coast. The northern part of Gloucestershire, near Chipping Campden, is as close to the Scottish border as it is to the tip of Cornwall, the region has by far the longest coastline in England and many seaside fishing towns. The region is at the first-level of NUTS for Eurostat purposes, key data and facts about the region are produced by the South West Observatory. Following the abolition of the South West Regional Assembly and Government Office, the region is known for its rich folklore, including the legend of King Arthur and Glastonbury Tor, as well as its traditions and customs. Cornwall has its own language, Cornish, and some regard it as a Celtic nation, the South West of England is known for Cheddar cheese, which originated in the Somerset village of Cheddar, Devon cream teas, crabs, Cornish pasties, and cider. It is also home to the Eden Project, Aardman Animations, the Glastonbury Festival, most of the region is located on the South West Peninsula, between the English Channel and Bristol Channel. It has the longest coastline of all the English regions, totalling over 700 miles, much of the coast is now protected from further substantial development because of its environmental importance, which contributes to the region’s attractiveness to tourists and residents. Geologically the region is divided into the largely igneous and metamorphic west and sedimentary east, Cornwall and West Devons landscape is of rocky coastline and high moorland, notably at Bodmin Moor and Dartmoor. These are due to the granite and slate that underlie the area, the highest point of the region is High Willhays, at 2,038 feet, on Dartmoor. In North Devon the slates of the west and limestones of the east meet at Exmoor National Park, the variety of rocks of similar ages seen here have led to the countys name being lent to that of the Devonian period. The east of the region is characterised by wide, flat clay vales and chalk, the vales, with good irrigation, are home to the regions dairy agriculture. The Blackmore Vale was Thomas Hardys Vale of the Little Dairies, another and these downs are the principal area of arable agriculture in the region. Limestone is also found in the region, at the Cotswolds, Quantock Hills and Mendip Hills, all of the principal rock types can be seen on the Jurassic Coast of Dorset and East Devon, where they document the entire Mesozoic era from west to east. The climate of South West England is classed as oceanic according to the Köppen climate classification, the oceanic climate typically experiences cool winters with warmer summers and precipitation all year round, with more experienced in winter. Annual rainfall is about 1,000 millimetres and up to 2,000 millimetres on higher ground, summer maxima averages range from 18 °C to 22 °C and winter minimum averages range from 1 °C to 4 °C across the south-west
11.
Ochroma
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Ochroma is a genus of flowering plants in the mallow family, Malvaceae, containing the sole species Ochroma pyramidale, commonly known as the balsa tree. It is a large, fast-growing tree that can grow up to 30 m tall, balsa wood is a very lightweight material with many uses. Balsa trees are native to southern Brazil and northern Bolivia, up to southern Mexico, a member of the mallow family, O. pyramidale is native to southern Mexico to southern Brazil, but is now found in many other countries. It is a plant, which establishes itself in clearings in forests, either man-made or where trees have fallen. It grows extremely rapidly, up to 90 ft in 10–15 years, the speed of growth accounts for the lightness of the wood, which has a lower density than cork. Trees generally do not live beyond 30 to 40 years, flowers are produced from the third year onwards, typically at the end of the rainy season when few other trees are in flower. The large flowers open in the afternoon and remain open overnight. Each may contain a pool of nectar up to 1 in deep, however most pollination occurs at night. It was once thought that the main pollinators were bats, however recent evidence suggests that two nocturnal arboreal mammals, the kinkajou and the olingo, may be the primary pollinators, ecuador supplies 95% or more of commercial balsa. In recent years, about 60% of the balsa has been plantation-grown in densely packed patches of around 1000 trees per hectare and it is evergreen or dry-season deciduous, with large weakly palmately lobed leaves. Being a deciduous angiosperm, balsa is classified as a hardwood despite the wood itself being very soft and it is the softest commercial hardwood. The trees are harvested after six to 10 years of growth, the name balsa comes from the Spanish word for raft. Balsa lumber is very soft and light, with a coarse, the density of dry balsa wood ranges from 40–340 kg/m3, with a typical density of about 160 kg/m3. The wood of the tree has large cells that are filled with water. This gives the wood a spongy texture and it also makes the wood of the living tree not much lighter than water and barely able to float. For commercial production, the wood is kiln-dried for about two weeks, leaving the hollow and empty. The large volume-to-surface ratio of the resulting thin-walled empty cells gives the wood a large strength-to-weight ratio because the cells are mostly air. Unlike naturally rotted wood, that soon disintegrates in the rainforests where balsa trees grow, however, it also is valued as a component of full-sized light wooden aeroplanes, most notably the World War II de Havilland Mosquito
