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Somerset

Somerset, a county in South West England, is bordered by Gloucestershire and Bristol to the north, Wiltshire to the east, Dorset to the south, and Devon to the south-west. It faces southeast Wales and is bounded by the Severn Estuary and the Bristol Channel to the north and west, respectively. The Avon serves as the county's traditional boundary with neighboring Gloucestershire. There are currently six council areas in Somerset, two of which are unitary authorities. However, with the merger of the four second-tier district councils on 1 April 2023, there will only be three unitary authorities in the county. Taunton is the county seat.

The Blackdown Hills, Mendip Hills, Quantock Hills, and Exmoor National Park make up the county of Somerset, which is also home to extensive, flat areas known as the Somerset Levels. Humans have lived in this area at least since the Paleolithic era, and there is also evidence of habitation by the Celts, Romans, and Anglo-Saxons. Throughout Alfred the Great's rise to power, as well as during the English Civil War and the Monmouth Rebellion that followed, the county was vital. Bath's Georgian buildings have earned the city its designation as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Climate of Somerset

In keeping with the rest of the South West of England, Somerset enjoys a moderate and wet climate.

Average yearly temperatures hover around 50 degrees Fahrenheit (10 degrees Celsius). The neighboring sea temperatures moderate the weather's seasonal swings, making it more comfortable than the rest of the United Kingdom. Highs average around 21 degrees Celsius (69.8 degrees Fahrenheit) throughout the summer months of July and August. During the coldest part of winter, it's not unusual for the temperature to drop to between 1 and 2 degrees Celsius (33.8 and 35.6 Fahrenheit). In the summer, the south-west of England is affected by the Azores high pressure, but convective cloud can form inland, lowering the amount of sunshine. The average annual sunshine hours are 1,500, which is lower than the area average of 1,600.

Yeovilton experienced 20 cloudy days in December 1998. Atlantic depressions and convection are mostly responsible for the precipitation in the south and west. The Atlantic depressions are more likely to bring precipitation in the fall and winter. The sun's warmth in the summertime causes convection, which in turn causes showers and thunderstorms, accounting for the vast majority of the year's precipitation. The typical annual rainfall totals about 700 millimeters (28 in). Average snowfall duration is between 8 and 15 days. The average wind speed is highest in the winter, from November to March, and lowest in the summer, from June to August. Mainly southerly winds are present.

Economy of Somerset

There aren't many manufacturing hubs in Somerset, but the county's 2.5% unemployment rate is supported by its historic agricultural sector, its growing tourism industry, and its diverse light industry and high technology enterprises.

In 2013, it was projected that about 26,000 individuals relied on tourism for their income.

During the height of the Industrial Age, Bridgwater rose to prominence as a major port for the surrounding region. Huge ships could travel the length of the River Parrett to Bridgwater. Near, cargo was transferred to smaller boats at Langport Quay, located next to the Bridgwater Bridge, and taken further up river to Langport; otherwise the journey might be diverted at Burrowbridge and continued down the River Tone to Taunton. As of right now, you can only go to Dunball Wharf on the Parrett. Bricks, clay roof tiles, and eventually cellophane were all produced at Bridgwater at the turn of the twentieth century, but those businesses have since died out. 

Businesses like Argos, Toolstation, Morrisons, and Gerber Juice have made use of Bridgwater's proximity to major highways to serve as a distribution center. Yeovil is home to both the helicopter-making company AgustaWestland and the aircraft-oxygen-system-constructing company Normalair Garratt.

Somerset is a major provider of military hardware and technologies. At the outset of World War II, the land between the towns of Puriton and Woolavington was used for the construction of a Royal Ordnance Factory called ROF Bridgwater, whose primary function was the production of explosives. In July of 2008, the station was shut down and declared defunct. Thales Optics is headquartered in Taunton, while the United Kingdom Hydrographic Office and Avimo are both based in Templecombe. Production cuts at Thales Optics' Taunton factory were announced in 2006 and 2007, although the trade unions and the Taunton Deane District Council are attempting to reverse or at least soften these choices. Gooch and Housego, an optics company based in Ilminster, is another example of a high-tech business in the area. Bath is home to defense ministry buildings, and nearby Norton Fitzwarren is where the 40th Commando Royal Marines train. The Royal Naval Air Station in Yeovilton is one of the two operational Fleet Air Arm bases in the United Kingdom. It is home to the Royal Navy's AgustaWestland AW159 Wildcat helicopters and the Royal Marines Commando's AgustaWestland AW101 Merlins.

More than 15,000 people have jobs in the county's main industries of agriculture and food and drink production.

Somerset is still a large producer of cider, which dates back to the days when the county was covered with apple orchards. Specialty producers like Burrow Hill Cider Farm and Thatchers Cider can be found in addition to the larger-scale operations in the towns of Taunton and Shepton Mallet, which are responsible for the manufacture of Blackthorn Cider, a cider that is distributed all over the country. The Gerber Products Company, headquartered in Bridgwater, is the leading manufacturer of fruit juices in Europe. Its products include the well-known Sunny Delight and Ocean Spray brands. Growth in the dairy industry has led to the creation of a variety of sweets, yoghurts, and cheeses, many of which can be found at stores like Ilchester Cheese Company and Yeo Valley Organic. 

Although it is not as common as it once was, willow cultivation and weaving (including basket making) are still practiced on the Somerset Levels, and this heritage is celebrated at the Willows and Wetlands Visitor Centre.

Willow was utilized in the construction of various Iron Age causeways, and remnants of willow baskets have been discovered near the Glastonbury Lake Village. We used the time-honored technique of pollarding to get our willow. This entails cutting the tree down to its trunk. Around 3,600 ha (8,900 acres) of willow were cultivated for commercial purposes on the Levels in the 1930s. Since the 1950s, the sector has dropped dramatically, largely because plastic bags and cardboard boxes have replaced baskets. Near the towns of Burrowbridge, Westonzoyland, and North Curry, only approximately 140 hectares (350 acres) were farmed commercially by the turn of the century. 

The medieval textile industry spawned a number of towns, including Castle Cary and Frome. As a result of C&J Clark establishing its headquarters in the town, Street became a major hub for the manufacture of woollen slippers and, later, boots and shoes. The production of C&J Clark shoes has moved to China and other Asian countries because of lower labor costs.

Freestone and construction stone have been supplied by the county for decades. The freestone used to build Wells Cathedral came from quarries in Doulting. The use of bath stones has also increased in recent years. It had been in use for quite some time before Ralph Allen advocated for its usage in the early 18th century, and again when Hans Price did so in the 19th century. It was extracted from underground mines in Wiltshire at places like Box and Combe Down, and at Bathampton Down as a result of the construction of the Box Tunnel. Bath stone is still used today, albeit on a smaller scale, but typically as cladding as opposed to structural. Stone from Ham Hill is commonly referred to as "Hamstone" in the southern part of the United Kingdom, where it is also put to good use in the building industry. In its native region, Blue Lias has been put to use as a construction stone and a component of lime mortar and Portland cement. Blue Lias stone quarries operated at Puriton and a number of other Polden settlements until the 1960s. Additionally, a cement factory in Dunball, situated next to the King's Sedgemoor Drain, benefited from the abundance of stone. When the M5 highway was built in the mid-1970s, the abandoned buildings from the early 20th century were demolished. The county has been an important supplier of aggregates since the 1920s. Stone from the Merehead Quarry quarry is used by Foster Yeoman, a major provider of aggregates for the construction industry in Europe. Transportation of aggregates by rail from a cluster of quarries in Mendip is made possible by a specialized railway operation known as Mendip Rail. 

Into Somerset, a public sector inward investment organization, was established in November 2008 with the goal of expanding the county's economy by attracting businesses looking to relocate from other parts of the United Kingdom (particularly London) and around the world. 

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.

At the same time, the UK is a place with a very developed tourism industry. The culture and scenery of the UK attract a lot of tourists to come for vacation all year round. If you also want to travel to the UK or have been there and want to leave some traces of your visit, you can try to customize Custom Keyrings with a UK theme, such as the British flag, Buckingham Palace, etc.  Customized keychains can be carried with you and retain beautiful travel memories.

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.