1.
European Parliament
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The European Parliament is the directly elected parliamentary institution of the European Union. Together with the Council of the European Union and the European Commission, the Parliament is composed of 751 members, who represent the second-largest democratic electorate in the world and the largest trans-national democratic electorate in the world. It has been elected every five years by universal suffrage since 1979. However, voter turnout at European Parliament elections has fallen consecutively at each election since that date, voter turnout in 2014 stood at 42. 54% of all European voters. The Parliament is the first institution of the EU, and shares equal legislative and it likewise has equal control over the EU budget. Finally, the European Commission, the body of the EU, is accountable to Parliament. In particular, Parliament elects the President of the Commission, and it can subsequently force the Commission as a body to resign by adopting a motion of censure. The President of the European Parliament is Antonio Tajani, elected in January 2017 and he presides over a multi-party chamber, the two largest groups being the Group of the European Peoples Party and the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats. The last union-wide elections were the 2014 elections, the European Parliament has three places of work – Brussels, the city of Luxembourg and Strasbourg. Luxembourg is home to the administrative offices, meetings of the whole Parliament take place in Strasbourg and in Brussels. Committee meetings are held in Brussels, the Parliament, like the other institutions, was not designed in its current form when it first met on 10 September 1952. One of the oldest common institutions, it began as the Common Assembly of the European Coal and it was a consultative assembly of 78 appointed parliamentarians drawn from the national parliaments of member states, having no legislative powers. Its development since its foundation shows how the European Unions structures have evolved without a master plan. Some, such as Tom Reid of the Washington Post, said of the union, nobody would have designed a government as complex. Even the Parliaments two seats, which have switched several times, are a result of various agreements or lack of agreements, the body was not mentioned in the original Schuman Declaration. It was assumed or hoped that difficulties with the British would be resolved to allow the Council of Europes Assembly to perform the task, a separate Assembly was introduced during negotiations on the Treaty as an institution which would counterbalance and monitor the executive while providing democratic legitimacy. The wording of the ECSC Treaty demonstrated the desire for more than a normal consultative assembly by using the term representatives of the people. Its early importance was highlighted when the Assembly was given the task of drawing up the treaty to establish a European Political Community
2.
Wiltshire (European Parliament constituency)
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Prior to its uniform adoption of proportional representation in 1999, the United Kingdom used first-past-the-post for the European elections in England, Scotland and Wales. The European Parliament constituencies used under that system were smaller than the regional constituencies. The constituency of Wiltshire was one of them, the constituency consisted of the Westminster Parliament constituencies of Devizes, Newbury, North Wiltshire, Salisbury, Swindon, Wantage, Westbury. The constituency was represented for the whole of its existence by Caroline Jackson, at the 1994 European election, there were boundary changes. Most of Wiltshire then became part of the new Wiltshire North and Bath constituency, Wiltshire North and Bath David Boothroyds United Kingdom Election Results
3.
Counties of England
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Counties of England are areas used for the purposes of administrative, geographical, cultural or political demarcation. For administrative purposes, England outside Greater London and the Isles of Scilly is divided into 83 metropolitan and non-metropolitan counties and these counties may consist of a single district or be divided into several districts. As of April 2009,27 of these counties are divided into districts and have a county council, all of England is also divided into 48 ceremonial counties, which are also known as geographic counties. Most ceremonial counties correspond to a metropolitan or non-metropolitan county of the same name, the current arrangement is the result of incremental reform. Many of the counties have their origins in the Middle Ages, although the larger counties of Yorkshire, the geographic counties which existed before the local government reforms of 1965 and 1974 are referred to as ancient counties or historic counties. From 1889 to 1974 areas with county councils were known as administrative counties, from 1974 to 1996 the metropolitan and non-metropolitan counties, some of which were established only in 1974, corresponded directly with the ceremonial counties. For the purpose of sorting and delivering mail, England was divided into 48 postal counties until 1996, in these counties most services are provided by the county council and the district councils have a more limited role. Their areas each correspond exactly to ceremonial counties and they are Greater Manchester, Merseyside, South Yorkshire, Tyne and Wear, West Midlands and West Yorkshire. In these counties the district councils provide the majority of services, similarly, Berkshire is a non-metropolitan county with no county council and multiple districts and maps directly to a ceremonial county. Bristol, Herefordshire, Isle of Wight, Northumberland and Rutland are ceremonial counties consisting of a county of a single district. In total, there are 39 unitary authorities that do not share the names of any of the ceremonial counties, bedfordshire and Cheshire are counties that consist of a number of unitary authorities, none of which has the same name as the ceremonial county. The City of London and Greater London are anomalous as ceremonial counties that do not correspond to any metropolitan or non-metropolitan counties, large ceremonial counties often correspond to a single police force. For example, the four unitary authorities which make up Cheshire correspond to the area as the Cheshire Constabulary. Some counties are grouped together for this purpose, such as Northumberland with Tyne, in other areas a group of unitary authorities in several counties are grouped together to form police force areas, such as the Cleveland Police and Humberside Police. Greater London and the City of London each have their own forces, the Metropolitan Police Service. The fire service is operated on a basis, and the ambulance service is organised by the regions of England. Most ceremonial counties form part of a region, although Lincolnshire. Economic development is delivered using the regions, as is strategic planning, as of 2009, the largest county by area is North Yorkshire and the smallest is the City of London
4.
Flag of Wiltshire
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There are three flag designs associated with the English county of Wiltshire. Like the proposed flags of other counties, two of the three have no official status as they were not designed by the College of Arms. One of the designs, the Bustard Flag, was approved by a meeting of the Wiltshire Council on 1 December 2009, as a county flag. A banner of the arms of the former Wiltshire County Council has been available for many years. It represents the council, rather than Wiltshire as a geographical area, new green flags were created which have been flown from council buildings around the county, but these flags are not generally available to the public. The Bustard Flag was created by Mike Prior and designed by Helen Pocock and it is partly based on the flag of the Wiltshire County Council, including the alternating stripes of green and white that represent the grassy downs of the county and their chalk underlay. The colours can represent hope, joy and safety and peace, although distinct, the complicated and irregular design has been met with some criticism by flag designers and heraldists. An image of the great bustard stands at the centre of the flag and this bird had been extinct in England since 1832, but is now part of an intensive ten-year breeding programme on Salisbury Plain. Salisbury Plain, at the heart of the county, is one of two areas in Great Britain in which the great bustard originally lived. On the flag, the great bustard is depicted in gold on a solid green circle to represent the open grassland. The border of the circle, in six sections alternating green and white, represents the stone circles of Stonehenge, the six portions also represent the six surrounding counties of Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire, Berkshire, Hampshire, Dorset and Somerset. The technical specification of the flag is that it is a 3,5 ratio, although Mike Prior admits that there is no method or authority to get it accepted as the county flag of Wiltshire, that is all done by public acceptance. The flag received the support of Wiltshire County Council, and was flown at Wiltshire County Hall in Trowbridge in June 2007. The Bustard Flag was first raised in Trowbridge by Lord Bath in September 2006 and was flown by Jane Scott, leader of the former county council, at County Hall, Trowbridge. At a full meeting of the Wiltshire Council on 1 December 2009, June 2011 saw the Wiltshire Flag flown for one week above the Department of Communications government building in London. This was highly and positively publicised by Matthew Smith on BBC Wiltshire radio breakfast show, fears design incorporated the sketch of the Cherhill White Horse found in William Plenderleaths The White Horses of the West of England published in 1885. As of May 2010 the website vanished, the campaign apparently over following Wiltshire Councils adoption of the bustard design, hill figure Flag Institute registration particulars
5.
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
6.
United Kingdom
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The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom or Britain, is a sovereign country in western Europe. Lying off the north-western coast of the European mainland, the United Kingdom includes the island of Great Britain, Northern Ireland is the only part of the United Kingdom that shares a land border with another sovereign state—the Republic of Ireland. The Irish Sea lies between Great Britain and Ireland, with an area of 242,500 square kilometres, the United Kingdom is the 78th-largest sovereign state in the world and the 11th-largest in Europe. It is also the 21st-most populous country, with an estimated 65.1 million inhabitants, together, this makes it the fourth-most densely populated country in the European Union. The United Kingdom is a monarchy with a parliamentary system of governance. The monarch is Queen Elizabeth II, who has reigned since 6 February 1952, other major urban areas in the United Kingdom include the regions of Birmingham, Leeds, Glasgow, Liverpool and Manchester. The United Kingdom consists of four countries—England, Scotland, Wales, the last three have devolved administrations, each with varying powers, based in their capitals, Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast, respectively. The relationships among the countries of the UK have changed over time, Wales was annexed by the Kingdom of England under the Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542. A treaty between England and Scotland resulted in 1707 in a unified Kingdom of Great Britain, which merged in 1801 with the Kingdom of Ireland to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Five-sixths of Ireland seceded from the UK in 1922, leaving the present formulation of the United Kingdom of Great Britain, there are fourteen British Overseas Territories. These are the remnants of the British Empire which, at its height in the 1920s, British influence can be observed in the language, culture and legal systems of many of its former colonies. The United Kingdom is a country and has the worlds fifth-largest economy by nominal GDP. The UK is considered to have an economy and is categorised as very high in the Human Development Index. It was the worlds first industrialised country and the worlds foremost power during the 19th, the UK remains a great power with considerable economic, cultural, military, scientific and political influence internationally. It is a nuclear weapons state and its military expenditure ranks fourth or fifth in the world. The UK has been a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council since its first session in 1946 and it has been a leading member state of the EU and its predecessor, the European Economic Community, since 1973. However, on 23 June 2016, a referendum on the UKs membership of the EU resulted in a decision to leave. The Acts of Union 1800 united the Kingdom of Great Britain, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have devolved self-government
7.
Countries of the United Kingdom
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The United Kingdom comprises four countries, England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Within the United Kingdom, a sovereign state, Northern Ireland, Scotland. England, comprising the majority of the population and area of the United Kingdom, England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales are not themselves listed in the International Organization for Standardization list of countries. However the ISO list of the subdivisions of the UK, compiled by British Standards, Northern Ireland, in contrast, is described as a province in the same lists. Each has separate governing bodies for sports and compete separately in many international sporting competitions. Northern Ireland also forms joint All-Island sporting bodies with the Republic of Ireland for most sports, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man are dependencies of the Crown and are not part of the UK. Similarly, the British overseas territories, remnants of the British Empire, are not part of the UK, southern Ireland left the United Kingdom under the Irish Free State Constitution Act 1922. * Figures for GVA do not include oil and gas revenues generated beyond the UKs territorial waters, various terms have been used to describe England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. Wales was described as the country, principality, and dominion of Wales, outside Wales, England was not given a specific name or term. The Laws in Wales Acts have subsequently been repealed, the Acts of Union 1707 refer to both England and Scotland as a part of a united kingdom of Great Britain The Acts of Union 1800 use part in the same way to refer to England and Scotland. The Northern Ireland Act 1998, which repealed the Government of Ireland Act 1920, the Interpretation Act 1978 provides statutory definitions of the terms England, Wales and the United Kingdom, but neither that Act nor any other current statute defines Scotland or Northern Ireland. Use of the first three terms in other legislation is interpreted following the definitions in the 1978 Act and this definition applies from 1 April 1974. United Kingdom means Great Britain and Northern Ireland and this definition applies from 12 April 1927. In 1996 these 8 new counties were redistributed into the current 22 unitary authorities, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are regions in their own right while England has been divided into nine regions. The official term rest of the UK is used in Scotland, for example in export statistics and this term is also used in the context of potential Scottish independence to mean the UK without Scotland. The alternative term Home Nations is sometimes used in sporting contexts, the second, or civic group, contained the items about feeling British, respecting laws and institutions, speaking English, and having British citizenship. Contrariwise, in Scotland and Wales there was a much stronger identification with each country than with Britain, studies and surveys have reported that the majority of the Scots and Welsh see themselves as both Scottish/Welsh and British though with some differences in emphasis. The propensity for nationalistic feeling varies greatly across the UK, and can rise and it reported that 37% of people identified as British, whilst 29% identified as Irish and 24% identified as Northern Irish
8.
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
9.
Regions of England
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The regions are the highest tier of sub-national division in England. Between 1994 and 2011, nine regions had officially devolved functions within Government, while they no longer fulfil this role, they continue to be used for statistical and some administrative purposes. They define areas for the purposes of elections to the European Parliament, Eurostat also uses them to demarcate first level Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics regions within the European Union. The regions generally follow the boundaries of the former standard regions, the London region has a directly elected Mayor and Assembly. Six regions have local authority leaders boards to assist with correlating the headline policies of local authorities, the remaining two regions no longer have any administrative functions, having abolished their regional local authority leaders boards. In 1998, regional chambers were established in the eight regions outside of London, the regions also had an associated Government Office with some responsibility for coordinating policy, and, from 2007, a part-time regional minister within the Government. House of Commons regional Select Committees were established in 2009, Regional ministers were not reappointed by the incoming Coalition Government, and the Government Offices were abolished in 2011. Regional development agencies were public bodies established in all nine regions in 1998 to promote economic development and they had certain delegated functions, including administering European Union regional development funds, and received funding the central government as well. After about 500 AD, England comprised seven Anglo-Saxon territories – Northumbria, Mercia, East Anglia, Essex, Kent, the boundaries of some of these, which later unified as the Kingdom of England, roughly coincide with those of modern regions. During Oliver Cromwells Protectorate in the 1650s, the rule of the Major-Generals created 10 regions in England, proposals for administrative regions within England were mooted by the British government prior to the First World War. In 1912 the Third Home Rule Bill was passing through parliament, the Bill was expected to introduce a devolved parliament for Ireland, and as a consequence calls were made for similar structures to be introduced in Great Britain or Home Rule All Round. On 12 September the First Lord of the Admiralty, Winston Churchill, within England, he suggested that London, Lancashire, Yorkshire, and the Midlands would make natural regions. While the creation of regional parliaments never became official policy, it was for a widely anticipated. In 1946 nine standard regions were set up, in central government bodies, statutory undertakings. However, these had declined in importance by the late 1950s, creation of some form of provinces or regions for England was an intermittent theme of post-Second World War British governments. The Redcliffe-Maud Report proposed the creation of eight provinces in England, one-fifth of the advisory councils would be nominees from central government. The boundaries suggested were the eight now existing for economic planning purposes, a minority report by Lord Crowther-Hunt and Alan T. Peacock suggested instead seven regional assemblies and governments within Great Britain, some elements of regional development and economic planning began to be established in England from the mid-1960s onwards
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South West England
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South West England is one of nine official regions of England. It is the largest in area, covering 9,200 square miles, five million people live in South West England. The region includes the West Country and much of the ancient kingdom of Wessex, other major urban centres include Plymouth, Swindon, Gloucester, Cheltenham, Exeter, Bath, Torbay, and the South East Dorset conurbation. There are eight cities, Salisbury, Bath, Wells, Bristol, Gloucester, Exeter, Plymouth and it includes two entire national parks, Dartmoor and Exmoor, and four World Heritage Sites, including Stonehenge and the Jurassic Coast. The northern part of Gloucestershire, near Chipping Campden, is as close to the Scottish border as it is to the tip of Cornwall, the region has by far the longest coastline in England and many seaside fishing towns. The region is at the first-level of NUTS for Eurostat purposes, key data and facts about the region are produced by the South West Observatory. Following the abolition of the South West Regional Assembly and Government Office, the region is known for its rich folklore, including the legend of King Arthur and Glastonbury Tor, as well as its traditions and customs. Cornwall has its own language, Cornish, and some regard it as a Celtic nation, the South West of England is known for Cheddar cheese, which originated in the Somerset village of Cheddar, Devon cream teas, crabs, Cornish pasties, and cider. It is also home to the Eden Project, Aardman Animations, the Glastonbury Festival, most of the region is located on the South West Peninsula, between the English Channel and Bristol Channel. It has the longest coastline of all the English regions, totalling over 700 miles, much of the coast is now protected from further substantial development because of its environmental importance, which contributes to the region’s attractiveness to tourists and residents. Geologically the region is divided into the largely igneous and metamorphic west and sedimentary east, Cornwall and West Devons landscape is of rocky coastline and high moorland, notably at Bodmin Moor and Dartmoor. These are due to the granite and slate that underlie the area, the highest point of the region is High Willhays, at 2,038 feet, on Dartmoor. In North Devon the slates of the west and limestones of the east meet at Exmoor National Park, the variety of rocks of similar ages seen here have led to the countys name being lent to that of the Devonian period. The east of the region is characterised by wide, flat clay vales and chalk, the vales, with good irrigation, are home to the regions dairy agriculture. The Blackmore Vale was Thomas Hardys Vale of the Little Dairies, another and these downs are the principal area of arable agriculture in the region. Limestone is also found in the region, at the Cotswolds, Quantock Hills and Mendip Hills, all of the principal rock types can be seen on the Jurassic Coast of Dorset and East Devon, where they document the entire Mesozoic era from west to east. The climate of South West England is classed as oceanic according to the Köppen climate classification, the oceanic climate typically experiences cool winters with warmer summers and precipitation all year round, with more experienced in winter. Annual rainfall is about 1,000 millimetres and up to 2,000 millimetres on higher ground, summer maxima averages range from 18 °C to 22 °C and winter minimum averages range from 1 °C to 4 °C across the south-west
11.
Historic counties of England
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The historic counties of England were established for administration by the Normans, in most cases based on earlier kingdoms and shires established by the Anglo-Saxons and others. They ceased to be used for administration with the creation of the counties in 1889. They are alternatively known as ancient counties or traditional counties, where they are not included among the modern counties of England they are also known as former counties. Counties were used initially for the administration of justice, collection of taxes and organisation of the military and they continue to form the basis of modern local government in many parts of the country away from the main urban areas, although sometimes with considerably altered boundaries. The name of a county often gives a clue to how it was formed, either as a division took its name from a centre of administration. The majority of English counties are in the first category, with the name formed by combining the central town with the suffix -shire, for example Yorkshire. Former kingdoms, which became earldoms in the united England did not feature this formulation, so for Kent, Counties ending in the suffix -sex are also in this category and are former Saxon kingdoms. Many of these names are formed from compass directions, the third category includes counties such as Cornwall and Devon where the name corresponds to the tribes who inhabited the area. County Durham is anomalous in terms of naming and origin, not falling into any of the three categories, instead it was a diocese that was turned into the County Palatine of Durham, ruled by the Bishop of Durham. The expected form would otherwise be Durhamshire, but it was rarely used, there are customary abbreviations for many of the counties. In most cases these consist of simple truncation, usually with an s at the end signifying shire, some abbreviations are not obvious, such as Salop for Shropshire, Oxon for Oxfordshire, Hants for Hampshire and Northants for Northamptonshire. Counties were often prefixed with County of in official contexts, such as County of Kent and those counties named after central towns lost the -shire suffix, for example Yorkshire would be known as County of York. This usage was sometimes followed even where there was no town by that name, the -shire suffix was also appended for some counties, such as Devonshire, Dorsetshire and Somersetshire, despite their origin. There is still a Duke of Devonshire, Great Britain was first divided into administrative areas by the Romans, most likely following major geographical features such as rivers. Before their arrival there were distinct tribal areas, but they were in a constant state of flux as territory was gained, the areas that would later form the English counties started to take shape soon afterwards, with the Kingdom of Kent founded by settlers around 445. Once the Kingdom of England was united as a whole in 927 it became necessary to subdivide it for convenience and to this end. The whole kingdom was divided into shires by the time of the Norman conquest, robert of Gloucester accounts for thirty-five shires and William of Malmesbury thirty-two, Henry of Huntingdon, thirty-seven. In most cases the counties or shires in medieval times were administered by a sheriff on behalf of the monarch, after the Norman conquest the sheriff was replaced and the shires became counties, or areas under the control of a count, in the French manner
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Ceremonial counties of England
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The ceremonial counties, also referred to as the lieutenancy areas of England, are areas of England to which a Lord Lieutenant is appointed. The Local Government Act 1888 established county councils to assume the functions of Quarter Sessions in the counties. It created new entities called administrative counties, the Act further stipulated that areas that were part of an administrative county would be part of the county for all purposes. The greatest change was the creation of the County of London, which was both an administrative county and a county, it included parts of the historic counties of Middlesex, Kent. Other differences were small and resulted from the constraint that urban sanitary districts were not permitted to straddle county boundaries, apart from Yorkshire, counties that were subdivided nevertheless continued to exist as ceremonial counties. In 1974, administrative counties and county boroughs were abolished, at this time, Lieutenancy was redefined to use the new metropolitan and non-metropolitan counties directly. Following a further rearrangement in 1996, Avon, Cleveland, Hereford and Worcester, Cleveland was partitioned between North Yorkshire and Durham. Hereford and Worcester was divided into the counties of Herefordshire and Worcestershire. Humberside was split between Lincolnshire and a new county of East Riding of Yorkshire. Rutland was restored as a ceremonial county, many county boroughs were re-established as unitary authorities, this involved establishing the area as an administrative county, but usually not as a ceremonial county. Most ceremonial counties are therefore entities comprising local authority areas, as they were from 1889 to 1974, the Association of British Counties, a traditional counties lobbying organisation, has suggested that ceremonial counties be restored to their ancient boundaries, as nearly as practicable. In present-day England, the ceremonial counties correspond to the shrieval counties, the Lieutenancies Act 1997 defines counties for the purposes of lieutenancies in terms of metropolitan and non-metropolitan counties as well as Greater London and the Isles of Scilly. Although the term is not used in the Act, these counties are known as ceremonial counties. gov. uk
13.
Unitary authorities of England
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Unitary authorities of England are local authorities that are responsible for the provision of all local government services within a district. They are constituted under the Local Government Act 1992, which amended the Local Government Act 1972 to allow the existence of counties that do not have multiple districts, unitary authorities do not cover all of England. Most were established during the 1990s and a further tranche were created in 2009, unitary authorities have the powers and functions that are elsewhere separately administered by councils of non-metropolitan counties and the non-metropolitan districts within them. Strictly speaking, the term does not necessarily mean a single level of government within an area. Although the term was not applied to them, county boroughs between 1889 and 1974 were effectively unitary authorities, that is, single-tier administrative units. Before 1889, local government authorities had different powers and functions, some smaller settlements also enjoyed some degree of autonomy from regular administration as boroughs or liberties. The Local Government Act 1972 created areas for local government where large towns, a review in the 1990s was initiated in order to select non-metropolitan areas where new unitary authorities could be created. The resulting structural changes were implemented between 1995 and 1998, the changes caused the ceremonial counties to be defined separately, as they had been before 1974. The review caused 46 unitary authorities to be created, a further review was initiated in 2007 and was enacted in 2009. The review caused nine unitary authorities to be created, unitary authorities combine the powers and functions that are normally delivered separately by the councils of non-metropolitan counties and non-metropolitan districts. The exceptions, which are divided into electoral divisions as in county elections, are Cornwall, County Durham. Unitary authority areas can additionally have the status of borough or city, the Council of the Isles of Scilly is a sui generis unitary authority, created in 1890 and since 1930 has held the powers, duties and liabilities of a county council. The 36 metropolitan borough councils are also the elected local government units in their areas
14.
Wiltshire Council
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Wiltshire Council is the unitary authority for most of the ceremonial county of Wiltshire, in the West of England, created in April 2009. The council is led by Jane Scott, who had led the former Wiltshire County Council since 2003. The ceremonial county of Wiltshire consists of two unitary authority areas, Wiltshire and Swindon, administered respectively by Wiltshire Council and Swindon Borough Council. Before April 2009, Wiltshire was administered as a county by Wiltshire County Council, with four districts, Kennet, North Wiltshire, Salisbury. Swindon, in the north of the county, had been a unitary authority since 1997. This was later put into effect by an instrument as part of the 2009 structural changes to local government in England. To date, this has one of the most successful Unitary initiatives in the UK, achieved on time and under budget. With the abolition of the District of Salisbury, a new Salisbury City Council was created at the time to carry out several city-wide functions. Most executive decisions are taken by the cabinet, each member of which has a particular area of responsibility. Development control is undertaken by five planning committees, the powers of which cannot be exercised by the cabinet, the overall result was 58 Conservatives,27 Liberals, eight Independents, four Labour, and one UKIP member. Wiltshire Council operates from the same Trowbridge base as the old Wiltshire County Council, in 2012 the County Hall building was revamped at a cost of about £24 million
15.
Conservative Party (UK)
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The Conservative Party, officially the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a political party in the United Kingdom. It is currently the party, having won a majority of seats in the House of Commons at the 2015 general election. The partys leader, Theresa May, is serving as Prime Minister. It is the largest party in government with 8,702 councillors. The Conservative Party is one of the two major political parties in the United Kingdom, the other being its modern rival. The Conservative Partys platform involves support for market capitalism, free enterprise, fiscal conservatism, a strong national defence, deregulation. In the 1920s, the Liberal vote greatly diminished and the Labour Party became the Conservatives main rivals, Conservative Prime Ministers led governments for 57 years of the twentieth century, including Winston Churchill and Margaret Thatcher. Thatchers tenure led to wide-ranging economic liberalisation, the Conservative Partys domination of British politics throughout the twentieth century has led to them being referred to as one of the most successful political parties in the Western world. The Conservatives are the joint-second largest British party in the European Parliament, with twenty MEPs, the party is a member of the Alliance of Conservatives and Reformists in Europe Europarty and the International Democrat Union. The party is the second-largest in the Scottish Parliament and the second-largest in the Welsh Assembly, the party is also organised in the British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar. The Conservative Party traces its origins to a faction, rooted in the 18th century Whig Party and they were known as Independent Whigs, Friends of Mr Pitt, or Pittites. After Pitts death the term Tory came into use and this was an allusion to the Tories, a political grouping that had existed from 1678, but which had no organisational continuity with the Pittite party. From about 1812 on the name Tory was commonly used for the newer party, the term Conservative was suggested as a title for the party by a magazine article by J. Wilson Croker in the Quarterly Review in 1830. The name immediately caught on and was adopted under the aegis of Sir Robert Peel around 1834. Peel is acknowledged as the founder of the Conservative Party, which he created with the announcement of the Tamworth Manifesto, the term Conservative Party rather than Tory was the dominant usage by 1845. In 1912, the Liberal Unionists merged with the Conservative Party, in Ireland, the Irish Unionist Alliance had been formed in 1891 which merged anti-Home Rule Unionists into one political movement. Its MPs took the Conservative whip at Westminster, and in essence formed the Irish wing of the party until 1922. The Conservatives served with the Liberals in an all-party coalition government during World War I, keohane finds that the Conservatives were bitterly divided before 1914, especially on the issue of Irish Unionism and the experience of three consecutive election losses
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Trowbridge
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The civil parish of Trowbridge had a population of 33,108 at the 2011 census. The parish encompasses the settlements of Longfield, Lower Studley, Upper Studley, Studley Green, adjacent parishes include Staverton, Hilperton, West Ashton, North Bradley, Southwick and Wingfield, nearby towns are Bradford on Avon, Westbury, Melksham, Frome and Devizes. On John Speeds map of Wiltshire, the name is spelt Trubridge, there is evidence that the land on which Trowbridge is built was being farmed more than 3,000 years ago. In the 10th century written records and architectural ruins begin marking Trowbridges existence as a village and its feudal lord was an Anglo-Saxon named Brictric who was the largest landowner in Wiltshire. He seems to have administered his estates from Trowbridge, the first mention of Trowbridge Castle was in 1139 when it was besieged. The castle is thought to have been a castle. Fore Street follows the path of the ditch, and town has a Castle Street. It is likely that the Castle was built by Humphrey I de Bohun, the most notable member of the family was Henry de Bohun, born around 1176, who became lord of the manor when he was about 15 years of age. It was he who began to shape the medieval town. In 1200 he obtained a charter, arguably the earliest for a town in Wiltshire. His officials were to lay out burgage plots for traders, artisans, the outline of these plots can still be seen today in the footprints of some of the present shops in Fore Street. Within Trowbridge Castle was a 10th-century Anglo-Saxon church, Henry de Bohun turned this to secular use and instead had a new church built outside the Castle, this was the first St James Church. In the base of the tower of the present day church, below the subsequently added spire, in 1200 Henry de Bohun was created Earl of Hereford by King John. Like other barons, Henry was later threatened by King John, Henry then joined with the other barons to oppose Johns arbitrary rule and forced him to seal Magna Carta at Runnymede, and was elected as one of the 25 enforcers of the charter. Soon after Runnymede, Henry regained control of Trowbridge, a statue of Henry de Bohun stands high up in the House of Lords, looking down on the Lords in the chamber. This commemorates his presence at Runnymede and his role as one of the enforcers of the Charter. In 2015, the 800th anniversary of Magna Carta, a copy of the statue, the capita or headquarters of the 25 enforcers are known as the Magna Carta Baron Towns. Most of these towns are in the north and east of England, only Trowbridge, Trowbridge developed as a centre for woollen cloth production from the 14th century
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NUTS of the United Kingdom
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NUTS2006 came into force on 1 January 2008. NUTS2010 came into force on 1 January 2012, the two areas of UKD51 and UKD21 were amended by the transfer of Halton from the latter to former to from the new areas of UKD71 and UKD61. Bedfordshire CC UKH22 was replaced by UKH24 and UKH25 NUTS2013 came into force on 1 January 2015. Thus NUTS2 of Inner London West UKI11 becoming the NUTS3 area of UKI3 and likewise, Inner London East, Outer London East and North East, Outer London South and Outer London West and North West. The NUTS3 areas are now a single or a group of two or three boroughs
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Districts of England
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The districts of England are a level of subnational division of England used for the purposes of local government. As the structure of government in England is not uniform. Some districts are styled as boroughs, cities, or royal boroughs, these are purely honorific titles, prior to the establishment of districts in the 1890s, the basic unit of local government in England was the parish overseen by the parish church vestry committee. Vestries dealt with the administraction of both parochial and secular governmental matters, parishes were the successors of the manorial system and historically had been grouped into hundreds. Hundreds once exercised some supervising administrative function, however, these powers ebbed away as more and more civic and judicial powers were centred on county towns. From 1834 these parishes were grouped into Poor Law Unions, creating areas for administration of the Poor Law and these areas were later used for census registration and as the basis for sanitary provision. In 1894, based on these earlier subdivisions, the Local Government Act 1894 created urban districts and rural districts as sub-divisions of administrative counties, another reform in 1900 created 28 metropolitan boroughs as sub-divisions of the County of London. Meanwhile, from this date parish-level local government administration was transferred to civil parishes, the setting-down of the current structure of districts in England began in 1965, when Greater London and its 32 London boroughs were created. They are the oldest type of still in use. In 1974, metropolitan counties and non-metropolitan counties were created across the rest of England and were split into metropolitan districts, in London power is now shared again, albeit on a different basis, with the Greater London Authority. During the 1990s a further kind of district was created, the unitary authority, metropolitan boroughs are a subdivision of a metropolitan county. These are similar to unitary authorities, as the county councils were abolished in 1986. Most of the powers of the county councils were devolved to the districts but some services are run by joint boards, the districts typically have populations of 174,000 to 1.1 million. Non-metropolitan districts are second-tier authorities, which share power with county councils and they are subdivisions of shire counties and the most common type of district. These districts typically have populations of 25,000 to 200,000, the number of non-metropolitan districts has varied over time. Initially there were 296, after the creation of unitary authorities in the 1990s and late 2000s and these are single-tier districts which are responsible for running all local services in their areas, combining both county and district functions. They were created in the out of non-metropolitan districts, and often cover large towns. In addition, some of the smaller such as Rutland, Herefordshire
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Borough of Swindon
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The Borough of Swindon is a local government authority in South West England. It is centred on the town of Swindon and forms part of the county of Wiltshire. It was formed in 1974 as the Thamesdown district of Wiltshire, from areas of the municipal borough of Swindon. On 1 April 1997 it was made independent of Wiltshire County Council. It adopted the name Swindon on 24 April 1997, the former Thamesdown name and logo are used by the main local bus operator, Thamesdown Transport Limited. The borough of Swindon occupies an area forming the north east corner of Wiltshire and is bordered by two counties, Gloucestershire and Oxfordshire. Also, West Berkshire is only a distance from the borough’s south eastern tip. The generally hilly landscape is sculpted by the upper Thames guiding the northern border, small tributaries draining into the Thames, the borough encompasses the Swindon urban area and surrounding countryside to the north, east and south, including the town of Highworth. Elections are held in three out of four years, with one third of the seats being elected at each election. From the first election in 1996 to the 2000 election, Labour had a majority on the council, following a period where no party had a majority the Conservatives gained a majority at the 2003 election and have held control since then. As of the 2016 local elections, the council is composed of the following councillors, - The following are the electoral wards within the Borough as at 2016
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List of Parliamentary constituencies in Wiltshire
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The ceremonial county of Wiltshire, England, is divided into seven Parliamentary constituencies. † Conservative ‡ Labour ¤ Liberal Democrats UKIP The Boundary Commission for England recommended that the county should be divided into seven constituencies and these changes were implemented at the United Kingdom general election,2010. Current constituency boundaries Previous constituency boundaries 1
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Wiltshire Police
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Wiltshire Police, formerly known as the Wiltshire Constabulary, is the territorial police force responsible for policing Wiltshire and Swindon in the south-west of England. Before 1839, policing in Wiltshire was the responsibility of petty and parish constables and this was largely ineffective as they were unpaid and untrained. Independent and private forces, such as the Devizes Prosecution Society, the Municipal Corporations Act 1835 meant that Salisbury Borough was formed and was required to have an official city force, that would replace the local force, New Sarum Police. The official handover took place on 1 April 1943, when the County Police Act 1839 was introduced, Wiltshire leapt at the chance to form a police force. As a result Wiltshire Constabulary was established on Wednesday 13 November 1839 at The Bear Hotel, Devizes and was the first county police force to be formed, beating Gloucestershire by a few hours. The first Chief Constable was Captain Samuel Meredith RN who placed an advertisement in the paper to recruit 200 constables who were paid 17/6d a week. New constables were given their uniform and a booklet and then sent off to work without any training or guidance. It wasnt until 1843 that they were given training, Wiltshire Constabulary started operating from January 1840 and had filled almost all its posts by summertime. The Chief Constable spent the first months of his time visiting all the boroughs in Wiltshire, the first ranks were only Constable and Superintendent, but Sergeant, Inspector, Detectives and five classes of Constable were later introduced. Its motto, Primus et Optimus, means the First and the Best, on 6 July 1961, Sir Charles Carter Chitham, a retired policeman of the former British India, laid the foundation stone of the new Wiltshire Police county headquarters at Devizes. Twice in the 1980s, Wiltshire Police officers had to cover for the officers of Erlestoke Prison when they went on strike. The incident led to accusations of a police riot, the police also had to deal with the Greenham Common Womens Peace Camp who were protesting against nuclear weapons being kept in Greenham Common, Berkshire. Most significantly the 1980s saw the introduction of the Police National Computer, Command and Control systems, also a national probationary training programme was introduced in all forces for new recruits. In January 2008, Brian Moore was appointed as Chief Constable of Wiltshire Police and he took over following the departure of Martin Richards, who transferred to become Chief Constable of Sussex Police on 1 October 2007. The Deputy Chief Constable was former Wiltshire Assistant Chief Patrick Geenty, the Assistant Chief Constable is former Detective Chief Superintendent and Divisional Commander Mike Veale. Until his replacement was chosen the role was filled by the deputy Chief Constable, now Temporary Chief Constable, under the leadership of Chief Constable Moore, Wiltshire Police became the safest county in the country. 1839–1870 Captain Samuel Meredith RN 1870–1908 Captain Robert Sterne RN 1908–1943 Colonel Sir Höel Llewellyn DSO, the police authority had nine councillor members, who were appointed from Wiltshire Council and Swindon Borough Council, and eight independent members, one of whom was a justice of the peace. The responsible government department is the Home Office, on 15 November 2012, the Police and Crime Commissioner elections took place in England and Wales
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Greenwich Mean Time
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Greenwich Mean Time is the mean solar time at the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, London. GMT was formerly used as the civil time standard, now superseded in that function by Coordinated Universal Time. Today GMT is considered equivalent to UTC for UK civil purposes and for navigation is considered equivalent to UT1, consequently, the term GMT should not be used for precise purposes. Due to Earths uneven speed in its orbit and its axial tilt, noon GMT is rarely the exact moment the sun crosses the Greenwich meridian. This event may occur up to 16 minutes before or after noon GMT, noon GMT is the annual average moment of this event, which accounts for the word mean in Greenwich Mean Time. Originally, astronomers considered a GMT day to start at noon while for almost everyone else it started at midnight, to avoid confusion, the name Universal Time was introduced to denote GMT as counted from midnight. Astronomers preferred the old convention to simplify their observational data, so each night was logged under a single calendar date. Today Universal Time usually refers to UTC or UT1, in some countries Greenwich Mean Time is the legal time in the winter and the population uses the term. For an explanation of why this is, see GMT in legislation below, synchronisation of the chronometer on GMT did not affect shipboard time, which was still solar time. Most time zones were based upon GMT, as an offset of a number of hours ahead of GMT or behind GMT and it was gradually adopted for other purposes, but a legal case in 1858 held local mean time to be the official time. On 14 May 1880, a signed by Clerk to Justices appeared in The Times, stating that Greenwich time is now kept almost throughout England. For example, our polling booths were opened, say, at 813 and closed at 413 PM. This was changed later in 1880, GMT was adopted on the Isle of Man in 1883, Jersey in 1898 and Guernsey in 1913. Ireland adopted GMT in 1916, supplanting Dublin Mean Time, hourly time signals from Greenwich Observatory were first broadcast on 5 February 1924, rendering the time ball at the observatory redundant in the process. The daily rotation of the Earth is irregular and constantly slows, on 1 January 1972, GMT was superseded as the international civil time standard by Coordinated Universal Time, maintained by an ensemble of atomic clocks around the world. Indeed, even the Greenwich meridian itself is not quite what it used to be—defined by the centre of the instrument at the Observatory at Greenwich. Nevertheless, the line in the old observatorys courtyard today differs no more than a few metres from that line which is now the prime meridian of the world. Historically GMT has been used two different conventions for numbering hours. The long-standing astronomical convention dating from the work of Ptolemy, was to refer to noon as zero hours and this contrasted with the civil convention of referring to midnight as zero hours dating from the Romans
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Daylight saving time
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Daylight saving time is the practice of advancing clocks during summer months by one hour so that evening daylight lasts an hour longer, while sacrificing normal sunrise times. Typically, regions that use Daylight Savings Time adjust clocks forward one hour close to the start of spring, American inventor and politician Benjamin Franklin proposed a form of daylight time in 1784. New Zealander George Hudson proposed the idea of saving in 1895. The German Empire and Austria-Hungary organized the first nationwide implementation, starting on April 30,1916, many countries have used it at various times since then, particularly since the energy crisis of the 1970s. The practice has both advocates and critics, DST clock shifts sometimes complicate timekeeping and can disrupt travel, billing, record keeping, medical devices, heavy equipment, and sleep patterns. Computer software often adjusts clocks automatically, but policy changes by various jurisdictions of DST dates, industrialized societies generally follow a clock-based schedule for daily activities that do not change throughout the course of the year. The time of day that individuals begin and end work or school, North and south of the tropics daylight lasts longer in summer and shorter in winter, with the effect becoming greater as one moves away from the tropics. However, they will have one hour of daylight at the start of each day. Supporters have also argued that DST decreases energy consumption by reducing the need for lighting and heating, DST is also of little use for locations near the equator, because these regions see only a small variation in daylight in the course of the year. After ancient times, equal-length civil hours eventually supplanted unequal, so civil time no longer varies by season, unequal hours are still used in a few traditional settings, such as some monasteries of Mount Athos and all Jewish ceremonies. This 1784 satire proposed taxing window shutters, rationing candles, and waking the public by ringing church bells, despite common misconception, Franklin did not actually propose DST, 18th-century Europe did not even keep precise schedules. However, this changed as rail transport and communication networks came to require a standardization of time unknown in Franklins day. Modern DST was first proposed by the New Zealand entomologist George Hudson, whose shift work job gave him time to collect insects. An avid golfer, he also disliked cutting short his round at dusk and his solution was to advance the clock during the summer months, a proposal he published two years later. The proposal was taken up by the Liberal Member of Parliament Robert Pearce, a select committee was set up to examine the issue, but Pearces bill did not become law, and several other bills failed in the following years. Willett lobbied for the proposal in the UK until his death in 1915, william Sword Frost, mayor of Orillia, Ontario, introduced daylight saving time in the municipality during his tenure from 1911 to 1912. Starting on April 30,1916, the German Empire and its World War I ally Austria-Hungary were the first to use DST as a way to conserve coal during wartime, Britain, most of its allies, and many European neutrals soon followed suit. Russia and a few other countries waited until the year
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Dorset
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Dorset /ˈdɔːrsᵻt/ is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. The ceremonial county comprises the county, which is governed by Dorset County Council. Covering an area of 2,653 square kilometres, Dorset borders Devon to the west, Somerset to the north-west, Wiltshire to the north-east, the county town is Dorchester which is in the south. After the reorganisation of government in 1974 the countys border was extended eastward to incorporate the Hampshire towns of Bournemouth. Around half of the lives in the South East Dorset conurbation. The county has a history of human settlement stretching back to the Neolithic era. The Romans conquered Dorsets indigenous Celtic tribe, and during the early Middle Ages, the first recorded Viking raid on the British Isles occurred in Dorset during the eighth century, and the Black Death entered England at Melcombe Regis in 1348. During the Second World War, Dorset was heavily involved in the preparations for the invasion of Normandy, the former was the sailing venue in the 2012 Summer Olympics, and both have clubs or hire venues for sailing, Cornish pilot gig rowing, sea kayaking and powerboating. Dorset has a varied landscape featuring broad elevated chalk downs, steep limestone ridges, over half the county is designated as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. Three-quarters of its coastline is part of the Jurassic Coast Natural World Heritage Site due to its geological and it features notable landforms such as Lulworth Cove, the Isle of Portland, Chesil Beach and Durdle Door. Agriculture was traditionally the major industry of Dorset but is now in decline, there are no motorways in Dorset but a network of A roads cross the county and two railway main lines connect to London. Dorset has ports at Poole, Weymouth and Portland, and an international airport, the county has a variety of museums, theatres and festivals, and is host to one of Europes largest outdoor shows. It is the birthplace of Thomas Hardy, who used the county as the setting of his novels. Dorset derives its name from the county town of Dorchester, the Romans established the settlement in the 1st century and named it Durnovaria which was a Latinised version of a Common Brittonic word possibly meaning place with fist-sized pebbles. It is first mentioned in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle in AD845 and in the 10th century the countys archaic name, the first human visitors to Dorset were Mesolithic hunters, from around 8000 BC. The first permanent Neolithic settlers appeared around 3000 BC and were responsible for the creation of the Dorset Cursus, from 2800 BC onwards Bronze Age farmers cleared Dorsets woodlands for agricultural use and Dorsets high chalk hills provided a location for numerous round barrows. During the Iron Age, the British tribe known as the Durotriges established a series of forts across the county—most notably Maiden Castle which is one of the largest in Europe. The Romans arrived in Dorset during their conquest of Britain in AD43, Maiden Castle was captured by a Roman legion under the command of Vespasian, and the Roman settlement of Durnovaria was established nearby
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Somerset
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Somerset is a county in South West England which borders Gloucestershire and Bristol to the north, Wiltshire to the east, Dorset to the south-east and Devon to the south-west. It is bounded to the north and west by the Severn Estuary and its traditional border with Gloucestershire is the River Avon. Somerset is a county of rolling hills such as the Blackdown Hills, Mendip Hills, Quantock Hills and Exmoor National Park. There is evidence of occupation from Paleolithic times, and of subsequent settlement in the Roman. The county played a significant part in the consolidation of power and rise of King Alfred the Great, and later in the English Civil War, the city of Bath is famous for its substantial Georgian architecture and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Somersets name derives from Old English Sumorsǣte, short for Sumortūnsǣte, an alternative suggestion is the name derives from Seo-mere-saetan meaning settlers by the sea lakes. The Old English name is used in the motto of the county, Sumorsǣte ealle, adopted as the motto in 1911, the phrase is taken from the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. Somerset settlement names are mostly Anglo-Saxon in origin, but some hill names include Brittonic Celtic elements, for example, an Anglo-Saxon charter of 682 refers to Creechborough Hill as the hill the British call Cructan and we call Crychbeorh. Some modern names are Brythonic in origin, such as Tarnock, the caves of the Mendip Hills were settled during the Palaeolithic period, and contain extensive archaeological sites such as those at Cheddar Gorge. Bones from Goughs Cave have been dated to 12,000 BC, examples of cave art have been found in Avelines Hole. Some caves continued to be occupied until modern times, including Wookey Hole, the Somerset Levels—specifically dry points at Glastonbury and Brent Knoll— also have a long history of settlement, and are known to have been settled by Mesolithic hunters. Travel in the area was facilitated by the construction of one of the worlds oldest known engineered roadways, the Sweet Track, the exact age of the henge monument at Stanton Drew stone circles is unknown, but it is believed to be Neolithic. There are numerous Iron Age hill forts, some of which, like Cadbury Castle, on the authority of the future emperor Vespasian, as part of the ongoing expansion of the Roman presence in Britain, the Second Legion Augusta invaded Somerset from the south-east in AD47. The county remained part of the Roman Empire until around AD409, a variety of Roman remains have been found, including Pagans Hill Roman temple in Chew Stoke, Low Ham Roman Villa and the Roman Baths that gave their name to the city of Bath. After the Romans left, Britain was invaded by Anglo-Saxon peoples, by AD600 they had established control over much of what is now England, but Somerset was still in native British hands. The Saxon royal palace in Cheddar was used several times in the 10th century to host the Witenagemot. After the Norman Conquest, the county was divided into 700 fiefs, Somerset contains HM Prison Shepton Mallet, which was Englands oldest prison still in use prior to its closure in 2013, having opened in 1610. In the English Civil War Somerset was largely Parliamentarian, with key engagements being the Sieges of Taunton, in 1685 the Monmouth Rebellion was played out in Somerset and neighbouring Dorset
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Hampshire
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Hampshire is a county on the southern coast of England in the United Kingdom. The county town of Hampshire is Winchester, the capital city of England. The larger South Hampshire metropolitan area has a population of 1,547,000, Hampshire is notable for housing the birthplaces of the Royal Navy, British Army, and Royal Air Force. It is bordered by Dorset to the west, Wiltshire to the north-west, Berkshire to the north, Surrey to the north-east, the southern boundary is the coastline of the English Channel and the Solent, facing the Isle of Wight. At its greatest size in 1890, Hampshire was the fifth largest county in England and it now has an overall area of 3,700 square kilometres, and measures about 86 kilometres east–west and 76 kilometres north–south. Hampshires tourist attractions include many seaside resorts and two parks, the New Forest and the South Downs. Hampshire has a maritime history and two of Europes largest ports, Portsmouth and Southampton, lie on its coast. The county is famed as home of writers Jane Austen and Charles Dickens, Hampshire takes its name from the settlement that is now the city of Southampton. Southampton was known in Old English as Hamtun, roughly meaning village-town, the old name was recorded in the Domesday book as Hantescire, and it is from this spelling that the modern abbreviation Hants derives. From 1889 until 1959, the county was named the County of Southampton and has also been known as Southamptonshire. The region is believed to have continuously occupied since the end of the last Ice Age about 12,000 BCE. At this time Britain was still attached to the European continent and was covered with deciduous woodland. The first inhabitants came overland from Europe, these were anatomically and behaviourally modern humans, notable sites from this period include Bouldnor Cliff. Agriculture had arrived in southern Britain by 4000 BCE, and with it a neolithic culture, some deforestation took place at that time, although it was during the Bronze Age, beginning in 2200 BCE, that this became more widespread and systematic. Hampshire has few monuments to show from early periods, although nearby Stonehenge was built in several phases at some time between 3100 BCE and 2200 BCE. It is maintained that by this period the people of Britain predominantly spoke a Celtic language, hillforts largely declined in importance in the second half of the second century BCE, with many being abandoned. Julius Caesar invaded southeastern England briefly in 55 and again in 54 BCE, notable sites from this period include Hengistbury Head, which was a major port. There is a Museum of the Iron Age in Andover, the Romans invaded Britain again in 43 CE, and Hampshire was incorporated into the Roman province of Britannia very quickly
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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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Oxfordshire
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Oxfordshire is a county in South East England bordering on Warwickshire, Northamptonshire, Buckinghamshire, Berkshire, Wiltshire and Gloucestershire. The county has major education and tourist industries and is noted for the concentration of performance companies and facilities. Oxford University Press is the largest firm among a concentration of print and publishing firms, the main centre of population is the city of Oxford. The highest point is White Horse Hill, in the Vale of White Horse, oxfordshires county flower is the Snakes-head Fritillary. Historically the area has always had some importance, since it contains valuable agricultural land in the centre of the county, largely ignored by the Romans, it was not until the formation of a settlement at Oxford in the eighth century that the area grew in importance. Alfred the Great was born across the Thames in Wantage, Vale of White Horse, the University of Oxford was founded in 1096, though its collegiate structure did not develop until later on. The university in the county town of Oxford grew in importance during the Middle Ages, the area was part of the Cotswolds wool trade from the 13th century, generating much wealth, particularly in the western portions of the county in the Oxfordshire Cotswolds. Morris Motors was founded in Oxford in 1912, bringing industry to an otherwise agricultural county. The importance of agriculture as an employer has declined rapidly in the 20th century though, nonetheless, Oxfordshire remains a very agricultural county by land use, with a lower population than neighbouring Berkshire and Buckinghamshire, which are both smaller. The Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry, the army unit in the area, was based at Cowley Barracks on Bullingdon Green. Conversely, the Caversham area of Reading, now administratively in Berkshire, was part of Oxfordshire as was the parish of Stokenchurch. This is a chart of trend of gross value added of Oxfordshire at current basic prices published by the Office for National Statistics with figures in millions of British Pounds Sterling. Oxfordshire has a comprehensive education system with 23 independent schools and 35 state secondary schools. Only eight schools do not have a form, these are mostly in South Oxfordshire. The county has two universities, the ancient University of Oxford and the modern Oxford Brookes University, both located in Oxford, in addition, Wroxton College, located in Banbury, is affiliated with Fairleigh Dickinson University of New Jersey. The dreaming spires of the buildings of the University of Oxford are among the reasons for Oxford being the sixth most visited city in the United Kingdom for international visitors. Among many notable University buildings are the Sheldonian Theatre, built 1664–68 to the design of Sir Christopher Wren, Blenheim Palace close to Woodstock was built by the great architect John Vanbrugh for John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough, after he had won the battle of Blenheim. The gardens, which can be visited, were designed by the landscape gardener Capability Brown, in the palace, which can also be visited by the public, Sir Winston Churchill was born in 1874
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Berkshire
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Berkshire is a county in south east England, west of London. It was recognised as the Royal County of Berkshire because of the presence of Windsor Castle by the Queen in 1957, Berkshire is a county of historic origin and is a home county, a ceremonial county and a non-metropolitan county without a county council. Berkshire County Council was the main county governance from 1889 to 1998 except for the separately administered County Borough of Reading, in 1974, significant alterations were made to the countys administrative boundaries although the traditional boundaries of Berkshire were not changed. The towns of Abingdon, Didcot and Wantage were transferred to Oxfordshire, Slough was gained from Buckinghamshire, since 1998, Berkshire has been governed by the six unitary authorities of Bracknell Forest, Reading, Slough, West Berkshire, Windsor and Maidenhead and Wokingham. It borders the counties of Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Greater London, Surrey, according to Asser, it takes its name from a large forest of box trees that was called Bearroc. Berkshire has been the scene of notable battles through its history. Alfred the Greats campaign against the Danes included the Battles of Englefield, Ashdown, Newbury was the site of two English Civil War battles, the First Battle of Newbury in 1643 and the Second Battle of Newbury in 1644. The nearby Donnington Castle was reduced to a ruin in the aftermath of the second battle, another Battle of Reading took place on 9 December 1688. It was the only military action in England during the Glorious Revolution. Reading became the new county town in 1867, taking over from Abingdon, boundary alterations in the early part of the 20th century were minor, with Caversham from Oxfordshire becoming part of the Reading county borough, and cessions in the Oxford area. On 1 April 1974 Berkshires boundaries changed under the Local Government Act 1972, Berkshire took over administration of Slough and Eton and part of the former Eton Rural District from Buckinghamshire. 94 Signal Squadron still keep the Uffington White Horse in their insignia, the original Local Government White Paper would have transferred Henley-on-Thames from Oxfordshire to Berkshire, this proposal did not make it into the Bill as introduced. On 1 April 1998 Berkshire County Council was abolished under a recommendation of the Banham Commission, unlike similar reforms elsewhere at the same time, the non-metropolitan county was not abolished. Berkshire divides into two distinct sections with the boundary lying roughly on a north-south line through the centre of Reading. The eastern section of Berkshire lies largely to the south of the River Thames, in two places the county now includes land to the north of the river. Tributaries of the Thames, including the Loddon and Blackwater, increase the amount of low lying land in the area. Beyond the flood plains, the land rises gently to the county boundaries with Surrey, much of this area is still well wooded, especially around Bracknell and Windsor Great Park. In the west of the county and heading upstream, the Thames veers away to the north of the county boundary, leaving the county behind at the Goring Gap
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Wilton, Wiltshire
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Wilton is a town and civil parish in Wiltshire, England, with a rich heritage dating back to the Anglo-Saxons. Carpets have been manufactured at Wilton since the 18th century, today it is overshadowed by its larger neighbour, Salisbury, but still has a range of notable shops and attractions, including Wilton House. The confluence of the rivers Wylye and Nadder is at Wilton, the history of Wilton dates back to the Anglo-Saxons in the 8th century AD, and by the late 9th century it was the capital of Wiltunscire, a shire of the Kingdom of Wessex. It remained the centre of Wiltshire until the 11th century. Wilton was of significant importance to the church, with the founding of Wilton Abbey in AD771, in AD871 Alfred the Great fought and lost an important battle there against the Danish armies, leaving him in retreat for several years. Despite further attacks, Wilton remained a town, as recorded in the Domesday book. Carpet weaving prospered until 1815, when following the Napoleonic Wars introduced European competition. Machinery to produce Axminster carpets was installed in 1835, the Wilton Royal Carpet Factory was founded at the turn of the century, with the help of the then Lord Pembroke, to rescue the previous carpet factory that had fallen into financial difficulty. The carpet factory continued to operate until 1995, when it closed temporarily after a takeover, the factory re-opened, although it was unable to retain the Wilton Royal prefix. An outbreak of smallpox in 1737 killed 132 people, local folklore claims that the outbreak was believed to be associated with the witchcraft of the four Handsel sisters, who were summarily murdered and buried in Grovely Wood. The arrival of the led to increased prosperity. The railway stations closed in 1955 and 1966 respectively, the nearest station is now at Salisbury, the headquarters of Land Forces was at Erskine Barracks, northeast of Wilton, from 1949 to 2010. After the headquarters moved to Marlborough Lines near Andover the site was sold for housing, the boundaries of the modern civil parish originate with the Borough of Wilton defined in 1885. The parish includes the villages of Bulbridge and Ditchampton, in 1894 Wilton absorbed the western part of the neighbouring parish of Fugglestone St Peter, the rest going into a new parish of Bemerton. The parish elects a town council and it is in the area of Wiltshire Council unitary authority, which is responsible for all significant local government functions. Wilton is in the Wilton and Lower Wylye electoral ward and this ward stretches north from Wilton to South Newton. The total ward population taken at the 2011 census was 4,806, for a small town, the church is enormous, representing the wealth of its benefactors. The most notable feature of the church is the 105 feet campanile
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Downland
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A downland is an area of open chalk hills. This term is used to describe the chalk countryside in southern England. Areas of downland are often referred to as downs, deriving from a Celtic word for hills, downland is formed when chalk formations are raised above the surrounding rocks. The chalk slowly erodes to form characteristic rolling hills and valleys, where the downs meet the sea, characteristic white chalk cliffs form, such as the White Cliffs of Dover and Beachy Head. Chalk deposits are very porous, so the height of the table in chalk hills rises in winter. This leads to characteristic chalk downland such as dry valleys or coombes. The modern practice of extracting water from reservoir, in order to satisfy demand for water. In the valleys below the downs there is typically a clay soil, along this line, settlements and farms were often built, as on the higher land no water was available. This is demonstrated very clearly beneath the scarp of the White Horse Hills, in many chalk downland areas there is no surface water at all other than artificially created dewponds. The soil profile of chalk downland in England is a thin soil overlaying the parent chalk, weathering of the chalk has created a characteristic soil known as rendzina. This is largely because of the purity of the chalk, which is about 98% calcium carbonate, steep slopes on chalk downland develop a ribbed pattern of grass covered horizontal steps a foot or two high. Although subsequently emphasised by cattle and sheep walking along them, these terracettes were formed by the movement of soil downhill, in temperate regions chalk downland is typically calcareous grassland, a habitat formed by grazing from both livestock and wild animals. Chalk downland is often unsuitable for agriculture, horticulture, or development because of the nutrient-poor, shallow soil. For this reason downland often survived uncultivated when other, more easily worked land was ploughed or reseeded and this shallow soil structure makes downland ecosystems extremely fragile and easy to destroy. The UK cover of lowland calcareous grassland has suffered a decline in extent since the middle of the twentieth century. Much remaining chalk downland has been protected against future development to preserve its unique biodiversity
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Salisbury Plain
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Salisbury Plain is a chalk plateau in central southern England covering 300 square miles. It is part of a system of chalk downlands throughout eastern and southern England formed by the rocks of the Chalk Group and largely lies within the county of Wiltshire, the plain is famous for its rich archaeology, including Stonehenge, one of Englands best known landmarks. Additionally the plain has arable land, and a few areas of beech trees. Its highest point is Easton Hill, the boundaries of Salisbury Plain have never been truly defined, and there is some difference of opinion as to its exact area. The river valleys surrounding it, and other downs and plains beyond them loosely define its boundaries, to the north the scarp of the downs overlooks the Vale of Pewsey, and to the north west the Bristol Avon. The River Wylye runs along the south west, and the Bourne runs to the east, the Hampshire Avon runs through the eastern half of the plain and to the south the plain peters out as the river valleys close together before meeting at Salisbury. From here the Avon continues south to the English Channel at Christchurch, the Hampshire Downs and the Berkshire Downs are chalk downland to the east and north of Salisbury Plain, and the Dorset Downs is to the south west. In the west and north west the geology is mainly of the clays and limestones of the Blackmore Vale, the A303 road runs along the southern area of the plain, while the A345 and the A360 cut across the centre. Salisbury Plain is famous for its history and archaeology, in the Neolithic period Stone Age man began to settle on the plain, most likely centred around the causewayed enclosure of Robin Hoods Ball. Large long barrows like White Barrow and other earthworks were built across the plain, by 2500 BC areas around Durrington Walls and Stonehenge had become a focus for building, and the southern part of the plain continued to be settled into the Bronze Age. Roman roads are visible features, probably serving a settlement near Old Sarum, villas are sparse, however, and Anglo-Saxon place names suggest that the plain was mostly a grain-producing imperial estate. In the 6th century Anglo-Saxon incomers built planned settlements in the valleys surrounded by strip lynchets, the cathedral is evidence of the prosperity the wool and cloth trade brought to the area. In the mid-19th century the wool and cloth industry began to decline, leading to a decline in the population and change in use from sheep farming to agriculture. Wiltshire became one of the poorest counties in England during this period of decline, there are a number of chalk carvings on the plain, of which the most famous is the Westbury White Horse. The Kennet and Avon Canal was constructed to the north of the plain, in 1896, George Kemp and Guglielmo Marconi experimented with wireless telegraphy on Salisbury Plain, and achieved good results over a distance of 1.75 miles. Media related to Army Training Estate Salisbury Plain at Wikimedia Commons The military training area covers roughly half of the plain, the army first conducted exercises on the plain in 1898. From that time, the Ministry of Defence bought up large areas of land until the Second World War, the MoD now own 150 square miles of land, making it the largest military training area in the United Kingdom. Of this, around 39 square miles are permanently closed to the public, as of 2016, the largest camps and barracks are at Larkhill, Bulford, Tidworth, Trenchard Lines and Warminster
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Stonehenge
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Stonehenge is a prehistoric monument in Wiltshire, England,2 miles west of Amesbury and 8 miles north of Salisbury. Stonehenges ring of standing stones are set within earthworks in the middle of the most dense complex of Neolithic and Bronze Age monuments in England, archaeologists believe it was constructed from 3000 BC to 2000 BC. The surrounding circular earth bank and ditch, which constitute the earliest phase of the monument, have been dated to about 3100 BC. Radiocarbon dating suggests that the first bluestones were raised between 2400 and 2200 BC, although they may have been at the site as early as 3000 BC, one of the most famous landmarks in the UK, Stonehenge is regarded as a British cultural icon. It has been a legally protected Scheduled Ancient Monument since 1882 when legislation to protect historic monuments was first successfully introduced in Britain, the site and its surroundings were added to UNESCOs list of World Heritage Sites in 1986. Stonehenge is owned by the Crown and managed by English Heritage, Stonehenge could have been a burial ground from its earliest beginnings. Deposits containing human bone date from as early as 3000 BC, when the ditch and bank were first dug, William Stukeley in 1740 notes, Pendulous rocks are now called henges in Yorkshire. I doubt not, Stonehenge in Saxon signifies the hanging stones. Like Stonehenges trilithons, medieval gallows consisted of two uprights with a lintel joining them, rather than the inverted L-shape more familiar today, the henge portion has given its name to a class of monuments known as henges. Archaeologists define henges as earthworks consisting of a banked enclosure with an internal ditch. As often happens in archaeological terminology, this is a holdover from antiquarian use, Stonehenge evolved in several construction phases spanning at least 1500 years. There is evidence of construction on and around the monument that perhaps extends the landscapes time frame to 6500 years. The modern phasing most generally agreed to by archaeologists is detailed below, features mentioned in the text are numbered and shown on the plan, right. Archaeologists have found four, or possibly five, large Mesolithic postholes and these held pine posts around 0.75 metres in diameter, which were erected and eventually rotted in situ. Three of the posts were in an east-west alignment which may have had significance, no parallels are known from Britain at the time. A settlement that may have been contemporaneous with the posts has been found at Blick Mead, a reliable year round spring 1 mile from Stonehenge. Salisbury Plain was then still wooded but 4,000 years later, during the earlier Neolithic, people built an enclosure at Robin Hoods Ball. In approximately 3500 BC, a Stonehenge Cursus was built 700 metres north of the site as the first farmers began to clear the trees, a number of other adjacent stone and wooden structures and burial mounds, previously overlooked, may date as far back as 4000 BC. Charcoal from the ‘Blick Mead’ camp 2.4 kilometres from Stonehenge has been dated to 4000 BC and it stood in open grassland on a slightly sloping spot
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Avebury
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Avebury is a Neolithic henge monument containing three stone circles, around the village of Avebury in Wiltshire, in southwest England. One of the best known sites in Britain, it contains the largest stone circle in Europe. It is both a tourist attraction and a place of importance to contemporary pagans. Its original purpose is unknown, although archaeologists believe that it was most likely used for some form of ritual or ceremony, the Avebury monument is a part of a larger prehistoric landscape containing several older monuments nearby, including West Kennet Long Barrow and Silbury Hill. By the Iron Age, the site had effectively abandoned. During the Early Middle Ages, a village first began to be built around the monument, in the Late Medieval and Early Modern periods, local people destroyed many of the standing stones around the henge, both for religious and practical reasons. The antiquarians John Aubrey and William Stukeley, however, took an interest in Avebury during the 17th century, archaeological investigation followed in the 20th century, led primarily by Alexander Keiller, who oversaw a project which reconstructed much of the monument. Avebury is owned and managed by the National Trust, at grid reference SU10266996, Avebury is respectively about 6 and 7 miles from the modern towns of Marlborough and Calne. Avebury lies in an area of chalkland in the Upper Kennet Valley which forms the catchment for the River Kennet and supports local springs and seasonal watercourses. The monument stands slightly above the landscape, sitting on a low chalk ridge 160 m above sea level, to the east are the Marlborough Downs. It is now listed as part of the Stonehenge, Avebury, the monuments are preserved as part of a Neolithic and Bronze Age landscape for the information they provide regarding prehistoric peoples relationship with the landscape. Radiocarbon dating and analysis of pollen in buried soils have shown that the environment of lowland Britain changed around 4250–4000 BCE. The change to an environment from damp, heavy soils and expanses of dense forest was mostly brought about by farmers, probably through the use of slash. Environmental factors may also have made a contribution, different species of snail live in specific habitats, so the presence of a certain species indicates what the area was like at a particular point in time. The history of the site before the construction of the henge is uncertain, evidence of activity in the region before the 4th millennium BCE is limited, suggesting that there was little human occupation. During this era, those living in Britain were hunter-gatherers, often moving around the landscape in small familial or tribal groups in search of food. The archaeologists Mark Gillings and Joshua Pollard suggested the possibility that Avebury first gained some sort of significance during the Late Mesolithic period. As evidence, they highlighted the existence of a posthole near to the southern entrance that would have once supported a large wooden post
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Stone circle
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A stone circle is a monument of standing stones arranged in a circle. Such monuments have been constructed in parts of the world throughout history for many different reasons. Outside of Europe, stone circles have also erected, such as the 6300~6900 BCE Atlit Yam in Israel and 3000~4000 BCE Gilgal Refaim nearby. Another prehistoric stone circle tradition occurred in southern Scandinavia during the Iron Age, the size and number of the stones varies from example to example, and the circle shape can be an ellipse. All experts agree that stone circles are of date. Radiocarbon dating has produced a range of dates at different sites. This is at least partly due to an inadequacy of materials suitable for radiocarbon dating that can be obtained from the sites. The diversity of radiocarbon evidence may also suggest that stone circles were constructed over a long period. It is often not clear when building started, a further obstacle to dating is that there are generally no other archaeological artifacts associated with the stone circles. Traditional archaeological artifacts, such as pottery sherds, bones, etc. are not often found at the sites, the sites display no evidence of human dwelling, and rarely encompass graves. This suggests that stone circles were constructed for ceremonies and were in use on ceremonial occasions only, the type of ceremonies is entirely unknown. The crudeness and variety of the stones excludes the possibility that they had astronomical observation purposes of any precision, sometimes a stone circle is found in association with a burial pit or burial chamber, but the great majority of these monuments have no such association. A stone circle is a different entity from a henge. That suggests religious context, the details of which are still obscure, during the Middle Neolithic stone circles began to appear in coastal and lowland areas towards the north of the United Kingdom. The Langdale axe industry in the Lake District appears to have been an important early centre for circle building, many had closely set stones, perhaps similar to the earth banks of henges, others were made from unfounded boulders rather than standing stones. By the later Neolithic, stone circle construction had attained a greater precision, rather than being limited to coastal areas, they began to move inland and their builders grew more ambitious, producing examples of up to 400 m diameter in the case of the Outer Circle at Avebury. Most circles, however, measured around 25 m in diameter, designs became more complex, with double and triple ring designs appearing along with significant regional variation. These monuments are often classed separately as concentric stone circles, by 1500 BC stone circle construction had all but ceased
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British Army
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The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom. As of 2017 the British Army comprises just over 80,000 trained Regular, or full-time, personnel and just over 26,500 trained Reserve, or part-time personnel. Therefore, the UK Parliament approves the continued existence of the Army by passing an Armed Forces Act at least once every five years, day to day the Army comes under administration of the Ministry of Defence and is commanded by the Chief of the General Staff. Repeatedly emerging victorious from these decisive wars allowed Britain to influence world events with its policies and establish itself as one of the leading military. In 1660 the English, Scottish and Irish monarchies were restored under Charles II, Charles favoured the foundation of a new army under royal control and began work towards its establishment by August 1660. The Royal Scots Army and the Irish Army were financed by the Parliament of Scotland, the order of seniority of the most senior line regiments in the British Army is based on the order of seniority in the English army. At that time there was only one English regiment of dragoons, after William and Marys accession to the throne, England involved itself in the War of the Grand Alliance, primarily to prevent a French invasion restoring Marys father, James II. Spain, in the two centuries, had been the dominant global power, and the chief threat to Englands early transatlantic ambitions. The territorial ambitions of the French, however, led to the War of the Spanish Succession and the Napoleonic Wars. From the time of the end of the Seven Years War in 1763, Great Britain was the naval power. As had its predecessor, the English Army, the British Army fought the Kingdoms of Spain, France, and the Netherlands for supremacy in North America and the West Indies. With native and provincial assistance, the Army conquered New France in the North American theatre of the Seven Years War, the British Army suffered defeat in the American War of Independence, losing the Thirteen Colonies but holding on to Canada. The British Army was heavily involved in the Napoleonic Wars and served in campaigns across Europe. The war between the British and the First French Empire of Napoleon Bonaparte stretched around the world and at its peak, in 1813, the regular army contained over 250,000 men. A Coalition of Anglo-Dutch and Prussian Armies under the Duke of Wellington, the English had been involved, both politically and militarily, in Ireland since being given the Lordship of Ireland by the Pope in 1171. The campaign of the English republican Protector, Oliver Cromwell, involved uncompromising treatment of the Irish towns that had supported the Royalists during the English Civil War, the English Army stayed in Ireland primarily to suppress numerous Irish revolts and campaigns for independence. Having learnt from their experience in America, the British government sought a political solution, the British Army found itself fighting Irish rebels, both Protestant and Catholic, primarily in Ulster and Leinster in the 1798 rebellion. The Haldane Reforms of 1907 formally created the Territorial Force as the Armys volunteer reserve component by merging and reorganising the Volunteer Force, Militia, Great Britains dominance of the world had been challenged by numerous other powers, in the 20th century, most notably Germany
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Salisbury
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Salisbury is a cathedral city in Wiltshire, England, and the only city within the county. It is the third-largest settlement in the county, after Swindon and Chippenham, with a population of 40,302, the city is located in the southeast of Wiltshire, near the edge of Salisbury Plain. Its cathedral was located to the north at Old Sarum, following its relocation. The new town received its city charter in 1227 under the name New Sarum, which continued to be its name until 2009. It sits at the confluence of five rivers, the Nadder, Ebble, Wylye, and Bourne are tributary to the Hampshire Avon, which flows to the south coast and into the sea at Christchurch in Dorset. Salisbury railway station serves the city and is a regional interchange, Stonehenge, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is about 8 miles northwest of Salisbury and greatly aids the local economy. The city itself, Old Sarum, the present cathedral and the ruins of the one also attract visitors. The first part of the name is of obscure origin, the form Sarum is a Latinization of Sar, a medieval abbreviation for Sarisberie. Salisbury appeared in the Welsh Chronicle of the Britons as Caer-Caradog, Caer-Gradawc, cair-Caratauc, one of the 28 British cities listed in the History of the Britons, has also been identified with Salisbury. The hilltop at Old Sarum lies near the Neolithic sites of Stonehenge and Avebury and it commanded a salient between the River Bourne and the Hampshire Avon near a crossroads of several early trade routes. During the Iron Age, a hillfort was constructed around it sometime between 600 and 300 BC, the Romans may have occupied the site or left it in the hands of an allied tribe. Amid the Saxon invasions, Old Sarum fell to King Cynric of Wessex in 552, preferring settlements in bottomland like nearby Wilton, the Saxons largely ignored Old Sarum until the Viking invasions led King Alfred to restore its fortifications. Along with Wilton, however, it was abandoned by its residents to be sacked and burned by the Dano-Norwegian king Sweyn Forkbeard in 1003 and it subsequently became the site of Wiltons mint. Following the Norman invasion, a castle was constructed by 1070. The castle was directly by the Norman kings, its castellan was generally also the sheriff of Wiltshire. Hermann and his successor Saint Osmund began the construction of the first Salisbury cathedral, the cathedral was consecrated on 5 April 1092 but suffered extensive damage in a storm, traditionally said to have occurred only five days later. Bishop Roger was an ally of Henry I who served as his viceroy during the kings absence to Normandy and directed the royal administration. He refurbished and expanded Old Sarums cathedral in the 1110s and began work on a palace during the 1130s
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Salisbury Cathedral
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Salisbury Cathedral, formally known as the Cathedral Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary, is an Anglican cathedral in Salisbury, England, and one of the leading examples of Early English architecture. The main body of the cathedral was completed in only 38 years, the cathedral has the tallest church spire in the United Kingdom. Visitors can take the Tower Tour where the interior of the spire, with its ancient wood scaffolding. The cathedral also has the largest cloister and the largest cathedral close in Britain and it contains the worlds oldest working clock and has the best surviving of the four original copies of Magna Carta. In 2008, the cathedral celebrated the 750th anniversary of its consecration, the cathedral is the mother church of the Diocese of Salisbury and seat of the Bishop of Salisbury, currently the Right Reverend Nick Holtam. As a response to deteriorating relations between the clergy and the military at Old Sarum Cathedral, the decision was taken to resite the cathedral, the move occurred during the tenure of Bishop Richard Poore, a wealthy man who donated the land on which it was built. The new cathedral was paid for by donations, principally from the canons, a legend tells that the Bishop of Old Sarum shot an arrow in the direction he would build the cathedral, but the arrow hit a deer that died in the place where Salisbury Cathedral is now. The cathedral crossing, Old Sarum and Stonehenge are reputed to be aligned on a ley line, ruggles asserts that the site, on marshland, was chosen because a preferred site several miles to the west could not be obtained. The foundation stone was laid on 28 April 1220, much of the freestone for the cathedral came from Teffont Evias quarries. As a result of the water table in the new location, the cathedral was built on only four feet of foundations. The only major sections built later were the cloisters in 1240, the house in 1263, the tower and spire. Because most of the cathedral was built in only 38 years, it has a consistent architectural style. Although the spire is the cathedrals most impressive feature, it has proved to be troublesome, together with the tower, it added 6,397 tons to the weight of the building. The large supporting pillars at the corners of the spire are seen to bend inwards under the stress, the addition of reinforcing tie beams above the crossing, designed by Christopher Wren in 1668, arrested further deformation. The beams were hidden by a ceiling, installed below the lantern stage of the tower. Salisbury is one of only three English cathedrals to lack a ring of bells, the others being Norwich Cathedral and Ely Cathedral, however it does strike the time every 15 minutes with bells. In total,70,000 tons of stone,3,000 tons of timber and 450 tons of lead were used in the construction of the cathedral, the west front is of the screen-type, clearly deriving from that at Wells. It is composed of two turrets at each extremity, with two niched buttresses nearer the centre line supporting the large central triple window
United Kingdom
England
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Wiltshire
