Topic "England" (6th forms)

The United Kingdom is very small compared with other countries in the world. However, it is highly populated and London is the world’s seventh biggest city.

Britain is an unusually beautiful country, where you can find practically any type of scenery. When you travel about the country you can see how highlands turn into lowlands, forests and hills turn into meadows and plains very quickly. England is the largest part of the UK, and its regions are: the Southeast, the Southwest, East Anglia, the Midlands and the North of England.

The Southeast is a highly populated region of England, there is a lot of industry near the Thames and there are a lot of roads, motorways, main passenger ports and airports. The capital of Great Britain, London, and such historical cities as Windsor, Dover and Brighton, the famous resort, are situated here. Heathrow Airport, one of the world’s busiest airports, is about 33 km west of central London. However, there is still attractive countryside in the Southeast, e.g. the County of Kent is known as the garden on England.

The Southwest is the region where the main activity is farming. There are some very big farms, but most of them are small family farms where dairy products are produced. The Southwest used to be known for its pirates. The romantic past makes it a popular place for artists, writers and holidaymakers. The two principal cities of the region are Bristol and Bath. The Southwest is famous for Stonehenge and “Land’s End”, the most westerly point of Great Britain.

East Anglia is very flat and it is another farming region. It is isolated from the rest of Britain because of its position away from the main national roads and because of its shape: it is more than half surrounded by the sea. It has beautiful cities, such as Cambridge, with fine historic buildings. The part of East Anglia called the Fens consists of miles of flat land with almost no trees or hedges. It used to be partly covered by the see and now produces good harvests. It is the place where Oliver Cromwell, an English general and politician, was born.

The Midlands, known as the heart of England, is the largest industrial part in the country. The most important industrial cities are Manchester, Sheffield, Liverpool, which is one of Britain’s big ports, and Birmingham. The two famous Midlands cities, Stratford-upon-Avon and Oxford are connected with English culture: Stratford is the birth-place of the great William Shakespeare and Oxford is famous for its university.

The North of England has some of the wildest and loneliest parts of the country, but also some of the busiest industrial cities. Here you can find deep valleys, rivers and waterfalls, hills and mountains. This part of the country is rich in coal which is important for the region’s industry. The main attractions of the North of England are the certainly the Lake District, the cities of York and Newcastle-upon-Tyne, and the ruins of Hadrian’s Wall. This stone wall was built across the North of England by the order of the Roman ruler Hadrian to defend the Northern border of Roman Britain from the Scottish tribes.