West Country

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The West Country is an informal term for the area of southwestern England roughly corresponding to the modern South West England government region. It encompasses the counties of Avon, Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, and Somerset, while the counties of Gloucestershire and Wiltshire are usually included, and definitions sometimes include even wider areas.

The area is mostly rural, with only a few sizeable cities, such as Bristol, Exeter and Plymouth, plus Swindon and Gloucester. Tourism and agriculture, especially dairy farming, play a significant role in the economy. The landscape is principally granite moorland in the west, and chalk and limestone downland and clay vales in the east. Historically, tin mining and the fishery were sources of income and employment, but less so today, although the latter still contributes to the economy. The region is traditionally famous for its production of cider, clotted cream and pasties.

Contents 1 Area boundaries 2 Counties (and unitary authorities) 3 Notable towns and cities 4 Places of interest 5 See also 6 References

[edit] Area boundaries

Apart from the Bristol Channel and English Channel, as with any informal area, the West Country's boundaries are difficult to define. For example, the further west one goes, the more the region becomes culturally distinct from neighbouring South East England.^{[citation needed]}

The "West Country" edition of the 2005 BBC TV series Seven Natural Wonders featured "wonders" in Wiltshire, Somerset, Gloucestershire, and Herefordshire (Symonds Yat), but not those in Devon or Cornwall which were the subject of a separate programme on the "South West", nor Dorset which was covered in a programme on "The South".

The term "West Country" is sometimes associated with the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Wessex. Wessex Regionalists seek to promote this as an alternative to the South-West region, including some counties in central southern England - Hampshire, Berkshire, Oxfordshire and the Isle of Wight - and excluding Devon and Cornwall.

The West Country Clothing District was an area that made woollen cloth, but only part of the region described above. It covered east Somerset and parts of the counties of Gloucestershire and Wiltshire] and at some periods extended into Oxfordshire and Berkshire. The clothing district around Tiverton and Exeter in Devon and west Somerset tended to make different kinds of cloth and is best regarded as distinct.

[edit] Counties (and unitary authorities)

• Avon (existed as administrative area 1974-96)
  • Bristol
  • Bath and North East Somerset
  • North Somerset
  • South Gloucestershire
• Cornwall
  • Isles of Scilly
• Devon
  • Plymouth
  • Torbay
• Dorset
  • Bournemouth
  • Poole
• Gloucestershire
• Somerset
• Wiltshire
  • Swindon

[edit] Notable towns and cities

Barnstaple Bath Bideford Bournemouth Bridgwater Bristol Cheltenham Chippenham Cirencester Christchurch Dorchester Exeter

Frome Glastonbury Gloucester Lyme Regis Newquay Paignton Penzance Plymouth Poole Salisbury St Austell Stroud

Swindon Taunton Tewkesbury Torquay Trowbridge Truro Warminster Wells Weston-super-Mare Weymouth Yeovil

Cities in bold.

[edit] Places of interest

• Avebury
• Bodmin Moor
• Cherhill White Horse
• Dartmoor
• Exmoor
• Glastonbury Tor
• Jurassic Coast
• Mendip Hills, including Cheddar Gorge and Caves
• South West Coast
• Stonehenge
• West Country Carnival

[edit] See also

• South West England
• West of England
• Scrumpy and Western music
• Thomas Hardy (West Country novelist)
• Constitutional status of Cornwall

[edit] References

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