Weather is not the same as climate. The weather at a place is the state of the atmosphere there at a given time or over a short period. The weather of the British Isles is notoriously variable. The climate of a place or region, on the other hand, represents the average weather conditions through the […]
The present vegetation of Great Britain owes much of its character to the influence of man. Only in the more remote parts of Ireland and the Scottish Highlands do remnants of the natural vegetation still exist. The ‘natural vegetation’ in the true sense of the term has practically disappeared from Britain, and most of the […]
The rise of Britain as an industrial nation in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries was partly due to the presence of considerable mineral resources, which provided raw materials as well as sources of power. She possessed abundant supplies of coal and an adequacy of iron ore — the two chief minerals on which […]
The highly compressed remains of swamp forests, which at various times covered large areas of Britain, exist today as seams of coal. Coalfields are generally situated on the edges of the upland masses of the north and west. Coal was first obtained on a commercial scale as far back as the thirteenth century, notably in […]
As the importance of coal has declined, oil has become of increasing significance. Crude oil can be refined to produce a wide variety of products including petrol and diesel oils for motor vehicles, aviation spirit, domestic heating oils, and even feedstuffs for animals. Up to the early 1960s, over 99 per cent of Britain’s petroleum […]
Although iron ore is one of the most abundant metals in the earth’s crust, only those rocks which contain 25 per cent or more of iron are considered worthy of exploitation as iron ores. The total reserves of iron ore in Britain are estimated at 3.8 billion tonnes. Iron ores are widely found, though they […]
A great variety of non-metallic minerals is produced in Britain. Various common rocks are mined for building purposes, heavy constructional work and for roadmaking, as in the case of granites in Devon, Cornwall and Aberdeenshire, and basaltic rocks in Northumberland, Shropshire and parts of the Scottish Lowlands. Sandstones and limestones have for centuries been used […]
With its hotels of pink and saffron and grey stucco, its delicate ironwork balconies, its famous lanes and its snug flirtatious restaurants for savouring shellfish Brighton: is violently brought to life by the sea. Thundering waves of typhoon force roar across the Promenade and shatter the milliner’s windows on the other side of the road. […]
It is the sea that dominates the holiday programme in Britain. With no place in Britain more than 70 miles from the coast anyone can easily get to a sea-side resort of some kind in a day’s travel. Probably more people between 35 and 64 than any other adults go to the sea, some because […]
By the standards of today’s English youth, to marry at twenty-two is already dangerously late. Marrying so young, having their babies right away, England’s youth are themselves parents with parential problems, often before they reach the age of twenty. Painfully conditioned by mass advertising, pop records, and the H-bomb, some young people try to use […]
