"Wiltshire".
Related Topics:The county is characterised by its high downland and wide valleys. Salisbury Plain is famous as the location of Stonehenge and other ancient landmarks. The city of Salisbury is notable for its cathedral.
The county, formerly Wiltonshire or Wiltunscir (9th century), is named after the former county town of Wilton (itself named for the river Wylye, one of eight rivers that drain the county).
Wiltshire is particularly well-known for its pre-Roman archaeology. The mesolithic, neolithic and bronze age Celtic tribes that occupied southern Britain built settlements on the hills and downland that cover Wiltshire. Stonehenge and Avebury are perhaps the most famous neolithic sites in the UK.
In the 6th and 7th centuries Wiltshire was at the western edge of Saxon Britain, as Cranborne Chase and the Somerset Levels prevented the advance to the west. In 878 the Danes invaded the county, and, following the Norman Conquest, large areas of the country fell into the hands of the crown and the church. In the 17th century English Civil War Wiltshire was largely Parliamentarian.
As well as Salisbury Plain the chalk runs north east into Berkshire in the Marlborough Downs ridge, and south-west into Dorset as Cranborne Chase. Cranborne Chase, which straddles the border, has, like Salisbury Plain, yielded much stone age and bronze age archaeology. The Marlborough Downs are part of the North Wessex Downs AONB (Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty), a 1,730 sq km (668 square mile) conservation area.
In the north west of the county, on the border with Gloucestershire and Bath and North East Somerset, the underlying rock is the resistant oolite limestone of the Cotswolds. Part of the Cotswolds AONB is also in Wiltshire.
Between the areas of chalk and limestone downland are clay valleys and vales. The largest of these vales is the Avon Vale. The Avon cuts diagonally through the north of the county, flowing through Bradford on Avon and into Bath and Bristol. The Vale of Pewsey has been cut through the chalk into Greensand and Oxford Clay in the centre of the county. In the south west of the county is the Vale of Wardour. The south east of the county lies on the sandy soils of the New Forest.
Chalk is a porous rock so the chalk hills have little surface water. The main settlements in the county are therefore situated at wet points. Notably, Salisbury is situated between the chalk of Salisbury Plain and marshy flood plains.
Population of Wiltshire:
At the parliamentary level Wiltshire is represented entirely by Conservative MPs, except for the built up area around Swindon which is represented by Labour. Since 1992 Devizes has been represented by the front bencher Michael Ancram.
A full list of settlements is at List of places in Wiltshire.
Notable places of interest in Wiltshire are:
Notable areas of countryside in Wiltshire are:
Cranborne Chase Marlborough Downs Salisbury Plain Vale of Pewsey
Notable routes through Wiltshire are:
includes hunting and forestry
includes energy and construction
includes financial intermediation services indirectly measured
Components may not sum to totals due to rounding
Wiltshire | Wiltshire | Wiltshire | Wiltshire | Wiltshire | Wiltshire | ウィルトシャー州 | Wiltshire | Wiltshire | Уилтшир | Wiltshire | Wiltshire
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.
It uses material from the "Wiltshire".
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