1.
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
2.
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
3.
River Lugg
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The River Lugg rises near Llangynllo, Powys. Below Leominster the river was navigable under the River Wye & Lugg Navigation Act 1696 for improving the River Wye. Despite several attempts to improve it, including making flash locks against bridges, commercial navigation probably ceased in the early 19th century. It is still used by small boats, but can be very dangerous when in flood. The Environment Agency is the authority for the river. The river is popular with canoeists who have undisputed rights of navigation and it is a good fishing river. Cohen, The non-tidal Wye and its navigation Trans, club XXXV, 83-101 A. Brian, As to the Lugg, its vanished mills, broken weirs and damaged bridges’ Ibid. Flood warnings, Environment Agency River Lugg SSSIs Photos of the River Lugg on geograph. org. uk
4.
River Trothy
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The River Trothy is a river which flows through north Monmouthshire, in rural south east Wales. The river rises on Campston Hill, northeast of Abergavenny and it flows southwards until Llanvapley, where it turns east. At Monmouth the river joins into the River Wye, about 0.5 km downstream from the mouth of the River Monnow, list of rivers of Wales Media related to River Trothy at Wikimedia Commons
5.
River Monnow
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The River Monnow flows through south-west Herefordshire, England and eastern Monmouthshire, Wales. For much of its length it marks the border between England and Wales before it joins the River Wye at Monmouth, the Wye is also half English from Monmouth until it meets the River Severn at Chepstow. The Monnow is bridged at Monmouth by the unique medieval Monnow Bridge, the Monnow Valley Walk follows the river. The river rises near Craswall on Cefn Hill just below the high Black Mountains, Wales. It flows southwards, gaining the waters of its tributaries the Escley Brook and Olchon Brook near Clodock, the river then flows briefly eastwards, to Pontrilas, where it is joined by its largest tributary, the River Dore before again turning southwards. At Monmouth the river joins into the River Wye with the River Trothy and its total length is around 42 miles. At one time the river was noted for its brown trout population. Rivers of the United Kingdom Home, - Information on the river River Monnow. - Information on canoe touring on the Upper and Lower Monnow
6.
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
7.
Welsh language
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Welsh is a member of the Brittonic branch of the Celtic languages. It is spoken natively in Wales, by some in England, historically it has also been known in English as the British tongue, Cambrian, Cambric and Cymric. The United Kingdom Census 2011 counted 3.1 million residents of Wales, 27% of whom had been born outside Wales, and 73% of whom reported having no Welsh language skills. Of residents of Wales aged three and over, 19% reported being able to speak Welsh, and 77% of these were able to speak, read and this can be compared with the 2001 Census, in which 20. 8% of the population reported being able to speak Welsh. 787,854 of residents in Wales aged three and over had one or more skills in Welsh, in surveys carried out between 2004 and 2006, 57% of Welsh speakers described themselves as fluent in the written language. An estimated 110,000 to 150,000 people speak Welsh in England, Welsh emerged in the 6th century from Common Brittonic, the common ancestor of Welsh, Breton, Cornish and the extinct language known as Cumbric. The Middle Welsh period is considered to have lasted from then until the 14th century, when the Modern Welsh period began, the name Welsh originated as an exonym given to its speakers by the Anglo-Saxons, meaning foreign speech. The native term for the language is Cymraeg, and for the name of the country of Wales it is Cymru, Welsh evolved from Common Brittonic, the Celtic language spoken by the ancient Celtic Britons. Classified as Insular Celtic, the British language probably arrived in Britain during the Bronze Age or Iron Age and was spoken throughout the island south of the Firth of Forth. During the Early Middle Ages the British language began to fragment due to increased dialect differentiation, evolving into Welsh and it is not clear when Welsh became distinct. Kenneth H. Jackson suggested that the evolution in syllabic structure and sound pattern was complete by around 550, Jackson, however, believed that the two varieties were already distinct by that time. The earliest Welsh poetry – that attributed to the Cynfeirdd or Early Poets – is generally considered to date to the Primitive Welsh period. However, much of this poetry was composed in the Hen Ogledd, raising further questions about the dating of the material. An 8th century inscription in Tywyn shows the language already dropping inflections in the declension of nouns, the next main period, somewhat better attested, is Old Welsh, poetry from both Wales and Scotland has been preserved in this form of the language. Both the works of Aneirin and the Book of Taliesin were in this era, Middle Welsh is the label attached to the Welsh of the 12th to 14th centuries, of which much more remains than for any earlier period. This is the language of all surviving early manuscripts of the Mabinogion. It is also the language of the existing Welsh law manuscripts, Middle Welsh is reasonably intelligible, albeit with some work, to a modern-day Welsh speaker. The famous cleric Gerald of Wales tells, in his Descriptio Cambriae, during one of the Kings many raids in the 12th century, Henry asked an old man of Pencader, Carmarthenshire whether the Welsh people could resist his army
8.
Longest rivers of the United Kingdom
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There seems to be little consensus as to the lengths of rivers in published sources, nor much agreement as to what constitutes a river. Thus the River Ure / River Ouse can be counted as one system or two rivers. Also, the Thames tributary, the River Churn, sourced at Seven Springs adds 14 miles to the length of the Thames, the Churn/Thames length at 229 mi is therefore greater than the Severn’s length -220 mi. Thus, the combined Churn/Thames river would top the list, Sue Owen et al. in their book on Rivers generally restrict the length to the parts that bear the correct name. Thus the River Nene is quoted at 100 miles, but would be around 5 miles more if the variously named sources were included, many of the above lengths are considerably different from Sue Owens list, some longer and some shorter. Where a river ends in an estuary the conventional British approach has been to use the end of the administrative zone, thus the Severn ends at the mouth of the Bristol Avon and the Thames to the Yantlet Line. The currently accepted end of the Severn Estuary is nearly about 18.5 miles further, other countries have different conventions, making comparisons of limited value
9.
Plynlimon
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Plynlimon is the highest point of the Cambrian Mountains in Wales, and the highest point in Mid Wales. It is a massif that dominates the countryside of northern Ceredigion, the highest point of the massif itself is Pen Pumlumon Fawr at 752 metres. Its other important peaks are Pen Pumlumon Arwystli, Y Garn, Pen Pumlumon Llygad-bychan, the longest river in Britain, the River Severn, has its source on the mountain, as do the rivers Wye and Rheidol. Folklore says there is a giant in Plynlimon. The Pumlumon area is the largest watershed in Wales and is the source of the rivers Wye, Severn, since 2007 the Wildlife Trusts of Wales have been working to improve the habitat as a living landscape project. This watershed area has been affected by loss of biodiversity, erosion of the peaty soils structure, some believe the drainage issues have contributed significantly to flooding in areas some distance downstream, though this cannot be clearly proved. Like most of the uplands across Wales, intensive land use activities have resulted in many habitats being either lost or degraded, over-grazing of sheep has induced soil compaction, which has resulted in increased flooding of the lowland areas. Agriculturally improved grassland, broadleaved woodlands and forestry plantation are also features of the area. The Severn Way runs for 210 miles along the River Severn between the mouth of the Severn at Bristol, England, and its source at Plynlimon, Wales. Computer generated summit panoramas Plynlimon index THE PUMLUMON PROJECT, Montgomeryshire Wildlife Trust www. geograph. co. uk, photos of Plynlimon and surrounding area
10.
Severn Estuary
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The Severn Estuary is the estuary of the River Severn, the longest river in Great Britain. It is at the mouth of four rivers, being the Severn, Wye, Usk and Avon. Its high tidal range of about 50 feet means that it has been at the centre of discussions in the UK regarding renewable energy, definitions of the limits of the Severn Estuary vary. The definition used on Admiralty Chart SC1179 and the Bristol Channel and Severn Cruising Guide is that the estuary extends upstream to Aust, the estuary is about 2 miles wide at Aust, and about 9 miles wide between Cardiff and Weston-super-Mare. The Estuary forms the boundary between Wales and England in this stretch. On the northern side of the estuary are the Caldicot and Wentloog Levels which are on side of the city of Newport, and, to the west. On the southern, English, side, are Avonmouth, Portishead, Clevedon, denny Island is a small rocky island of 0.24 hectares, with scrub vegetation, approximately three miles north of Portishead. Its rocky southern foreshore marks the boundary between England and Wales, but the island itself is reckoned administratively to Monmouthshire, Wales, the estuary has one of the highest tidal ranges in the world — about 50 feet. The estuarys funnel shape, its range and the underlying geology of rock, gravel and sand, produce strong tidal streams and high turbidity. West of the line between Lavernock Point and Sand Point is the Bristol Channel, which in turn discharges into the Celtic Sea, the islands of Steep Holm and Flat Holm are located close to that line, in the middle of the estuary. Sometimes the term Severn Estuary is used to include the upstream stretch between Gloucester and Aust. The tidal range results in the estuary having one of the most extensive intertidal wildlife habitats in the UK, comprising mudflats, sandflats, rocky platforms and these form a basis for plant and animal communities typical of extreme physical conditions of liquid mud and tide-swept sand and rock. The estuary is recognised as an area of international importance and is designated as a Ramsar site. The estuary is recognised as a Special Protection Area under the EC Directive on the conservation of Wild Birds, the estuary is recognised as a Special Area of Conservation under the EU Habitats Directive. Parts of the estuary have also designated a Site of Special Scientific Interest. The SSSI includes most of the foreshore upstream from Cardiff and Brean Down, the Upper Severn Estuary SSSI covers the tidal river between Purton and Frampton on Severn. The Severn Estuary SSSI original designation involves the English counties of Somerset, Avon and it involves the Welsh counties of Gwent and South Glamorgan. The Severn Estuary SSSI designation overlaps individual site designations for separate sites in Avon, Gloucestershire, the 1976 designation includes two sites previously notified in 1952
11.
Wye Valley
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The Wye Valley Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty is an internationally important protected landscape straddling the border between England and Wales. It is one of the most dramatic and scenic areas in southern Britain. The River Wye is the fifth-longest river in the United Kingdom and it is also historically important as one of the birthplaces of the modern tourism industry. The area is rural, and many people make a living from tourism. Ross-on-Wye is the town within the AONB itself, but Hereford, Monmouth, Coleford. The varied landscapes of the Wye Valley can be explained by underlying rocks and structures, close to Hereford, the geology of the area around the village of Woolhope is largely made up of Silurian limestones, shales and sandstones. To the south of this, the Herefordshire lowlands are underlain by red mudstones and sandstones. These rocks are softer than the limestones elsewhere, so the river created more meanders, a floodplain. Around Symonds Yat, limestones and red sandstones meet and this leads to a landscape of hills and plains, as well as substantial meanders which have formed impressive river cliffs. The Lower Wye landscape was formed by the acting on a series of layers of rock that dip towards the Forest of Dean. Here the river has incised into the margins of the Old Red Sandstone plateau to form a gorge with substantial river cliffs, the steepest parts of the Wye gorge are cut through the Carboniferous Limestone. Here the combined action of the river, natural joints in the rocks and quarrying have exposed many vertical faces, geological interest extends underground, and there are many rock shelters and solution caves in the area. These include King Arthurs Cave and many others in the area of Symonds Yat, lancaut and Ban-y-Gor are Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust nature reserves. They both have SSSI status being part of the nationally important Lower Wye Gorge SSSI and within the Wye Valley AONB, the Wye Valley is important for its rich wildlife habitats. The area has three sites of importance, designated as Special Areas of Conservation under the European Unions Habitats Directive. These are the River Wye, the Wye Valley and Forest of Dean Bat Sites and it supports a population of lesser horseshoe bats, a growing population of peregrine falcons, goshawks, ravens, rare whitebeam, nightjar and lesser known fish like the shad and twaite. The main Welsh populations of the small but colourful moth Oecophora bractella are found here, in September 2006 it was reported that one colony of lesser horseshoe bats in the area had reached record numbers, with some 890 bats in a small stone barn. The valley has been inhabited for at least 12,000 years, caves near Symonds Yat and Chepstow provide evidence of settlement dating from Palaeolithic times, and finds from later stone ages such as the Neolithic have also been found
12.
Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty
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An Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty is an area of countryside in England, Wales or Northern Ireland which has been designated for conservation due to its significant landscape value. Areas are designated in recognition of their importance, by the relevant public body, Natural England, Natural Resources Wales. In place of AONB, Scotland uses the similar national scenic area designation and they also differ from national parks in their more limited opportunities for extensive outdoor recreation. To achieve these aims, AONBs rely on planning controls and practical countryside management, as they have the same landscape quality, AONBs may be compared to the national parks of England and Wales. National parks are known to many inhabitants of the UK, by contrast. The idea for what would become the AONB designation was first put forward by John Dower in his 1945 Report to the Government on National Parks in England. Dower suggested there was need for protection of certain naturally beautiful landscapes which were unsuitable as national parks due to their small size and lack of wildness. Dowers recommendation for the designation of these other amenity areas was eventually embodied in the National Parks, there are 46 AONBs in Britain. The first AONB was designated in 1956 in the Gower Peninsula, AONBs vary greatly in terms of size, type and use of land, and whether they are partly or wholly open to the public. The smallest AONB is the Isles of Scilly,16 km2, the AONBs of England and Wales together cover around 18% of the countryside in the two countries. The AONBs of Northern Ireland together cover about 70% of Northern Irelands coastline, AONBs in England and Wales were originally created under the same legislation as the national parks, the National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act 1949. Unlike AONBs, national parks have special powers to prevent unsympathetic development. Two of the AONBs, which extend into a number of local authority areas, have their own statutory bodies. All English and Welsh AONBs have a dedicated AONB officer and other staff, as required by the CRoW Act, each AONB has a management plan that sets out the characteristics and special qualities of the landscape and how they will be conserved and enhanced. The AONBs are collectively represented by the National Association for AONBs, AONBs in Northern Ireland were designated originally under the Amenity Lands Act 1965, subsequently under the Nature Conservation and Amenity Lands Order 1985. There are growing concerns among environmental and countryside groups that AONB status is increasingly under threat from development, the Campaign to Protect Rural England said in July 2006 that many AONBs were under greater threat than ever before. The subsequent development, known as Falmer Stadium, was opened in July 2011. The Weymouth Relief Road in Dorset was constructed between 2008 and 2011, after environmental groups lost a High Court challenge to prevent its construction, writing in 2006, Professor Adrian Phillips listed threats facing AONBs
13.
Tithe maps
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The term Tithe map is usually applied to a map of an English or Welsh parish or township, prepared following the Tithe Commutation Act 1836. This act allowed tithes to be paid in cash rather than goods, the map and its accompanying schedule gave the names of all owners and occupiers of land in the parish. Individual tithe owners sometimes prepared maps for their own use to show who owned what land and these maps are sometimes also called tithe maps, although such maps are not common before 1836. The payment of one tenth of local produce to the church had established in Anglo-Saxon England before the Norman Conquest. This was originally in kind, every tenth stook of corn and it originally supported the local priest, but in some cases the right to receive the tithe was acquired by an organisation such as a monastery or college, who paid a curate. With the dissolution of the monasteries, the right to receive tithes was acquired by a number of private landlords, in some instances, a tithe barn was built to hold the tithes. Over time, in some parishes, the owner came to an agreement with the tithe payers to receive cash instead of farm produce. This could be for a period of time or indefinitely. During the period of parliamentary enclosure, the various Inclosure Acts abolished tithes in many places in return for an allocation of land to the tithe owner, however, in many parishes, tithes continued to be paid in kind. The Tithe Commutation Act 1836 and an act in 1837 established a procedure whereby tithes could be converted to money payments. This required the drawing of a map showing all the land in the parish. The series of maps resulting from this legislation provides unprecedented coverage, detail, in the end, about one sixth of the maps had seals. A map was produced for each district, that is. These could be distinct from parishes or townships, areas in which tithes had already been commuted were not mapped, so that coverage varied widely from county to county. The maps indicated parcels of land and buildings, assigning each a number, each map was accompanied by a schedule listing each map item by number. This showed the owners, occupiers and a description of the land in the parish including individual fields - sometimes with field names, most of the surveying and mapping was carried out by 1841, and the work was largely completed by 1851. In some cases amendments had to be filed when properties were divided or other circumstances intervened, the work was also complicated by numerous inconsistencies in the ways tithes were assessed. For example, timber might or might not include standing trees, branches, acorns, mast, variations as to the circumstances of tithe-paying were also considerable
14.
Chepstow
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Chepstow is a town in Monmouthshire, Wales, adjoining the border with Gloucestershire, England. It is located on the River Wye, about 2 miles above its confluence with the River Severn and it is 16 miles east of Newport,18 miles north-west of Bristol and 110 miles west of London. Chepstow Castle, situated on a clifftop above the Wye and its bridge, is cited as the oldest surviving stone castle in Britain. The castle was established by William FitzOsbern immediately after the Norman conquest, a Benedictine priory was also established within the walled town, which was the centre of the Marcher lordship of Striguil. In the late eighteenth century the town was a focus of tourism as part of the Wye Tour. Chepstow is also known for its racecourse, which has hosted the Welsh National each year since 1949. The town had a population of 10,821 according to the 2001 census and it is served by the M48 motorway, and its accessibility to the cities of Bristol, Newport and Cardiff means it has a large number of commuters. It is administered as part of Monmouthshire County Council, and is within the Monmouth parliamentary constituency, Chepstow is on the western bank of the Wye, while adjoining villages on the eastern bank of the river, Tutshill and Sedbury, are located in England. The name Chepstow derives from the old English ceap / chepe stowe, the word stow usually denotes a place of special significance, and the root chep is the same as that in other placenames such as Chipping Sodbury and Cheapside. The name is first recorded in 1307, but may have used by the English in earlier centuries. However, the used by the Normans for the castle and lordship was Striguil, probably from a Welsh word ystraigyl. The Welsh name Cas-gwent refers to the castle of Gwent. There are also Iron Age fortified camps in the area, dating from the time of the Silures, at Bulwark,1 mile south of the town centre, and at Piercefield and Lancaut, some 1.5 miles to the north. During the Roman occupation, there was a bridge or causeway across the Wye, Chepstow is located at a crossing point directly between the Roman towns at Gloucester and Caerwent. Although historians think it likely that there was a small Roman fort in the area, after the Romans left, Chepstow was within the southern part of the Welsh kingdom of Gwent, known as Gwent Is-coed. To the north of the town centre, a small church was established dedicated to St. Cynfarch. This later became an Augustinian priory on what is now Kingsmark Lane, the town is close to the southern point of Offas Dyke, which begins on the east bank of the Wye at Sedbury and runs all the way to the Irish Sea in north Wales. It is possible, though not clearly substantiated, that Chepstow may have superseded Caerwent as a trading centre, after the Norman conquest of England, Chepstow was a key location
15.
River source
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The source or headwaters of a river or stream is the furthest place in that river or stream from its estuary or confluence with another river, as measured along the course of the river. As an example of the definition above, the USGS at times considers the Missouri River as a tributary of the Mississippi River. But it also follows the first definition above in using the combined Missouri - lower Mississippi length figure in lists of lengths of rivers around the world. This definition, from geographer Andrew Johnston of the Smithsonian Institution, is used by the National Geographic Society when pinpointing the source of rivers such as the Amazon or Nile. A definition given by the state of Montana agrees, stating that a source is never a confluence but is in a location that is the farthest, along water miles. Under this definition neither a lake nor a confluence of tributaries can be a river source. Likewise, the source of the Amazon River has been determined this way, when not listing river lengths, however, alternative definitions may be used. In the case of the Missouri River, Lewis and Clark would have had to travel to the east. to reach the source. Sometimes the source of the most remote tributary may be in an area that is more marsh-like, for example, the source of the River Tees is marshland. The furthest stream is often called the headstream. Headwaters are often small streams with cool waters because of shade and they may also be glacial headwaters, waters formed by the melting of glacial ice. Headwater areas are the areas of a watershed, as opposed to the outflow or discharge of a watershed. The river source is often but not always on or quite near the edge of the watershed, for example, the source of the Colorado River is at the Continental Divide separating the Atlantic Ocean and Pacific Ocean watersheds of North America. A river is considered a geographic feature, with only one mouth. For an example, note how the Mississippi River and Missouri River sources are officially defined, U. S. Geological Survey Geographic Names Information System, Mississippi River, Length,2,340 miles, Source, 47°14′22″N 95°12′29″W U. S. For example, The River Thames rises in Gloucestershire, the White Nile rises in the Great Lakes region of central Africa. The word source, when applied to lakes rather than rivers or streams, refers to the lakes inflow
16.
Rhayader
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Rhayader is a market town and community in Powys, Wales. It has a population of 2,088, and is the first town on the banks of the River Wye,20 miles from its source on the Plynlimon range of the Cambrian Mountains. Although being situated in the mostly Anglicised border county of Radnorshire, the town is one of the principal centres of population in the historic county of Radnorshire. It is situated midway between North and south Wales on the A470,13 miles north of Builth Wells and 30 miles east of Aberystwyth on the A44 - two of Wales most important trunk roads. The B4574 mountain road to Aberystwyth is described by the AA as one of the ten most scenic drives in the world, the name Rhayader is corrupted from the Welsh Rhaeadr Gwy, meaning Waterfall on the Wye. Little remains of the waterfall itself, it having been destroyed in 1780 to make way for the bridge linking the town to Cwmdauddwr, the abundance of cairns and standing stones bears witness that man inhabited the area several thousand years BCE. An important hoard of jewellery dating from 1st-2nd centuries AD was found in 1899 in the vicinity of the town. Known as the Rhayader Hoard, it is now in the Roman-British collection of the British Museum and it wasnt until the 12th Century that documented history of the town began with the building of a Castle in 1177. Little remains today, with the exception of a dry moat that can be seen from Wauncapel Park, one of the oldest buildings in Rhayader is the Old Swan, which stands on the corner of West and South Streets Rhayader. The original building was mentioned in 1676 as being one of the two inns in Rhayader at that date, some changes were made in 1683, including the rebuilding of the three chimney stacks, and this date is carved into the old timbers inside the building. In the 19th Century, turnpike roads were only passable on payment of extortionate tolls and this led to the Rebecca Riots across South and Mid Wales from 1839–1842, with no less than six of Rhayaders tollgates being demolished with impunity by local farmers dressed as women. The actions of these Rebeccaites led to a Commission of Inquiry being set up, in the 1890s the rapidly expanding city of Birmingham,70 miles east, viewed the nearby Elan Valley as the ideal source of clean, safe water. This was to change the face of Rhayader forever, bringing thousands of workers involved in building this complex of dams. A new railway was built connecting this area with the main network in Rhayader. Work started in 1894 and the scheme was opened in 1904 by King Edward VII. The station on the Mid Wales Railway line that served the town was closed on 31 December 1962, the nearest station is now at Crossgates on the Heart of Wales Line, though connections are usually made at the more accessible Llandrindod railway station a similar distance away. The town is also a cycling centre and is on Route 8 of the United Kingdom National Cycle Network - Lôn Las Cymru. Tourism and agriculture are the most important industries locally, walkers and cyclists are drawn to Rhayader for the abundance of trails and bridleways surrounding the town, which is the gateway to a massive complex of reservoirs and dams
17.
Builth Wells
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It has a population of 2,568, or 2,994 including the neighbouring village of Llanelwedd in Radnorshire. Builth is an anglicization of the Welsh Buellt or Buallt and it derives from the Welsh words bu, meaning ox, and gellt, meaning pasture, rendering cow pasture. The town added Wells to the name in the 19th century when its springs were promoted as a visitor attraction, the Welsh name Llanfair-ym-Muallt means St Marys Church in Buallt. Builth first emerged in post-Roman times, probably on the side of the Irfon river from its present site at Dol Eglwys where a ruined early medieval church is thought to have stood. Early Post-Roman Builth was an independent kingdom, the most famous ruler was Elystan Glodrydd from whom many local gentry claimed descent. As an important component of Rhwng Gwy a Hafren, an entity referred to in the poems of Taliesin. Glodrydd probably lived at Llanafan Fawr rather than the site of Builth Wells. Until the foundation of the Norman town Llanfair ym Muallt the main settlement was Llanafan, stories about Philip de Braose centre on Llanafan not modern Builth. Ecclesiastically, the Deanery of Builth had always been part of St Davids and later Swansea and Brecon, the site of the town controls an important ford across the Wye and the crossing point of the main north-south route in Wales and an important south-west-east route. It was militarily and economically significant for centuries, the Welsh name for the town Llanfair ym Muallt refers to the foundation of a Norman church dedicated to St Mary. The churchyard is however, an oval which is strongly suggestive of an original Celtic foundation. The town was out as two streets connecting a castle and a church and was protected by a hedge rather than a wall. This type of town is called a Bastide, a kind of medieval market settlement. In exchange for rights to live and trade in the market of the new town skilled townspeople paid the lord various dues, in many parts of Wales the skilled workers were of Flemish or English origin. Despite repeated destructive fires, at one time involving a collection in London. It received major boosts from the development of roads, it was at the centre of early road networks. The railway allowed it to develop as a spa, and is known nationally as the location of the Royal Welsh Showground. The only remains of the castle are huge earthworks, Builth Castle was built under King Edward I, the construction taking nearly five years in the 1270s
18.
Hay-on-Wye
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Often described as the town of books, it is the National Book Town of Wales. The annual Hay Festival is a literary festival. The settlements name is first referred to between 1135 and 1147 as Haya, in 1299 the name of La Haye is used, by the 16th century it was simply called Hay, and the use of the river as a suffix is a later addition. In 1215, a Welsh name, Gelli was recorded, and Gelli gandrell in 1614, the two names may have been used concurrently in 1625. The English language name, Hay, is derived from Old English hæg, possibly meaning a fenced area, the Welsh word celli has a range of meanings including wooded areas of various extents. The town lies on the south-east bank of the River Wye and is within the north-easternmost tip of the Brecon Beacons National Park, the town is just on the Welsh side of the border with Herefordshire, England, here defined by the Dulas Brook. Where the brook joins the River Wye just north of the town, the Wye was the boundary between the former counties and districts of Radnorshire and Brecknockshire. The adjacent village of Cusop lies on the English side of the Dulas Brook, the nearest city is Hereford, county town of Herefordshire, some 22 miles to the east. The Royal Mail depot in Hay is a sub-office of Hereford, Hay-on-Wye is a Welsh community with a Town Council. From this point, it follows the National Park boundary to the River Wye, the Town Council consists of a Mayor, Deputy Mayor and eight councillors. Hay also participates in the election of a councillor to Powys County Council as part of a county division. The B4350 runs through the town and the B4351 links it with the main A438 from Brecon to Hereford, the town was formerly served at Hay-on-Wye railway station by the train services known as the Canney Creeper, which closed in 1963 under the Beeching Axe. First held in 2010, HowTheLightGetsIn is a philosophy and music festival, billed as The Worlds Largest Philosophy and Music Festival, it attracts over 35,000 visitors to its programme of 450 events of music, comedy and philosophy. In 2015 the festival was held from the 21st to the 31st of May, acts included Mike Skinner, Simon Blackburn, Jamie Woon, Lawrence Krauss, Natalie Bennett and the IAI School, aimed at 16- to 18-year-olds, presented by New College of the Humanities. Hay Golf Club was founded in 1903, the club continued on its nine-hole course until the onset of WW2. The towns football club is called Hay St. Marys, Hay was named one of the best places to live in Wales in 2017. Hay-on-Wye, like Builth Wells, has two Norman castles within a distance of each other. It seems likely that Hay was first fortified by William Fitz Osbern during his penetration of south-east Wales in the summer of 1070, lying close to St Marys Church on the western edge of Hay-on-Wye is a small but well-preserved motte
19.
Hereford
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Hereford is a cathedral city, civil parish and county town of Herefordshire, England. It lies on the River Wye, approximately 16 miles east of the border with Wales,24 miles southwest of Worcester, with a population of 58,896, it is the largest settlement in the county. The name Hereford is said to come from the Anglo-Saxon here, an army or formation of soldiers, and the ford, if this is the origin it suggests that Hereford was a place where a body of armed men forded or crossed the Wye. The Welsh name for Hereford is Henffordd, meaning old road, much of the county of Herefordshire was Welsh-speaking, as reflected in the Welsh names of many places in the county. An early town charter from 1189 granted by Richard I of England describes it as Hereford in Wales, Hereford has been recognised as a city since time immemorial, with the status being reconfirmed as recently as October 2000. It is now known chiefly as a centre for a wider agricultural and rural area. Products from Hereford include, cider, beer, leather goods, nickel alloys, poultry, chemicals, hostilities between the Anglo-Saxons and the Welsh came to a head with the Battle of Hereford in 760, in which the Britons freed themselves from the influence of the English. Hereford had the only mint west of the Severn in the reign of Athelstan, and it was to Hereford, then a border town, the present Hereford Cathedral dates from the early 12th century, as does the first bridge across the Wye. Former Bishops of Hereford include Saint Thomas de Cantilupe and Lord High Treasurer of England Thomas Charlton. The city gave its name to two suburbs of Paris, France, Maisons-Alfort and Alfortville, due to a manor built there by Peter of Aigueblanche, Bishop of Hereford, in the middle of the 13th century. Hereford, a base for successive holders of the title Earl of Hereford, was once the site of a castle, Hereford Castle, which rivalled that of Windsor in size and scale. This was a base for repelling Welsh attacks and a stronghold for English kings such as King Henry IV when on campaign in the Welsh Marches against Owain Glyndŵr. The castle was dismantled in the 18th century and landscaped into Castle Green, after the Battle of Mortimers Cross in 1461, during the Wars of the Roses, the defeated Lancastrian leader Owen Tudor was taken to Hereford by Sir Roger Vaughan and executed in High Town. A plaque now marks the spot of the execution, Vaughan was later himself executed, under a flag of truce, by Owens son Jasper. During the civil war the city changed several times. On 30 September 1642 Parliamentarians led by Sir Robert Harley and Henry Grey, in December they withdrew to Gloucester because of the presence in the area of a Royalist army under Lord Herbert. The city was occupied briefly from 23 April to 18 May 1643 by Parliamentarians commanded by Sir William Waller. On 31 July 1645 a Scottish army of 14,000 under Alexander Leslie, 1st Earl of Leven besieged the city but met resistance from its garrison
20.
Ross-on-Wye
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Ross-on-Wye is a small market town with a population of 9,574, in south eastern Herefordshire, England, located on the River Wye, and on the northern edge of the Forest of Dean. Ross-on-Wye was the birthplace of the British tourist industry, in 1745, the rector, Dr John Egerton, started taking friends on boat trips down the valley from his rectory at Ross. The Wye Valleys attraction was its river scenery, its precipitous landscapes, and its castles and abbeys, in 1782, William Gilpins book Observations on the River Wye was published, the first illustrated tour guide to be published in Britain. Once it was published, demand grew so much that by 1808 there were eight boats making regular excursions down the Wye, most of them hired from inns in Ross and Monmouth. By 1850 more than 20 visitors had published their own accounts of the Wye Tour, the 700-year-old parish church of St. Marys is the towns most prominent landmark and its tall pointed spire is visible when approaching the town from all directions. Rudhall was responsible for the repair of the almshouses, situated to the north west of the church, in 1575. The Plague Cross, also known as the Corpse Cross, was erected in the yard of St. Marys church in 1637 as a memorial to 315 people who died in the town of the plague in 1637. They were buried nearby in a pit, at night. By 1896, the cross had fallen into disrepair and the top of the cross was missing and it was later restored to its former state. The Prospect was created by John Kyrle and offers views over the Wye. The land was rented by John Kyrle from the Marquess of Bath in 1696 and turned into a garden, in 2008, following heavy rain, Roman remains were discovered and excavated under the site. It now contains trees, the V. E, day Beacon and the War Memorial. The town is known for its independent shops, picturesque streets, regular Thursday and Saturday markets are held at the red sandstone Market House building in the town centre, which was built between 1650 and 1654 replacing the older, probably wooden Booth Hall. The upper storey of the Market House now houses a Visitor Centre, the town has not had a cinema since The Roxy in Broad Street closed its doors in 1985. The cinema site was purchased by Gateway Supermarkets for development, opposite the church, The Prospect is a public garden offering a view of the famous horseshoe bend in the River Wye, as well as views as far as the Black Mountains. The ruins of Wilton Castle, which lie to the west of the town, have now been restored and are open to visitors, the town has a number of sculptures created by Walenty Pytel, the left bank of the River Wye shows two of these. Despite the commonly held belief that both depict swans, one in fact shows ducks, most local government functions are vested in Herefordshire Council, the unitary authority covering the county. Ross Town Council, which consists of 18 Councillors, has the statutory responsibilities of a parish council The Mayor is Councillor Colin Gray, the former Ross-on-Wye railway station was a junction railway station on the Hereford, Ross and Gloucester Railway constructed to the north of the town
21.
Symonds Yat
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Symonds Yat is a village in the Wye Valley and a popular tourist destination, straddling the River Wye and on the borders of the English counties of Herefordshire and Gloucestershire. It is within a few miles of Monmouthshire and the Welsh border, the name is said to come from Robert Symonds, a 17th-century sheriff of Herefordshire, and yat, an old word for a gate or pass. In the Iron Age the forts on the Great Doward and Yat Rock provided secure, during Roman times these forts became focal points in the region and the importance of the iron here and in the Forest of Dean made this a valuable prize for the conquerors. Offas Dyke was built in the 8th century directly above the Yat to separate England, the first recorded use of the word Yat in connection with the area was made in 1265. Yat is an old English word for gate or gorge and he was High Sheriff of Herefordshire in 1685. The area is shown as Symons Yate on maps in 1665, Symons Yat in 1717. The Yat Gorge was mined for ore and remains of a smelting works are located down stream of the Symonds Yat Rapids. The ironworks at New Weir date from the 1590s and were operated by the White family until 1753, when George White leased the site to John Partridge, Partridge combined the ironworks at New Weir with his forge at Lydbrook which smelted pig iron from his furnace at Bishopswood. The works closed when the lease ran out in 1798 and the adjacent weir and lock buildings were demolished, the ferry at Symonds Yat has always played a huge part in the life here. In 1800 there were 25 hand ferries between Ross and Chepstow just like those outside Ye Old Ferrie Inn and the Saracens Head today. They were introduced in Roman times to link the forts of the Doward, Symonds Yat originally encompassed all the lands southerly of Huntsham curve on both sides of Symonds Yat Rock and would have included the area around Coldwell Rocks. It was found that the works included a mill, for making wire nails. Symonds Yat is on the side of the river, very close to the Gloucestershire border. It has three hotels, WyeDean Canoe and Activity Centre and the Saracens Head Inn, a steep footpath leads from the village up to Symonds Yat Rock. Another footpath and a cycleway, constructed on a railway line. Symonds Yat is on the side of the river. It has a caravan and camping site, and a small amusement park owned by Kimberly Danter. Symonds Yat amusement park used to have a small funfair which was removed in 2010 due to lack of service and it used to contain outdoor dodgems, twister, casino royale miami, flying jets, octopus, bouncy castles, ski jump, etc
22.
Monmouth
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Monmouth is a traditional county town in Monmouthshire, Wales. It is situated where the River Monnow meets the River Wye, the town is 30 miles northeast of Cardiff, and 113 miles west of London. It is within the Monmouthshire local authority, and the constituency of Monmouth. According to the 2001 census, its population was 8,877, the town was the site of a small Roman fort, Blestium, and became established after the Normans built a castle here after 1067. Its mediaeval stone gated bridge is the one of its type remaining in Britain. The castle later came into the possession of the House of Lancaster, in 1536, it became the county town of Monmouthshire. Monmouth later became a tourist centre at the heart of the Wye Valley and it now acts as a shopping and service centre, and as a focus of educational and cultural activities for its surrounding rural area. The name Monmouth is an English contraction of Monnow-mouth, the Welsh name for the river, Mynwy, which may originally have meant fast-flowing, was anglicised as Monnow. The town was known in Welsh as Abermynwy, replaced by Trefynwy by the 1600s. Excavations undertaken by the Monmouth Archaeological Society on sites along Monnow Street have uncovered a wealth of information about the history of the town. Indeed, the Council for British Archaeology have designated Monmouth as one of the top ten towns in Britain for archaeology, the excavations later revealed the remains of a Neolithic crannog. The dwelling was constructed on stilts on an island away from the lake shore in water up to 10 feet deep. Timbers from the structure were dated to 4867 years before present. The first recorded settlement at Monmouth was the small Roman fort of Blestium and this was connected by road to the larger Roman towns at Glevum and Isca Augusta. Archaeologists have found Roman pottery and coins within the town centre. After the end of Roman rule in Britain, the area was at the edge of the Welsh kingdom of Ergyng. The only evidence of continuing settlement at Monmouth is a record of a 7th-century church, at a location within the town. Initially it would have been a motte and bailey castle, later rebuilt in stone, and refortified and developed over time
23.
Tintern
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Tintern is a village on the west bank of the River Wye in Monmouthshire, Wales, close to the border with England, about 5 miles north of Chepstow. It is popular with tourists, who visit for the scenery, the village is designated as a Conservation Area. A ford across the navigable and tidal River Wye was in use in Roman times, the name Tintern may derive from the Welsh din + d/teyrn, meaning rocks of the king. Tintern Abbey was founded beside the river by Walter de Clare on 9 May 1131 and it was the second Cistercian foundation in Britain, and its monks came from a daughter house of Cîteaux in France. The present-day remains at Tintern are a mixture of building works covering several centuries, between 1270 and 1301 the abbey was rebuilt, and when it was completed around four hundred monks lived in the complex. The abbeys land was divided into units or granges, and local people provided farm labour and served the abbey. For 400 years, it dominated the economy of its surrounding area, during some of this period the area was contested between the Welsh and English, the closest battle being won in 1404 by Owain Glyndŵr, at Craig y Dorth near Monmouth. The area also had to contend with the Black Death, the abbey remained in operation until the Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1536. Though it has suggested that the monks or lay brethren of Tintern Abbey exploited the woodlands and river power for operating iron forges. Industrial activity began in 1568 when the newly established Company of Mineral and it is possible that brass was made, but the works mainly made iron wire. This was used for a variety of industries with essential goods, cards for the woollen industry, nails, pins, knitting needles. The company began letting their works, farmers of the works in the 17th century included Sir Basil Brooke, Thomas Foley, the important ironmaster and his son Thomas Foley. A blast furnace and forges were built in the valley in the 17th century, for 300 years, the numerous works and forges along the Angidy Valley dominated the village and surrounding communities. A branch from the Wye Valley Railway to the Lower Wireworks by way of a bridge was completed in 1875, but too late to stop them going out of business. In 1878 a new company leased the site to manufacture tinplate although by 1895 it was reported as closed and only ruins, associated ponds. The bridge was used in the early 20th century as a horse-drawn tramway, by the late 18th century, tourism had started in the Wye Valley, with many visitors travelling on the river to see the abbey and other picturesque sites in the area. William Wordsworth stayed in the village in 1798 and wrote Lines composed a few miles above Tintern Abbey, the Royal George Hotel is one of several located beside the main road. Tintern is home to several different walking trails, in addition to areas of interest
24.
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
25.
Estuary
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An estuary is a partially enclosed coastal body of brackish water with one or more rivers or streams flowing into it, and with a free connection to the open sea. Estuaries form a zone between river environments and maritime environments. They are subject both to marine influences—such as tides, waves, and the influx of saline water—and to riverine influences—such as flows of fresh water and sediment. The inflows of sea water and fresh water provide high levels of nutrients both in the water column and in sediment, making estuaries among the most productive natural habitats in the world. Most existing estuaries formed during the Holocene epoch with the flooding of river-eroded or glacially scoured valleys when the sea began to rise about 10. Estuaries are typically classified according to their geomorphological features or to water-circulation patterns, the banks of many estuaries are amongst the most heavily populated areas of the world, with about 60% of the worlds population living along estuaries and the coast. The word estuary is derived from the Latin word aestuarium meaning tidal inlet of the sea, there have been many definitions proposed to describe an estuary. However, this definition excludes a number of water bodies such as coastal lagoons. This broad definition also includes fjords, lagoons, river mouths, an estuary is a dynamic ecosystem having a connection to the open sea through which the sea water enters with the rhythm of the tides. The sea water entering the estuary is diluted by the water flowing from rivers. The pattern of dilution varies between different estuaries and depends on the volume of water, the tidal range. Drowned river valleys are known as coastal plain estuaries. In places where the sea level is rising relative to the land, sea water progressively penetrates into river valleys and this is the most common type of estuary in temperate climates. Well-studied estuaries include the Severn Estuary in the United Kingdom and the Ems Dollard along the Dutch-German border, the width-to-depth ratio of these estuaries is typically large, appearing wedge-shaped in the inner part and broadening and deepening seaward. Water depths rarely exceed 30 m, examples of this type of estuary in the U. S. are the Hudson River, Chesapeake Bay, and Delaware Bay along the Mid-Atlantic coast, and Galveston Bay and Tampa Bay along the Gulf Coast. They are relatively common in tropical and subtropical locations and these estuaries are semi-isolated from ocean waters by barrier beaches. Formation of barrier beaches partially encloses the estuary, with only narrow inlets allowing contact with the ocean waters, bar-built estuaries typically develop on gently sloping plains located along tectonically stable edges of continents and marginal sea coasts. They are extensive along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts of the U. S. in areas with active coastal deposition of sediments, barrier beaches form in shallow water and are generally parallel to the shoreline, resulting in long, narrow estuaries
26.
Redbrook
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Redbrook is a village in Gloucestershire, England, adjoining the border with Monmouthshire, Wales. It is located on the River Wye and is within the Wye Valley Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, Redbrook was historically an important industrial centre with many industrial sites including mills, an ironworks, tinplate works and copper works. The oldest site is the Kings Mill, which was a mill first recorded in 1434. The Redbrook Copper Works used ore brought from Cornwall via Chepstow and worked until 1740 when it closed down and it is from this iron ore that the village got its name - the brook running down the valley through the village often ran dark red. The tinplate factory, run by the Redbrook Tinplate Company, was famous for the high quality product it made. Redbrook was also a port where the various products of the local industries were shipped. The village once boasted no less than 13 Inns and three breweries, the last brewery to close, in 1926, was Redbrook Brewery and the site is still marked by Brewery Yard and Brewery Terrace. Redbrook was the last station before Monmouth on the Wye Valley Railway, the railway was opened in 1876 to connect Monmouth to the South Wales line, closing to passengers in 1959 and freight in 1964. Today a wood-decked footbridge spans the river which carried the railway. Redbrook has a population of 372 and is a quiet village amidst peaceful wooded hills, a little above the river is the 19th century church of St. Saviour. Two local pubs, the Boat Inn at Penallt on the Welsh side of the River Wye, the Boat Inn is accessed from Redbrook via Penallt Viaduct, which used to carry the Wye Valley Railway across the River. The village also has a Post Office and stores, the Offas Dyke Path and the Wye Valley Walk run through the village. Both teams have had success in recent years with the First team winning the West Dean Charities Cup, the first team also won promotion to the North Gloucestershire Premier Division in the 2013/14 season winning the First Division title by 5 points. First team success has also filtered to the Reserve team who won the 2014/15 F J Pope Cup after a thrilling 6-5 victory against Mushet And Coalway Reserves at Ellwood, the game was watched buy around 200-300 people who witnessed a truly pulsating afternoons game of football. Geograph - photos of the Redbrook area Redbrook Village website
27.
Site of Special Scientific Interest
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The acronym SSSI is often pronounced triple-S I. Sites notified for their biological interest are known as Biological SSSI/ASSIs, SSSI/ASSIs may be divided into management units, with some areas including units that are noted for both biological and geological interest. Biological SSSI/ASSIs may be selected for reasons, which for Great Britain is governed by published SSSI Selection Guidelines. Within each area, a series of the best examples of each significant natural habitat may be notified. Sites of particular significance for various groups may be selected —each of these groups has its own set of selection guidelines. In Scotland, the authority is Scottish Natural Heritage, the role in Wales is performed by Natural Resources Wales. In the Isle of Man the role is performed by the Department of Environment, Food, Geological SSSI/ASSIs are selected by a different mechanism to biological ones, with a minimalistic system selecting one site for each geological feature in Great Britain. Each of these sites is described, with most published in the Geological Conservation Review series, almost all GCR sites are subsequently notified as geological SSSIs, except some that coincide with designated biological SSSI management units. If the exposure becomes obscured, the feature could in principle be re-exposed elsewhere, Conservation of these sites usually concentrates on maintenance of access for future study. These are features which are limited in extent or physically delicate—for example, they include small lenses of sediment, mine tailings, caves, if such features become damaged they cannot be recreated, and conservation usually involves protecting the feature from erosion or other damage. Following devolution, legal arrangements for SSSIs and ASSIs differ between the countries of the UK, the Isle of Man ASSI system is a separate entity. Scottish Natural Heritage publishes a summary of the SSSI arrangements for SSSI owners and occupiers which can be downloaded from the SNH website, legal documents for all SSSIs in Scotland are available on the SSSI Register, hosted by The Registers of Scotland. Further information about SSSIs in Scotland is available on the SNH website, SSSIs are also covered under the Water Resources Act 1991 and related legislation. An SSSI may be made on any area of land which is considered to be of special interest by virtue of its fauna, flora, SSSI notification can cover any land within the area of the relevant nature conservation body, including dry land, land covered by freshwater. The extent to which an SSSI/ASSI may extend seawards differs between countries, in England, Natural England may notify an SSSI over estuarial waters and further adjacent waters in certain circumstances. Access on to SSSIs is the same as for the rest of the countryside of the relevant country, most SSSIs/ASSIs are in private ownership and form parts of working farms, forests and estates. In Scotland, people may use their rights of access to visit SSSIs. When creating a new SSSI/ASSI the designation hs legal effect from the date of notification. g, in Scotland, Scottish Natural Heritage must also notify the relevant community councils and community group having registered an interest in the land. )
28.
Grid reference
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Grid references define locations on maps using Cartesian coordinates. Grid lines on maps define the system, and are numbered to provide a unique reference to features. Grid systems vary, but the most common is a grid with grid lines intersecting each other at right angles. The grid numbers on the east-west axis are called Eastings, numerical grid references consist of an even number of digits. Thus in a 6 digit grid reference 123456, the Easting component is 123, grids may be arbitrary, or can be based on specific distances, for example some maps use a one-kilometre square grid spacing. A grid reference locates a unique square region on the map, the precision of location varies, for example a simple town plan may use a simple grid system with single letters for Eastings and single numbers for Northings. A grid reference in this system, such as H3, locates a particular square rather than a single point and these points can then be located by someone else using grid references, even if using maps of a different scale. In the Universal Transverse Mercator system, grid reference is given by three numbers, zone, easting and northing, in the UTM system, the earth is divided into 60 zones. Northing values are given by the north, or south of the equator. Easting values are established as the distance from the meridian of a zone. The central meridian is arbitrarily set at 500,000 metres, a position 100 kilometres west of a central meridian would have an easting of 400,000 metres. Due to its popularity, and worldwide cover, the UTM system is used worldwide by NATO as well as countries, including Australia. In the United Kingdom, a grid system is used. Since the Eastings and Northings are one kilometre apart, a combination of a Northing, the convention is the grid reference numbers call out the lower-left corner of the desired square. In the example map below, the town Little Plumpton lies in the square 6901, even though the writing which labels the town is in 6802 and 6902, the more digits added to a grid reference, the more precise the reference becomes. To locate a specific building in Little Plumpton, a further two digits are added to the reference to create a six-digit reference. The extra two digits describe a position within the 1-kilometre square, imagine a further 10x10 grid within the current grid square. Any of the 100 squares in the superimposed 10×10 grid can be described using a digit from 0 to 9
29.
SSSI notification
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The acronym SSSI is often pronounced triple-S I. Sites notified for their biological interest are known as Biological SSSI/ASSIs, SSSI/ASSIs may be divided into management units, with some areas including units that are noted for both biological and geological interest. Biological SSSI/ASSIs may be selected for reasons, which for Great Britain is governed by published SSSI Selection Guidelines. Within each area, a series of the best examples of each significant natural habitat may be notified. Sites of particular significance for various groups may be selected —each of these groups has its own set of selection guidelines. In Scotland, the authority is Scottish Natural Heritage, the role in Wales is performed by Natural Resources Wales. In the Isle of Man the role is performed by the Department of Environment, Food, Geological SSSI/ASSIs are selected by a different mechanism to biological ones, with a minimalistic system selecting one site for each geological feature in Great Britain. Each of these sites is described, with most published in the Geological Conservation Review series, almost all GCR sites are subsequently notified as geological SSSIs, except some that coincide with designated biological SSSI management units. If the exposure becomes obscured, the feature could in principle be re-exposed elsewhere, Conservation of these sites usually concentrates on maintenance of access for future study. These are features which are limited in extent or physically delicate—for example, they include small lenses of sediment, mine tailings, caves, if such features become damaged they cannot be recreated, and conservation usually involves protecting the feature from erosion or other damage. Following devolution, legal arrangements for SSSIs and ASSIs differ between the countries of the UK, the Isle of Man ASSI system is a separate entity. Scottish Natural Heritage publishes a summary of the SSSI arrangements for SSSI owners and occupiers which can be downloaded from the SNH website, legal documents for all SSSIs in Scotland are available on the SSSI Register, hosted by The Registers of Scotland. Further information about SSSIs in Scotland is available on the SNH website, SSSIs are also covered under the Water Resources Act 1991 and related legislation. An SSSI may be made on any area of land which is considered to be of special interest by virtue of its fauna, flora, SSSI notification can cover any land within the area of the relevant nature conservation body, including dry land, land covered by freshwater. The extent to which an SSSI/ASSI may extend seawards differs between countries, in England, Natural England may notify an SSSI over estuarial waters and further adjacent waters in certain circumstances. Access on to SSSIs is the same as for the rest of the countryside of the relevant country, most SSSIs/ASSIs are in private ownership and form parts of working farms, forests and estates. In Scotland, people may use their rights of access to visit SSSIs. When creating a new SSSI/ASSI the designation hs legal effect from the date of notification. g, in Scotland, Scottish Natural Heritage must also notify the relevant community councils and community group having registered an interest in the land. )
30.
Natural England
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Natural England is a non-departmental public body in the United Kingdom sponsored by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. It is responsible for ensuring that Englands natural environment, including its land, flora and fauna, freshwater and marine environments, geology and it also has a responsibility to help people enjoy, understand and access the natural environment. It has been criticised recently for ignoring scientific data and granting extended badger cull licences to DEFRA. Natural Englands latest corporate plan sets out its goals and detailed objectives and it is responsible for the delivery of some of Defras public service agreements. Natural England takes its finance, human resources and estates services from the Defra Shared Services organisation, information technology services are outsourced to IBM. Natural England joined the 10,10 project in 2009 in a bid to reduce its own carbon footprint, one year later they announced that they had reduced their carbon emissions by 13%. In 2008, Sir Martin Doughty, the chairman of Natural England warned the Prime Minister of the danger of genetically modified crops. In May 2008, Natural England published a report, State of the Natural Environment, the report was intended to be used by environmental organisations as a benchmark and source for policy development. These projects increased levels of activity and peoples connections to their local green spaces. However, it was not clear whether these projects really changed peoples long-term attitudes, Natural England is promoting the concept of green infrastructure as a way to deliver a wide range of benefits for people and the natural environment together. Natural England was challenged in High Court in 2006 by Peter Boggis, Natural England lost the case in 2009, when Mr. Justice Blair, the brother of the former Prime Minister, ruled that Mr. Boggis human predicament was more important than the sites SSSI status. Natural England won the subsequent appeal in October 2009
31.
Powys
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Powys is a principal area, local-government county and preserved county in Mid Wales. It is named after the successor Kingdom of Powys, which formed after the Romans withdrew from Britain, see the list of places in Powys for all towns and villages in Powys. Most of Powys is mountainous, with north-south transport being difficult, the majority of the Powys population lives in villages and small towns. The largest towns are Newtown, Ystradgynlais, Brecon, and Welshpool with populations of 12,783,9,004,7,901 and 6,269 respectively, Powys has the lowest population density of all the principal areas of Wales. Radnorshire was almost completely Anglicised by the end of the 18th century, the 2001 census records show 21% of the population of Powys were able to speak Welsh at that time, the same as for Wales as a whole. The uplands retain evidence of occupation from long before the Kingdom of Powys, and before the Romans, there are 1130 identified burial mounds within the county, of varying styles and ages, dating from 4000BC to 1000BC, most of them belonging to the Bronze Age. Of these,339 are Scheduled Monuments, standing stones, most again dating to the Bronze Age, also occur in large numbers,276 being found across the county, of which 92 are scheduled. From the Iron Age, the county has 90 scheduled Hill forts, the gold in the county coat of arms symbolises the wealth of the area. Black is for both mining and the Black Mountains, the fountain is a medieval heraldic charge displayed as a roundel barry wavy Argent and Azure. It represents water, and refers to both the water catchment area and the rivers and lakes, thus, the arms contain references to the hills and mountains, rivers and lakes, water supply and industry. The crest continues the colouring of the arms, a tower has been used in preference to a mural crown, which alludes to the countys military history and remains. From the tower rises a red kite, a bird almost extinct elsewhere in Britain, the bird is semy of black lozenges for the former coal mining industry while the golden fleece it carries is a reference to the importance of sheep rearing in Powys. The county motto is, Powys – the paradise of Wales, on 1 April 1996, the districts were abolished, and Powys was reconstituted as a unitary authority, with a minor border adjustment in the north-east. The first Lord Lieutenant of Powys was previously the Lord Lieutenant of Montgomeryshire, the Lord Lieutenant of Brecknockshire and Lord Lieutenant of Radnorshire were appointed as Lieutenants. The present Lord Lieutenant is The Hon. Mrs Elizabeth Shân Legge-Bourke LVO of Crickhowell, in December 2007 Powys was awarded Fairtrade County status by the Fairtrade Foundation. Recent research suggests that Powys is the happiest place in the UK, although the researchers noted that the numbers were not statistically significant
32.
Upper Wye Gorge
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Upper Wye Gorge is a Site of Special Scientific Interest, noted for its biological and geological characteristics, around Symonds Yat in the Upper Wye Valley on the Wales–England border. The site is listed in the Forest of Dean Local Plan Review as a Key Wildlife Site. The 245. 1-hectare SSSI, of which 192 hectares are in England and 53.1 hectares are in Wales and it lies within the civil parishes of Goodrich and Whitchurch in Herefordshire, English Bicknor in Gloucestershire and within the community of Monmouth in Monmouthshire. The majority of the site is owned and managed by the Forestry Commission and it contains part of Lady Park Wood, a National Nature Reserve in Wales, as well as King Arthurs Cave. Part of Lady Park Wood NNR is in England and a part is in Wales. The SSSI falls within the Wye Valley Woodlands/ Coetiroedd Dyffryn Gwy Special Area of Conservation under the EU Habitats Directive, the gorge is formed out of old red sandstone and carboniferous limestone, on top of which are a large variety of soils. These soils are alkaline, but there are areas which have acidic surface layers. A series of caves on the northern, English, side of the gorge is of importance for their Pleistocene mammal remains. The oldest deposits include those from lion, red deer, reindeer, spotted hyena, woolly mammoth, later deposits from colder periods include lemming and steppe pika. This provides evidence that humans had occupied the caves during this period, due to the range of soils across the site, ten different types of woodland have been discovered to exist. Of particular interest are trees of the nationally rare large-leaved lime, as well as species, English whitebeam, grey-leaved whitebeam, rock whitebeam. The dominant tree species within the gorge are ash, common beech, Cornish oak, English oak, mid-level flora includes hazel, field maple, small-leaved lime and wych elm. Ground-layer plants are dominated by bilberry, bramble, common bracken, dogs mercury, false brome, scarce and locally uncommon plants that are found in the gorge are narrow-leaved bittercress, stinking hellebore, wood barley and wood fescue. Grassland areas on the site contain the uncommon bloody cranes-bill as well as the nationally scarce species, dwarf sedge, fingered sedge. A wide variety of mammals populate the gorge, including badgers, the caves in the gorge provide a winter roost for greater horseshoe bats and lesser horseshoe bats. Birds that use the woodlands in the SSSI include buzzard, nuthatch, peregrine falcon, pied flycatcher, raven, tawny owl and the wood warbler. Insects species found on the site include a fly and a wasp, which are nationally rare, as well as uncommon butterflies, wood white, pearl-bordered fritillary. Lower Wye Gorge SSSI Wye Valley AONB Natural England Forestry Commission Herefordshire Nature Trust
33.
Lower Wye Gorge SSSI
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Lower Wye Gorge is a 65-hectare biological and geological Site of Special Scientific Interest in Gloucestershire, notified in 1954 and renotified 1987. The site includes two Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust nature reserves being Ban-y-gor Wood and Lancaut, the Natural England citation states a revision for Lancaut inclusion. The site is listed in the Forest of Dean Local Plan Review as a Key Wildlife Site, Wye Valley Woodlands/ Coetiroedd Dyffryn Gwy are recognised as a Special Area of Conservation under the EU Habitats Directive. The Lower Wye valley Gorge is in the Wye Valley Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, the woodlands of the lower Wye Valley are one of the most important areas for woodland conservation in the United Kingdom. This is an area of woodland which is continuous along the gorge sides. The woods are a mixture of types which are considered to be similar to the original natural woods of the valley. Rare and local species are present, there are two units of assessment. Unit 1 is a 26-hectare site and includes Ban-y-gor Wood nature reserve, unit 2 is a 39-hectare site and includes Lancaut nature reserve. Wintours Leap is part of the Lancaut nature reserve, Lancaut reserve is a 24-hectare site and lies on the east bank of the Wye Gorge, north of Chepstow. The gorge is formed from massive Lower Carboniferous limestones and sandstones and rises 250 ft above the tidal River Wye, the reserve is made up of Lancaut Wood, Pen Moel and Chapelhouse Woods, disused quarries, limestone cliffs, and saltmarsh. It is one of the few sites in the United Kingdom showing the transition from saltmarsh to valley woodland. It became a Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust reserve in 1971, there is a public footpath which runs through the woods from the ruins of Lancaut Chapel to below Pen Moel, which returns by Offas Dyke Path. The steep slopes and historic quarrying of limestone for agriculture and construction, trees include pedunculate oak, ash, field maple, yew, small-leaved lime, wild service-tree, wayfaring tree and rare whitebeams. The ground flora includes ferns and a display of primrose, bluebell, dog-violet, wood anemone. Also recorded are green hellebore, birds nest orchid and fingered sedge, wild flowers grow on the open rock faces, cliff ledges and in the quarries. These include hairy violet, yellow-wort, lesser calamint, oxeye daisy, red valerian, the flora of the saltmarsh includes sea aster, English scurvy-grass, sea milkwort and bucks-horn plantain. There are a variety of lichens and mosses, lancauts cliffs, which are south-facing, are regular nesting sites for peregrine falcons and ravens. Sparrowhawk, goshawk, kestrel, cormorant, heron, shelduck, wood warbler, lapwing, invasive Sycamore is controlled and scrub removed from limestone scree areas to promote a grassland flora
34.
Special Area of Conservation
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A Special Area of Conservation is defined in the European Unions Habitats Directive, also known as the Directive on the Conservation of Natural Habitats and of Wild Fauna and Flora. They must be chosen from the Sites of Community Importance by the State Members, sACs complement Special Protection Areas and together form a network of protected sites across the European Union called Natura 2000. This, in turn, is part of the Emerald network of Areas of Special Conservation Interest under the Berne Convention, prior to being designated as a Special Area of Conservation, sites are assessed under a two-stage process set out by the Joint Nature Conservation Committee. The value of the site is considered in relation to the whole national resource of each habitat type. Firstly, assessment of the importance of sites containing examples of the individual habitat types. This stage is often referred to as moderation. The criteria used in Stage 2 are intended to be used to assess the sites at the level of the nine biogeographical regions and the EU as a whole
35.
Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981
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The Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 is an Act of Parliament in the United Kingdom implemented to comply with European Council Directive 2009/147/EC on the conservation of wild birds. The Act is split into 4 parts covering 74 sections, it also includes 17 schedules, the legislation has strength, few amendments have been made to it, and it has acted as a foundation for later legislation to build upon. The compulsory 5 year review of schedules 5 and 8 make it dynamic in terms of the species which it protects. The Wild Birds Protection Act 1902 was an Act of Parliament of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, given the royal assent on 22 July 1902, the Act was repealed and replaced by the Protection of Birds Act 1954. Bird Sanctuary Orders under this Act were replaced by Areas of Special Protection under the Wildlife, the 1979 Bern Convention on the Conservation of European Wildlife and Natural Habitats covered the natural heritage of Europe, as well as in some African countries. It encouraged European co-operation in protecting natural habitats, and the conservation of flora and fauna, including migratory species, the convention became open for signature on 19 September 1979 as a binding international legal instrument, it came into force on 1 June 1982. The UK ratified the convention and adopted the European Directive on the Conservation of Wild Birds, European Directive 79/409/EC on the Conservation of Wild Birds was adopted on 2 April 1979. The main provisions included, protection of species, classification of Special Protection Areas, protection for all wild birds. From 1981 several acts have passed as UK legislation to comply with the European Directive on the Conservation, the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 strengthened protection of SSSIs introduced by the National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act 1949. The pre-dated acts, Protection of Birds Acts of 1954,1964 and 1967 Conservation of Wild Creatures and Wild Plants Act 1975 were repealed by the passing of the Wildlife, 1982- The Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 was implemented. 1985- The UK ratified the Bonn Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals, adopted in Bonn, Germany in 1979 and coming into force in 1985, the Bonn Convention worked to conserve migratory species and their habitats. Listed in Appendix I are species which are endangered, Appendix II contains species which would benefit from international cooperation, Appendix 1 migratory species listed in the convention were amended into the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981. Part II includes sections 28 to 52 of the Act, building on the National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act 1949 which required local authorities to draw up maps defining public rights of way. An up-to-date map act as evidence that the public has right of way in relevant way, footpath- allows the public to use highway on foot. Bridleway- allows the public to use highway on foot, leading a horse or riding a horse, relevant conservation body- Natural England or Countryside Council for Wales The Act contains 17 schedules. Schedules 1 to 10 relate to powers under the Wildlife part of the Act, schedule 1 lists over forty species of birds that are protected by special penalties. Schedule 2 lists Huntable birds and their close seasons, there have been a few simple amendments to the Wildlife and Countryside Act, such as word changes, increase in fines, etc. Every 5 years the JNCC coordinates a compulsory review of schedules 5 and 8 to add new species that may need protection, a secretary of state can add or remove species at any time
36.
Salmonidae
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Salmonidae is a family of ray-finned fish, the only living family currently placed in the order Salmoniformes. It includes salmon, trout, chars, freshwater whitefishes, and graylings, the Atlantic salmon and trout of the genus Salmo give the family and order their names. Salmonids have a primitive appearance among the teleost fish, with the pelvic fins being placed far back. They are slender fish, with rounded scales and forked tails and their mouths contain a single row of sharp teeth. Although the smallest species is just 13 cm long as an adult, most are much larger, all salmonids spawn in fresh water, but in many cases, the fish spend most of their lives at sea, returning to the rivers only to reproduce. This lifecycle is described as anadromous and they are predators, feeding on small crustaceans, aquatic insects, and smaller fish. Current salmonids comprise three lineages, taxonomically treated as subfamilies, whitefish, graylings, and the char, trout, generally, all three lineages are accepted to allocate a suite of derived traits indicating a monophyletic group. This genus shares traits found in the Salmoninae, whitefish, hence, E. driftwoodensis is an archaic salmonid, representing an important stage in salmonid evolution. A gap appears in the fossil record after E. driftwoodensis until about seven million years ago, in the late Miocene. Several of these appear to be Oncorhynchus—the current genus for Pacific salmon. Consequently, the split between Oncorhynchus and Salmo must have occurred well before the Pliocene, suggestions have gone back as far as the early Miocene. Based on the most current evidence, salmonids diverged from the rest of teleost fish no later than 88 million years ago and this divergence was marked by a whole-genome duplication event in the ancestral salmonid, where the diploid ancestor became tetraploid. Extant salmonids all show evidence of partial tetraploidy, as show the genome has undergone selection to regain a diploid state. Work done in the trout has shown that the genome is still partially-tetraploid. This pattern of partial tetraploidy is thought to be reflected in the rest of extant salmonids, the first fossil species representing a true salmonid fish does not appear until the middle Eocene. This fossil is also younger than the proposed salmonid divergence from the rest of the teleost fishes. This means that the salmonids have a ghost lineage of approximately 33 million years and this more precise dating and examination of the salmonid whole-genome duplication event has allowed more speculation on the radiation of species within the group. Historically, the duplication event was thought to be the reason for the variation within Salmonidae
37.
Pollution
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Pollution is the introduction of contaminants into the natural environment that cause adverse change. Pollution can take the form of chemical substances or energy, such as noise, pollutants, the components of pollution, can be either foreign substances/energies or naturally occurring contaminants. Pollution is often classed as point source or nonpoint source pollution, Air pollution has always accompanied civilizations. Pollution started from prehistoric times when man created the first fires, metal forging appears to be a key turning point in the creation of significant air pollution levels outside the home. The burning of coal and wood, and the presence of horses in concentrated areas made the cities the cesspools of pollution. The Industrial Revolution brought an infusion of untreated chemicals and wastes into local streams that served as the water supply, king Edward I of England banned the burning of sea-coal by proclamation in London in 1272, after its smoke became a problem. But the fuel was so common in England that this earliest of names for it was acquired because it could be carted away from some shores by the wheelbarrow and it was the industrial revolution that gave birth to environmental pollution as we know it today. London also recorded one of the extreme cases of water quality problems with the Great Stink on the Thames of 1858. Pollution issues escalated as population growth far exceeded view ability of neighborhoods to handle their waste problem, reformers began to demand sewer systems, and clean water. In 1870, the conditions in Berlin were among the worst in Europe. There were no toilets in the streets or squares. Visitors, especially women, often became desperate when nature called, in the public buildings the sanitary facilities were unbelievably primitive. As a metropolis, Berlin did not emerge from a state of barbarism into civilization until after 1870. Chicago and Cincinnati were the first two American cities to enact laws ensuring cleaner air in 1881, as historian Martin Melosi notes, The generation that first saw automobiles replacing the horses saw cars as miracles of cleanliness. By the 1940s, however, automobile-caused smog was an issue in Los Angeles. Other cities followed around the country early in the 20th century. Extreme smog events were experienced by the cities of Los Angeles and Donora, Pennsylvania in the late 1940s, Air pollution would continue to be a problem in England, especially later during the industrial revolution, and extending into the recent past with the Great Smog of 1952. Awareness of atmospheric pollution spread widely after World War II, with fears triggered by reports of fallout from atomic warfare. Then a non-nuclear event, The Great Smog of 1952 in London and this prompted some of the first major modern environmental legislation, The Clean Air Act of 1956
38.
Salmon
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Salmon /ˈsæmən/ is the common name for several species of ray-finned fish in the family Salmonidae. Other fish in the family include trout, char, grayling. Salmon are native to tributaries of the North Atlantic and Pacific Ocean, many species of salmon have been introduced into non-native environments such as the Great Lakes of North America and Patagonia in South America. Salmon are intensively farmed in parts of the world. Typically, salmon are anadromous, they are born in water, migrate to the ocean. However, populations of species are restricted to fresh water through their lives. Various species of salmon display anadromous life strategies while others display freshwater resident life strategies, folklore has it that the fish return to the exact spot where they were born to spawn, tracking studies have shown this to be mostly true. A portion of a salmon run may stray and spawn in different freshwater systems. The percent of straying depends on the species of salmon, homing behavior has been shown to depend on olfactory memory. The term salmon comes from the Latin salmo, which in turn may have originated from salire, the nine commercially important species of salmon occur in two genera. The genus Salmo contains the Atlantic salmon, found in the north Atlantic, the genus Oncorhynchus contains eight species which occur naturally only in the North Pacific. As a group, these are known as Pacific salmon, Chinook salmon have been introduced in New Zealand and Patagonia. Coho, freshwater sockeye, and Atlantic salmon have established in Patagonia. † Both the Salmo and Oncorhynchus genera also contain a number of species referred to as trout, within Salmo, additional minor taxa have been called salmon in English, i. e. the Adriatic salmon and Black Sea salmon. The steelhead anadromous form of the rainbow trout migrates to sea, also a number of other species have common names which refer to them as being salmon. The British Columbia salmon fossil provides evidence that the divergence between Pacific and Atlantic salmon had not yet occurred 40 million years ago, Both the fossil record and analysis of mitochondrial DNA suggest the divergence occurred by 10 to 20 million years ago. This independent evidence from DNA analysis and the fossil record rejects the theory of salmon divergence. Atlantic salmon reproduce in northern rivers on both coasts of the Atlantic Ocean, landlocked salmon live in a number of lakes in eastern North America and in Northern Europe, for instance in lakes Sebago, Onega, Ladoga, Saimaa, Vänern, and Winnipesaukee
39.
Scotland
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Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and covers the northern third of the island of Great Britain. It shares a border with England to the south, and is surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, with the North Sea to the east. In addition to the mainland, the country is made up of more than 790 islands, including the Northern Isles, the Kingdom of Scotland emerged as an independent sovereign state in the Early Middle Ages and continued to exist until 1707. By inheritance in 1603, James VI, King of Scots, became King of England and King of Ireland, Scotland subsequently entered into a political union with the Kingdom of England on 1 May 1707 to create the new Kingdom of Great Britain. The union also created a new Parliament of Great Britain, which succeeded both the Parliament of Scotland and the Parliament of England. Within Scotland, the monarchy of the United Kingdom has continued to use a variety of styles, titles, the legal system within Scotland has also remained separate from those of England and Wales and Northern Ireland, Scotland constitutes a distinct jurisdiction in both public and private law. Glasgow, Scotlands largest city, was one of the worlds leading industrial cities. Other major urban areas are Aberdeen and Dundee, Scottish waters consist of a large sector of the North Atlantic and the North Sea, containing the largest oil reserves in the European Union. This has given Aberdeen, the third-largest city in Scotland, the title of Europes oil capital, following a referendum in 1997, a Scottish Parliament was re-established, in the form of a devolved unicameral legislature comprising 129 members, having authority over many areas of domestic policy. Scotland is represented in the UK Parliament by 59 MPs and in the European Parliament by 6 MEPs, Scotland is also a member nation of the British–Irish Council, and the British–Irish Parliamentary Assembly. Scotland comes from Scoti, the Latin name for the Gaels, the Late Latin word Scotia was initially used to refer to Ireland. By the 11th century at the latest, Scotia was being used to refer to Scotland north of the River Forth, alongside Albania or Albany, the use of the words Scots and Scotland to encompass all of what is now Scotland became common in the Late Middle Ages. Repeated glaciations, which covered the land mass of modern Scotland. It is believed the first post-glacial groups of hunter-gatherers arrived in Scotland around 12,800 years ago, the groups of settlers began building the first known permanent houses on Scottish soil around 9,500 years ago, and the first villages around 6,000 years ago. The well-preserved village of Skara Brae on the mainland of Orkney dates from this period and it contains the remains of an early Bronze Age ruler laid out on white quartz pebbles and birch bark. It was also discovered for the first time that early Bronze Age people placed flowers in their graves, in the winter of 1850, a severe storm hit Scotland, causing widespread damage and over 200 deaths. In the Bay of Skaill, the storm stripped the earth from a large irregular knoll, when the storm cleared, local villagers found the outline of a village, consisting of a number of small houses without roofs. William Watt of Skaill, the laird, began an amateur excavation of the site, but after uncovering four houses
40.
River Tyne
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The River Tyne /ˈtaɪn/ is a river in North East England and its length is 73 miles. It is formed by the confluence of two rivers, the North Tyne and the South Tyne and these two rivers converge at Warden Rock near Hexham in Northumberland at a place dubbed The Meeting of the Waters. The North Tyne rises on the Scottish border, north of Kielder Water and it flows through Kielder Forest, and passes through the village of Bellingham before reaching Hexham. The South Tyne rises on Alston Moor, Cumbria and flows through the towns of Haltwhistle and Haydon Bridge, hadrians Wall lies to the north of the Tyne Gap. Coincidentally the source of the South Tyne is very close to the sources of the two great rivers of the industrial north east namely the Tees and the Wear. The South Tyne Valley falls within the North Pennines Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty - the second largest of the 40 AONBs in England, to the east of Gateshead and Newcastle, the Tyne divides Hebburn and Jarrow on the south bank from Walker and Wallsend on the north bank. Jarrow and Wallsend are linked underneath the river by the Tyne Tunnel, finally it flows between South Shields and Tynemouth into the North Sea. The Tyne Rivers Trust measure the whole Tyne catchment as 2,936 square kilometres, the River Tyne is believed to be around 30 million years old. The largest coal staithes were located at Dunston in Gateshead, Hebburn and Tyne Dock, the dramatic wooden staithes at Dunston, built in 1890, have been preserved, although they were partially destroyed by fire in 2006. And to this day in 2016 Tyne Dock, South Shields is still involved with coal, the tidal river is now managed by the Port of Tyne Authority. Nothing definite is known of the origin of the designation Tyne, nor is the known by that name until the Saxon period. There is a theory that Tīn was a word that meant river in the local Celtic language or in a language spoken in England before the Celts came, there is also a river Tyne that rises in Midlothian in Scotland and flows through East Lothian into the North Sea. The River Vedra on the Roman map of Britain may be the Tyne, the late Thomas John Taylor supposed that the main course of the river anciently flowed through what is now Team Valley, its outlet into the tidal river being by a waterfall at Bill Point. His theory is not far from the truth, as there is evidence that prior to the last Ice Age, Ice diverted the course of the Wear to its current location, flowing east the course of the Tyne) and joining the North Sea at Sunderland. Sculpted by David Wynne, the bronze figure incorporates flowing water into its design. The Environment Agency is currently working with architects and cultural consultancy xsite, in collaboration with Commissions North, the Tyne Salmon Trail will serve as a celebration of the river, its heritage and its increasingly diverse ecosystem. FINS, REFLECTION and JOURNEY were the first 3 cubes to be launched in December 2007 from a family of 10, each cube is inspired by the textures, changing colours, movement and journey of the salmon. With each offering a modern day keepsake to take away, in the form of a designed Bluetooth message, for three days, between 18–20 July 2008, a temporary bamboo artwork was installed over the Tyne close to the Gateshead Millennium Bridge
41.
River Wear
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The River Wear in North East England rises in the Pennines and flows eastwards, mostly through County Durham to the North Sea in the City of Sunderland. At 60 mi long, it is one of the regions longest rivers, wends in a valley through the cathedral city of Durham and gives its name to Weardale in its upper reach. The Wear rises in the east Pennines, an upland area raised up during the Caledonian orogeny, specifically, the Weardale Granite underlies the headwaters of the Wear. Devonian Old Red Sandstone in age, this Weardale Granite does not outcrop but was surmised by early geologists and it is thought that the course of the River Wear, prior to the last Ice Age, was much as it is now as far as Chester-le-Street. This can be established as a result of boreholes, of which there have been many in the Wear valley due to coal mining, however, northwards from Chester-le-Street, the Wear may have originally followed the current route of the lower River Team. At about 14,000 years ago, retreat of the ice paused for maybe 500 years at the city of Durham and this can be established by the types of glacial deposits in the vicinity of Durham City. The confluence of the River Browney was pushed from Gilesgate, several miles south to Sunderland Bridge, the gorge cut by the river through the Permian Magnesian Limestone can be seen most clearly at Ford Quarry. In the 17th edition of Encyclopædia Britannica, reference is made to a pre-Ice Age course of the River Wear outfalling at Hartlepool and this may, in part, be due to the Pennine areas of Upper Weardale and Upper Teesdale being the site of the shrinking ice cap. The glaciation left behind many indications of its presence, including lateral moraines and material from the Lake District and Northumberland, after the Ice Age, the Wear valley became thickly forested, however during the Neolithic period and increasingly in the Bronze Age, were largely deforested for agriculture. Much of the River Wear is associated with the history of the Industrial Revolution and its upper end runs through lead mining country, until this gives way to coal seams of the Durham coalfield for the rest of its length. As a result of quarrying, lead mining and coal mining. The Weardale Railway continues to run services between Stanhope and Wolsingham. Mining of lead ore has been known in the area of the headwaters of the Wear since the Roman occupation, however, abandoned mines and their spoil heaps continue to contribute to heavy metal mineral pollution of the river and its tributaries. This has significance to fishing in times of low flow and infrastructure costs as the River Wear is an important source of drinking water for many of the inhabitants along its course. Fluorspar is another mineral sporadically co-present with Weardale Granite and became important in the manufacture of steel from the late 19th century into the 20th century, in many cases the steel industries were able to take fluorspar from old excavation heaps. Fluorspar explains why iron and steel manufacture flourished in the Wear valley, Consett, overlying are three Carboniferous minerals, limestone, Coal Measures as raw materials for iron and steel manufacture, and sandstone, useful as a refractory material. The last remaining flourspar mine closed in 1999 following legislation re water quality, a mine at Rogerley Quarry, Frosterley, is operated by an American consortium who occasionally work it for specimen minerals. Minco are currently exploring the North Pennines and the upper Wear catchment for potential reserves of zinc at lower levels and these sources were in due course depleted or became uneconomic
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Chepstow Castle
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Chepstow Castle at Chepstow, Monmouthshire, Wales is the oldest surviving post-Roman stone fortification in Britain. Located above cliffs on the River Wye, construction began in 1067 under the instruction of the Norman Lord William fitzOsbern, in the 12th century the castle was used in the conquest of Gwent, the first independent Welsh kingdom to be conquered by the Normans. It was subsequently held by two of the most powerful Anglo-Norman magnates of medieval England, William Marshal and Richard de Clare, however, by the 16th century its military importance had waned and parts of its structure were converted into domestic ranges. Although re-garrisoned during and after the English Civil War, by the 1700s it had fallen into decay, with the later growth of tourism, the castle became a popular visitor destination. The ruins were Grade I listed on 6 December 1950, Chepstow Castle is situated on a narrow ridge between the limestone river cliff and a valley, known locally as the Dell, on its landward side. Its full extent is best appreciated from the bank of the River Wye. The castle has four baileys, added in turn through its history, despite this, it is not a defensively strong castle, having neither a strong keep nor a concentric layout. The multiple baileys instead show its construction history, which is considered in four major phases. The first serious study of Chepstow began in 1904 and the canonical description was long considered to be by Perks in 1955. Recent studies have revised the details of phases, but still maintain the same broad structure. The speed with which William the Conqueror committed to the creation of a castle at Chepstow is testament to its strategic importance, the site overlooked an important crossing point on the River Wye, a major artery of communications inland to Monmouth and Hereford. However, recent analysis suggests that the rulers of Gwent, who had fought against King Harold. The precipitous limestone cliffs beside the river afforded an excellent defensive location, building work started under William FitzOsbern in 1067 or shortly afterwards. The Great Tower was probably completed by about 1090, possibly intended as a show of strength by King William in dealing with the Welsh king Rhys ap Tewdwr. It was constructed in stone from the first, marking its importance as a stronghold on the border between England and Wales. Although much of the stone seems to have been quarried locally, the castle originally had the Norman name of Striguil, derived from the Welsh word ystraigl meaning river bend. FitzOsbern also founded a priory nearby, and the market town. The castle and the associated Marcher lordship were generally known as Striguil until the late 14th century, further fortifications were added by William Marshal, Earl of Pembroke, starting in the 1190s
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Old Wye Bridge, Chepstow
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The Old Wye Bridge or Town Bridge at Chepstow crosses the River Wye between Monmouthshire in Wales and Gloucestershire in England, close to Chepstow Castle. The bridge crosses a river one of the highest tidal ranges in the world. It carried the main A48 road between Newport and Gloucester until 1988, when a new bridge was opened downstream alongside Chepstow Railway Bridge. The road bridge now carries traffic between Chepstow and Tutshill. It is a Grade I listed building, before the Roman period, the crossing of the Wye farthest downstream was at Tintern. The Romans built a crossing some 1 kilometre upstream of the current bridge at Chepstow, there was a small hospital and chapel dedicated to St. David on the Gloucestershire side of the bridge, which was described as ruined in 1573. Some remains of the Roman bridge were revealed in 1911 by Dr. Orville Owen during his excavations in the river bed, after the Normans established a castle at Chepstow, a wooden bridge was constructed across the river at or close to its current site. The first records of a bridge at Chepstow date from 1228, the wooden bridge is known to have been replaced several times. Rebuilding was made difficult by the range, requiring ten 40-foot foot high timber piers. Neglect continued, however, and in 1605 it was said that the bridge was broken, fallen down. Whereby the said Passage and Highway is utterly taken away, under new legislation that year it was agreed that the bridge be maintained by a special bridge money tax levied on the residents of the two counties. For the next two centuries each county appointed a surveyor responsible for either end of the bridge, apart from one stone pier in the centre, the bridge was entirely built of wood. The bridge was destroyed by the Royalists during the Civil War in 1644. It was seriously damaged by storms in 1703, and again by water in 1738. William Cole wrote of the bridge in 1746 that it was the lightest in England, however, in 1785, the wooden piers on the Monmouthshire side were rebuilt as four stone arches, although the Gloucestershire half remained timber until 1815. In 1810 the bridge was declared to be in decay and dangerous, and local magistrates commissioned engineer John Rennie. The foundation stone for the new bridge was laid on 13 April 1813, in 1814 the contract to build the bridge was let to the Bridgnorth firm of Hazeldine, Rastrick & Co. at a cost of £17,850, less than half that of Rennies estimate. The bridge was designed by John Rastrick, in a style inspired by the work of Thomas Telford
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Monmouthshire
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Monmouthshire is a county in south east Wales. The name derives from the county of Monmouthshire of which it covers the eastern 60%. Other towns and large villages are Caldicot, Chepstow, Monmouth, Magor, the Laws in Wales Act 1542 again enumerated the counties of Wales and omitted Monmouthshire, implying that the county was no longer to be treated as part of Wales. However, for all purposes Wales had become part of the Kingdom of England, for several centuries, acts of the Parliament of England often referred to Wales and Monmouthshire. The use of the name Monmouthshire rather than Monmouth for the area was controversial, being supported by the MP for Monmouth, Roger Evans, by area it covers some 60% of the historic county, but only 20% of the population. A new council building at the site of Coleg Gwent. Planning permission was granted in September 2011, the new county hall in Usk was opened in 2013. co. uk BBC Wales on Monmouthshire Genuki National Gazetteer of 1868
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Gloucestershire
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Gloucestershire is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the fertile valley of the River Severn. The county town is the city of Gloucester, and other towns include Cheltenham, Cirencester, Stroud. Gloucestershire is a historic county mentioned in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle in the 10th century, though the areas of Winchcombe, Gloucestershire originally included Bristol, then a small town. The local rural community moved to the city, and Bristols population growth accelerated during the industrial revolution. Bristol became a county in its own right, separate from Gloucestershire and it later became part of the administrative County of Avon from 1974 to 1996. Upon the abolition of Avon in 1996, the north of Bristol became a unitary authority area of South Gloucestershire and is now part of the ceremonial county of Gloucestershire. The official former postal county abbreviation was Glos, rather than the frequently used but erroneous Gloucs. or Glouc. In July 2007, Gloucestershire suffered the worst flooding in recorded British history, the RAF conducted the largest peace time domestic operation in its history to rescue over 120 residents from flood affected areas. The damage was estimated at over £2 billion, the county recovered rapidly from the disaster, investing in attracting tourists to visit the many sites and diverse range of shops in the area. This is a chart of trend of gross value added of Gloucestershire at current basic prices published by Office for National Statistics with figures in millions of British Pounds Sterling. Gloucestershire has mainly comprehensive schools with seven schools, two are in Stroud, one in Cheltenham and four in Gloucester. There are 42 state secondary schools, not including sixth form colleges, all but about two schools in each district have a sixth form, but the Forest of Dean only has two schools with sixth forms. All schools in South Gloucestershire have sixth forms, each has campuses at multiple locations throughout the county. Most of the old market towns have parish churches, at Deerhurst near Tewkesbury, and Bishops Cleeve near Cheltenham, there are churches of special interest on account of the pre-Norman work they retain. These are, however, adjudged to be of English workmanship, other notable buildings include Calcot Barn in Calcot, a relic of Kingswood Abbey. Thornbury Castle is a Tudor country house, the pretensions of which evoked the jealousy of Cardinal Wolsey against its builder, Edward Stafford, duke of Buckingham, near Cheltenham is the 15th-century mansion of Southam de la Bere, of timber and stone. Memorials of the de la Bere family appear in the church at Cleeve, the mansion contains a tiled floor from Hailes Abbey
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Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Wye". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "
