1.
Gloucester Shire
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Gloucester Shire was a local government area in the Mid North Coast and Upper Hunter regions of New South Wales, Australia. The Shire was situated adjacent to the Bucketts Way and the North Coast railway line, the last mayor of the Gloucester Shire Council was Cr. The first proposed a merger of Gloucester Shire and Dungog Shire councils to form a new council with an area of 5,200 square kilometres and support a population of approximately 14,000. The Council was dissolved on 12 May 2016 and the area included in the Mid-Coast Council, along with City of Greater Taree and Great Lakes Council. At the 2011 census, there were 4,877 people in the Gloucester Shire local government area, of these 49.8 per cent were male and 50.2 per cent were female. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people made up 4.7 per cent of the population, the median age of people in the Gloucester Shire was 50 years, which was significantly higher than the national median of 37 years. Children aged 0 –14 years made up 16.0 per cent of the population and people aged 65 years, of people in the area aged 15 years and over,54.7 per cent were married and 13.1 per cent were either divorced or separated. Population growth in the Gloucester Shire between the 2001 census and the 2006 census was 2.54 per cent, and in the subsequent five years to the 2011 census, the median weekly income for residents within the Gloucester Shire was significantly lower than the national average. At the 2011 census, the proportion of residents in the Gloucester Shire local government area who stated their ancestry as Australian or Anglo-Saxon exceeded 86 per cent of all residents. At the time of dissolution, Gloucester Shire Council was composed of seven Councillors, all Councillors were elected for a fixed four-year term of office. The Mayor was elected by the Councillors at the first meeting of the Council. The last election was held on 8 September 2012 and the makeup of the Council was as follows, The last Council, elected in 2012 and dissolved in 2016, in order of election, was
2.
Counties of England
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Counties of England are areas used for the purposes of administrative, geographical, cultural or political demarcation. For administrative purposes, England outside Greater London and the Isles of Scilly is divided into 83 metropolitan and non-metropolitan counties and these counties may consist of a single district or be divided into several districts. As of April 2009,27 of these counties are divided into districts and have a county council, all of England is also divided into 48 ceremonial counties, which are also known as geographic counties. Most ceremonial counties correspond to a metropolitan or non-metropolitan county of the same name, the current arrangement is the result of incremental reform. Many of the counties have their origins in the Middle Ages, although the larger counties of Yorkshire, the geographic counties which existed before the local government reforms of 1965 and 1974 are referred to as ancient counties or historic counties. From 1889 to 1974 areas with county councils were known as administrative counties, from 1974 to 1996 the metropolitan and non-metropolitan counties, some of which were established only in 1974, corresponded directly with the ceremonial counties. For the purpose of sorting and delivering mail, England was divided into 48 postal counties until 1996, in these counties most services are provided by the county council and the district councils have a more limited role. Their areas each correspond exactly to ceremonial counties and they are Greater Manchester, Merseyside, South Yorkshire, Tyne and Wear, West Midlands and West Yorkshire. In these counties the district councils provide the majority of services, similarly, Berkshire is a non-metropolitan county with no county council and multiple districts and maps directly to a ceremonial county. Bristol, Herefordshire, Isle of Wight, Northumberland and Rutland are ceremonial counties consisting of a county of a single district. In total, there are 39 unitary authorities that do not share the names of any of the ceremonial counties, bedfordshire and Cheshire are counties that consist of a number of unitary authorities, none of which has the same name as the ceremonial county. The City of London and Greater London are anomalous as ceremonial counties that do not correspond to any metropolitan or non-metropolitan counties, large ceremonial counties often correspond to a single police force. For example, the four unitary authorities which make up Cheshire correspond to the area as the Cheshire Constabulary. Some counties are grouped together for this purpose, such as Northumberland with Tyne, in other areas a group of unitary authorities in several counties are grouped together to form police force areas, such as the Cleveland Police and Humberside Police. Greater London and the City of London each have their own forces, the Metropolitan Police Service. The fire service is operated on a basis, and the ambulance service is organised by the regions of England. Most ceremonial counties form part of a region, although Lincolnshire. Economic development is delivered using the regions, as is strategic planning, as of 2009, the largest county by area is North Yorkshire and the smallest is the City of London
3.
Flag of Gloucestershire
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Prior to 2008, the banner of arms for Gloucestershire County Council was used as the de facto flag for the county. The new flag is coloured blue, cream and green, representing the River Severn, Cotswold stone, prior to 2008, there was a flag of Gloucestershire available, but was actually the banner of arms for Gloucestershire County Council and therefore not the county flag. The new flag was registered in March 2008, and is named the Severn Cross, the design was the winning entry in a 2008 competition, judged by High Sheriff of Gloucestershire, Jonathan Carr, in celebration of a millennium of the countys existence. In addition, Carr stated that many counties of the West Country had their own flags, in addition, the winner would take home a prize of £250. The competition had over 1000 entries, and the entry was designed by Jeremy Bentail. Once the winner had been chosen, the first thirty flags produced were flown by district councils, the flag comprises a cross of mid-blue, outlined in cream, against an apple green background. The blue represents the River Severn, the green represents the Golden Valley, Stroud, List of English flags List of British flags
4.
Geographic coordinate system
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A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation
5.
United Kingdom
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The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom or Britain, is a sovereign country in western Europe. Lying off the north-western coast of the European mainland, the United Kingdom includes the island of Great Britain, Northern Ireland is the only part of the United Kingdom that shares a land border with another sovereign state—the Republic of Ireland. The Irish Sea lies between Great Britain and Ireland, with an area of 242,500 square kilometres, the United Kingdom is the 78th-largest sovereign state in the world and the 11th-largest in Europe. It is also the 21st-most populous country, with an estimated 65.1 million inhabitants, together, this makes it the fourth-most densely populated country in the European Union. The United Kingdom is a monarchy with a parliamentary system of governance. The monarch is Queen Elizabeth II, who has reigned since 6 February 1952, other major urban areas in the United Kingdom include the regions of Birmingham, Leeds, Glasgow, Liverpool and Manchester. The United Kingdom consists of four countries—England, Scotland, Wales, the last three have devolved administrations, each with varying powers, based in their capitals, Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast, respectively. The relationships among the countries of the UK have changed over time, Wales was annexed by the Kingdom of England under the Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542. A treaty between England and Scotland resulted in 1707 in a unified Kingdom of Great Britain, which merged in 1801 with the Kingdom of Ireland to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Five-sixths of Ireland seceded from the UK in 1922, leaving the present formulation of the United Kingdom of Great Britain, there are fourteen British Overseas Territories. These are the remnants of the British Empire which, at its height in the 1920s, British influence can be observed in the language, culture and legal systems of many of its former colonies. The United Kingdom is a country and has the worlds fifth-largest economy by nominal GDP. The UK is considered to have an economy and is categorised as very high in the Human Development Index. It was the worlds first industrialised country and the worlds foremost power during the 19th, the UK remains a great power with considerable economic, cultural, military, scientific and political influence internationally. It is a nuclear weapons state and its military expenditure ranks fourth or fifth in the world. The UK has been a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council since its first session in 1946 and it has been a leading member state of the EU and its predecessor, the European Economic Community, since 1973. However, on 23 June 2016, a referendum on the UKs membership of the EU resulted in a decision to leave. The Acts of Union 1800 united the Kingdom of Great Britain, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have devolved self-government
6.
Countries of the United Kingdom
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The United Kingdom comprises four countries, England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Within the United Kingdom, a sovereign state, Northern Ireland, Scotland. England, comprising the majority of the population and area of the United Kingdom, England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales are not themselves listed in the International Organization for Standardization list of countries. However the ISO list of the subdivisions of the UK, compiled by British Standards, Northern Ireland, in contrast, is described as a province in the same lists. Each has separate governing bodies for sports and compete separately in many international sporting competitions. Northern Ireland also forms joint All-Island sporting bodies with the Republic of Ireland for most sports, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man are dependencies of the Crown and are not part of the UK. Similarly, the British overseas territories, remnants of the British Empire, are not part of the UK, southern Ireland left the United Kingdom under the Irish Free State Constitution Act 1922. * Figures for GVA do not include oil and gas revenues generated beyond the UKs territorial waters, various terms have been used to describe England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. Wales was described as the country, principality, and dominion of Wales, outside Wales, England was not given a specific name or term. The Laws in Wales Acts have subsequently been repealed, the Acts of Union 1707 refer to both England and Scotland as a part of a united kingdom of Great Britain The Acts of Union 1800 use part in the same way to refer to England and Scotland. The Northern Ireland Act 1998, which repealed the Government of Ireland Act 1920, the Interpretation Act 1978 provides statutory definitions of the terms England, Wales and the United Kingdom, but neither that Act nor any other current statute defines Scotland or Northern Ireland. Use of the first three terms in other legislation is interpreted following the definitions in the 1978 Act and this definition applies from 1 April 1974. United Kingdom means Great Britain and Northern Ireland and this definition applies from 12 April 1927. In 1996 these 8 new counties were redistributed into the current 22 unitary authorities, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are regions in their own right while England has been divided into nine regions. The official term rest of the UK is used in Scotland, for example in export statistics and this term is also used in the context of potential Scottish independence to mean the UK without Scotland. The alternative term Home Nations is sometimes used in sporting contexts, the second, or civic group, contained the items about feeling British, respecting laws and institutions, speaking English, and having British citizenship. Contrariwise, in Scotland and Wales there was a much stronger identification with each country than with Britain, studies and surveys have reported that the majority of the Scots and Welsh see themselves as both Scottish/Welsh and British though with some differences in emphasis. The propensity for nationalistic feeling varies greatly across the UK, and can rise and it reported that 37% of people identified as British, whilst 29% identified as Irish and 24% identified as Northern Irish
7.
England
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England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west, the Irish Sea lies northwest of England and the Celtic Sea lies to the southwest. England is separated from continental Europe by the North Sea to the east, the country covers five-eighths of the island of Great Britain in its centre and south, and includes over 100 smaller islands such as the Isles of Scilly, and the Isle of Wight. England became a state in the 10th century, and since the Age of Discovery. The Industrial Revolution began in 18th-century England, transforming its society into the worlds first industrialised nation, Englands terrain mostly comprises low hills and plains, especially in central and southern England. However, there are uplands in the north and in the southwest, the capital is London, which is the largest metropolitan area in both the United Kingdom and the European Union. In 1801, Great Britain was united with the Kingdom of Ireland through another Act of Union to become the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. In 1922 the Irish Free State seceded from the United Kingdom, leading to the latter being renamed the United Kingdom of Great Britain, the name England is derived from the Old English name Englaland, which means land of the Angles. The Angles were one of the Germanic tribes that settled in Great Britain during the Early Middle Ages, the Angles came from the Angeln peninsula in the Bay of Kiel area of the Baltic Sea. The earliest recorded use of the term, as Engla londe, is in the ninth century translation into Old English of Bedes Ecclesiastical History of the English People. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, its spelling was first used in 1538. The earliest attested reference to the Angles occurs in the 1st-century work by Tacitus, Germania, the etymology of the tribal name itself is disputed by scholars, it has been suggested that it derives from the shape of the Angeln peninsula, an angular shape. An alternative name for England is Albion, the name Albion originally referred to the entire island of Great Britain. The nominally earliest record of the name appears in the Aristotelian Corpus, specifically the 4th century BC De Mundo, in it are two very large islands called Britannia, these are Albion and Ierne. But modern scholarly consensus ascribes De Mundo not to Aristotle but to Pseudo-Aristotle, the word Albion or insula Albionum has two possible origins. Albion is now applied to England in a poetic capacity. Another romantic name for England is Loegria, related to the Welsh word for England, Lloegr, the earliest known evidence of human presence in the area now known as England was that of Homo antecessor, dating to approximately 780,000 years ago. The oldest proto-human bones discovered in England date from 500,000 years ago, Modern humans are known to have inhabited the area during the Upper Paleolithic period, though permanent settlements were only established within the last 6,000 years
8.
Regions of England
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The regions are the highest tier of sub-national division in England. Between 1994 and 2011, nine regions had officially devolved functions within Government, while they no longer fulfil this role, they continue to be used for statistical and some administrative purposes. They define areas for the purposes of elections to the European Parliament, Eurostat also uses them to demarcate first level Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics regions within the European Union. The regions generally follow the boundaries of the former standard regions, the London region has a directly elected Mayor and Assembly. Six regions have local authority leaders boards to assist with correlating the headline policies of local authorities, the remaining two regions no longer have any administrative functions, having abolished their regional local authority leaders boards. In 1998, regional chambers were established in the eight regions outside of London, the regions also had an associated Government Office with some responsibility for coordinating policy, and, from 2007, a part-time regional minister within the Government. House of Commons regional Select Committees were established in 2009, Regional ministers were not reappointed by the incoming Coalition Government, and the Government Offices were abolished in 2011. Regional development agencies were public bodies established in all nine regions in 1998 to promote economic development and they had certain delegated functions, including administering European Union regional development funds, and received funding the central government as well. After about 500 AD, England comprised seven Anglo-Saxon territories – Northumbria, Mercia, East Anglia, Essex, Kent, the boundaries of some of these, which later unified as the Kingdom of England, roughly coincide with those of modern regions. During Oliver Cromwells Protectorate in the 1650s, the rule of the Major-Generals created 10 regions in England, proposals for administrative regions within England were mooted by the British government prior to the First World War. In 1912 the Third Home Rule Bill was passing through parliament, the Bill was expected to introduce a devolved parliament for Ireland, and as a consequence calls were made for similar structures to be introduced in Great Britain or Home Rule All Round. On 12 September the First Lord of the Admiralty, Winston Churchill, within England, he suggested that London, Lancashire, Yorkshire, and the Midlands would make natural regions. While the creation of regional parliaments never became official policy, it was for a widely anticipated. In 1946 nine standard regions were set up, in central government bodies, statutory undertakings. However, these had declined in importance by the late 1950s, creation of some form of provinces or regions for England was an intermittent theme of post-Second World War British governments. The Redcliffe-Maud Report proposed the creation of eight provinces in England, one-fifth of the advisory councils would be nominees from central government. The boundaries suggested were the eight now existing for economic planning purposes, a minority report by Lord Crowther-Hunt and Alan T. Peacock suggested instead seven regional assemblies and governments within Great Britain, some elements of regional development and economic planning began to be established in England from the mid-1960s onwards
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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
10.
Historic counties of England
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The historic counties of England were established for administration by the Normans, in most cases based on earlier kingdoms and shires established by the Anglo-Saxons and others. They ceased to be used for administration with the creation of the counties in 1889. They are alternatively known as ancient counties or traditional counties, where they are not included among the modern counties of England they are also known as former counties. Counties were used initially for the administration of justice, collection of taxes and organisation of the military and they continue to form the basis of modern local government in many parts of the country away from the main urban areas, although sometimes with considerably altered boundaries. The name of a county often gives a clue to how it was formed, either as a division took its name from a centre of administration. The majority of English counties are in the first category, with the name formed by combining the central town with the suffix -shire, for example Yorkshire. Former kingdoms, which became earldoms in the united England did not feature this formulation, so for Kent, Counties ending in the suffix -sex are also in this category and are former Saxon kingdoms. Many of these names are formed from compass directions, the third category includes counties such as Cornwall and Devon where the name corresponds to the tribes who inhabited the area. County Durham is anomalous in terms of naming and origin, not falling into any of the three categories, instead it was a diocese that was turned into the County Palatine of Durham, ruled by the Bishop of Durham. The expected form would otherwise be Durhamshire, but it was rarely used, there are customary abbreviations for many of the counties. In most cases these consist of simple truncation, usually with an s at the end signifying shire, some abbreviations are not obvious, such as Salop for Shropshire, Oxon for Oxfordshire, Hants for Hampshire and Northants for Northamptonshire. Counties were often prefixed with County of in official contexts, such as County of Kent and those counties named after central towns lost the -shire suffix, for example Yorkshire would be known as County of York. This usage was sometimes followed even where there was no town by that name, the -shire suffix was also appended for some counties, such as Devonshire, Dorsetshire and Somersetshire, despite their origin. There is still a Duke of Devonshire, Great Britain was first divided into administrative areas by the Romans, most likely following major geographical features such as rivers. Before their arrival there were distinct tribal areas, but they were in a constant state of flux as territory was gained, the areas that would later form the English counties started to take shape soon afterwards, with the Kingdom of Kent founded by settlers around 445. Once the Kingdom of England was united as a whole in 927 it became necessary to subdivide it for convenience and to this end. The whole kingdom was divided into shires by the time of the Norman conquest, robert of Gloucester accounts for thirty-five shires and William of Malmesbury thirty-two, Henry of Huntingdon, thirty-seven. In most cases the counties or shires in medieval times were administered by a sheriff on behalf of the monarch, after the Norman conquest the sheriff was replaced and the shires became counties, or areas under the control of a count, in the French manner
11.
Ceremonial counties of England
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The ceremonial counties, also referred to as the lieutenancy areas of England, are areas of England to which a Lord Lieutenant is appointed. The Local Government Act 1888 established county councils to assume the functions of Quarter Sessions in the counties. It created new entities called administrative counties, the Act further stipulated that areas that were part of an administrative county would be part of the county for all purposes. The greatest change was the creation of the County of London, which was both an administrative county and a county, it included parts of the historic counties of Middlesex, Kent. Other differences were small and resulted from the constraint that urban sanitary districts were not permitted to straddle county boundaries, apart from Yorkshire, counties that were subdivided nevertheless continued to exist as ceremonial counties. In 1974, administrative counties and county boroughs were abolished, at this time, Lieutenancy was redefined to use the new metropolitan and non-metropolitan counties directly. Following a further rearrangement in 1996, Avon, Cleveland, Hereford and Worcester, Cleveland was partitioned between North Yorkshire and Durham. Hereford and Worcester was divided into the counties of Herefordshire and Worcestershire. Humberside was split between Lincolnshire and a new county of East Riding of Yorkshire. Rutland was restored as a ceremonial county, many county boroughs were re-established as unitary authorities, this involved establishing the area as an administrative county, but usually not as a ceremonial county. Most ceremonial counties are therefore entities comprising local authority areas, as they were from 1889 to 1974, the Association of British Counties, a traditional counties lobbying organisation, has suggested that ceremonial counties be restored to their ancient boundaries, as nearly as practicable. In present-day England, the ceremonial counties correspond to the shrieval counties, the Lieutenancies Act 1997 defines counties for the purposes of lieutenancies in terms of metropolitan and non-metropolitan counties as well as Greater London and the Isles of Scilly. Although the term is not used in the Act, these counties are known as ceremonial counties. gov. uk
12.
Non-metropolitan county
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A non-metropolitan county, or colloquially, shire county, is a county-level entity in England that is not a metropolitan county. The counties typically have populations of 300,000 to 1.4 million, the term shire county is, however, an unofficial usage. Many of the non-metropolitan counties bear historic names and most end in the suffix -shire such as Wiltshire or Staffordshire, of the remainder, some counties had the -shire ending and have lost it over time, such as Devon and Somerset. Shire county is, strictly, a dual-language tautology since the French-derived county means the same as the older Anglo-Saxon word shire, prior to 1974 local government had been divided between single-tier county boroughs and two-tier administrative counties which were subdivided into municipal boroughs and urban and rural districts. The Local Government Act 1972, which came into effect on 1 April 1974, divided England outside Greater London, each county was divided into anywhere between two and fourteen non-metropolitan districts. As originally constituted, the counties were largely based on existing counties. Some counties were based on areas surrounding large county boroughs or were formed by the mergers of smaller counties, examples of the first category are Avon and Cleveland. Examples of the category are Hereford and Worcester and Cumbria. The Royal Mail adopted the counties for purposes in most areas. A Local Government Commission was appointed in 1992 to review the structure of the non-metropolitan counties. It was anticipated that a system of unitary authorities would entirely replace the two-tier system, the Commission faced competing claims from former county boroughs wishing to regain unitary status and advocates for the restoration of such small counties as Herefordshire and Rutland. The review led to the introduction of local government in some areas. In the majority of unitary authorities an existing district council took over powers from the county council, the 1972 Act required that all areas outside Greater London form part of a non-metropolitan county, and that all such counties should contain at least one district. Accordingly, the instruments that effected the reorganisation separated the unitary districts from the county in which they were situated and constituted them as counties. An exception was made in the case of Berkshire, which was retained with its boundaries in spite of the abolition of its county council. This was done in order to preserve its status as a royal county, with the creation of numerous new non-metropolitan counties, the areas used for lieutenancy and shrievalty began to diverge from local government areas. This led to the development of counties for these purposes. A further wave of unitary authorities were created in 2009 under the terms of the Local Government, while a number of new county counties were created, several of the new authorities continued to have the boundaries set in 1974
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Conservative Party (UK)
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The Conservative Party, officially the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a political party in the United Kingdom. It is currently the party, having won a majority of seats in the House of Commons at the 2015 general election. The partys leader, Theresa May, is serving as Prime Minister. It is the largest party in government with 8,702 councillors. The Conservative Party is one of the two major political parties in the United Kingdom, the other being its modern rival. The Conservative Partys platform involves support for market capitalism, free enterprise, fiscal conservatism, a strong national defence, deregulation. In the 1920s, the Liberal vote greatly diminished and the Labour Party became the Conservatives main rivals, Conservative Prime Ministers led governments for 57 years of the twentieth century, including Winston Churchill and Margaret Thatcher. Thatchers tenure led to wide-ranging economic liberalisation, the Conservative Partys domination of British politics throughout the twentieth century has led to them being referred to as one of the most successful political parties in the Western world. The Conservatives are the joint-second largest British party in the European Parliament, with twenty MEPs, the party is a member of the Alliance of Conservatives and Reformists in Europe Europarty and the International Democrat Union. The party is the second-largest in the Scottish Parliament and the second-largest in the Welsh Assembly, the party is also organised in the British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar. The Conservative Party traces its origins to a faction, rooted in the 18th century Whig Party and they were known as Independent Whigs, Friends of Mr Pitt, or Pittites. After Pitts death the term Tory came into use and this was an allusion to the Tories, a political grouping that had existed from 1678, but which had no organisational continuity with the Pittite party. From about 1812 on the name Tory was commonly used for the newer party, the term Conservative was suggested as a title for the party by a magazine article by J. Wilson Croker in the Quarterly Review in 1830. The name immediately caught on and was adopted under the aegis of Sir Robert Peel around 1834. Peel is acknowledged as the founder of the Conservative Party, which he created with the announcement of the Tamworth Manifesto, the term Conservative Party rather than Tory was the dominant usage by 1845. In 1912, the Liberal Unionists merged with the Conservative Party, in Ireland, the Irish Unionist Alliance had been formed in 1891 which merged anti-Home Rule Unionists into one political movement. Its MPs took the Conservative whip at Westminster, and in essence formed the Irish wing of the party until 1922. The Conservatives served with the Liberals in an all-party coalition government during World War I, keohane finds that the Conservatives were bitterly divided before 1914, especially on the issue of Irish Unionism and the experience of three consecutive election losses
14.
Gloucester
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Gloucester is a city and district in southwest England, the county city of Gloucestershire. Gloucester lies close to the Welsh border, on the River Severn, Gloucester was founded in AD97 by the Romans under Emperor Nerva as Colonia Glevum Nervensis, and was granted its first charter in 1155 by King Henry II. Economically, the city is dominated by the industries, and has a strong financial and business sector. The origins of the name Gloucester can be traced to Caerloyw in the modern Welsh, there are various appellations in history such as Caer Glow, Gleawecastre, Gleucestre as an early British settlement is not confirmed by direct evidence. However, Gloucester was the Roman municipality of Colonia Nervia Glevensium, or Glevum, parts of the walls can be traced, and a number of remains and coins have been found, though inscriptions are scarce. In Historia Brittonum, an account of the early rulers of Britain, Vortigerns grandfather. Part of the foundations of Roman Gloucester can be today in Eastgate Street, while Roman tombstones. After the withdrawal on the Roman Empire in the late 4th Century the town returned to the control of Celtic Dubonni tribe. By the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, Gloucester is shown as part of Wessex from the Battle of Deorham in 577 until 584, Gloucester was captured by the Saxons in 577. In the early 10th century the remains of Saint Oswald were brought to a church in Gloucester. The core street layout is thought to date back to the reign of Ethelfleda in late Saxon times. In 1051 Edward the Confessor held court at Gloucester and was threatened there by a led by Godwin, Earl of Wessex. A unique coin, dated to 1077–80, was discovered, just north of the city and it features the name of the moneyer Silacwine and its place of minting. The Portable Antiquities Scheme said that, until the coin was discovered, after the Norman Conquest, William Rufus made Robert Fitzhamon the first baron or overlord of Gloucester. Fitzhamon had a base at Cardiff Castle, and for the succeeding years the history of Gloucester was closely linked to that of Cardiff. During the Anarchy, Gloucester was a centre of support for the Empress Matilda who was supported in her claim to the throne by her half-brother, Fitzhamons grandson, Robert, 1st Earl of Gloucester. The story of the Anarchy is vividly told in a series of paintings by William Burges at the Castle. King Henry II granted Gloucester its first charter in 1155, which gave the burgesses the same liberties as the citizens of London, a a second charter of Henry II gave them freedom of passage on the River Severn
15.
NUTS statistical regions of the United Kingdom
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NUTS2006 came into force on 1 January 2008. NUTS2010 came into force on 1 January 2012, the two areas of UKD51 and UKD21 were amended by the transfer of Halton from the latter to former to from the new areas of UKD71 and UKD61. Bedfordshire CC UKH22 was replaced by UKH24 and UKH25 NUTS2013 came into force on 1 January 2015. Thus NUTS2 of Inner London West UKI11 becoming the NUTS3 area of UKI3 and likewise, Inner London East, Outer London East and North East, Outer London South and Outer London West and North West. The NUTS3 areas are now a single or a group of two or three boroughs
16.
Unitary authorities of England
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Unitary authorities of England are local authorities that are responsible for the provision of all local government services within a district. They are constituted under the Local Government Act 1992, which amended the Local Government Act 1972 to allow the existence of counties that do not have multiple districts, unitary authorities do not cover all of England. Most were established during the 1990s and a further tranche were created in 2009, unitary authorities have the powers and functions that are elsewhere separately administered by councils of non-metropolitan counties and the non-metropolitan districts within them. Strictly speaking, the term does not necessarily mean a single level of government within an area. Although the term was not applied to them, county boroughs between 1889 and 1974 were effectively unitary authorities, that is, single-tier administrative units. Before 1889, local government authorities had different powers and functions, some smaller settlements also enjoyed some degree of autonomy from regular administration as boroughs or liberties. The Local Government Act 1972 created areas for local government where large towns, a review in the 1990s was initiated in order to select non-metropolitan areas where new unitary authorities could be created. The resulting structural changes were implemented between 1995 and 1998, the changes caused the ceremonial counties to be defined separately, as they had been before 1974. The review caused 46 unitary authorities to be created, a further review was initiated in 2007 and was enacted in 2009. The review caused nine unitary authorities to be created, unitary authorities combine the powers and functions that are normally delivered separately by the councils of non-metropolitan counties and non-metropolitan districts. The exceptions, which are divided into electoral divisions as in county elections, are Cornwall, County Durham. Unitary authority areas can additionally have the status of borough or city, the Council of the Isles of Scilly is a sui generis unitary authority, created in 1890 and since 1930 has held the powers, duties and liabilities of a county council. The 36 metropolitan borough councils are also the elected local government units in their areas
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South Gloucestershire Council
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South Gloucestershire Council is the local authority of South Gloucestershire, a unitary authority in the South West of England region. As a unitary authority it has the powers of a non-metropolitan county, as such, it is administratively separate from the rest of Gloucestershire. The council area elects 70 Councillors from 35 wards, following the May 2015 local elections, South Gloucestershire Council comprises 40 Conservative Councillors,16 Liberal Democrat Councillors, and 14 Labour Councillors. The current Chair of Tewkesbury Borough Council is Erica Williams and the current Vice Chair is Ian Blair, the local authority derives its powers and functions from the Local Government Act 1972 and subsequent legislation. For the purposes of government, South Gloucestershire is a non-metropolitan area of England. As a unitary authority, South Gloucestershire Council has the powers, in its capacity as a county council it is a local education authority, responsible for social services, libraries and waste disposal
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Districts of England
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The districts of England are a level of subnational division of England used for the purposes of local government. As the structure of government in England is not uniform. Some districts are styled as boroughs, cities, or royal boroughs, these are purely honorific titles, prior to the establishment of districts in the 1890s, the basic unit of local government in England was the parish overseen by the parish church vestry committee. Vestries dealt with the administraction of both parochial and secular governmental matters, parishes were the successors of the manorial system and historically had been grouped into hundreds. Hundreds once exercised some supervising administrative function, however, these powers ebbed away as more and more civic and judicial powers were centred on county towns. From 1834 these parishes were grouped into Poor Law Unions, creating areas for administration of the Poor Law and these areas were later used for census registration and as the basis for sanitary provision. In 1894, based on these earlier subdivisions, the Local Government Act 1894 created urban districts and rural districts as sub-divisions of administrative counties, another reform in 1900 created 28 metropolitan boroughs as sub-divisions of the County of London. Meanwhile, from this date parish-level local government administration was transferred to civil parishes, the setting-down of the current structure of districts in England began in 1965, when Greater London and its 32 London boroughs were created. They are the oldest type of still in use. In 1974, metropolitan counties and non-metropolitan counties were created across the rest of England and were split into metropolitan districts, in London power is now shared again, albeit on a different basis, with the Greater London Authority. During the 1990s a further kind of district was created, the unitary authority, metropolitan boroughs are a subdivision of a metropolitan county. These are similar to unitary authorities, as the county councils were abolished in 1986. Most of the powers of the county councils were devolved to the districts but some services are run by joint boards, the districts typically have populations of 174,000 to 1.1 million. Non-metropolitan districts are second-tier authorities, which share power with county councils and they are subdivisions of shire counties and the most common type of district. These districts typically have populations of 25,000 to 200,000, the number of non-metropolitan districts has varied over time. Initially there were 296, after the creation of unitary authorities in the 1990s and late 2000s and these are single-tier districts which are responsible for running all local services in their areas, combining both county and district functions. They were created in the out of non-metropolitan districts, and often cover large towns. In addition, some of the smaller such as Rutland, Herefordshire
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Tewkesbury Borough
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Tewkesbury Borough is a local government district and borough in Gloucestershire, England. It is named after its town, Tewkesbury. Other places in the borough include Ashchurch, Bishops Cleeve, Churchdown and it is administratively distinct from the parish of Tewkesbury, which is served by Tewkesbury Town Council. It was formed on 1 April 1974, under the Local Government Act 1972, from the borough of Tewkesbury, along with Cheltenham Rural District. Gloucestershire Airport is in the borough, near to Gloucester and Cheltenham, the Borough is also served by Ashchurch for Tewkesbury on the mainline as well as a number of Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway stations
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Cheltenham
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The town hosts several festivals of culture, often featuring nationally and internationally famous contributors and attendees. As the home of the race of British steeplechase horse racing. Cheltenham stands on the small River Chelt, which rises nearby at Dowdeswell, as a royal manor, it features in the earliest pages of the Gloucestershire section of Domesday Book where it is named Chintenha. The town was awarded a charter in 1226. Though little remains of its history, Cheltenham has been a health. Captain Henry Skillicorne, is credited with being the first entrepreneur to recognise the opportunity to exploit the mineral springs, the retired master mariner became co-owner of the property containing Cheltenhams first mineral spring upon his 1732 marriage to Elizabeth Mason. Her father, William Mason, had little in his lifetime to promote the healing properties of the mineral water apart from limited advertising and building a small enclosure over the spring. Skillicornes wide travels as a merchant had prepared him to see the potential lying dormant on this inherited property, after moving to Cheltenham in 1738, he immediately began improvements intended to attract visitors to his spa. He built a pump to regulate the flow of water and erected an elaborate well-house complete with a ballroom, the beautiful walks and gardens were naturally adorned with sweeping vistas of the countryside. Soon the gentry and nobility from across the county were enticed to come, the visit of George III with the queen and royal princesses in 1788 set a stamp of fashion on the spa. Cheltenhams success as a spa town is reflected in the station, which is still called Cheltenham Spa. Alice Liddell and Lewis Carroll were regular visitors to a house in Cudnall Street, horse racing began in Cheltenham in 1815, and became a major national attraction after the establishment of the Festival in 1902. Most of this materiel was reshipped to the continent for and after the D-Day invasion, lee and his primary staff had offices and took residence at Thirlestaine Hall in Cheltenham. On 1 April 1974, under the Local Government Act 1972, four parishes—Swindon Village, Up Hatherley, Leckhampton and Prestbury—were added to the borough of Cheltenham from the borough of Tewkesbury in 1991. The first British jet aircraft prototype, the Gloster E. 28/39, was manufactured in Cheltenham, manufacturing started in Hucclecote near Gloucester, but was later moved to Regent Motors in Cheltenham High Street, considered a location safer from bombing during the Second World War. Cheltenham Borough Council is the authority for Cheltenham, which is split into 20 wards. Since 2002 elections have been every two years with half of the councillors elected at each election. The Doughnut, the office of the British Government Communications Headquarters is located in Cheltenham
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Cotswold District
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Cotswold is a local government district in Gloucestershire in England. It is named after the wider Cotswolds region and it was formed on 1 April 1974 by the merger of the urban district of Cirencester with Cirencester Rural District, North Cotswold Rural District, Northleach Rural District and Tetbury Rural District. Eighty per cent of the lies within the River Thames catchment area, with the Thames itself and several tributaries including the River Windrush. Lechlade in an important point on the river as the limit of navigation. In the 2007 floods in the UK, rivers were the source of flooding of 53 per cent of the locations affected, media related to District of Cotswold at Wikimedia Commons
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Stroud District
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Stroud is a local government district in Gloucestershire, England. It is named after its largest town, Stroud, and has its headquarters in Ebley Mill. The district is mixed and consists of part of the Cotswolds and the Vale of Berkeley, the town of Stroud is by some way the largest in the area. The southern portion of the district is served mostly by its own market towns, chief among which are Dursley, the area is rich in Iron Age and Roman remnants and is of particular interest to archaeologists for its Neolithic burial grounds, of which there are over 100. Much of its wealth was built on the industry during the Victorian era. Much of the landscape in this area is designated as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, the esteemed Cotswold Way walk leads through the area. There are gliding clubs at Aston Down and Nympsfield, elections to the district council are held in three out of every four years, with one third of the seats on the council being elected at each election. At the 2016 election, the coalition of Labour, Greens, the web site of Stroud District Council Stroud Voices - oral history site
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South Gloucestershire
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South Gloucestershire is a unitary authority in South West England. It comprises multiple suburban areas to the north and east of Bristol, South Gloucestershire was created in 1996 from the northern section of the county of Avon, which was abolished at that time. The area includes multiple towns and population centres, with many of these continuing to expand in both population and industry. Many of these towns and population areas are listed under two major subheadings below, South Gloucestershire took its title for historic reasons, but as a unitary authority it is not administered as part of the shire county of Gloucestershire. It is, however, part of the county of Gloucestershire. However, under the terms of that act, the area was removed from Gloucestershire, in 1996, the county of Avon was abolished, and South Gloucestershire was created as a unitary authority comprising the former districts of Kingswood and Northavon. The area borders the city and county of Bristol, the Bath and North East Somerset unitary authority, the geographic area currently known as South Gloucestershire should not be confused with Southern Gloucestershire. Nor should organisations or bodies in the past titled South Gloucestershire, in the 2001 census, the population of South Gloucestershire was 245,641. In the 2011 census, this had increased to 262,767, much of the population is in towns that form the suburbs to the north and east of Bristol. There are also the large Towns of Yate and Thornbury, along with Chipping Sodbury plus the population centres of Winterbourne, and Frampton Cotterell areas. The main employers are the authority with 9,500 people and the Ministry of Defence Headquarters for Defence Procurement. Other key employers include Airbus, Rolls Royce and the Royal Mail, friends Provident and Hewlett Packard also have major offices in nearby Stoke Gifford. Many employers operate in the developed area between the northern edge of Bristol and the M5 motorway, an area sometimes described as the North Fringe of Bristol. This includes the Cribbs Causeway shopping centre, comprising The Mall regional shopping centre, East of Patchway are the Aztec West and Almondsbury business parks either side of the A38, extending to Bradley Stoke and the M4/M5 Almondsbury Interchange. Employers with sites in this area include EE and the RAC, South Gloucestershire is home to 99 primary schools and 16 secondary schools, and post-16 centres. There is one university, which was a polytechnic, The University of the West of England. In 2008, DCSF figures revealed that there was a 6. 6% overall absence in the secondary schools. The River Severn forms the edge of the area, with a wide coastal plain terminated by an escarpment
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Gloucestershire Constabulary
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Gloucestershire Constabulary is the territorial police force responsible for policing the non-metropolitan county of Gloucestershire in England. The force was founded in 1839, six hours after Wiltshire Constabulary, the force in its present form dates from 1 April 1974, when the southern part of Gloucestershire became part of the County of Avon and thus of the newly formed Avon and Somerset Constabulary. In 1965, the force had an establishment of 1,010, as of 1 April 2011, under the new structure, policing in the county is delivered through six Local Policing Areas, Cheltenham, Gloucester, Forest of Dean, Cotswolds, Stroud and Tewkesbury. Each of these areas is commanded by a superintendent, within the six areas there are nine Local Policing Teams covering 55 communities, two each in Cheltenham, Gloucester and Stroud and one in Tewkesbury, the Forest and the Cotswolds. The Police Roll of Honour Trust lists and commemorates all British police officers killed in the line of duty, the Police Memorial Trust since its establishment in 1984 has erected over 38 memorials to some of those officers. Nowak was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment and 7 years disqualification from driving, for Death by Dangerous Driving, Conspiring to Pervert the Course of Justice, matt Powell, one of the randomly deselected candidates, took legal action and was awarded £2,500 compensation. Following a traffic collision a photographer was initially asked to stop taking photographs of the accident scene whilst a victim was being removed from a vehicle, the officer said youre lucky I didnt bloody knock you out. The incident was uploaded onto YouTube
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Greenwich Mean Time
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Greenwich Mean Time is the mean solar time at the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, London. GMT was formerly used as the civil time standard, now superseded in that function by Coordinated Universal Time. Today GMT is considered equivalent to UTC for UK civil purposes and for navigation is considered equivalent to UT1, consequently, the term GMT should not be used for precise purposes. Due to Earths uneven speed in its orbit and its axial tilt, noon GMT is rarely the exact moment the sun crosses the Greenwich meridian. This event may occur up to 16 minutes before or after noon GMT, noon GMT is the annual average moment of this event, which accounts for the word mean in Greenwich Mean Time. Originally, astronomers considered a GMT day to start at noon while for almost everyone else it started at midnight, to avoid confusion, the name Universal Time was introduced to denote GMT as counted from midnight. Astronomers preferred the old convention to simplify their observational data, so each night was logged under a single calendar date. Today Universal Time usually refers to UTC or UT1, in some countries Greenwich Mean Time is the legal time in the winter and the population uses the term. For an explanation of why this is, see GMT in legislation below, synchronisation of the chronometer on GMT did not affect shipboard time, which was still solar time. Most time zones were based upon GMT, as an offset of a number of hours ahead of GMT or behind GMT and it was gradually adopted for other purposes, but a legal case in 1858 held local mean time to be the official time. On 14 May 1880, a signed by Clerk to Justices appeared in The Times, stating that Greenwich time is now kept almost throughout England. For example, our polling booths were opened, say, at 813 and closed at 413 PM. This was changed later in 1880, GMT was adopted on the Isle of Man in 1883, Jersey in 1898 and Guernsey in 1913. Ireland adopted GMT in 1916, supplanting Dublin Mean Time, hourly time signals from Greenwich Observatory were first broadcast on 5 February 1924, rendering the time ball at the observatory redundant in the process. The daily rotation of the Earth is irregular and constantly slows, on 1 January 1972, GMT was superseded as the international civil time standard by Coordinated Universal Time, maintained by an ensemble of atomic clocks around the world. Indeed, even the Greenwich meridian itself is not quite what it used to be—defined by the centre of the instrument at the Observatory at Greenwich. Nevertheless, the line in the old observatorys courtyard today differs no more than a few metres from that line which is now the prime meridian of the world. Historically GMT has been used two different conventions for numbering hours. The long-standing astronomical convention dating from the work of Ptolemy, was to refer to noon as zero hours and this contrasted with the civil convention of referring to midnight as zero hours dating from the Romans
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Daylight saving time
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Daylight saving time is the practice of advancing clocks during summer months by one hour so that evening daylight lasts an hour longer, while sacrificing normal sunrise times. Typically, regions that use Daylight Savings Time adjust clocks forward one hour close to the start of spring, American inventor and politician Benjamin Franklin proposed a form of daylight time in 1784. New Zealander George Hudson proposed the idea of saving in 1895. The German Empire and Austria-Hungary organized the first nationwide implementation, starting on April 30,1916, many countries have used it at various times since then, particularly since the energy crisis of the 1970s. The practice has both advocates and critics, DST clock shifts sometimes complicate timekeeping and can disrupt travel, billing, record keeping, medical devices, heavy equipment, and sleep patterns. Computer software often adjusts clocks automatically, but policy changes by various jurisdictions of DST dates, industrialized societies generally follow a clock-based schedule for daily activities that do not change throughout the course of the year. The time of day that individuals begin and end work or school, North and south of the tropics daylight lasts longer in summer and shorter in winter, with the effect becoming greater as one moves away from the tropics. However, they will have one hour of daylight at the start of each day. Supporters have also argued that DST decreases energy consumption by reducing the need for lighting and heating, DST is also of little use for locations near the equator, because these regions see only a small variation in daylight in the course of the year. After ancient times, equal-length civil hours eventually supplanted unequal, so civil time no longer varies by season, unequal hours are still used in a few traditional settings, such as some monasteries of Mount Athos and all Jewish ceremonies. This 1784 satire proposed taxing window shutters, rationing candles, and waking the public by ringing church bells, despite common misconception, Franklin did not actually propose DST, 18th-century Europe did not even keep precise schedules. However, this changed as rail transport and communication networks came to require a standardization of time unknown in Franklins day. Modern DST was first proposed by the New Zealand entomologist George Hudson, whose shift work job gave him time to collect insects. An avid golfer, he also disliked cutting short his round at dusk and his solution was to advance the clock during the summer months, a proposal he published two years later. The proposal was taken up by the Liberal Member of Parliament Robert Pearce, a select committee was set up to examine the issue, but Pearces bill did not become law, and several other bills failed in the following years. Willett lobbied for the proposal in the UK until his death in 1915, william Sword Frost, mayor of Orillia, Ontario, introduced daylight saving time in the municipality during his tenure from 1911 to 1912. Starting on April 30,1916, the German Empire and its World War I ally Austria-Hungary were the first to use DST as a way to conserve coal during wartime, Britain, most of its allies, and many European neutrals soon followed suit. Russia and a few other countries waited until the year
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Cotswolds
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The area is defined by the bedrock of Jurassic limestone that creates a type of grassland habitat rare in the UK and that is quarried for the golden coloured Cotswold stone. It contains unique features derived from the use of this mineral, the well-established boundaries of the Cotswolds have expanded considerably since moving out of the cities and into the countryside gained popularity. Now the Cotswolds boundaries are roughly 25 miles across and 90 miles long, stretching south-west from just south of Stratford-upon-Avon to just south of Bath. It lies across the boundaries of several English counties, mainly Gloucestershire and Oxfordshire, the hills give their name to the Cotswold local-government district in Gloucestershire, which administers a large part of the area. The highest point of the region is Cleeve Hill at 1,083 ft, there is evidence of Neolithic settlement from burial chambers on Cotswold Edge, and there are remains of Bronze and Iron Age forts. Later the Romans built villas, such as at Chedworth, settlements such as Gloucester, the area still preserves numerous large, handsome Cotswold Stone wool churches. The affluent area in the 21st century has attracted wealthy Londoners and others who own homes there or have chosen to retire to the Cotswolds. The name Cotswold is popularly attributed the meaning sheep enclosure in rolling hillsides, incorporating the term, wold, compare also the Weald from the Saxon/German word Wald meaning wood. Cod was interpreted as an Old English personal name, which may be recognised in further names, Cutsdean, Codeswellan, the spine of the Cotswolds runs southwest to northeast through six counties, particularly Gloucestershire, west Oxfordshire and south western Warwickshire. The northern and western edges of the Cotswolds are marked by steep escarpments down to the Severn valley and this feature, known as the Cotswold escarpment, or sometimes the Cotswold Edge, is a result of the uplifting of the limestone layer, exposing its broken edge. This is a cuesta, in geological terms, the dip slope is to the southeast. On the eastern boundary lies the city of Oxford and on the west is Stroud, to the southeast, the upper reaches of the Thames Valley and towns such as Lechlade, Tetbury and Fairford are often considered to mark the limit of this region. To the south the Cotswolds, with the uplift of the Cotswold Edge, reach beyond Bath. The area is characterised by small towns and villages built of the underlying Cotswold stone. This limestone is rich in fossils, particularly of fossilised sea urchins, Cotswold towns include Bourton-on-the-Water, Broadway, Burford, Chipping Norton, Dursley, Moreton-in-Marsh, Northleach, Stow-on-the-Wold, Stroud and Winchcombe. Bath, Cheltenham, Cirencester, Gloucester and Stroud are larger urban centres that border on, or are surrounded by. The town of Chipping Campden is notable for being the home of the Arts and Crafts movement, founded by William Morris at the end of the 19th, William Morris lived occasionally in Broadway Tower, a folly, now part of a country park. Chipping Campden also is known for the annual Cotswold Olimpick Games, Cotswold stone is a yellow oolitic Jurassic limestone
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River Severn
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The River Severn is the longest river in the United Kingdom, at about 220 miles. It rises at an altitude of 2,001 feet on Plynlimon, close to the Ceredigion/Powys border near Llanidloes and it then flows through Shropshire, Worcestershire and Gloucestershire, with the county towns of Shrewsbury, Worcester and Gloucester on its banks. With an average discharge of 107 m3/s at Apperley, Gloucestershire, the river is usually considered to become the Severn Estuary after the Second Severn Crossing between Severn Beach, South Gloucestershire and Sudbrook, Monmouthshire. The river then discharges into the Bristol Channel which in turn discharges into the Celtic Sea, the Severns drainage basin area is 4,409 square miles, excluding the River Wye and Bristol Avon which flow into the Severn Estuary. The major tributaries to the Severn are the Vyrnwy, Clywedog, Teme, Avon, the name Severn is thought to derive from a Celtic original name *sabrinnā, of uncertain meaning. That name then developed in different languages to become Sabrina to the Romans, Hafren in Welsh, a folk etymology later developed, deriving the name from a mythical story of a nymph, Sabrina, who drowned in the river. Sabrina is also the goddess of the River Severn in Celtic mythology, the story of Sabrina is featured in Miltons Comus. There is a statue of Sabrina in the Dingle Gardens at the Quarry, Shrewsbury, as the Severn becomes tidal the associated deity changed to Nodens, who was represented mounted on a seahorse, riding on the crest of the Severn bore. The River Stour rises in the north of Worcestershire in the Clent Hills and it flows north into the adjacent West Midlands at Halesowen. It then flows westwards through Cradley Heath and Stourbridge where it leaves the Black Country and it is joined by the Smestow Brook at Prestwood before it winds around southwards to Kinver, and then flows back into Worcestershire. It then passes through Wolverley, Kidderminster and Wilden to its confluence with the Severn at Stourport-on-Severn, the River Vyrnwy, which begins at Lake Vyrnwy, flows eastwards through Powys before forming part of the border between England and Wales, joining the Severn near Melverley, Shropshire. The Rea Brook flows north from its source in the Stiperstones, the River Tern, after flowing south from Market Drayton and being joined by the River Meese and the River Roden, meets the Severn at Attingham Park. The River Worfe joins the Severn, just above Bridgnorth, the River Stour rising on the Clent Hills and flowing through Halesowen, Stourbridge, and Kidderminster, joins the Severn at Stourport. On the opposite bank, the tributaries are only brooks, Borle Brook, Dowles Brook draining the Wyre Forest, Dick Brook, shit Brook near Much Wenlock was culverted to flow into the Severn. One of the rivers named Avon, in this case the Warwickshire Avon, flows west through Rugby, Warwick. It is then joined by its tributary the River Arrow, before joining the Severn at Tewkesbury. The port of Bristol is on the Severn Estuary, where another River Avon flows into it through the Avon Gorge, the River Wye, from its source in Plynlimon, Wales, flows generally south east through the Welsh towns of Rhayader and Builth Wells. It flows into the Severn near the town of Chepstow, slightly upstream of the Bristol Avon on the opposite bank, the River Usk flows into the Severn Estuary just south of Newport
29.
Forest of Dean
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The Forest of Dean is a geographical, historical and cultural region in the western part of the county of Gloucestershire, England. It forms a triangular plateau bounded by the River Wye to the west and north-west, Herefordshire to the north, the River Severn to the south. The area is characterised by more than 110 square kilometres of mixed woodland, a large area was reserved for royal hunting before 1066, and remained as the second largest crown forest in England, the largest being New Forest. Although the name is used loosely to refer to the part of Gloucestershire between the Severn and Wye, the Forest of Dean proper has covered a smaller area since medieval times. In 1327 it was defined to only the royal demesne and parts of parishes within the hundred of St Briavels. The Forest proper is within the parishes of West Dean, Lydbrook, Cinderford, Ruspidge. Traditionally the main sources of work have been forestry – including charcoal production - iron working, Archaeological studies have dated the earliest use of coal to Roman times for domestic heating and industrial processes such as the preparation of iron ore. The area gives its name to the government district, Forest of Dean. The administrative centre of the authority is Coleford, one of the main towns in the historic Forest area, together with Cinderford. The Forest of Dean is formed of a basin of palaeozoic rocks folded in the Variscan Orogeny. Its highest point is Ruardean Hill, the origins of the name remains an area of debate. The prevalence of Welsh place names in the area, suggests a possible corruption of Din, however, similar or identical elements from Old English exist throughout England. Giraldus Cambrensis, writing in the century, refers to the area as Danubia which may translate as land of Danes following the Viking settlements in that era. It is possible that an original name Dene developed from this, the area was inhabited in Mesolithic times, and there are also remains of later megalithic monuments, including the Longstone near Staunton and the Broadstone at Wibdon, Stroat. Barrows have been identified at Tidenham and Blakeney, bronze Age field systems have been identified at Welshbury Hill near Littledean, and there are Iron Age hill forts at Symonds Yat and Welshbury. There is archaeological evidence of trading by sea, probably through Lydney. The area was occupied by the Romans around 50 AD and they were attracted by its natural resources which included iron ore, ochre and charcoal. The coal mining industry was established on a small scale in Roman times
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City status in the United Kingdom
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The holding of city status gives a settlement no special rights other than that of calling itself a city. Nonetheless, this appellation carries its own prestige and, consequently, the status does not apply automatically on the basis of any particular criteria, although in England and Wales it was traditionally given to towns with diocesan cathedrals. City status in Ireland was granted to far fewer communities than in England and Wales, in Scotland, city status did not explicitly receive any recognition by the state until the 19th century. At that time, a revival of grants of city status took place, first in England, where the grants were accompanied by the establishment of new cathedrals, and later in Scotland and Ireland. The abolition of corporate bodies as part of successive local government reforms. However, letters patent have been issued for most of the cities to ensure the continuation or restoration of their status. At present, Rochester and Elgin are the former cities in the United Kingdom. The name City does not, in itself, denote city status, a number of large towns in the UK are bigger than some small cities, but cannot legitimately call themselves a city without the royal designation. The initial cities of Britain were the fortified settlements organised by the Romans as the capitals of the Celtic tribes under Roman rule, the British clerics of the early Middle Ages later preserved a traditional list of the 28 Cities which was mentioned by Gildas and listed by Nennius. In the 16th century, a town was recognised as a city by the English Crown if it had a diocesan cathedral within its limits. This association between having a cathedral and being called a city was established when Henry VIII founded dioceses in six English towns, a long-awaited resumption of creating dioceses began in 1836 with Ripon. Ripon Town Council assumed that this had elevated the town to the rank of a city, the next diocese formed was Manchester and its Borough Council began informally to use the title city. When Queen Victoria visited Manchester in 1851, widespread doubts surrounding its status were raised, the pretension was ended when the borough petitioned for city status, which was granted by letters patent in 1853. This eventually forced Ripon to regularise its position, its city status was recognised by Act of Parliament in 1865, from this year Ripon bore city status whilst the rapidly expanding conurbation of Leeds – in the Ripon diocese – did not. The Manchester case established a precedent that any municipal borough in which an Anglican see was established was entitled to petition for city status, accordingly, Truro, St Albans, Liverpool, Newcastle upon Tyne and Wakefield were all officially designated as cities between 1877 and 1888. This was not without opposition from the Home Office, which dismissed St Albans as a fourth or fifth rate market town and objected to Wakefields elevation on grounds of population. In one new diocese, Southwell, a city was not created, because it was a village without a borough corporation and therefore could not petition the Queen. The diocese covered the counties of Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire, and the boroughs of Derby, the link with Anglican dioceses was broken in 1889 when Birmingham successfully petitioned for city status on the grounds of its large population and history of good local government
31.
Cirencester
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Cirencester is a market town in east Gloucestershire, England,93 miles west northwest of London. Cirencester lies on the River Churn, a tributary of the River Thames and it is the home of the Royal Agricultural University, the oldest agricultural college in the English-speaking world, founded in 1840. The towns Corinium Museum is well known for its extensive Roman collection, the Roman name for the town was Corinium, which is thought to have been associated with the ancient British tribe of the Dobunni, having the same root word as the River Churn. The earliest known reference to the town was by Ptolemy in 150AD, Cirencester is twinned with Itzehoe, Germany. Cirencester lies on the dip slopes of the Cotswold Hills. Natural drainage is into the River Churn, which flows north to south through the eastern side of the town. The Thames itself rises just a few miles west of Cirencester, the town is split into five main areas, the town centre, the suburbs of Chesterton, Stratton, Watermoor and The Beeches. The village of Siddington to the south of the town is now almost contiguous with Watermoor, other suburbs include Bowling Green and New Mills. The area and population of these 5 electoral wards are identical to that quoted above. The town serves as a centre for surrounding villages, providing employment, amenities, shops, commerce and education, and as a commuter town for larger centres such as Cheltenham, Swindon and Stroud. Cirencester is the hub of a significant road network with important routes to Gloucester, Cheltenham, Warwick, Oxford, Wantage, Swindon, Chippenham, Bristol, Bath, however, only Gloucester, Cheltenham, Stroud and Swindon have slow bus connections. These good roads bring the town passing trade, although the ring road and bypass take traffic away from the town centre, both roads have busy service areas with adequate parking. Since closure of the Kemble to Cirencester branch line to Cirencester Town in 1964 the town has one of the largest in the region without its own rail station. However Kemble railway station,4 miles away, serves as a railhead and it provides regular services between Swindon and Gloucester, with peak-time direct trains to London Paddington station. The nearest airports are Bristol Airport, Cotswold Airport at Kemble, London, Cirencester was known to be an important early Roman area, along with St. Albans and Colchester, and the town includes evidence of significant area roadworks. When the Romans built a fort where the Fosse Way crossed the Churn, AD49, native Dobunni were drawn from Bagendon, a settlement of the Dobunni situated 3 miles to the north, to create a civil settlement near the fort. When the frontier moved to the following the conquest of Wales. 70, but the town persisted and flourished under the name Corinium Dobunnorum, even in Roman times, there was a thriving wool trade and industry, which contributed to the growth of Corinium. A large forum and basilica was built over the site of the fort, there are many Roman remains in the surrounding area, including several Roman villas near the villages of Chedworth and Withington
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Stroud
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Stroud is a market town and civil parish in the county of Gloucestershire, England. It is the town in Stroud District. Situated below the escarpment of the Cotswold Hills at the meeting point of the Five Valleys. The Cotswold Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty surrounds the town, and it lies 10 miles south of the city of Gloucester,14 miles south-southwest of Cheltenham,13 miles west-northwest of Cirencester and 32 miles north-northeast of the city of Bristol. London is 106 miles east-southeast of Stroud, although not formally part of the town, the parishes of Rodborough, Cainscross and Ebley are contiguous with Stroud and are often considered as official suburbs. Stroud is known for its involvement in the Industrial Revolution and it was a cloth town, woollen mills were powered by the small rivers which flow through the five valleys, and supplied from Cotswold sheep which grazed on the hills above. Particularly noteworthy was the production of uniforms in the colour Stroudwater Scarlet. Stroud was an industrial and trading location in the 19th century and it first had a canal network in the form of the Stroudwater Navigation and the Thames & Severn Canal, both of which survived until the early 20th century. Restoration of these canals as a facility by a partnership of Stroud District Council. Stroud railway station was designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel, the church was built by 1279, and it was assigned parochial rights by the rectors of Bisley in 1304, often cited as the date of Strouds foundation. Woodchester Mansion is a masterpiece of the Gothic Revival by local architect Benjamin Bucknall, from 1837 to 1841, Strouds MP was Lord John Russell of the Whig party, who later became Prime Minister. This Act, also known as the Second Reform Act, gave the vote to every male householder. This increased the electorate by 1.5 million voters, Lord John Russell is remembered in the town in the names of two streets, John Street and Russell Street, as well as the Lord John public house. At the 2001 UK census, Stroud civil parish had a population of 12,690. For every 100 females, there were 96.4 males, ethnically, the population is predominantly white. 20. 6% of the population were under the age of 16 and 8. 3% were aged 75 and over,92. 6% of residents described their health as fair or better, similar to the average of 92. 8% for the wider district. The average household size was 2.4, of those aged 16–74,24. 5% had no academic qualifications, lower than the national average of 28. 9%. Of those aged 16–74,2. 6% were unemployed and 28. 4% were economically inactive, Stroud has a significant artistic community that dates back to the early 20th century
33.
Tewkesbury
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Tewkesbury is a town and civil parish in Gloucestershire, England. It stands at the confluence of the River Severn and the River Avon and it gives its name to the Borough of Tewkesbury, of which the town is the second largest settlement. The name Tewkesbury comes from Theoc, the name of a Saxon who founded a hermitage there in the 7th century, an erroneous derivation from Theotokos enjoyed currency in the monastic period of the towns history. The Battle of Tewkesbury, which place on 4 May 1471, was one of the decisive battles of the Wars of the Roses. If the neighbouring parishes of Wheatpieces, Northway and Ashchurch Rural are added, the Tewkesbury urban area is divided in two by the north-south running M5 motorway, opened in February 1971. However, the town is considered as the built-up area to the immediate east and west of the M5 at junction 9, with the town centre, abbey. The close proximity of large areas of land that are prone to flooding, as evidenced by the floods that struck the region in July 2007. Most of the buildings, as well as the vineyards, were destroyed during this time. The Abbey Mill however still remains, resting upon the Mill Avon and this channel represents one of the biggest projects in Tewkesburys history, though the present weir dates only from the 1990s, replacing two sluice gates installed in the 1930s. The Abbey Mill is also known as Abel Fletchers Mill. The abbey is thought to be the site of the place where the hermit Theoc once lived, the great Romanesque arch on the west front is particularly striking, and the stained glass window at that end has been restored. The monastery was founded by the Despensers as a mausoleum. The tower is believed to be the largest Norman tower still in existence, the height to the top of the pinnacles is 148 feet. The abbey is thought to be the third largest church in Britain that is not a cathedral, from end to end it measures 331 feet, though prior to the destruction of the original Lady Chapel, the total length was 375 feet. The abbey is a church, still used for daily services. Tewkesbury claims Gloucestershires oldest public house, the Black Bear, dating from 1308, the Abbey Cottages, adjacent to Tewkesbury Abbey, were built between 1410 and 1412. They were restored 1967 to 1972 by the Abbey Lawn Trust and they house the John Moore Museum, residential homes and commercial offices. The John Moore Museum was established in 1980 in memory of the writer and naturalist, John Moore
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Dursley
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Dursley is a market town and civil parish in Gloucestershire, England. It is under the northeast flank of Stinchcombe Hill, and about 3¾ miles southeast of the River Severn, the town is adjacent to Cam which, though a village, is a community in its own right. An electoral ward in the name exists. The population and area of this ward are identical to that of the parish, Dursley gained borough status in 1471 and lost it in 1886. From then until 1974 it was the centre of Dursley Rural District. In 1974 the RDC became part of Stroud District, the Parish Church of St. James the Great dates from the 13th century. The original church collapsed in January 1699 during a bell-ringing session. It is now maintained by the Dursley Town Trust who also look after Jacobs House, in 1856 a short branch line railway opened, called the Dursley Donkey by locals, linking Dursley and Cam to the Bristol – Gloucester main line at Coaley Junction. The branch line was closed in 1968, Coaley Junction railway station was also closed at about this time. However, in 1994 a new station called Cam and Dursley was opened on the main line,330 yards north of the site of Coaley Junction. In the 19th and 20th centuries, Dursley was a manufacturing town. It is now being developed as a housing development with some industrial units. The Towers, a large house, formerly part of the Lister Petter estate, still overlooks the town and the site has been converted into flats. Ancient historical sites in the vicinity give evidence of earlier occupation, notable Roman remains exist at Frocester, West Hill near Uley, Woodchester and Calcot Manor. The town sits on the edge of the Cotswolds escarpment where it drops off towards the Severn Vale and it is adjacent with Cam which, though a village, is a community of double the size. The two communities share many facilities, Dursleys main watercourse is the River Ewelme which becomes the River Cam when it enters Cam. The town is surrounded by woodland and countryside and the Cotswold Way long distance trail passes through Dursley town centre. In March 2010 Sainsburys opened a newly built 20,000 sq ft supermarket within walking distance of the town centre, other recent arrivals include Lidl and Iceland
35.
Herefordshire
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Herefordshire is a historic English county in the West Midlands. It is a county and a unitary non-metropolitan county and district, also named in legislation as the County of Herefordshire. The Welsh unitary county covering the part of Gwent next to Herefordshire is Monmouthshire, Hereford is a cathedral city and is the county town, with a population of approximately 55,800 inhabitants it is also the largest settlement. The county is one of the most rural and sparsely populated in England, the land use is predominantly agricultural and the county is well known for its fruit and cider production, and the Hereford cattle breed. From 1974 to 1998, Herefordshire was part of the former county of Hereford. Herefordshire was reconstituted both as a new district and as a new county by Statutory Instrument as defined in The Hereford and this Order established Herefordshire as a unitary authority on 1 April 1998, combining county and district functions into a single council. Herefordshire is also called a unitary district, but this is not official nomenclature. Herefordshire is officially known as an authority for local government purposes. The Lieutenancies Act 1997 made Herefordshire a ceremonial county, covering the area of the unitary district. For Eurostat purposes it is a NUTS3 region and is one of three counties that comprise the Herefordshire, Worcestershire and Warwickshire NUTS2 region. The River Wye, which at 135 miles is the fifth-longest in the United Kingdom and it flows through both Hereford and Ross-on-Wye before returning to Wales. Leominster is situated on the River Lugg, a tributary of the Wye, there are two Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty in the county. The Wye Valley is located in the valleys south of Hereford, while the Malvern Hills are in the east of the county. Herefordshire is one of the 39 historic counties of England, in 1974 it was merged with neighbouring Worcestershire to form the Hereford and Worcester administrative county. Within this, Herefordshire was covered by the government districts of South Herefordshire, Hereford. However, the county was dissolved in 1998, resulting in the return of Herefordshire and Worcestershire as counties, the current ceremonial county and unitary district have broadly the same borders as the pre-1974 historic county. However this has been from a base, with only Northumberland. The population is White 98. 2%, Asian 0. 8%, Mixed 0. 7%, Black 0. 2%, gypsies and Travellers have historically been Herefordshires largest minority ethnic group
36.
Wiltshire
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Wiltshire is a county in South West England with an area of 3,485 km2. It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset, Somerset, the county town was originally Wilton, after which the county is named, but Wiltshire Council is now based in the new county town of Trowbridge. Wiltshire is characterised by its high downland and wide valleys, Salisbury Plain is noted for being the location of the Stonehenge and Avebury stone circles and other ancient landmarks, and as a training area for the British Army. The city of Salisbury is notable for its mediaeval cathedral, important country houses open to the public include Longleat, near Warminster, and the National Trusts Stourhead, near Mere. The county, in the 9th century written as Wiltunscir, later Wiltonshire, is named after the county town of Wilton. Wiltshire is notable for its pre-Roman archaeology, the Mesolithic, Neolithic and Bronze Age people that occupied southern Britain built settlements on the hills and downland that cover Wiltshire. Stonehenge and Avebury are perhaps the most famous Neolithic sites in the UK, in the 6th and 7th centuries Wiltshire was at the western edge of Saxon Britain, as Cranborne Chase and the Somerset Levels prevented the advance to the west. The Battle of Bedwyn was fought in 675 between Escuin, a West Saxon nobleman who had seized the throne of Queen Saxburga, in 878 the Danes invaded the county. Following the Norman Conquest, large areas of the country came into the possession of the crown, at the time of the Domesday Survey the industry of Wiltshire was largely agricultural,390 mills are mentioned, and vineyards at Tollard and Lacock. In the 17th century English Civil War Wiltshire was largely Parliamentarian, the Battle of Roundway Down, a Royalist victory, was fought near Devizes. The Royal Wiltshire Yeomanry currently lives on as Y Squadron, based in Swindon, around 1800 the Kennet and Avon Canal was built through Wiltshire, providing a route for transporting cargoes from Bristol to London until the development of the Great Western Railway. Information on the 261 civil parishes of Wiltshire is available on the Wiltshire Community History website, run by the Libraries and this site includes maps, demographic data, historic and modern pictures and short histories. The local nickname for Wiltshire natives is moonrakers and this originated from a story of smugglers who managed to foil the local Excise men by hiding their alcohol, possibly French brandy in barrels or kegs, in a village pond. The officials took them for simple yokels or mad and left them alone, many villages claim the tale for their own village pond, but the story is most commonly linked with The Crammer in Devizes. Two-thirds of Wiltshire, a rural county, lies on chalk. This chalk is part of a system of chalk downlands throughout eastern and southern England formed by the rocks of the Chalk Group, the largest area of chalk in Wiltshire is Salisbury Plain, which is used mainly for arable agriculture and by the British Army as training ranges. The highest point in the county is the Tan Hill–Milk Hill ridge in the Pewsey Vale, just to the north of Salisbury Plain, the chalk uplands run northeast into West Berkshire in the Marlborough Downs ridge, and southwest into Dorset as Cranborne Chase. Cranborne Chase, which straddles the border, has, like Salisbury Plain, yielded much Stone Age, the Marlborough Downs are part of the North Wessex Downs AONB, a 1,730 km2 conservation area
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Bristol
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Bristol is a city and county in South West England with a population of 449,300 in 2016. The district has the 10th largest population in England, while the Bristol metropolitan area is the 12th largest in the United Kingdom, the city borders North Somerset and South Gloucestershire, with the cities of Bath and Gloucester to the south-east and north-east, respectively. Iron Age hill forts and Roman villas were built near the confluence of the rivers Frome and Avon, Bristol received a royal charter in 1155 and was historically divided between Gloucestershire and Somerset until 1373, when it became a county of itself. From the 13th to the 18th century, Bristol was among the top three English cities after London in tax receipts, Bristol was surpassed by the rapid rise of Manchester, Liverpool and Birmingham in the Industrial Revolution. Bristol was a place for early voyages of exploration to the New World. On a ship out of Bristol in 1497 John Cabot, a Venetian, in 1499 William Weston, a Bristol merchant, was the first Englishman to lead an exploration to North America. At the height of the Bristol slave trade, from 1700 to 1807, the Port of Bristol has since moved from Bristol Harbour in the city centre to the Severn Estuary at Avonmouth and Royal Portbury Dock. Bristols modern economy is built on the media, electronics and aerospace industries. The city has the largest circulating community currency in the U. K. - the Bristol pound, which is pegged to the Pound sterling. It is connected to London and other major UK cities by road, rail, sea and air by the M5 and M4, Bristol Temple Meads and Bristol Parkway mainline rail stations, and Bristol Airport. The Sunday Times named it as the best city in Britain in which to live in 2014 and 2017, the most ancient recorded name for Bristol is the archaic Welsh Caer Odor, which is consistent with modern understanding that early Bristol developed between the River Frome and Avon Gorge. It is most commonly stated that the Saxon name Bricstow was a calque of the existing Celtic name, with Bric a literal translation of Odor. Alternative etymologies are supported with the numerous variations in Medieval documents with Samuel Seyer enumerating 47 alternative forms. The Old English form Brycgstow is commonly used to derive the meaning place at the bridge, utilizing another form, Brastuile, Rev. Dr. Shaw derived the name from the Celtic words bras, or braos and tuile. The poet Thomas Chatterton popularised a derivation from Brictricstow linking the town to Brictric and it appears that the form Bricstow prevailed until 1204, and the Bristolian L is what eventually changed the name to Bristol. Iron Age hill forts near the city are at Leigh Woods and Clifton Down, on the side of the Avon Gorge, a Roman settlement, Abona, existed at what is now Sea Mills, another was at the present-day Inns Court. Isolated Roman villas and small forts and settlements were scattered throughout the area. Bristol was founded by 1000, by about 1020, it was a centre with a mint producing silver pennies bearing its name
38.
Somerset
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Somerset is a county in South West England which borders Gloucestershire and Bristol to the north, Wiltshire to the east, Dorset to the south-east and Devon to the south-west. It is bounded to the north and west by the Severn Estuary and its traditional border with Gloucestershire is the River Avon. Somerset is a county of rolling hills such as the Blackdown Hills, Mendip Hills, Quantock Hills and Exmoor National Park. There is evidence of occupation from Paleolithic times, and of subsequent settlement in the Roman. The county played a significant part in the consolidation of power and rise of King Alfred the Great, and later in the English Civil War, the city of Bath is famous for its substantial Georgian architecture and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Somersets name derives from Old English Sumorsǣte, short for Sumortūnsǣte, an alternative suggestion is the name derives from Seo-mere-saetan meaning settlers by the sea lakes. The Old English name is used in the motto of the county, Sumorsǣte ealle, adopted as the motto in 1911, the phrase is taken from the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. Somerset settlement names are mostly Anglo-Saxon in origin, but some hill names include Brittonic Celtic elements, for example, an Anglo-Saxon charter of 682 refers to Creechborough Hill as the hill the British call Cructan and we call Crychbeorh. Some modern names are Brythonic in origin, such as Tarnock, the caves of the Mendip Hills were settled during the Palaeolithic period, and contain extensive archaeological sites such as those at Cheddar Gorge. Bones from Goughs Cave have been dated to 12,000 BC, examples of cave art have been found in Avelines Hole. Some caves continued to be occupied until modern times, including Wookey Hole, the Somerset Levels—specifically dry points at Glastonbury and Brent Knoll— also have a long history of settlement, and are known to have been settled by Mesolithic hunters. Travel in the area was facilitated by the construction of one of the worlds oldest known engineered roadways, the Sweet Track, the exact age of the henge monument at Stanton Drew stone circles is unknown, but it is believed to be Neolithic. There are numerous Iron Age hill forts, some of which, like Cadbury Castle, on the authority of the future emperor Vespasian, as part of the ongoing expansion of the Roman presence in Britain, the Second Legion Augusta invaded Somerset from the south-east in AD47. The county remained part of the Roman Empire until around AD409, a variety of Roman remains have been found, including Pagans Hill Roman temple in Chew Stoke, Low Ham Roman Villa and the Roman Baths that gave their name to the city of Bath. After the Romans left, Britain was invaded by Anglo-Saxon peoples, by AD600 they had established control over much of what is now England, but Somerset was still in native British hands. The Saxon royal palace in Cheddar was used several times in the 10th century to host the Witenagemot. After the Norman Conquest, the county was divided into 700 fiefs, Somerset contains HM Prison Shepton Mallet, which was Englands oldest prison still in use prior to its closure in 2013, having opened in 1610. In the English Civil War Somerset was largely Parliamentarian, with key engagements being the Sieges of Taunton, in 1685 the Monmouth Rebellion was played out in Somerset and neighbouring Dorset
39.
Worcestershire
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Worcestershire is a county in the West Midlands of England. Between 1974 and 1998, it was merged with the county of Herefordshire as Hereford. The cathedral city of Worcester is the largest settlement and county town, other towns in the county include Redditch, Bromsgrove, Stourport-on-Severn, Droitwich, Evesham, Kidderminster, and Malvern. The north-east of Worcestershire includes part of the industrial West Midlands, the county is divided into six administrive districts, Worcester, Redditch, Wychavon, Malvern Hills, Wyre Forest, and Bromsgrove. The county borders Herefordshire, Shropshire, Staffordshire, West Midlands, Warwickshire, to the west, the county is bordered by the Malvern Hills and the spa town of Malvern. The south of the county is bordered by Gloucestershire and the edge of the Cotswolds. Two major rivers flow through the county, the Severn and the Avon, Worcestershire was the heartland of the early English kingdom of the Hwicce. It was absorbed by the Kingdom of Mercia during the 7th century and it was a separate ealdormanship briefly in the 10th century before forming part of the Earldom of Mercia in the 11th century. In the years leading up to the Norman conquest, the Church, supported by the cathedral, Evesham Abbey, Pershore Abbey, Malvern Priory, and other religious houses, increasingly dominated the county. The last known Anglo-Saxon sheriff of the county was Cyneweard of Laughern, on 4 August 1265, Simon de Montfort was killed in the Battle of Evesham in Worcestershire. In 1642, the Battle of Powick Bridge was the first major skirmish of the English Civil War, during the Middle Ages, much of the countys economy was based on the wool trade. Many areas of its forests, such as Feckenham Forest, Horewell Forest. Droitwich Spa, situated on large deposits of salt, was a centre of production from Roman times. These old industries have declined, to be replaced by other. The county is home to the worlds oldest continually published newspaper. Malvern was one of the centres of the 19th century rise in English spa towns due to Malvern water being believed to be very pure, containing nothing at all. The 2011 census found the population of Worcestershire to be 566,169, while this change is in line with the nationwide trend of White British peoples share of the population shrinking, Worcestershire is still much more ethnically homogeneous than the national average. In 2011 England as a whole was 79. 8% White British, the most notable were Dudley, Evenlode, and the area around Shipston-on-Stour
United Kingdom
England
Gloucestershire County Council
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