Middlesex Postcode Category

HA7 (...)

UB3 (...)

UB4 (...)

UB8 (...)

Middlesex Description

Located in southeast England, Middlesex has a rich history. Almost all of its landmass is located inside the Greater London urban region and the ceremonial county of Greater London, with only a few square miles located in the surrounding counties. Three rivers provide much of the county's boundaries; the Thames in the south, the Lea to the east and the Colne to the west. The border with Hertfordshire is delineated by a range of hills to the north.

Middlesex county's name stems from its foundation as the Middle Saxon Province of the Anglo-Saxon Kingdom of Essex, with the county of Middlesex afterwards founded from part of that region in either the ninth or tenth century, and maintaining an administrative unit until 1965. After Rutland, this county is the smallest of England's original counties.

The City of London became a county corporate in the 12th century; this granted it self-governance, and it was also able to impose political power over the rest of Middlesex as the Sheriff of London was given jurisdiction in Middlesex, while the county otherwise remained separate

Geography

The county lies inside the London Basin and the most prominent feature is the River Thames, which marks the southern boundary. The River Lea and the River Colne form natural boundaries to the east and west. The entire south west boundary of Middlesex follows a gently sloping meander of the Thames without hills. At Teddington, where the river flows north-westward, the left (Middlesex) bank is the south-west bank, hence "Middlesex bank" is more correct than "north bank" in many locations. The northern part of the county is characterized by clay, whereas the southern part is dominated by alluvium on gravel.

The boundary is defined by a line of hills that extends in a northwesterly direction, parallel to the easterly and southeastern directions. From the Colne to Barnet Gate Wood, this boundary is delineated by a 20 kilometre hedge of great antiquity. East of the wood the hedge continues, but no longer constitutes the county boundary, suggesting that the eastern half of the boundary is younger.

As the hedge travels east from Barnett Gate Wood, it eventually splits in two at Arkley, with one fork continuing east to Chipping Barnet and Cockfosters and the other forking north to create the parish boundary between Shenley and Ridge, both in Hertforshire. Neither fork is a component of the dividing line between the two counties. The Liberty of St. Albans was established in the late 8th century from portions of the Dioceses of London and Lincoln, which is likely when the county boundaries changed.

Barnet or 'Dollis' valleys cut through the mountains. (South of the boundary, these feed into the Welsh Harp Lake or Brent Reservoir which becomes the River Brent) Because of this, Hertfordshire sticks out into the county in a very long way. The county was once well wooded, with part of it covered by the ancient Forest of Middlesex; Domesday returns for Middlesex suggest that it was roughly 30% wooded (much of it wood-pasture) in 1086, about double the English average. The highest point is the High Road by Bushey Heath at 502 feet (153 m).

Economy

The Middlesex region was home to human settlers for thousands of years before the county was established.

The economy of the county was dependent on the City of London from early times and was predominantly agricultural. Crops such as grain and hay, cattle, and construction materials were all supplied to the City. Coaching, innkeeping, and the sale of goods and services at daily shops and stalls to the substantial passing trade, as well as recreation at day trip sites like Hackney, Islington, Highgate, and Twickenham, generated significant local employment and also constituted part of the early economy.

Tower Division, often known as Tower Hamlets, was an independent police jurisdiction to the east of the City with its own Lord Lieutenant.

The Corporation of London fought attempts to expand the City of London boundaries into rural Middlesex, creating difficulties in the management of local government and justice as London spread throughout the county. This was notably true at the East and West Ends of London, which were located in the southeast of the county in the 18th and 19th centuries. In 1855, as a reaction to these difficulties, the highly populated southeast, along with parts of Kent and Surrey, became part of Middlesex and came under the jurisdiction of the Metropolitan Board of Works for the construction of certain public facilities.

In 1889, when county councils were established, the new administrative County of London absorbed roughly a third of the historic county's land area and population, while the remaining area became the administrative county of Middlesex, governed by the Middlesex County Council, which held its meetings at the Middlesex Guildhall in Westminster. Greater London, an area that included nearly all of the historic county of Middlesex with the rest included in neighboring ceremonial counties, was established in 1965 in response to further suburban growth stimulated by the improvement and expansion of public transportation and the establishment of new industries.

England, UK Description

England is the UK's largest constituent unit, occupying more than half of the island. Despite its political, economic, and cultural legacy, England is no longer a governmental or political unit. 

With its rich soil and crisscrossing network of rivers and streams, England has been and remains a thriving agricultural economy. England became the epicenter of the global Industrial Revolution in the early 1800s, quickly rising to the top of the global industrialization rankings. Manufacturing industries in Manchester, Birmingham, and Liverpool turned raw materials into finished goods for export. London, the country's capital, became one of the world's most important cities, a hub for a global political economy. The London metropolitan area continues to be Europe's financial center and a hotbed of innovation, particularly in the fields of popular culture.

One of the most fundamental features of the English language is its diversity within a limited compass. Even England's most remote regions are accessible by car or train within a day's drive or train ride of London. Many English people identify with the regions or shires from which they are descended—for example, Yorkshire, the West Country, or the Midlands—and maintain strong ties to those regions even if they live in other parts of the country. Some differences exist, but many more, especially as England transitioned from a rural to an urban society, began to fade after 1945. The country's island location has shaped the English character, which values social harmony, social harmony, and good manners that ensure orderly relations in a densely populated landscape, among other characteristics.

During the dismantling of Britain's vast overseas empire in the mid-20th century, England suffered an identity crisis, and much attention has been paid to discussions of "Englishness"—that is, what it means to be English in a country that now has large immigrant populations from many former colonies and is far more cosmopolitan than insular. Although influenced by other cultures, English culture is distinct and difficult to define. The Lion and the Unicorn by George Orwell, a self-described "revolutionary patriot" who chronicled politics and society in the 1930s and 1940s, makes this observation. 

Geographical Description of England

Except for Yorkshire and Nottinghamshire in the east, England's topography is low-lying but rarely flat. The area has many rolling hillsides, with the highest elevations in the north, north-west, and southwest. Intricate underlying structures have resulted in intricate patterns in the landscape. The oldest sedimentary rocks and some igneous rocks (found in isolated granite hills) are found in Cornwall and Devon, while the most recent alluvial soils are found in the Fens of Cambridgeshire, Lincolnshire, and Norfolk. Both the sandstone and limestone bands that separate these two regions date from prehistoric times when large sections of central and southern England were submerged under warm seas. Geological forces lifted and folded some of these rocks, forming northern England's spine. Scafell Pike, England's highest point, stands at 3,210 feet (978 metres) and is part of the world's highest mountain range. The northern mountains are mostly slate, while the southern mountains are mostly lava flows. Mountain ranges have developed from the North Downs at 965 feet (294 meters) to the Cotswolds at 1,083 feet (330 meters).

The Chiltern Hills, North Yorkshire Moors, Yorkshire and Lincolnshire Wolds, and Yorkshire and Lincolnshire Wolds were rounded into distinctive plateaus with west-facing escarpments during the Pleistocene Epoch (about 2,600,000 to 11,700 years ago). A land bridge connecting Britain to the rest of Europe was engulfed as the last glacial sheet melted. The retreating glaciers left behind gravel, sand, and glacial mud, further altering the land surface. Rain, rivers, and tides, as well as subsidence, have shaped the hills and coastline of eastern England. Limestone, gritstone, and carboniferous strata plateaus are associated with major coalfields, some visible as surface outcrops.

A great example of England's geologic complexity is its cliff structure. The chalk cliffs of Dover are made up of a series of sedimentary rocks of varying ages that start at Land's End in the far southwest and end at the Isle of Wight. The English coastline is dotted with cliffs, bays, and river estuaries that add to the overall beauty of the landscape. 

England's weather is as varied as its topography. The average temperature in England, like other temperate maritime zones, is moderate, ranging from around 35 degrees Fahrenheit (2 degrees Celsius) in January to 72 degrees Fahrenheit (22 degrees Celsius) in July in the Thames river valley (32 degrees Celsius). Tacitus, the Roman historian, described it as "unpleasant" with "frequent rains and mists but no extreme cold." However, the higher elevations of England receive snow for roughly 50 days out of the year. In fact, the northwest and southwest of England are particularly "wet". These areas receive less than 30 inches (750 mm) of rain per year and are frequently subject to severe drought. Rainfall averages only 20 inches in parts of the southeast (500 mm). The weather has influenced English art and literature not only seasonally but also day-to-day and even hour-to-hour. The bumbershoot's moniker as the stereotypical English gentleman's walking stick is not accidental.

The Economy of England

In the 18th and 19th centuries, England's economy was primarily agricultural until the Industrial Revolution transformed it into a highly urbanized and industrialized region as a result of the Industrial Revolution. A result of the close proximity of coal and iron ore deposits, heavy industries (iron and steel, textiles, and shipbuilding) sprang up in the north-eastern counties, and they continue to thrive today. During the 1930s, the Great Depression and foreign competition both contributed to a decline in manufactured goods production and an increase in unemployment in the industrial north, which contributed to the Great Depression. Residents of these northern counties who were out of work were forced to relocate south to London and its environs. Because of urbanization and industrialization, the southeast has become dominated by industries such as automotive, chemical, electrical, and machine tool manufacturing. Despite the fact that population growth and urbanization significantly reduced farmland in England during the twentieth century, the geographical counties of Cornwall, Devon, Kent, Lincolnshire, Somerset, and North Yorkshire have retained a significant proportion of their agricultural land.

Another period of industrial decline occurred in the late twentieth century, during which coal mining was virtually phased out and job losses in industries such as iron and steel production, shipbuilding, and textile manufacturing were particularly severe. The decline of these industries had a disproportionately negative impact on the economies of the north and the Midlands, while the economies of the south remained relatively prosperous. By the turn of the twenty-first century, the service sector had taken over as the dominant sector of the English economy, with banking and other financial services, retail, distribution, media and entertainment, education, health care, and hotels and restaurants among the leading sectors.