There are other numerous resorts on the southern shore very popular with holiday-makers because of the mild climate, warm seas and wonderful beaches. The South is a major agricultural region of Great Britain. However, agricultural specialization is different in the South West and South East and East. Owing to the mild, moist climate of the South West, grass grows for a long period in the year, and farming chiefly consists of rearing livestock. On the fertile lowland soils cattle are the principal farm animals, especially dairy breeds which thrive on the lush pastures. Hence, dairying is the main farming activity here. Oats and barley make up the principal cereal. The former are grown for fodder for the cattle. In the very south-west horticulture is developed: the growing of early vegetables and flowers. In the very south of the country barley is the most important grain crop, grown in rotation with other crops, while wheat is produced on the heavier soils. An increasing demand for milk has stimulated dairy farming.

Cereals occupy an important part of the arable farmland in the South East, with barley the main crop and wheat second in importance. However, the region is much better known, especially Kent, for its fruit farms. The requirements of millions of people in Greater London and the seaside towns have also stimulated milk production. In the Thames basin there is an emphasis on market gardening — the production of vegetables and flowers for the growing needs of the Londoners.

Agricultural specialization in the east, which consists of East Anglia and the Fens, is quite different. The Fens is the district situated round the Wash. It is an area of low-lying, marshy land. Now the area has been much changed and put to good use by man's efforts. It may be described nowadays as reclaimed marshland. The climate of this part of the country is more 'continental' in character. This has determined the growing of cereal crops, which are the mainstay of the local economy. East Anglia and the Fens are one of the most important farming areas in the British Isles, with a special emphasis on arable farming. Wheat and barley cover a high proportion of farmland. More than 90 per cent of farmland is occupied with wheat and barley. Sugar beet and potatoes are also important crops. Market gardening and fruit farming are also widespread especially in the south owing to the demands of Greater London.

The Midlands

The Midlands is situated in the centre of Great Britain between the South Industrial and Agricultural region in the south and Lancashire and Yorkshire in the north. For the past two hundred years the Midlands has been one of Britain's leading industrial regions.

It was the presence of coalfields, especially the South Staffordshire coalfields, which set the area on the path of industrial expansion and eventually the development of the great West Midlands conurbation, which is the industrial focus of the region and includes Birmingham* Coventry and several other larger towns. Today it is one of the chief industrial areas in the United Kingdom. Quite often it is called the Birmingham / Black Country conurbation.

Birmingham itself stands outside the district known as the Black Country: a district lying west and north-west of the city. During the nineteenth century the area emerged as a centre of heavy industry and the coalfield towns became most important. Exploitation of the coalfield devastated large areas of land, leaving it derelict. Much of the early prosperity depended upon one industry — the iron industry. The waste tips, grime and smoke spread like a blight from mines, furnaces and the district was well named the Black Country. By the end of the nineteenth century iron ore deposits were exhausted and local coal supplies were diminishing. The decline continued in the present century. Today the region produces less than five per cent of the country's steel output and this small industry depends upon scrap metal and steel brought in from the major producing areas.

Although the basic iron and steel industry has virtually disappeared, the industries which depend upon it, particularly engineering and the finishing of metals, remain important to the area. In addition non-ferrous metallurgy developed for finishing and conversion into alloys. The people of the region have turned to making the finished products of the industry — metal goods of every description from nuts and bolts, nails and screws to motor-cars. Thus most of the workers are now in the various branches of engineering.

---

With the changes in industry have come changes in surface features, and the Black Country is beginning to lose its image. However, many of the problems created in the past still prevail today. Birmingham is the industrial capital of the Midlands. In population (998,200) it is the second largest city in Britain. It has been said that Birmingham makes everything from a pin to a steam roller, but it is best known for its hardware. The motor industry employs thousands of workers, those at the large Longbridge plant representing only part of its labour force. On the south-east outskirts, not within the city, is Solihull (112,000), another important centre of the motor industry. Fort Dunlop, in the northeast, manufactures tyres.

Birmingham also makes bicycles, but its motor-cycle industry has declined, largely owing to Japanese competition. On the other hand, the city has preserved its long tradition of making guns and has an international trade in sporting guns, air rifles,etc. An industry which developed out of the working of base metals, such as zinc and copper (for brass), was the manufacture of articles in gold and silver. Jewellery manufacture became a major industry, and Birmingham remains the country's leading centre. The city is a major producer of consumer goods, and service industries involved in the distribution of goods are also developed. Among the manufacture of food products, cocoa and chocolate occupy a prominent place.

The other major city of the West Midlands conurbation is Coventry (310,000). It was already well known in the Middle Ages. Trading in wool, and later making woollen cloth, was the chief occupation. During the nineteenth century on the basis of local coal the metal-working and engineering industries developed. However, these industries were on a small scale, and it was not until- the twentieth century that rapid growth took place. The silk industry of the past was strengthened by the introduction of artificial fibres and the engineering industry concentrated first on bicycles and later on motor vehicles. During the early years of the century, the first car assembly lines were built, machine tool factories grew up to supply them and a host of component industries appeared.

During the Second World War Coventry suffered great damage from Nazi air raids. On the night of November 14, 1940 came the greatest raid so far directed against an English provincial city. Nearly 75 per cent of the city's industry had been seriously damaged and so had over 46,000 houses. On November 1, 1941 the Coventry AngloSoviet Unity Committee was formed. During the war people began to link the names of Stalingrad and Coventry as two cities which had suffered greatly in the hands of the common enemy. The Committee was therefore made responsible for organizing an exhibition in Coventry of the sword forged in London and presented to Stalingrad on behalf of the British people. Coventry received a book of greetings containing 30,000 signatures from the women of Stalingrad, as a salute from one city to another. These two acts helped to lay the foundations of an international friendship which endures to this day. Today Volgograd and Coventry are twin cities with extensive cultural links.

After the war the city was rebuilt. Today Coventry is the centre of the British motor industry. In the 1970s the crisis of the world capitalist economy produced a slump in the motor industry and, within the space of two years, the city boom came to an end. The whole area including Coventry has suffered greatly from the recession which has seen the virtual collapse of large sections of Britain's manufacturing industry. Another major industrial centre is Wolverhampton (252,000) where heavy engineering, metal founding, tyre production are developed.

There are three major industrial centres situated to the east and north-east of Coventry. They are Leicester (280,000), Nottingham (271,000) and Derby (216,000).

Today Leicester is a leading centre of the knitwear industry (including hosiery), and associated with this is the manufacture of knitting machines.

Nottingham resembles Leicester in being the seat of a university and in having developed a major interest in knitwear production and the manufacture of knitting machinery. Nottingham lace also became famous. Other industries in Nottingham are the manufacture of bicycles, pharmaceutical products and cigarettes. It is twinned to Minsk in Byelorussia and varied contacts are regularly maintained between the two cities.

---

Derby is an important railway engineering centre because of its central position. More important than the railway work-shops today, however, are the Rolls Royce factories, which now produce aircraft engines. Textile manufacture developed with the building of the country's first silk mill. Man-made fibres, initially rayon, later took the place of silk.

At the south-west tip of the Pennines lies a district of the Midlands known as the Potteries with its major industrial centre Stoke-upon-Trent (260,000) famous for its pottery and ceramics industry.

In climate the Midlands has a midway place between the rather wet area to the west (Wales) and the drier, more 'continental' area to the east (East Anglia). A great deal of the region is under grass, either permanent or in rotation. Largely because of climatic differences, dairy cattle are more numerous in the moister west. But there is a higher proportion of beef cattle towards the east. Many sheep are also grazed. Nowadays the principal crops are barley and wheat, along with potatoes and sugar beet. The demands of the large industrial centres have given rise to market gardening nearby, and a great variety of vegetables is produced.
Lancashire and Yorkshire

Two major industrial regions are situated to the north of the Midlands. They are Lancashire, which is on the western slopes of the Pennines and Yorkshire on the eastern side.

Lancashire is a historic centre of British industry, it is the birthplace of capitalism and it was here that the Industrial Revolution started.

We may distinguish two major centres in this region: Merseyside and Greater Manchester.

Merseyside is centred on Liverpool (476,000) and is regarded as a conurbation. The port of Liverpool grew up where a stream flowed into the Mersey estuary and formed a pool, where the small vessels of the Middle Ages could take shelter. In those times the trade was largely with Ireland. In the space of two hundred years — from 1650 to 1850 — Liverpool grew from a small fishing village to become Britain's leading port. Many factors contributed to this development. The port served the Lancashire cotton industry which was the fastest growing industry in the world. Much of the prosperity was due to its taking part in the shameful 'Triangular Trade' or slave trade.

It was also during the period of growth that Liverpool emerged as an important industrial centre. Most of its industries were typical 'port industries', particularly those involved with the building and servicing of ships and the processing of imported raw materials such as grain, timber and, later, oil. Such industries provided a poor base for growth and industrial decline followed the decline of the port.

To some extent, however, the decline of Liverpool was offset by the rise of industries along the shores of the estuary and on the banks of the Ship Canal.

The chemical industry developed, using brine (water is pumped down into the salt deposits, which dissolves the salt and then the water is forced to the surface as brine) from the salt deposits in nearby Cheshire. It expanded rapidly with the development of oil-based chemicals and the soap and detergent industries, which were closely related to it, also grew quickly. Such industries could not, however, halt the industrial decline of the area and unemployment remained high. In the 1960s the motor-car industry developed here. However, today the car industry is in decline and this in turn contributed to the growth of unemployment. Another important industry, shipbuilding and ship repairing, developed at Birkenhead. Just south of Birkenhead on imported palm oil, developed the manufacture of soap and margarine. Within the Merseyside conurbation, just to the north-east of Liverpool at St Helens glass manufacture developed. In general, Merseyside, including Liverpool, is experiencing serious difficulties associated with decline. Many districts of Liverpool suffer from urban decay caused by industrial contraction.

Greater Manchester, like Merseyside, was one of the metropolitan counties to be formed in 1974, and includes a number of towns grouped round the upper Mersey. It is more or less the same area formerly known as the conurbation of south-east Lancashire, standing on the South Lancashire coalfield. Today the conurbation also includes the town of Stockport.

At the heart of the region is Manchester itself, a city of ancient origin, probably called Mancunium by the Romans. People who live in the city are therefore known as Mancunians. Manchester (450,100) stands on the river Irwell, a tributary of the Mersey. On the opposite bank of the Irwell is Salford (98,000), which is closely associated with Manchester but functions as a separate town, and, for instance, has its own university distinct from that of its neighbour.

---

By the seventeenth century Manchester was the centre of a textile industry. It was a great commercial city, the actual spinning and weaving being done in other Lancashire towns, though it specialized to some extent in the finishing processes. Great advances in manufacture were made in the late eighteenth century by several inventions which marked the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. The building of canals encouraged the development of the city. However, most important was the construction of the Manchester Ship Canal in 1894 which made the city a seaport in spite of it being 50km from the sea.

Clothing manufacture based on cotton and synthetic fibres and food processing are important activities, but engineering (including electrical engineering) is the principal employer of labour. Between 1931 and 1971 both cities Manchester and Salford shrank considerably in population, Manchester by one-third and Salford by almost 50 per cent. This was largely owing to the loss of jobs caused by the decline of the textile industry. However, this decline has led to the expansion of general engineering, including the manufacture of textile machinery. Today, general engineering predominates in Manchester and the surrounding towns, rather than coal mining or cotton manufacture, which used to be the mainstay of the Great Manchester area.

Of the towns situated on the shore of the Irish Sea most important is Blackpool, which is a popular coastal resort in northern England.

Today it houses nearly one hundred and fifty thousand inhabitants.

Due to extensive industrial development agriculture is less developed in Lancashire. There is a limited proportion of permanent grassland on the fertile lowlands of south Lancashire. Cattle and sheep are relatively few, but there is a concentration of poultry. Potatoes are an important crop. Other vegetables such as cabbages and peas are also cultivated, and market gardening supplies nearby towns. On some of the lowlands in the north dairy farming predominates.

In Yorkshire situated to the east of the Pennines we may distinguish three main industrial centres: the South Yorkshire metropolitan county or conurbation with its largest and most important city of Sheffield (532,300), the West Yorkshire conurbation including its major cities of Leeds and Bradford and Scunthorpe closely connected with the Humber ports of Hull, Immingham and Grimsby.

South Yorkshire as a whole lies on the largest and most productive coalfield in the country.

Long before the Industrial Revolution the Sheffield district was engaged in iron smelting, using iron ore quarried locally and charcoal obtained from nearby forests. Sheffield was known for its cutlery centuries ago and eventually became the country's outstanding centre of cutlery manufacture.

Sheffield and its neighbourhood produces almost two-thirds of the country's alloy steels, though trade has been threatened in recent years by foreign competition. This in its turn has led to a serious contraction of employment.

Sheffield produces a wide range of steel goods besides cutlery, from hand tools and magnets to wood pulp and paper making machinery. Other industries include food processing, brewing and confectionery manufacture.

Like South Yorkshire, West Yorkshire represents a large conurbation, and became one of the metropolitan counties formed in 1974. It is also the home of another great industry — the manufacture of woollen goods, and has one large town - Leeds (709,000).

Being the chief commercial and cultural centre of West Yorkshire it does not lead in textile. Its main industry is the manufacture of clothing, and engineering is also important. The latter provides work mainly for men, as the ready-made clothing factories do mainly for women. Engineering products are extremely varied.

Bradford (462,500) has long been the leading centre of worsted and woollen manufacture.

In North Yorkshire the largest town is York (100,000). In Roman times it was called Eboracum. It has long been important as a route centre. Railway engineering developed, and another leading industry is the manufacture of confectionery (including chocolate). York attracts many tourists on account of its famous minster and the medieval city walls. In recent years the city's population has changed little, but is especially swollen by tourists during the summer months.

On the North Sea coast the most popular holiday resort is Scarborough (43,000). It attracts holiday-makers from all over the country. Quite often it is chosen as a site for the annual conferences of the leading political parties.

---

On the basis of local ore the iron and steel industry developed in Scunthorpe (66,000). The expansion of the town was primarily due to the discovery of iron ore in the neighbourhood. The steel provides an essential raw material for the engineering plants nearby. Scunthorpe does not stand on a coalfield — a disadvantage — but coal is readily available from the nearby Yorkshire .pits.

Scunthorpe has large integrated steelworks where all the stages in steel manufacture take place: coal is converted into coke in coke ovens, the ore is smelted in blast furnaces, and the molten pig-iron is converted into steel at the same works. A massive modernization programme was carried out in the 1970s, and Scunthorpe today has become one of the leading steel-making centres in the country.

The estuary of the Humber is one of the most spacious in Britain, and it is also well placed for trade with Europe. Thus a number of seaports have grown up there, and two of them, Immingham and Grimsby, have risen to front-rank importance. Grimsby developed mainly as a fishing port. Grimsby and Hull have long been rivals in the fish trade, taking first and second places among the country's fishing ports. Both ports have suffered from the decline in the fishing industry. Grimsby, however, has benefited from the industrial development along the south bank of the estuary. It has also become a leading centre for the preparation of frozen foods.

Hull, Kingston-upon-Hull (268,000), to give its full name, is by its size and importance 'the capital' of Humberside. It stands at the point where the small river Hull enters the estuary, on the north bank.

In the early days prosperity depended largely on fishing, and in most recent years the fishing fleet landed a bigger catch than of any other port. Hull had a majority of modern long-distance trawlers. When difficulties arose in the industry, in particular the adjustment of fishing limits, the effects were severely felt in Hull. Fishing and associated occupations no longer retained their leading role. Its industry is closely connected with the imports: timber goes to the saw-mills, flour to flour mills, etc. Among the other industries are shipbuilding, especially of tugs and barges, and the manufacture of caravans and pharmaceutical products. Much of the foreign trade is with Scandinavia, there are also trade links with the Soviet Union.

The economy of Yorkshire was always closely connected with wool. This is vividly reflected in the development of agriculture. The highlands along the Pennines covered with coarse grass form rough pasture for sheep grazing, especially in the western and northern regions. North Yorkshire is mainly a rural farming region. Farming is mixed and includes cattle rearing and cultivation of root crops such as potatoes, carrots and cereals, mainly barley. In the north dairy cattle outnumber beef cattle.

Much of the territory to the east, especially near the coast is under the plough. Barley and wheat are major crops, and sugar beet and potatoes are also important.

North England

North England is situated between Lancashire and Yorkshire in the south and Scotland in the north. However, within this economic region we may distinguish two main centres of industrial activity: one situated in the north-east around the estuaries of the rivers Tyne, Wear and Tees and the other in the north-west in Cumberland (Workington, Whitehaven, Barrow-in-Furness). Most important is the North-East, which includes Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Sunderland and Teesside(the latter merging together 6 towns, including Middlesbrough).

For centuries the North-East depended for its prosperity on the Northumberland and Durham coalfield and the industries associated with it. During the twentieth century this coalfield — in common with most British coalfields — has faced serious economic problems, many of which have yet to be overcome. Basic industries, such as coal mining, steel making and shipbuilding have contracted, and new industries have not emerged to replace them. As a result, the industrial structure of the area is weak, unemployment is high and population growth very slow — a far cry from the situation in the South.

One hundred years ago Northumberland and Durham was the leading coalmining district in Britain, with a production of more than forty million tonnes a year. Today the number of pits has contracted considerably and output is less than one third of this figure.

---

Смотрите также файлы

• Непроизносимые согласные.doc

• Решение по исследуемой проблеме для реализации его в практической деятельности.pptx

• Программа детского оздоровительного лагеря с дневным пребыванием Солнышко Яркое и весёлое лето.docx

• Произведения о Великой Отечественной войне.docx

• Публичной власти в Российской Федерации.doc