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Salisbury Plain
Salisbury Plain is a chalk plateau in southern England covering . It is part of a system of chalk downlands throughout eastern and southern England formed by the rocks of the Chalk Group and largely lies within the county of Wiltshire, but stretches into Hampshire. The plain is famous for its rich archaeology, including Stonehenge, one of England's best known landmarks. Large areas are given over to military training; thus, the sparsely populated plain is the biggest remaining area of calcareous grassland in northwest Europe. Additionally, the plain has arable land, and a few small areas of beech trees and coniferous woodland. Its highest point is Easton Hill. A large amount of land is set aside for military use as Salisbury Plain Training Area. Physical geography The boundaries of Salisbury Plain have never been truly defined, and there is some difference of opinion as to its exact area. The river valleys surrounding it, and other downland, downs and plains beyond them loo ...
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Stonehenge Total
Stonehenge is a prehistoric megalithic structure on Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire, England, west of Amesbury. It consists of an outer ring of vertical sarsen standing stones, each around high, wide, and weighing around 25 tons, topped by connecting horizontal lintel stones, held in place with mortise and tenon joints, a feature unique among contemporary monuments. Inside is a ring of smaller bluestones. Inside these are free-standing trilithons, two bulkier vertical sarsens joined by one lintel. The whole monument, now ruinous, is aligned towards the sunrise on the summer solstice and sunset on the winter solstice. The stones are set within earthworks in the middle of the densest complex of Neolithic and Bronze Age monuments in England, including several hundred ''tumuli'' (burial mounds). Stonehenge was constructed in several phases beginning about 3100 BC and continuing until about 1600 BC. The famous circle of large sarsen stones were placed between 2600 BC and 2 ...
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Escarpment
An escarpment is a steep slope or long cliff that forms as a result of faulting or erosion and separates two relatively level areas having different elevations. Due to the similarity, the term '' scarp'' may mistakenly be incorrectly used interchangeably with ''escarpment.'' ''Escarpment'' referring to the margin between two landforms, and ''scarp'' referring to a cliff or a steep slope. In this usage an escarpment is a ridge which has a gentle slope on one side and a steep scarp on the other side. More loosely, the term ''scarp'' also describes a zone between a coastal lowland and a continental plateau which shows a marked, abrupt change in elevation caused by coastal erosion at the base of the plateau. Formation and description Scarps are generally formed by one of two processes: either by differential erosion of sedimentary rocks, or by movement of the Earth's crust at a geologic fault. The first process is the more common type: the escarpment is a transition from one seri ...
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Clay
Clay is a type of fine-grained natural soil material containing clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolinite, ). Most pure clay minerals are white or light-coloured, but natural clays show a variety of colours from impurities, such as a reddish or brownish colour from small amounts of iron oxide. Clays develop plasticity (physics), plasticity when wet but can be hardened through Pottery#Firing, firing. Clay is the longest-known ceramic material. Prehistoric humans discovered the useful properties of clay and used it for making pottery. Some of the earliest pottery shards have been radiocarbon dating, dated to around 14,000 BCE, and Clay tablet, clay tablets were the first known writing medium. Clay is used in many modern industrial processes, such as paper making, cement production, and chemical filtration, filtering. Between one-half and two-thirds of the world's population live or work in buildings made with clay, often baked into brick, as an essenti ...
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Cranborne Chase
Cranborne Chase () is an area of central southern England, straddling the counties Dorset, Hampshire and Wiltshire. It is part of the Cranborne Chase and West Wiltshire Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB). The area is dominated by, and often considered to be synonymous with, a chalk downland plateau. Part of the English Chalk Formation, it is adjacent to Salisbury Plain and the West Wiltshire Downs in the north, and the Dorset Downs to the south west. The highest point is Win Green Down, in Wiltshire, at . Historically a medieval hunting forest, the area is also noted for its Neolithic and Bronze age archaeology and its rural agricultural character. Definitions As an informally defined region, the boundaries of Cranborne Chase vary depending on usage. When defined as the chalk plateau, it is clearly bounded by escarpments which face the valleys of the Blackmore Vale to the west, the Vale of Wardour to the north, and the Hampshire Avon to the east. To the so ...
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Dorset Downs
The Dorset Downs are an area of chalk downland in the centre of the county Dorset in south west England. The downs are the most western part of a larger chalk formation which also includes (from west to east) Cranborne Chase, Salisbury Plain, Hampshire Downs, Chiltern Hills, North Downs and South Downs.''Uplift, Erosion and Stability: Perspectives on Long-term Landscape Development''
ed. by Smith, Bernard J., Whalley Wilfred B. and Warke Patricia A. (1999), Geological Society Special Publication No. 162, Bath. Accessed on 3 Apr 2013.


Physical geography

The Dorset Downs are bounded on the north, along the steep scarp face, by the
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Berkshire Downs
The Berkshire Downs are a range of chalk downland hills in southern England, part of the North Wessex Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The Berkshire Downs are wholly within the traditional county of Berkshire, although split between the current ceremonial counties of Berkshire and Oxfordshire. The western parts of the downs are also known as the Lambourn Downs. Geography The Berkshire Downs run east–west, with their scarp slope facing north into the Vale of White Horse and their dip slope bounded by the course of the River Kennet. Geologically they are continuous with the Marlborough Downs to the west and the Chilterns to the east. In the east they are divided from the Chilterns by Goring Gap on the River Thames. In the west their boundary is generally taken to be the border between Berkshire and Wiltshire, although the downs in Wiltshire between the Berkshire border and the valley of the River Og are sometimes considered to be part of the Berkshire Downs ...
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North Wessex Downs
The North Wessex Downs are an area of chalk downland landscapes located in the English counties of Berkshire, Hampshire, Oxfordshire and Wiltshire. The North Wessex Downs has been designated as a National Landscape (formerly known as Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty or AONB) since 1972. The name ''North Wessex Downs'' is not a traditional one, the area covered being better known by various overlapping local names, including the Berkshire Downs, the North Hampshire Downs, the White Horse Hills, the Lambourn Downs, the Marlborough Downs, the Vale of Pewsey and Savernake Forest. Topography The AONB covers an area of some . It takes the form of a horseshoe, with the open end facing east, surrounding the town of Newbury and the River Kennet catchment area. The northern arm reaches as far east as the suburbs of Reading in mid-Berkshire and as far north as Didcot in South Oxfordshire, whilst the southern arm extends to Basingstoke in northern Hampshire. To the west, t ...
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Christchurch, Dorset
Christchurch () is a town and civil parish on the south coast of Dorset, England. The parish had a population of 31,372 in 2021. It adjoins Bournemouth to the west, with the New Forest to the east. Part of the Historic counties of England, historic county of Hampshire, Christchurch was a Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough within the administrative county of Dorset from 1974 until 2019, when it became part of the new Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole unitary authority. Founded in the 7th century at the confluence of the rivers River Avon (Hampshire), Avon and River Stour, Dorset, Stour which flow into Christchurch Harbour, the town was originally named Twynham but became known as Christchurch following the construction of the Christchurch Priory, priory in 1094. The town developed into an important trading port, and was Burh, fortified in the 9th century. Further defences were added in the 12th century with the construction of a Christchurch Castle, castle, which was ...
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English Channel
The English Channel, also known as the Channel, is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that separates Southern England from northern France. It links to the southern part of the North Sea by the Strait of Dover at its northeastern end. It is the busiest Sea lane, shipping area in the world. It is about long and varies in width from at its widest to at its narrowest in the Strait of Dover."English Channel". ''The Columbia Encyclopedia'', 2004. It is the smallest of the shallow seas around the continental shelf of Europe, covering an area of some . The Channel aided the United Kingdom in becoming a naval superpower, serving as a natural defence against invasions, such as in the Napoleonic Wars and in the World War II, Second World War. The northern, English coast of the Channel is more populous than the southern, French coast. The major languages spoken in this region are English language, English and French language, French. Names Roman historiography, Roman sources as (or , ...
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Salisbury
Salisbury ( , ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and civil parish in Wiltshire, England with a population of 41,820, at the confluence of the rivers River Avon, Hampshire, Avon, River Nadder, Nadder and River Bourne, Wiltshire, Bourne. The city is approximately from Southampton and from Bath, Somerset, Bath. Salisbury is in the southeast of Wiltshire, near the edge of Salisbury Plain. An ancient cathedral was north of the present city at Old Sarum Cathedral, Old Sarum. A Salisbury Cathedral, new cathedral was built near the meeting of the rivers and a settlement grew up around it, which received a city charter in 1227 as . This continued to be its official name until 2009 structural changes to local government in England, 2009, when Salisbury City Council was established. Salisbury railway station is an interchange between the West of England line, West of England Line and the Wessex Main Line. Stonehenge, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is northwest o ...
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River Avon, Hampshire
The River Avon ( ) is in the south of England, rising in Wiltshire, flowing through that county's city of Salisbury and then west Hampshire, before reaching the English Channel through Christchurch Harbour in the Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole conurbation of Dorset. It is sometimes known as the Salisbury Avon or the Hampshire Avon to distinguish it from other rivers of the same name in Great Britain. It is one of the rivers in British Isles, Britain in which the phenomenon of anchor ice has been observed. The Avon is thought to contain more species of fish than any other river in Britain. Long-farmed pastures and planted, arable fields line much of the valley; an indication of the wealth these brought to landowners is in ten large listed building, listed houses with statutorily recognised and protected parks. Many prehistoric sites and broader "landscapes" are found on either side of the river, the largest being the World Heritage Site zone of Stonehenge, Avebury and Asso ...
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River Bourne, Wiltshire
The River Bourne is a river in the English county of Wiltshire, a tributary of the Salisbury Avon. It flows in a generally southerly direction for about . In its upper reaches the river is a winterbourne, often dry in summer. The Bourne's source is at the eastern end of the Vale of Pewsey, just south of the village of Burbage. The river cuts through the chalk escarpment at Collingbourne Kingston, to flow south across Salisbury Plain through the town of Tidworth and the village of Shipton Bellinger. As it continues south the river passes the Bourne Valley villages: Cholderton, Newton Tony, Allington, Boscombe, Idmiston, Porton, Gomeldon, Winterbourne Gunner, Winterbourne Dauntsey, Winterbourne Earls and Hurdcott. After passing Ford and Laverstock, the Bourne joins the Avon in the eastern outskirts of Salisbury Salisbury ( , ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and civil parish in Wiltshire, England with a population of 41,820, at th ...
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