1.
Norwich
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Norwich is a city on the River Wensum in East Anglia and lies about 100 miles north-east of London. It is the administrative centre for East Anglia and county town of Norfolk. During the 11th century, Norwich was the largest city in England after London and it remained the capital of the most populous English county until the Industrial Revolution. The urban area of Norwich had a population of 213,166 according to the 2011 Census, the parliamentary seats cross over into adjacent local-government districts. A total of 132,512 people live in the City of Norwich, Norwich is the fourth most densely populated local-government district in the East of England, with 3,480 people per square kilometre. In May 2012, Norwich was designated Englands first UNESCO City of Literature, the capital of the Iceni tribe was a settlement located near to the village of Caistor St. Edmund on the River Tas approximately 8 kilometres to the south of modern-day Norwich. Following an uprising led by Boudica around AD60 the Caistor area became the Roman capital of East Anglia named Venta Icenorum, literally the market place of the Iceni. According to a rhyme, the demise of Venta Icenorum led to the development of Norwich, Caistor was a city when Norwich was none. There are two suggested models of development for Norwich, the ancient city was a thriving centre for trade and commerce in East Anglia in 1004 AD when it was raided and burnt by Swein Forkbeard the Viking king of Denmark. Mercian coins and shards of pottery from the Rhineland dating from the 8th century suggest that trade was happening long before this. Between 924 and 939, Norwich became fully established as a town, the word Norvic appears on coins across Europe minted during this period, in the reign of King Athelstan. The Vikings were a cultural influence in Norwich for 40–50 years at the end of the 9th century. At the time of the Norman Conquest the city was one of the largest in England, the Domesday Book states that it had approximately 25 churches and a population of between 5, 000–10,000. It also records the site of an Anglo-Saxon church in Tombland, the site of the Saxon market place and the later Norman cathedral. Norwich continued to be a centre for trade, the River Wensum being a convenient export route to the River Yare and Great Yarmouth. Quern stones and other artefacts from Scandinavia and the Rhineland have been found during excavations in Norwich city centre and these date from the 11th century onwards. Norwich Castle was founded soon after the Norman Conquest, the Domesday Book records that 98 Saxon homes were demolished to make way for the castle. In 1096, Herbert de Losinga, Bishop of Thetford, began construction of Norwich Cathedral, the chief building material for the Cathedral was limestone, imported from Caen in Normandy
2.
Marine art
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Marine art or maritime art is any form of figurative art that portrays or draws its main inspiration from the sea. Maritime painting is a genre that depicts ships and the sea—a genre particularly strong from the 17th to 19th centuries, as landscape art emerged during the Renaissance, what might be called the marine landscape became a more important element in works, but pure seascapes were rare until later. In this, as in much else, specialist and traditional marine painting has largely continued Dutch conventions to the present day. With Romantic art, the sea and the coast was reclaimed from the specialists by many landscape painters, vessels on the water have featured in art from the earliest times. The earliest known works are petroglyphs from 12,000 BCE showing reed boats in the Gobustan Petroglyph Reserve in modern Azerbaijan, which was then on the edge of the much larger Caspian Sea. Rock carvings and carved objects depicting ships have been found on islands of the Aegean as well as mainland Greece. The central cult image in Egyptian temples was usually a figure of the god. Ships sometimes appear in Ancient Greek vase painting, especially relevant in a narrative context. As in Egyptian painting, the surface of the water may be indicated by a series of parallel wavy lines, the water is usually calm, and objects that are submerged, or partly so, may be shown through the water. The large Nile mosaic of Palestrina is a version of such compositions, Marine highlights in Medieval art include the 11th century Bayeux Tapestry showing the Norman Invasion of England. From the 12th century onwards, seals of ports often featured a ship portrait, there was also a true seascape, the Voyage of St Julian & St Martha, but both pages were destroyed in a fire in 1904, and only survive in black and white photographs. Scenes of small boats on rivers sometimes feature in the calendar miniatures from books of hours by artists such as Simon Bening. During the Gothic period the nef, a piece of goldsmiths work in the shape of a ship, used for holding cutlery, salt or spices. Initially just consisting of the hull, from the 15th century the most elaborate had masts, sails, as the exotic nautilus shell began to reach Europe, many used these for their hull, like the Burghley Nef of about 1528. Lower down the scale, interest in shipping was reflected in many early prints of ships. They also usually anticipated the low horizon that painting would not achieve until the 17th century, the first print of a naval battle is an enormous woodcut of the Battle of Zonchio in 1499 between the Venetians and the Turks. The only surviving impression is coloured with stencils, most were probably pasted onto walls, the earliest comparable painting to survive comes from several decades later. At the same artists were often involved in the expansion of Western cartography
3.
Landscape painting
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In other works, landscape backgrounds for figures can still form an important part of the work. Sky is almost always included in the view, and weather is often an element of the composition, detailed landscapes as a distinct subject are not found in all artistic traditions, and develop when there is already a sophisticated tradition of representing other subjects. The two main traditions spring from Western painting and Chinese art, going well over a thousand years in both cases. Landscape views in art may be imaginary, or copied from reality with varying degrees of accuracy. If the primary purpose of a picture is to depict an actual, specific place, especially including buildings prominently, within a few decades it was used to describe vistas in poetry, and eventually as a term for real views. However the cognate term landscaef or landskipe for a patch of land had existed in Old English. The earliest pure landscapes with no figures are frescos from Minoan Greece of around 1500 BCE. The frescos from the Tomb of Nebamun, now in the British Museum, are a famous example. These were frequently used, as in the illustrated, to bridge the gap between a foreground scene with figures and a distant panoramic vista, a persistent problem for landscape artists. The Chinese style generally showed only a distant view, or used dead ground or mist to avoid that difficulty, aesthetic theories in both regions gave the highest status to the works seen to require the most imagination from the artist. They were often also poets whose lines and images illustrated each other, a revival in interest in nature initially mainly manifested itself in depictions of small gardens such as the Hortus Conclusus or those in millefleur tapestries. The frescos of figures at work or play in front of a background of trees in the Palace of the Popes. Several frescos of gardens have survived from Roman houses like the Villa of Livia, a particular advance is shown in the less well-known Turin-Milan Hours, now largely destroyed by fire, whose developments were reflected in Early Netherlandish painting for the rest of the century. Landscape backgrounds for various types of painting became prominent and skilful during the 15th century. The Italian development of a system of graphical perspective was now known all over Europe. Indeed, certain styles were so popular that they became formulas that could be copied again and again, after the publication of the Small Landscapes, landscape artists in the Low Countries either continued with the world landscape or followed the new mode presented by the Small Landscapes. The popularity of landscape scenes can be seen in the success of the painter Frans Post. Salvator Rosa gave picturesque excitement to his landscapes by showing wilder Southern Italian country, there are different styles and periods, and subgenres of marine and animal painting, as well as a distinct style of Italianate landscape
4.
Etching
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Etching is traditionally the process of using strong acid or mordant to cut into the unprotected parts of a metal surface to create a design in intaglio in the metal. In modern manufacturing, other chemicals may be used on other types of material, as a method of printmaking, it is, along with engraving, the most important technique for old master prints, and remains in wide use today. In a number of variants such as microfabrication etching and photochemical milling it is a crucial technique in much modern technology. In traditional pure etching, a plate is covered with a waxy ground which is resistant to acid. The artist then scratches off the ground with an etching needle where he or she wants a line to appear in the finished piece. The échoppe, a tool with an oval section, is also used for swelling lines. The plate is dipped in a bath of acid, technically called the mordant or etchant. The acid bites into the metal where it is exposed, leaving behind lines sunk into the plate, the remaining ground is then cleaned off the plate. The plate is inked all over, and then the ink wiped off the surface, the plate is then put through a high-pressure printing press together with a sheet of paper. The paper picks up the ink from the lines, making a print. The process can be repeated many times, typically several hundred impressions could be printed before the shows much sign of wear. The work on the plate can also be added to by repeating the whole process, Etching has often been combined with other intaglio techniques such as engraving or aquatint. The process as applied to printmaking is believed to have been invented by Daniel Hopfer of Augsburg, Hopfer was a craftsman who decorated armour in this way, and applied the method to printmaking, using iron plates. Apart from his prints, there are two examples of his work on armour, a shield from 1536 now in the Real Armeria of Madrid. The switch to copper plates was made in Italy. On the other hand, the handling of the ground and acid need skill and experience, prior to 1100 AD, the New World Hohokam independently utilized the technique of acid etching in marine shell designs. Jacques Callot from Nancy in Lorraine made important technical advances in etching technique and he developed the échoppe, a type of etching-needle with a slanting oval section at the end, which enabled etchers to create a swelling line, as engravers were able to do. Callot also appears to have responsible for an improved, harder, recipe for the etching ground
5.
Silk
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Silk is a natural protein fiber, some forms of which can be woven into textiles. The protein fiber of silk is composed mainly of fibroin and is produced by insect larvae to form cocoons. The best-known silk is obtained from the cocoons of the larvae of the mulberry silkworm Bombyx mori reared in captivity, Silk is produced by several insects, but generally only the silk of moth caterpillars has been used for textile manufacturing. There has been research into other types of silk, which differ at the molecular level. Silk is mainly produced by the larvae of insects undergoing complete metamorphosis, Silk production also occurs in Hymenoptera, silverfish, mayflies, thrips, leafhoppers, beetles, lacewings, fleas, flies, and midges. Other types of arthropod produce silk, most notably various arachnids such as spiders, the word silk comes from Old English sioloc, from Greek σηρικός serikos, silken, ultimately from an Asian source. Several kinds of silk, which are produced by caterpillars other than the mulberry silkworm, have been known and used in China, South Asia. However, the scale of production was far smaller than for cultivated silks. Thus, the way to obtain silk suitable for spinning into textiles in areas where commercial silks are not cultivated was by tedious. Commercial silks originate from reared silkworm pupae, which are bred to produce a silk thread with no mineral on the surface. The pupae are killed by either dipping them in boiling water before the adult moths emerge or by piercing them with a needle. These factors all contribute to the ability of the cocoon to be unravelled as one continuous thread. Wild silks also tend to be difficult to dye than silk from the cultivated silkworm. Genetic modification of domesticated silkworms is used to facilitate the production of more types of silk. Silk fabric was first developed in ancient China, the earliest example of silk fabric is from 3630 BC, and it was used as wrapping for the body of a child from a Yangshao culture site in Qingtaicun at Xingyang, Henan. Legend gives credit for developing silk to a Chinese empress, Leizu, because of its texture and lustre, silk rapidly became a popular luxury fabric in the many areas accessible to Chinese merchants. Silk was in demand, and became a staple of pre-industrial international trade. In July 2007, archaeologists discovered intricately woven and dyed silk textiles in a tomb in Jiangxi province, Silk is described in a chapter on mulberry planting by Si Shengzhi of the Western Han
6.
Lace
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Lace is a delicate fabric made of yarn or thread in an open weblike pattern, made by machine or by hand. Originally linen, silk, gold, or silver threads were used, now lace is often made with cotton thread, although linen and silk threads are still available. Manufactured lace may be made of synthetic fiber, a few modern artists make lace with a fine copper or silver wire instead of thread. The word lace is from Middle English, from Old French las, noose, strin, from Vulgar Latin *laceum, from Latin laqueus, noose, probably akin to lacere, there are many types of lace, classified by how they are made. These include, Needle lace, such as Venetian Gros Point, is using a needle. This is the most flexible of the lace-making arts, while some types can be made more quickly than the finest of bobbin laces, others are very time-consuming. Some purists regard needle lace as the height of lace-making, the finest antique needle laces were made from a very fine thread that is not manufactured today. Cutwork, or whitework, is constructed by removing threads from a woven background. Bobbin lace, as the name suggests, is made with bobbins, the bobbins, turned from wood, bone, or plastic, hold threads which are woven together and held in place with pins stuck in the pattern on the pillow. The pillow contains straw, preferably oat straw or other such as sawdust, insulation styrofoam. Chantilly lace is a type of bobbin lace, tape lace makes the tape in the lace as it is worked, or uses a machine- or hand-made textile strip formed into a design, then joined and embellished with needle or bobbin lace. Knotted lace includes macramé and tatting, tatted lace is made with a shuttle or a tatting needle. Crocheted lace includes Irish crochet, pineapple crochet, and filet crochet, knitted lace includes Shetland lace, such as the wedding ring shawl, a lace shawl so fine that it can be pulled through a wedding ring. Machine-made lace is any style of lace created or replicated using mechanical means, chemical lace, the stitching area is stitched with embroidery threads that form a continuous motif. Afterwards, the areas are removed and only the embroidery remains. The stitching ground is made of a water-soluble or non-heat-resistant material, the origin of lace is disputed by historians. An Italian claim is a will of 1493 by the Milanese Sforza family, a Flemish claim is lace on the alb of a worshiping priest in a painting about 1485 by Hans Memling. But since lace evolved from techniques, it is impossible to say that it originated in any one place
7.
Norwich School (independent school)
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Norwich School is a selective English independent day school in the close of Norwich Cathedral, Norwich. Among the oldest schools in the United Kingdom, it has a history to 1096 as an episcopal grammar school established by Herbert de Losinga. In the 16th century the school came under the control of the city of Norwich, the school was refounded in 1547 in a royal charter granted by Edward VI and moved to its current site beside the cathedral in 1551. In the 19th century it became independent of the city and its curriculum was broadened in response to the declining demand for classical education following the Industrial Revolution. Early statutes declared the school was to instruct 90 sons of Norwich citizens, for most of its history it was a boys school, before becoming co-educational in the sixth form in 1994 and in every year group in 2010. The school educates the choristers of the cathedral, with which the school has a close relationship, in league tables of British schools it is consistently ranked first in Norfolk and Suffolk and amongst the highest in the United Kingdom. Former pupils are referred to as Old Norvicensians or ONs, the school has maintained a strong academic tradition and has educated a number of notable figures including Lord Nelson, Sir Edward Coke and 17 Fellows of the Royal Society among many others. Several members of the Norwich School of painters, the first provincial art movement in England, were educated at the school, Norwich School traces its origins to the founding of an episcopal grammar school in 1096 by Herbert de Losinga, first Bishop of Norwich. The continuity of the current Norwich School with the 1096 school would make it one of the oldest surviving schools in the United Kingdom, the newly established school occupied a site on Holmstrete in the parish of St Matthew between the close of Norwich Cathedral and the River Wensum. Until the English Reformation the bishop would appoint the headteacher, though on occasions this role had been fulfilled by the Archbishop of Canterbury. The earliest known headteacher is Vincent of Scarning, who is mentioned in 1240 regarding a dispute with a school in Rudham. Following repairs, the moved to the former friary in 1541, occupying part of the south-west cloister, where it educated 20 boys under a master. The school was refounded as King Edward VI Grammar School in a charter granted by Edward VI dated 7 May 1547. Issued four months into the kings accession, the charter expressly implemented an arrangement designed by Henry VIII and was confirmed by Edward Seymour, unusually for a cathedral city Norwich did not receive a cathedral school following the Reformation, but an endowed city grammar school. Norwich Cathedral was the first of the eight cathedral priories to surrender to the Crown, formally being re-established as a cathedral with a dean. Consequently, negotiations over the charter were between the city, rather than the cathedral, and the Crown. These plans were never realised, however, as the Great Hospital was partially stripped for building materials, the school temporarily occupied St Lukes House, a building north-west of the cathedral. The school moved to the site in the summer of 1551, the chapel was used as the main schoolroom while the other buildings were used to provide a library and accommodation for the master and boarding pupils
8.
Old master print
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An old master print is a work of art produced by a printing process within the Western tradition. Fifteenth-century prints are rare that they are classed as old master prints even if they are of crude or merely workmanlike artistic quality. A date of about 1830 is usually taken as marking the end of the period whose prints are covered by this term, the main techniques used, in order of their introduction, are woodcut, engraving, etching, mezzotint and aquatint, although there are others. Different techniques are combined in a single print. With rare exceptions printed on textiles, such as silk, or on vellum, many great European artists, such as Albrecht Dürer, Rembrandt, and Francisco Goya, were dedicated printmakers. In their own day, their international reputations largely came from their prints, influences between artists were also mainly transmitted beyond a single city by prints, for the same reason. Prints therefore are frequently brought up in detailed analyses of individual paintings in art history, today, thanks to colour photo reproductions, and public galleries, their paintings are much better known, whilst their prints are only rarely exhibited, for conservation reasons. But some museum print rooms allow visitors to see their collection, the oldest technique is woodcut, or woodblock printing, which was invented as a method for printing on cloth in China, and perhaps separately in Egypt in the Byzantine period. This had reached Europe via the Byzantine or Islamic worlds before 1300, religious images and playing cards are documented as being produced on paper, probably printed, by a German in Bologna in 1395. However, the most impressive printed European images to survive from before 1400 are printed on cloth, for use as hangings on walls or furniture, including altars, some were used as a pattern to embroider over. Some religious images were used as bandages, to speed healing, the earliest print images are mostly of a high artistic standard, and were clearly designed by artists with a background in painting. Whether these artists cut the blocks themselves, or only inked the design on the block for another to carve, is not known, the great majority of surviving 15th-century prints are religious, although these were probably the ones more likely to survive. Their makers were sometimes called Jesus maker or saint-maker in documents, as with manuscript books, monastic institutions sometimes produced, and often sold, prints. No artists can be identified with specific woodcuts until towards the end of the century, the little evidence we have suggests that woodcut prints became relatively common and cheap during the fifteenth century, and were affordable by skilled workers in towns. For example, what may be the earliest surviving Italian print, the school caught fire, and the crowd who gathered to watch saw the print carried up into the air by the fire, before falling down into the crowd. This was regarded as an escape and the print was carried to Forlì Cathedral. Like the majority of prints before approximately 1460, only a single impression of this print has survived, Woodcut blocks are printed with light pressure, and are capable of printing several thousand impressions, and even at this period some prints may well have been produced in that quantity. Many prints were hand-coloured, mostly in watercolour, in fact the hand-colouring of prints continued for many centuries, Italy, Germany, France and the Netherlands were the main areas of production, England does not seem to have produced any prints until about 1480
9.
J. M. W. Turner
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Joseph Mallord William Turner, RA was an English Romanticist landscape painter. Turner was considered a figure in his day, but is now regarded as the artist who elevated landscape painting to an eminence rivalling history painting. Although renowned for his oil paintings, Turner is also one of the greatest masters of British watercolour landscape painting and he is commonly known as the painter of light. Joseph Mallord William Turner was baptised on 14 May 1775, and it is generally believed he was born between late April and early May. Turner himself claimed he was born on 23 April, but there is no proof and he was born in Maiden Lane, Covent Garden, in London, England. His father, William Turner, was a barber and wig maker and his mother, Mary Marshall, came from a family of butchers. A younger sister, Mary Ann, was born in September 1778, the earliest known artistic exercise by Turner is from this period—a series of simple colourings of engraved plates from Henry Boswells Picturesque View of the Antiquities of England and Wales. Around 1786, Turner was sent to Margate on the north-east Kent coast, here he produced a series of drawings of the town and surrounding area foreshadowing his later work. Turner returned to Margate many times in later life, by this time, Turners drawings were being exhibited in his fathers shop window and sold for a few shillings. His father boasted to the artist Thomas Stothard that, My son, in 1789, Turner again stayed with his uncle who had retired to Sunningwell in Berkshire. A whole sketchbook of work from time in Berkshire survives as well as a watercolour of Oxford. The use of sketches on location, as the foundation for later finished paintings. By the end of 1789, he had begun to study under the topographical draughtsman Thomas Malton. Turner learned from him the tricks of the trade, copying and colouring outline prints of British castles. He would later call Malton My real master, topography was a thriving industry by which a young artist could pay for his studies. In the same year of 1789 he entered the Royal Academy of Art schools, when he was 14 years old, Sir Joshua Reynolds, president of the Royal Academy, chaired the panel that admitted him. At first Turner showed a keen interest in architecture, but was advised by the architect Thomas Hardwick to continue painting and his first watercolour painting A View of the Archbishops Palace, Lambeth was accepted for the Royal Academy summer exhibition of 1790 when Turner was 15. As a probationer in the academy, he was drawing from plaster casts of antique sculptures
10.
Thomas Girtin
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Thomas Girtin was an English painter and etcher. A friend and rival of J. M. W. Turner, Thomas Girtin was born in Southwark, London, the son of a wealthy brushmaker of Huguenot descent. His father died while Thomas was a child, and his then married a Mr Vaughan. Girtin learnt drawing as a boy, and was apprenticed to Edward Dayes, certainly Dayes did not appreciate his pupils talent, and he was to write dismissively of Girtin after his death. While a youth, Girtin became friends with J. M. W. Turner, Girtin exhibited at the Royal Academy from 1794. He went on sketching tours, visiting the north of England, North Wales. By 1799, he had acquired influential patrons such as Lady Sutherland, and he was the dominant member of the Brothers, a sketching society of professional artists and talented amateurs. In 1800, Girtin married Mary Ann Borrett, the 16-year-old daughter of a well-to-do City goldsmith, and set up home in St Georges Row, Hyde Park, next door to the painter Paul Sandby. By 1801, he was a welcome houseguest at his patrons country houses such as Harewood House and Mulgrave Castle, and able to charge 20 guineas for a painting, but his health was deteriorating. In late 1801 to early 1802, he spent five and a months in Paris. They were published as Twenty Views in Paris and its Environs after his death, in spring and summer 1802, Girtin produced a panorama of London, the Eidometropolis,18 feet high and 108 feet in circumference which was exhibited with success that year. It was notable for its treatment of urban light and atmosphere. That November, Girtin died in his room, the cause was variously reported as asthma or ossification of the heart. Girtins early landscapes are akin to 18th-century topographical sketches, but in years he developed a bolder, more spacious, romantic style. The scenery of the north encouraged him to create a new palette of warm browns, slate greys, indigo. Girtins early death reportedly caused Turner to remark, Had Tom Girtin lived I should have starved, the British Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum have collections of his work. The British Museum was given significant Girtin watercolours by the collector Chambers Hall, in July 2002 Tate Britain organised an exhibition, Thomas Girtin, The Art of Watercolour which aimed to reveal his technical genius
11.
Wales
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Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain. It is bordered by England to the east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, and it had a population in 2011 of 3,063,456 and has a total area of 20,779 km2. Wales has over 1,680 miles of coastline and is mountainous, with its higher peaks in the north and central areas, including Snowdon. The country lies within the temperate zone and has a changeable. Welsh national identity emerged among the Celtic Britons after the Roman withdrawal from Britain in the 5th century, Llywelyn ap Gruffudds death in 1282 marked the completion of Edward I of Englands conquest of Wales, though Owain Glyndŵr briefly restored independence to Wales in the early 15th century. The whole of Wales was annexed by England and incorporated within the English legal system under the Laws in Wales Acts 1535–1542, distinctive Welsh politics developed in the 19th century. Welsh Liberalism, exemplified in the early 20th century by Lloyd George, was displaced by the growth of socialism, Welsh national feeling grew over the century, Plaid Cymru was formed in 1925 and the Welsh Language Society in 1962. Established under the Government of Wales Act 1998, the National Assembly for Wales holds responsibility for a range of devolved policy matters, two-thirds of the population live in south Wales, mainly in and around Cardiff, Swansea and Newport, and in the nearby valleys. Now that the countrys traditional extractive and heavy industries have gone or are in decline, Wales economy depends on the sector, light and service industries. Wales 2010 gross value added was £45.5 billion, over 560,000 Welsh language speakers live in Wales, and the language is spoken by a majority of the population in parts of the north and west. From the late 19th century onwards, Wales acquired its popular image as the land of song, Rugby union is seen as a symbol of Welsh identity and an expression of national consciousness. The Old English-speaking Anglo-Saxons came to use the term Wælisc when referring to the Celtic Britons in particular, the modern names for some Continental European lands and peoples have a similar etymology. The modern Welsh name for themselves is Cymry, and Cymru is the Welsh name for Wales and these words are descended from the Brythonic word combrogi, meaning fellow-countrymen. The use of the word Cymry as a self-designation derives from the location in the post-Roman Era of the Welsh people in modern Wales as well as in northern England and southern Scotland. It emphasised that the Welsh in modern Wales and in the Hen Ogledd were one people, in particular, the term was not applied to the Cornish or the Breton peoples, who are of similar heritage, culture, and language to the Welsh. The word came into use as a self-description probably before the 7th century and it is attested in a praise poem to Cadwallon ap Cadfan c. 633. Thereafter Cymry prevailed as a reference to the Welsh, until c.1560 the word was spelt Kymry or Cymry, regardless of whether it referred to the people or their homeland. The Latinised forms of names, Cambrian, Cambric and Cambria, survive as lesser-used alternative names for Wales, Welsh
12.
Surrey
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Surrey is a county in the south east of England. It shares borders with Kent to the east, East Sussex to the south-east, West Sussex to the south, Hampshire to the west and south-west, Surrey County Council sits extraterritorially at Kingston upon Thames, administered as part of Greater London since 1965. With a resident population of 1.1 million, Surrey is the most densely populated and third most populated county in the South East region, after Kent, the London boroughs of Lambeth, Southwark, Wandsworth, and parts of Lewisham and Bromley were in Surrey until 1889. The boroughs of Croydon, Kingston upon Thames, Merton, Sutton and Richmond upon Thames south of the River Thames were part of Surrey until 1965, when they too were absorbed into Greater London. In the same year, the county was extended north of the Thames by the addition of Spelthorne, due to this expansion, modern Surrey also borders on the London boroughs of Hounslow and Hillingdon. It has the highest GDP per capita of any English county, Surrey is divided in two by the chalk ridge of the North Downs, running east-west. To the north of the Downs the land is mostly flat, the geology of this area is dominated by London Clay in the east, Bagshot Sands in the west and alluvial deposits along the rivers. Much of Surrey is in the Metropolitan Green Belt and it contains a good deal of mature woodland. Among its many notable beauty spots are Box Hill, Leith Hill, Frensham Ponds, Newlands Corner and Puttenham & Crooksbury Commons. Surrey is the most wooded county in England, with 22. 4% coverage compared to an average of 11. 8%. Box Hill has the oldest untouched area of woodland in the UK. Surrey also contains Englands principal concentration of lowland heath, on soils in the west of the county. Agriculture not being intensive, there are many commons and access lands, together with a network of footpaths and bridleways including the North Downs Way. Accordingly, Surrey provides much in the way of leisure activities. The highest elevation in Surrey is Leith Hill near Dorking and it is either 293,294 or 295 metres above sea level and is the second highest point in southeastern England after Walbury Hill 297 metres in West Berkshire. Surrey has a population of approximately 1.1 million people and its largest town is Guildford, with a population of 66,773, Woking comes a close second with 62,796. They are followed by Ewell with 39,994 people and Camberley with 30,155, towns of between 25,000 and 30,000 inhabitants are Ashford, Epsom, Farnham, Staines and Redhill. Guildford is the county town, although the county administration was moved to Newington in 1791
