Leicestershire

Leicestershire is an East Midlands ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in England. North Nottinghamshire, North Lincolnshire, East Rutland, South Northamptonshire, West Warwickshire, West Staffordshire, and North West Derbyshire are its neighbors. Watling Street, now known as the A5, serves as a de facto border with much of the county of Warwickshire.

Leicester is the county seat of Leicestershire, however the city of Leicester is officially considered to be part of the county itself. More over half of the ceremonial county's population (2016) lives in the Leicester Urban Area, despite the fact that the non-metropolitan county alone only has a little over a million residents.

History

The county of Leicestershire is divided into four wapentakes in the Domesday Book: Guthlaxton, Framland, Goscote, and Gartree. In time, these dozens grew into hundreds when Goscote was split into West and East Goscote, and the Sparkenhoe hundred was established. It was as Laegrecastrescir in 1087 when the name was first used in writing.

Since the Domesday Survey, there has been very little alteration to Leicestershire's frontiers. Little Bowden, formerly in Northamptonshire, has been annexed by Market Harborough due to urban expansion, and the Measham-Donisthorpe exclave of Derbyshire has been swapped for the Netherseal region.

Leicester city and neighboring Rutland lost their status as county boroughs and counties, respectively, under the Local Government Act of 1972, becoming instead administrative districts of Leicestershire. On April 1, 1997, the county of Rutland and the city of Leicester reverted back to a single administrative unit

Leicestershire County Cricket Club and Leicester City Football Club both use the fox as their mascot. Fox hunting as we know it now is thought to have originated in Leicestershire. Hugo Meynell, a native of Quorn, is widely regarded as the sport's founding father. Historically, fox hunting has been popular in the areas surrounding Melton Mowbray and Market Harborough in Leicestershire and the neighboring county of Rutland.

In July of 2021, Leicestershire became the last of England's historic counties to get a flag officially registered. There are two emblems of Leicestershire, the fox and the cinquefoil, on the new flag.

Geography

Although the River Avon and River Welland through Harborough and along the county's southern limits are significant, the River Soar and its tributaries and canalisations make up the major river basin of the county. The Soar begins its journey in the south of the county at the Warwickshire boundary between Hinckley and Lutterworth. It then runs north through "Greater" Leicester and finally exits the county to the east of Loughborough. About 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) further north, it joins the River Trent at the tripoint of Derbyshire, Leicestershire, and Nottinghamshire, marking the boundary with Nottinghamshire in the Borough of Rushcliffe.

You can find the exact geographic center of England at the southwest corner of Leicestershire, in the town of Fenny Drayton. Although Meriden, located about 10 miles (16 km) to the southwest, has been considered the traditional center for more than 500 years, the Ordnance Survey determined in 2013 that the point was on land at Lindley Hall Farm.

Much of the county's northwestern corner, around Coalville, has just been incorporated into the new National Forest area that spans neighboring counties of Derbyshire and Staffordshire. Bardon Hill, the county's highest point at 278 m (912 ft),[4] is also a Marilyn; further hilly/upland areas of c. 150–200 m (490–660 ft) and higher can be found in the surrounding Charnwood Forest, as well as in the east of the county around Launde Abbey. The northernmost point of the county lies in Bottesford, where the River Devon flows out of Leicestershire into neighboring Nottinghamshire through the Vale of Belvoir at an elevation of roughly 20 meters (66 feet) above sea level. As a result, the average elevation is 148.75 meters and the altitude difference, A|vertical, is about 257.5 meters (845 feet) (488.0 ft).

Economy

Leicestershire's economy has traditionally relied heavily on the engineering industry. The work of John Taylor Bellfounders carries on a tradition that dates back to the 14th century in Loughborough. "Great Paul," the largest bell ever made in Britain, was cast by John Taylors in 1881 for London's St. Paul's Cathedral. Since 1825, Norman & Underwood has been producing sand cast sheet lead roofing and stained glass for many of England's most important cathedrals and historic structures, such as Salisbury Cathedral, Windsor Castle, Westminster Abbey, Hampton Court Palace, and Chatsworth House. From the 1820s to the 1980s, three coal mines provided employment in the town of Coalville. The Abbey Pumping Station is home to four massive steam driven beam engines that were manufactured in Leicester in the 1890s at the Vulcan factory owned by Josiah Gimson, whose son Ernest Gimson was a prominent furniture designer and architect of the English arts and crafts movement.

Metalfacture Ltd (sheet metal work), Richards Engineering (foundry equipment), Transmon Engineering (materials handling equipment), Trelleborg Industrial AVS in Beaumont Leys (industrial suspension components), Parker Plant (quarrying equipment), and Jones & Shipman (machine tools) are just a few of the modern engineering companies in the area. Apprenticeship programs with local businesses and academic-industrial ties to the engineering departments at Leicester University, De Montfort University, and Loughborough University all contribute to the region's dedication to training the next generation of British engineers.

At Loughborough University, you'll find both the Centre of Excellence for Low Carbon and Fuel Cell Technologies and the Systems Engineering Innovation Centre. Companies like PERA, a technology consultancy near Melton Mowbray, and MIRA, an automotive R&D center on the outskirts of Hinckley, are examples of private sector R&D organizations. Mallory Park and Bruntingthorpe Aerodrome and proving ground are used by automotive and aerospace professionals for testing purposes. After 10 years of rehabilitation at Bruntingthorpe Aerodrome by aerospace experts from the Vulcan Operating Company, the final airworthy Avro Vulcan was flown on October 18, 2007.

Farming

Livestock farming has a long and storied history in Leicestershire, and it still thrives today. Dishley, England's Robert Bakewell (1725-1795) was a pioneer in the art of selective breeding. Farmers all around the British Empire cherished Bakewell's Leicester Longwool sheep, and today, the breed is revered as a historic treasure. A number of commercial and uncommon sheep breeds can trace their ancestry back to Bakewell's sheep, including the English Leicester, Border Leicester, Bluefaced Leicester, Scotch mule, and Welsh halfbreed.

Leicestershire's annual county show features livestock competitions, commercial exhibits, and show jumping on the first May bank holiday weekend. The Melton Mowbray Market is a significant hub for livestock traders in the surrounding area.

Leicestershire is home to many stables, kennels, and gunsmiths since field sports are vital to the county's rural economy.

Clothing

The sheep on the county of Leicester and Leicestershire's coat of arms is a nod to the longstanding knitwear, hosiery, and footwear industries that have thrived there. The local manufacturing industry, which began with hand knitting in the Middle Ages and was fully industrialized by the end of the 19th century, survived until the end of the 20th century thanks to retailers buying UK-sourced products and government measures like the protection of the Multi Fibre Arrangement, which ended in 2004. Much of the inexpensive clothes manufacturing industry was put out of business by a combination of increased worldwide competition and the 1999 decline in the UK fashion retail sector. Leicestershire businesses now specialize in producing high-end apparel and niche textiles. Pantherella is one such company; they produce socks in their Hallaton Street facility just off Saffron Lane, and then sell them to upscale retailers like Harrods, Selfridges, John Lewis, and Nordstrom, Bergdorf Goodman, and Neiman Marcus in the United Kingdom and the United States, respectively.

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.