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The British Isles form a group lying off the north-west coast of Europe with a total area of 121,600 square miles. The largest islands are Great Britain proper (comprising the mainlands of England, Wales and Scotland) and Ireland (comprising Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic). Off the southern coast of England is the Isle of Wight and off the extreme south-west are the Isles of Scilly; off North Wales is Anglesey. Western Scotland is fringed by numerous islands and to the far north are the important groups of the Orkneys and Shetlands. All these form administrative counties or parts of counties of the mainland, but the Isle of Man in the Irish Sea and the Channel Islands between Great Britain and France have a large measure of administrative autonomy and are not part of England, Wales or Scotland.
The total land area of the United Kingdom (excluding inland water) is 93,018 square miles. Care must be taken when studying British statistics to note whether they refer to England, to England and Wales (considered together for many administrative and other purposes), to Great Britain, which comprises England, Wales and Scotland, or to the United Kingdom as a whole.
The latitude of 50° North cuts across the southernmost part of the British mainland (the Lizard Peninsula) and latitude 60° North passes through the Shetland Islands. The northernmost point of the Scottish mainland, Dunnet Head, is in latitude 58°40'. The prime meridian of 0° passes through the old Observatory of Greenwich (London), while the easternmost point of England is nearly Г45' East and the westernmost point of Ireland is approximately 10°30' West.
The seas surrounding the British Isles are very shallow — usually less than 50 fathoms (300 feet) — because the islands lie on the continental shelf. To the north-west along the edge of the shelf the sea floor plunges abruptly from 600 feet to 3,000 feet.
Geology and Topography. Despite their small area, the British Isles contain rocks of all the main geological periods. In Great Britain the newer rocks, which are less resistant to weather, and have thus been worn down to form low land, lie to the south and east, and the island can therefore be divided roughly into two main regions, Lowland Britain and Highland Britain.
In Lowland Britain the newer and softer rocks of southern and eastern England have been eroded into a rich plain, more often rolling than flat and rising to chalk and limestone hills, but hardly ever reaching a thousand feet above sea level. The boundaries of this region run roughly from the mouth of the Tyne in the north-east of England to the mouth of the Exe in the south-west.
Highland Britain comprises the whole of Scotland as well as the mountains of the Scottish Highlands (which extend from the Forth-Clyde valley to the extreme north-west), the Lake District in north-west England, the broad central upland known as the Pennines, almost the whole of Wales, and the south-western peninsula of England coinciding approximately with the counties of Devon and Cornwall. Highland Britain contains all the mountainous parts of Great Britain and extensive uplands lying above one thousand feet. This high ground, however, is not continuous but is interspersed with valleys and plains.
Britain's complex geology is one of the main reasons for its rich variety of scenery found within short distances, particularly on the coast. The ancient rocks of Highland Britain often reach the coast in towering cliffs; elsewhere the sea may penetrate in deep lochs, as along much of the west coast of Scotland. Even around Lowland Britain there are striking contrasts. In some parts the soft, white limestone — the chalk — forms the world-famous white cliffs of Dover or the Needles off the Isle of Wight; while other parts of the south and south-east coastline have beaches of sand or shingle. The eastern coast of England between the Humber and the Thames estuary is for the most part low-lying, and for hundreds of years some stretches of it have been protected against the sea by embankments. These have occasionally been breached, as in the flood disaster of January, 1953, which was caused by violent gales and exceptionally high tides The marked tidal movement around the British Isles sweeps away much of the sand and mud brought down by the rivers and makes the estuaries of the short British rivers valuable as natural harbours.
Climate and Weather. The British Isles lie, throughout the year, in the belt of westerly winds. Thus the prevailing winds blow from a westerly and especially a southwesterly direction, reaching the British Isles from over the vast Atlantic ocean, and depositing a plentiful rainfall.
It is often somewhat incorrectly said that the British Isles are bathed by the wrarm waters of the Gulf Stream. The Gulf Stream after emerging from the Gulf of Mexico, sweeps along the shores of Florida and is truly a stream of warm water a few miles wide. But this water gradually spreads out and drifts towards the north-east across the North Atlantic Ocean, being helped by the prevailing south-west winds. The waters of this North Atlantic or the Gulf Stream Drift sweep round the British Isles to spread out over the shallow North Sea and drift past the coast of Norway. They would not feel warm, however, to anyone attempting to bathe in them even in the summer, and it is not rally the water which keeps the climate of the British Isles relatively mild. The water, on its way across the Atlantic Ocean, helps to raise the temperature of the winter winds blowing over it and it is the warmed south-west winds which keep the winter climate mild as well as moist. In summer the effect of the ocean waters and the winds is to prevent the climate becoming very warm.
One of the most striking things about the British Isles is the rapidity with which the weather changes from day to day or even during the day. A warm sunny day may be followed by one with cool or cold dry winds.
Because Britain has rain in every month of the year most of the rivers are well supplied with water. Although rivers are not now much used for navigation, they once afforded the chief highways into the country. Many towns and cities, including London, draw all or part of their water supply from the rivers, and those that rely on reservoirs in the hills have also little fear of serious shortage. Although ports such as London on the Thames, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, and Glasgow on the Clyde are tidal, and the rise and fall of the tide helps to keep the mouths of the rivers free from silt, the constant flow of river water is important. Because of the good rainfall there are still many parts of the country liable to serious flooding.
As much of the weather of the British Isles is due to Atlantic influences, the west is wetter than the east and is made wetter still by the presence of most of the highland masses in the west, which cause the air to rise and so to become cooled and lose much of its moisture as rain. Much of the east lies in the "rain-shadow" area, receiving most of the rainfall during the passage of depressions and thunderstorms. No part of the British Isles has normally too little rainfall for cultivation, but many parts have too much. Rain falls in the British Isles in every month of the year, with usually least in spring.
In winter the continent of Europe gets colder with increasing distance from the Atlantic and a similar effect is noticeable in the British Isles, for eastern Britain faces the colder continent whereas western Britain faces the relatively warm Atlantic. The coldest parts of all are the lofty Highlands of Scotland, but the western shores of the Highlands although wet and bleak are never very cold and Cape Wrath shows about the same January mean temperature as the Isle of Wight. In January the warmest parts of the British Isles are southwestern Ireland and south-western England (Devon and Cornwall). There snow is rare and it never lies on the ground for long. Many plants can grow there which would be chilled by frost in other parts of the country. The spring, too, comes earlier.
In summer the south-eastern part of England is warmest, and it becomes gradually cooler towards the north and northwest, so that the Shetland Islands are the coolest part of the British Isles. Some crops which ripen well in the south (wheat, for example) will not ripen in northern Scotland.
Latitude clearly has a good deal to do with this but the location of the warmest area at this season — round London -— should also be related to the wider expanse of land in the south-east and to distance from the cooling effect of the Atlantic Ocean.
Soil and Vegetation. Many parts of the surface of Highland Britain have only thin, poor soils, with the result that large stretches of moorland are found over the Highlands of
Scotland, the Pennines, the Lake District, the mountains of Wales and in parts of north-east and south-west England. In most areas the farmer has cultivated only the valley lands and the plains where soils are deeper and richer.
With its mild climate and varied soils, Britain has a diverse pattern of natural vegetation. When the islands were first settled, oak forest probably covered the greater part of the lowland, giving place to extensive marshlands, thin forests of Scots pine on higher and sandy ground and perhaps some open moorland. In the course of the centuries nearly all the forests have been cleared and woodlands now occupy only about 7 per cent of the surface of the country. Midland Britain appears to be well wooded because of the numerous hedgerows and isolated trees. The greatest density of woodland occurs in the north and east of Scotland, in some parts of south-east England and on the Welsh border. The most common trees are oak, beech, ash and elm and, in Scotland, pine and birch.
There are various types of wild vegetation, including the natural flora of woods, fens marshes, foreshores and cliffs, chalk downs and the higher slopes of mountains; the most widespread is that of the hilly moorland country. Most of Britain, however, is agricultural land, of which about a third is arable and the rest pasture and meadow.
Farming land is divided into fields by hedges or stone walls and, especially in the mixed farms which cover most of the country, presents a pattern of contrasting colour. The cool temperate climate of Britain and the even distribution of rainfall ensure a long growing season; streams rarely dry up, grassland is green throughout the year and full of wild flowers from spring to autumn; there is scarcely a month in which some flowers may not be found in hedgerows and sheltered woodland glades.
Fauna. The fauna of the British Isles is in general similar to that of north-western Europe, though there are fewer species. Some of the larger mammals, including the wolf, the bear, the boar and the Irish elk, have become extinct; there are foxes in most rural areas, and otters are found along many rivers and streams. Both common and grey seals may be seen on various parts of the coast, though not usually in the same localities. Smaller mammals include mice, rats, hedgehogs, moles, squirrels (the imported grey more numerous than the native red), hares, rabbits, weasels and stoats.
There are about 430 species of birds, including many songbirds. About 230 species are resident and the rest are regular visitors to Britain. The chaffinch and the blackbird are probably the most numerous and widely and evenly distributed, but sparrows usually predominate near houses, and flocks of starlings, which gather at certain seasons, sometimes congregate in London and other large towns.
The many species of gulls and other sea-birds which nest round the coast often fly far inland in search of food or shelter in rough weather. Many of the rarer species of birds are protected by law.
River and lake fish include salmon, trout, sea-trout, perch, roach and pike.
There are more than 21,000 different kinds of insects, most of them small, in the British Isles.
The insect fauna in Britain is less varied than that of continental Europe and lacks a number of common European species.
We live in one of the most beautiful islands in the world. This is a fact we are always forgetting. When beautiful islands are mentioned we think of Trinidad and Tahiti. These are fine, romantic places, but they are not really as exquisitely beautiful as our own Britain. Before the mines and factories came, and long before we went from bad to worse with our arterial roads and petrol stations and horrible brick bungalows, this country must have been an enchantment. Even now, after we have been busy for so long flinging mud at this fair pale face, the enchantment still remains. Sometimes I doubt if we deserve to possess it. There can be few parts of the world in which commercial greed and public indifference have combined to do more damage than they have here. The process continues. It is still too often assumed that any entei -prising fellow after quick profits has a perfect right to destroy a loveliness that is the heritage of the whole community.
The beauty of our country is as hard to define as it is easy to enjoy. Remembering other and larger countries we see at once that one of its charms is that it is immensely varied within a small compass. We have here no vast mountain ranges, no illimitable plains. But we have superb variety. A great deal of everything is packed into little space. I suspect that we are always, faintly conscious of the fact that this is a smallish island, with the sea always round the corner. We know that everything has to be neatly packed into a small space. Nature, we feel, has carefully adjusted things — mountains, plains, rivers, lakes — to the scale of the island itself. A mountain 12,000 feet high would be a horrible monster here, as wrong as a plain 400 miles long, a river as broad as the Mississippi. Though the geographical features of this island are comparatively small, and there is astonishing variety almost everywhere, that does not mean that our mountains are not mountains, our plains not plains.
My own favourite country, perhaps because I knew it as a boy, is that of the Yorkshire Dales. A day's walk among them will give you almost everything fit to be seen on this earth. Within a few hours, you have enjoyed the green valleys, with their rivers, fine old bridges, pleasant villages, hanging woods, smooth fields, and then the moorland slopes, with their rushing streams, stone walls, salty winds and crying curlews, white farmhouses, and then the lonely heights which seem to be miles above the ordinary world, and moorland tracks as remote, it seems, as trails in Mongolia.
We have greater resources at our command than our ancestors had, and we are more impatient than they were. Thanks to our new resources, we are better able to ruin the countryside and even the towns, than our fathers were, but on the other hand we are far more alive to the consequences of such ruin than they were.
Our children and their children after them must live in a beautiful country. It must be a country happily compromis-lng between Nature and Man, blending what was best worth retaining from the past with what best represents the spirit °f our own age, a country as rich in noble towns as it is in trees, birds, and wild flowers.
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The 2013 ONS regional characteristics analysis for the South East
The latest ONS Region and Country Profiles analysis takes a look at the regional characteristics of the nine regions within England and countries of the UK, exploring aspects such as population, age, employment and house prices. The profile of the South East shows it to be the largest region in population terms, with the longest life expectancy. The South East contributes 15% to the UK’s economic output. The unemployment rate is among the lowest, and incomes are the highest outside London.
The South East makes up 14% of the total UK population
The South East is the third largest region of England, covering 19,100 square kilometres (sq km) and constituting 8% of the total area of the UK. It surrounds London to the south and west and extends as far north as Milton Keynes. A fifth (20.4%) of the region’s population lived in rural areas, compared with 17.6% for England in mid-2011.
The population of 8.7 million at mid-2012 was the largest of all the regions of England and countries of the UK at almost 14% of the total UK population. This was 0.8% more than in 2011, compared with an increase of 0.7% for the UK over the same period. In mid-2012, population density in the South East was 458 people per sq km, higher than the population density for England (411 people per sq km) and the third highest of all the regions.
People in the region have the longest life expectancies
The median age of the region’s population in mid-2012 was 40.8 years, compared with the UK average of 39.7 years.
In 2009 to 2011, life expectancy at birth in the South East was 80.0 years for males and 83.8 years for females. This was similar to the estimate for the South West and East of England and higher than 78.9 and 82.9 years respectively for England.
The South East produces 15% of the uk’s total economic output
In 2011, the South East was responsible for nearly 15% of the UK’s economic output (gross value added or GVA). The South East’s unemployment rate was the joint lowest with the South West, at 6.0% in Q2 2013, compared with an average of 7.8% for the UK. The lowest regional proportion of children living in workless households in Q2 2013 was in the South East at 9.7%, compared with 13.6% for England.
The employment rate stood at 75.8%, higher than the UK rate of 71.5%. The percentage of the region’s population aged 16 to 64 that had no qualifications in 2012 was 6.9%, the lowest of all the regions of England and countries of the UK, compared with 9.9% for the UK and 9.5% in England.
In April 2012, median gross weekly earnings for full-time adult employees were £556, the highest outside London and above the UK median of £506. Gross disposable household income (GDHI) of South East residents was the second highest in the UK, after London, at £18,100 per head in 2011, compared with £16,000 for the UK.
House prices in the South East are the second highest in the UK. The average house price in June 2013 was £299,000, compared with £242,000 for the UK. House prices increased 2.9% in the year to June 2013, compared with 8.1% in London. Private enterprise completed construction of 17,300 new homes in the South East in 2011/12. This was the most of all the English regions and countries of the UK, contributing 16% to the UK total.