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North Wessex Downs
The North Wessex Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) is located in the English counties of Berkshire, Hampshire, Oxfordshire and Wiltshire. The name ''North Wessex Downs'' is not a traditional one, the area covered being better known by various overlapping local names, including the Berkshire Downs, the North Hampshire Downs, the White Horse Hills, the Lambourn Downs, the Marlborough Downs, the Vale of Pewsey and Savernake Forest. Topography The AONB covers an area of some . It takes the form of a horseshoe, with the open end facing east, surrounding the town of Newbury and the River Kennet catchment area. The northern arm reaches as far east as the suburbs of Reading in mid-Berkshire and as far north as Didcot in South Oxfordshire, whilst the southern arm extends to Basingstoke in northern Hampshire. To the west, the AONB reaches as far as Calne and Devizes. The highest points are the 297 m (974 ft) summit of Walbury Hill, situated southeast ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hampshire
Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in western South East England on the coast of the English Channel. Home to two major English cities on its south coast, Southampton and Portsmouth, Hampshire is the 9th-most populous county in England. The county town of Hampshire is Winchester, located in the north of the county. The county is bordered by Dorset to the south-west, Wiltshire to the north-west, Berkshire to the north, Surrey to the north-east, and West Sussex to the south east. The county is geographically diverse, with upland rising to and mostly south-flowing rivers. There are areas of downland and marsh, and two national parks: the New Forest and part of the South Downs, which together cover 45 per cent of Hampshire. Settled about 14,000 years ago, Hampshire's recorded history dates to Roman Britain, when its chief town was Venta Belgarum (now Winchester). The county was recorded in Domesday Book as divided into 44 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Calne
Calne () is a town and civil parish in Wiltshire, southwestern England,OS Explorer Map 156, Chippenham and Bradford-on-Avon Scale: 1:25 000.Publisher: Ordnance Survey A2 edition (2007). at the northwestern extremity of the North Wessex Downs hill range, a designated Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. Calne is on a small river, the Marden, that rises away in the Wessex Downs, and is the only town on that river. It is on the A4 road national route east of Bath, east of Chippenham, west of Marlborough and southwest of Swindon. Wiltshire's county town of Trowbridge is to the southwest, with London due east as the crow flies. At the 2011 Census, Calne had 17,274 inhabitants. History In 978, Anglo-Saxon Calne was the site of a large two-storey building with a hall on the first floor. It was here that St Dunstan, Archbishop of Canterbury met the Witenagemot to justify his controversial organisation of the national church, which involved the secular priests being repla ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Escarpment
An escarpment is a steep slope or long cliff that forms as a result of faulting or erosion and separates two relatively level areas having different elevations. The terms ''scarp'' and ''scarp face'' are often used interchangeably with ''escarpment''. Some sources differentiate the two terms, with ''escarpment'' referring to the margin between two landforms, and ''scarp'' referring to a cliff or a steep slope. In this usage an escarpment is a ridge which has a gentle slope on one side and a steep scarp on the other side. More loosely, the term ''scarp'' also describes a zone between a coastal lowland and a continental plateau which shows a marked, abrupt change in elevation caused by coastal erosion at the base of the plateau. Formation and description Scarps are generally formed by one of two processes: either by differential erosion of sedimentary rocks, or by movement of the Earth's crust at a geologic fault. The first process is the more common type: the escarpment is ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
River Thames
The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the The Isis, River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the Longest rivers of the United Kingdom, second-longest in the United Kingdom, after the River Severn. The river rises at Thames Head in Gloucestershire, and flows into the North Sea near Tilbury, Essex and Gravesend, Kent, via the Thames Estuary. From the west it flows through Oxford (where it is sometimes called the Isis), Reading, Berkshire, Reading, Henley-on-Thames and Windsor, Berkshire, Windsor. The Thames also drains the whole of Greater London. In August 2022, the source of the river moved five miles to beyond Somerford Keynes due to the heatwave in July 2022. The lower reaches of the river are called the Tideway, derived from its long tidal reach up to Teddington Lock. Its tidal section includes most of its London stretch and has a rise and fall of . From Oxford to th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chilterns AONB
The Chiltern Hills is a chalk escarpment in England. The area, northwest of London, covers stretching from Goring-on-Thames in the southwest to Hitchin in the northeast - across Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire, and Bedfordshire. The hills are at their widest. In 1965 almost half of the Chiltern Hills was designated as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB). The northwest boundary is clearly defined by the escarpment. The dip slope is by definition more gradual, and merges with the landscape to the southeast. The southwest endpoint is the River Thames. The hills decline slowly in prominence in northeast Bedfordshire.The Changing Landscape of the Chilterns Chilterns AoNB, Accessed 19 February 2012 |
Goring Gap
The Goring Gap is the narrow valley, occupied by the River Thames, between the Chiltern Hills and the Berkshire Downs. It is approximately upstream of Reading and downstream of Oxford. The river here delimits Berkshire from Oxfordshire. The village of Goring, on the Oxfordshire side of the Thames, gives its name to the gap. Formation Half a million years ago the chalk hills mentioned formed a continuous escarpment, thus the Thames flowed northeastwards to reach the North Sea sharing the catchment of the Great Ouse. A headwater of the latter still comes within of low-gradient Thames tributary the Cherwell in an almost flat landscape. During maxima of the recent ice ages, the plain of the lower course froze, leaving all of northern England covered in ice sheets. The sheets grew to reach a likely previous escape, an overflow via the deep valleys of the Bulbourne- Gade, upper Colne, Stort and Stour. The Thames was thus halted, in a lake submerging the plain of Oxford: a wint ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lardon Chase
Lardon Chase is a biological Site of Special Scientific Interest in Streatley in Berkshire. It is in the North Wessex Downs, which is an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, and is part of the Lardon Chase, the Holies and Lough Down National Trust property. This sloping site on the Berkshire Downs is unimproved chalk grassland. Steep areas on thin soils are grazed by rabbits. The site is particularly important for its butterfly species, including chalkhill blue, marbled white and the rare adonis blue The Adonis blue (''Lysandra bellargus'', also known as ''Polyommatus bellargus'') is a butterfly in the family Lycaenidae. It inhabits the Palearctic realm (Western Europe, Central Europe, Southern Europe, Southern Russia, Iraq, Iran, Caucasus, ... at its last known locality in the county. There is access from Streatley Hill. References {{SSSIs Berks Sites of Special Scientific Interest in Berkshire ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The South Western Slopes Of Walbury Hill - Geograph
''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the most frequently used word in the English language; studies and analyses of texts have found it to account for seven percent of all printed English-language words. It is derived from gendered articles in Old English which combined in Middle English and now has a single form used with pronouns of any gender. The word can be used with both singular and plural nouns, and with a noun that starts with any letter. This is different from many other languages, which have different forms of the definite article for different genders or numbers. Pronunciation In most dialects, "the" is pronounced as (with the voiced dental fricative followed by a schwa) when followed by a consonant sound, and as (homophone of pronoun ''thee'') when followed by a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tan Hill, Wiltshire
Tan Hill () is a hill north of Allington in the parish of All Cannings, Wiltshire, England. Its summit is above sea level and is the second highest point of the North Wessex Downs AONB hill range (the adjacent Milk Hill is 295 m high), and of Wiltshire. It is also the third highest point between Bristol and London. On 23 August 2009, the BBC programme ''Countryfile'' featured an item on analysis by Ordnance Survey to determine whether Milk or Tan Hill is the highest. It was confirmed that Milk Hill is higher than Tan Hill. Along the north side of Tan Hill runs a section of The Wansdyke, an earthen rampart which runs east to west across much of southern England. The hill is frequently used by the Thames Valley Hang Gliding and Paragliding Club in conjunction with Milk Hill. Hill figure and stone circle Formerly, Tan Hill had a hill figure of a white horse, sometimes called the Tan Hill Donkey because of its notably large head. Author Kathleen Wiltshire, in her book ''W ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Milk Hill
Milk Hill, located near Alton Priors east of Devizes, is the highest point in the county of Wiltshire, southwest England, at some above sea level (the adjacent Tan Hill rises to 294 m). It is the location of the Alton Barnes white horse (a hill figure cut in 1812). On 23 August 2009, the BBC programme '' Countryfile'' featured an item on analysis by Ordnance Survey to determine whether Milk or Tan Hill is the higher. It was confirmed that Milk Hill is higher than Tan Hill. Located at the western edge of the Vale of Pewsey (part of the North Wessex Downs AONB), it is also the highest summit along a 50 km ridge extending all the way from the South Downs, across the southern Chilterns and into Wiltshire. Milk Hill is the second highest point between Bristol and London after Walbury Hill in West Berkshire (297 m / 974 ft.), and is thus also the second highest chalk hill in the UK, again behind Walbury Hill, though it has a slightly greater prominence. Milk Hi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mendip Hills
The Mendip Hills (commonly called the Mendips) is a range of limestone hills to the south of Bristol and Bath in Somerset, England. Running from Weston-super-Mare and the Bristol Channel in the west to the Frome valley in the east, the hills overlook the Somerset Levels to the south and the Chew Valley and other tributaries of the Avon to the north. The hills give their name to the local government district of Mendip, which administers most of the area. The higher, western part of the hills, covering has been designated an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB), which gives it a level of protection comparable to a national park. The hills are largely formed from Carboniferous Limestone, which is quarried at several sites. Ash–maple woodland, calcareous grassland and mesotrophic grassland which can be found across the Mendip Hills provide nationally important semi-natural habitats. With their temperate climate these support a range of flora and fauna including bi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
West Berkshire
West Berkshire is a local government district in Berkshire, England, administered from Newbury by West Berkshire Council. History The district of Newbury was formed on 1 April 1974, as a merger of the borough of Newbury, Bradfield Rural District, Hungerford Rural District and Newbury Rural District, along with part of Wantage Rural District. Until 1 April 1998, Newbury District Council and Berkshire County council were responsible for the region at local government level. On 1 April 1998, Berkshire County Council was abolished and Newbury District Council changed its name to West Berkshire Council and took on the former County Council's responsibilities within its area. Geography West Berkshire is semi-rural in character, with most of the population living in the wooded Kennet valley. Apart from Newbury, the other main centres in the district include Thatcham, Hungerford, Pangbourne and Lambourn. Larger villages include Burghfield, Mortimer and Hermitage. 30% of th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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