England: Encyclopedia II - England - Geography

England - Geography

Main articles: Geography of the United Kingdom, Geography of England

England comprises the central and southern two-thirds of the island of Great Britain, plus offshore islands of which the largest is the Isle of Wight. It is bordered to the north by Scotland and to the west by Wales. It is closer to continental Europe than any other part of Britain, divided from France only by a 38 km (24 statute mile or 21 nautical mile) sea gap.

Most of England consists of rolling hills, but it is more mountainous in the north with a chain of low mountains, the Pennines, dividing east and west. The dividing line between terrain types is usually indicated by the Tees-Exe line. There is also an area of flat, low-lying marshland in the east, much of which has been drained for agricultural use.

The list of England's largest cities is much debated because in British English the normal meaning of city is "a continuously built-up urban area"; these are hard to define and various other definitions are preferred by some people to boost the ranking of their own city. London is by far the largest English city. Manchester and Birmingham vie for second place. A number of other cities, mainly in the north of England, are of substantial size and influence. These include: Liverpool, Leeds, Newcastle, Nottingham, Bristol and Sheffield Using the standard U.S. city limits definition of a city the top six are: Birmingham, Leeds, Sheffield, Bradford, Liverpool and Manchester. Note that London is not on this list (Greater London is a region and the City of London is tiny), and that one of the two candidates for the status of England's "second city", Manchester, is down in sixth. In the UK, this method of ranking cities is generally used only by people whose own city is promoted by it.

The Channel Tunnel, near Folkestone, links England to the European mainland. The English/French border is halfway along the tunnel.

The largest harbour in England is at Poole, on the south-central coast. Internationally, it is the second largest harbour in the world, although this fact is disputed (See harbors for a list of other potential second largest harbours)

The highest temperature ever recorded in England is 38.5 °C (101.3 °F) on August 10, 2003 in Kent. [1]. The lowest temperature ever recorded in England is -26.1 °C (-15.0 °F) on January 10, 1982 at Newport in Shropshire. [2]

England - Major rivers

• Thames
• Severn
• Trent
• Humber
• Yorkshire Ouse
• Tyne
• Mersey
• Dee
• Avon

Main article: Waterways in the United Kingdom

England - Major conurbations

The largest cities in England are much debated but according to the urban area populations (continuous built up areas) these would be the 15 largest conurbations. (Population figures taken from 2001 census)

1. Greater London (8,278,251)
2. West Midlands (2,284,093)
3. Greater Manchester (2,244,931)
4. Leeds/Bradford (1,499,465)
5. Tyneside (879,996)
6. Liverpool (816,216)
7. Nottingham (666,358)
8. Sheffield (640,720)
9. Bristol (551,066)
10. Brighton/Worthing/Littlehampton (461,181)
11. Portsmouth (442,252)
12. Leicester (441,213)
13. Bournemouth/Poole (383,713)
14. Reading (369,804)
15. Teesside (365,323)

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Geography", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki