The south is 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 are barley make up the principal cereal. The farmer are grown for fodder for thee 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.
2. The Midlands
The Midlands is situated in the center of Great Britain between the South Industrial 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. Today it is one of the chief industrial areas in the United Kingdom. Quite often it is called the Birmingham /Black Country.
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 center of heavy industry and the coal field towns became most important. Exploitation of the coal field devastated large areas of land. Much of the early prosperity depended upon one industry – the iron industry. 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. With the changes in industry have dome changes in
Ф-ОБ- 001/026
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’s 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.
Birmingham also makes bicycles, but its motor-cycle industry has declined, largely owing to Japanese competition. On the other hand, the city has its long tradition of making guns and has an international trade in sporting guns. Jewelry manufacture became a major industry, and Birmingham remains the country’s leading centre. The city is a major producer of consumer 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 woolen cloth, was the chief occupation. During the nineteenth century on the basis of local coal the metal-working and engineering industries developed. During the early years of the century, the first car assembly lines were built, machine tool factories grew up to supply them.
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 after the city was rebuilt. Today Coventry is the centre of the British motor industry.
Nottingham lace also became famous. Other industries in Nottingham are the manufacture of bicycles, pharmaceutical products and cigarettes. Derby is an important railway engineering centre because of its central position. Textile manufacture developed with the building of the country’s first silk mill.
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 (26,000) 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, moor 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 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 rise to market gardening nearby and a great variety of vegetables is produced.
5. Бақылау сұрақтары:
1. Geographical position of regions
2. The main industry
3. Big cities of regions
4. Climate
6. Лекция тақырыбына сәйкес СӨЖ тапсырмалары:
“Agriculture of regions”
7. Қажетті әдебиеттер:
1. Электрондық оқулық
2. Burlacova V.V. “The UK of GB and Northern Ireland”
Ф-ОБ- 001/026
Лекция 8
1.Лекция тақырыбы: The main economic regions
2. Лекция жоспары:
1. Lancashire
2. Yorkshire
3. Лекция мақсаты: Ірі порттармен таныстыру.Ауылшаруашылықтың маңызың түсіндіру.
4. Лекция мазмұны: Негізгі экономикалық аудандар және қалалармен таныстыру. Олардың географиясы.
1. Lancashire
2. 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 the birth place of capitalism and it was here that the Industrial Revolution started.
We may distinguish two major centers in this region: Merseyside and Greater Manchester.
Merseyside is centered on Liverpool. In the space of two hundred years from 1650 to 1850- Liverpool grew from a small fishing village to become Britain’s leading port. 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.
The chemical industry is 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. 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.
Great Manchester, like Merseyside, was one of the metropolitan counties to be formed in 1947, and includes a number of towns, grouped round the upper Mersey.
At the heart of the region the Manchester itself, a city of ancient origin probably called Mancunium by the Romans. People who live in the city are therefore known as Mancunians.
By the seventeenth century Manchester was the center of a textile industry. It was a great commercial city. 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, the important was the construction of the Manchester Ship Canal in 1984 which made the city a seaport in spite of it being 50 km from the sea.
Clothing manufacture based on cotton and synthetic fibers and good processing are important activities, but engineering (including electrical engineering) is the principal employer of labour.
Of the towns situated on the shore of the Irish Sea most important is Black pool, 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.
South Yorkshire as a whole lies on the largest and most productive coalfields in the country.
Sheffield and its neighborhood produces almost two-thirds of the country’s alloy steels. Sheffield produces a wide range of steel goods besides cutlery.
Like South Yorkshire, West Yorkshire a large conurbation, and became one of the metropolitan countries formed in 1974. It is also the home of another great industry – the manufacture of woolen goods, and has one large town-Leeds (705,000).
Being the chief commercial and cultural center 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 woolen 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 minister 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 basic of local are the iron and steel industry developed in Scunthorpe (66,000). The expansion of the town was due to the discovery of iron in the neighborhood. The steel provides an essential raw material for the engineering plants. 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 centers 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 post (second places) Grimsby and Hull have long been rivals in the fish trade, (ports) 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.
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 sawmills, flour to flour mills, etc.
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.
5. Бақылау сұрақтары:
1. Geographical position of regions
2. The main industry
3. Big cities of regions
4. Climate
6. Лекция тақырыбына сәйкес СӨЖ тапсырмалары:
“Agriculture of regions”
7. Қажетті әдебиеттер:
1. Электрондық оқулық
2. Burlacova V.V. “The UK of GB and Northern Ireland”
Ф-ОБ- 001/026
Лекция 9
1.Лекция тақырыбы: The main economic regions
2. Лекция жоспары:
1. National Economy of Scotland
2. Wales
3. Лекция мақсаты: Ірі порттармен таныстыру.Ауылшаруашылықтың маңызың түсіндіру.
4. Лекция мазмұны: Негізгі экономикалық аудандар және қалалармен таныстыру. Олардың географиясы.
1. National Economy of Scotland
2. Wales
1. National Economy of Scotland
Scotland due to its physical features which influence the development of the economy is divided into 3 parts: the Scottish Highlands which occupy the vast, complicated mountain area in the northern part of the country, the Southern Uplands which cover the smaller and lower hill area in the south and the Central Lowlands occupying the wide rift valley which separates the other two areas. The first two areas are sparsely populated, while the Central Lowlands occupying about 15 per cent of Scotland’s territory contain about 80 per cent of its people. The Central Lowlands best situated for population settlement are the industrial heart of Scotland, while the Glasgow region is dominating focus of industrial activity. Here the opening up the Central Coalfield and the growth of Glasgow as a port provided a strong industrial base and, by the end of the nineteenth century, the area was one of the major industrial centers of Britain, with important coal, steel, shipbuilding and engineering industries. The twentieth century has seen increasing problems in these industries and there has been a movement of population from the old established areas to new centers.
The iron industry grew up on the coalfield to the south-east of Glasgow where coking coal and iron ore occurred. These iron ores were quickly exhausted and the industry came to depend on ores imported through Glasgow. At present steelmaking is concentrated at two large integrated plants situated at Motherwell to the south-east of Glasgow. However, the future of these works is no longer certain.
Scottish steel has long been used chiefly by the heavy industries of the Glasgow area, where shipbuilding has been paramount. For a time Clydeside was the most famous shipbuilding district in the world. Shipyards extended along both banks of the Clyde estuary for about 30 km.
Clydeside also benefited by having pioneered the building of ships. But in the 1970s, further beset by the economic crisis of capitalism, Clydeside lost its place as the leading shipbuilding area in Britain.
Glasgow (715,600) is Scotland’s most populous city and third largest in the British Isles. It stands at the lowest bridging point on the river Clyde and has thus become the outstanding market centre for western Scotland, and commercially and industrially dominates Clyde side.
Ф-ОБ- 001/026
As a seaport it enjoyed a Savourable position for trade with North America. Engineering has not shrunk to the same extent as coal mining and shipbuilding. But nowadays practically as many workers are in the service industries as in Manufacturing. Of the latter, textile and clothing production has long been important, and carpets are among the woolen goods. Food products, furniture and office equipment are also manufactured. Extremely important in Scotland’s export trade is whisky produced in Highland distilleries.