Сочинение: The National Parks of Great Britan
Dartmoor has inspired a number of artists and
writers, such as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in The Hound of the Baskervilles
and The Adventure of Silver Blaze, Eden Phillpotts, Beatrice Chase, Agatha
Christie and the Reverend Sabine Baring-Gould.
and villages
Dartmoor has a resident population
of about 33,400, which swells considerably during holiday periods with incoming
tourists. For a list, expand the Settlements of Dartmoor navigational
box at the bottom of this page.
Tors.
Dartmoor is known for its
tors - large hills, topped with outcrops of bedrock, which in granite country
such as this are usually rounded boulder-like formations. There are over 160
tors on Dartmoor. They are the focus of an annual event known as the Ten Tors
Challenge, when over a thousand people, aged between 14 and 21, walk for
distances of 35, 45 or 55 miles (56, 72 or 89 km) over ten tors on many
differing routes. While many of the hills of Dartmoor have the word “Tor” in
them quite a number do not, however this does not appear to relate to whether
there is an outcrop of rock on their summit.
The highest points on Dartmoor are High
Willhays (grid reference SX580895) at 621 m (2,040 ft) and Yes Tor (grid
reference SX581901) 619 m (2,030 ft) on the northern moor. Ryder’s Hill (grid
reference SX690660), 515 m (1,690 ft), Snowdon 495 m (1,620 ft), and an unnamed
point at (grid reference SX603645),493 m (1,620 ft) are the highest points on
the southern moor. Probably the best known tor on Dartmoor is Haytor (also
spelt Hey Tor) (grid reference SX757771), 457 m (1,500 ft). For a more complete
list see List of Dartmoor tors and hills.
The levels of rainfall on Dartmoor are
considerably higher than in the surrounding lowlands. With much of the national
park covered in thick layers of peat, the rain is usually absorbed quickly and
distributed slowly, so that the moor is rarely dry.
In areas where water accumulates, dangerous bogs
or mires can result. Some of these, up to 12 feet (3.7 m) across and topped
with bright green moss, are known to locals as “feather beds” or “quakers",
because they shift (or ‘quake’) beneath your feet. This is the result of
accumulations of sphagnum moss growing over a hollow in the granite filled with
water.
Another consequence of the high rainfall is
that there are numerous rivers and streams on Dartmoor. As well as shaping the
landscape, these have traditionally provided a source of power for moor
industries such as tin mining and quarrying.
The Moor takes its name from the River Dart,
which starts as the East Dart and West Dart and then becomes a single river at Dartmeet.
For a full list, expand the Rivers of
Dartmoor navigational box at the bottom of this page.
Angling.
Angling is a popular pastime on the moor,
especially for migratory fish such as salmon.
Kayaking and canoeing.
Dartmoor is a focal point for whitewater
kayaking and canoeing, due to the previously
mentioned high rainfall and high quality of rivers. The River
Dart is the most prominent meeting place, the section known as the Loop being particularly popular, but the Erme,
Plym, Tavy and Teign
are also frequently paddled. There are other rivers on the moor which can be
paddled, including the Walkham and Bovey.
The access situation is variable on Dartmoor, some
paddlers have experienced difficulties with landowners, while others have had a
friendly reception.
3. Peak district national park
The Peak District is an upland area in
central and northern England, lying mainly in northern Derbyshire, but also
covering parts of Cheshire, Greater Manchester, Staffordshire, and South and West
Yorkshire.
Most of the area falls within the Peak
District National Park, whose designation in 1951 made it the earliest national
park in the British Isles. An area of great diversity, it is conventionally
split into the northern Dark Peak, where most of the moorland is found and
whose geology is gritstone, and the southern White Peak, where most of the
population lives and where the geology is mainly limestone-based. Proximity to
the major cities of Manchester and Sheffield and the counties of Yorkshire,
Lancashire, Greater Manchester, Cheshire and Staffordshire coupled with easy access
by road and rail, have all contributed to its popularity. With an estimated 22
million visitors per year, the Peak District is thought to be the second
most-visited national park in the world (after the Mount Fuji National Park in Japan).
The Peak District has been settled from the
earliest periods of human activity, as is evidenced by occasional finds of Mesolithic
flint artefacts and by palaeoenvironmental evidence from caves in Dovedale and
elsewhere. There is also evidence of Neolithic activity, including some
monumental earthworks or barrows (burial mounds) such as that at Margery Hill. [12]
In the Bronze Age the area was well populated and farmed, and evidence
of these people survives in henges such as Arbor Low near Youlgreave or the Nine
Ladies Stone Circle at Stanton Moor. In the same period, and on into the Iron
Age, a number of significant hillforts such as that at Mam Tor were created. Roman
occupation was sparse but the Romans certainly exploited the rich mineral veins
of the area, exporting lead from the Buxton area along well-used routes. There
were Roman settlements, including one at Buxton which was known to them as
“Aquae Arnemetiae” in recognition of its spring, dedicated to the local goddess.
Theories as to the derivation of the Peak
District name include the idea that it came from the Pecsaetan or peaklanders,
an Anglo-Saxon tribe who inhabited the central and northern parts of the area
from the 6th century AD when it fell within the large Anglian kingdom of Mercia.
In medieval and early modern times the land
was mainly agricultural, as it still is today, with sheep farming, rather than
arable, the main activity in these upland holdings. However, from the 16th
century onwards the mineral and geological wealth of the Peak became
increasingly significant. Not only lead, but also coal, copper (at Ecton), zinc,
iron, manganese and silver have all been mined here. Celia Fiennes, describing
her journey through the Peak in 1697, wrote of ‘those craggy hills whose
bowells are full of mines of all kinds off black and white and veined marbles,
and some have mines of copper, others tinn and leaden mines, in w [hi] ch is a
great deale of silver. ’ Lead mining peaked in the 17th and 18th
centuries and began to decline from the mid-19th century, with the
last major mine closing in 1939, though lead remains a by-product of fluorspar,
baryte and calcite mining (see Derbyshire lead mining history for details). Limestone
and gritstone quarries flourished as lead mining declined, and remain an
important industry in the Peak.
Large reservoirs such as Woodhead and Howden
were built from the late 19th century onward to supply the growing
urban areas surrounding the Peak District, often flooding large areas of
farmland and depopulating the surrounding land in an attempt to improve the
water purity.
The northern moors of Saddleworth and
Wessenden gained notoriety in the 1960s as the burial site of several children
murdered by the so-called Moors Murderers, Ian Brady and Myra Hindley.
The first roads in the Peak were constructed
by the Romans, although they may have followed existing tracks. The Roman
network is thought to have linked the settlements and forts of Aquae Arnemetiae
(Buxton), Chesterfield, Ardotalia (Glossop) and Navio (Brough-on-Noe), and
extended outwards to Danum (Doncaster), Manucium (Manchester) and Derventio (Little
Chester, near Derby). Parts of the modern A515 and A53 roads south of Buxton
are believed to run along Roman roads.
Packhorse routes criss-crossed the Peak in the
Medieval era, and some paved causeways are believed to date from this period,
such as the Long Causeway along Stanage. However, no highways were marked on Saxton’s
map of Derbyshire, published in 1579. Bridge-building improved the transport
network; a surviving early example is the three-arched gritstone bridge over the
River Derwent at Baslow, which dates from 1608 and has an adjacent toll-shelter.
[18] Although the introduction of turnpike roads (toll roads) from
1731 reduced journey times, the journey from Sheffield to Manchester in 1800
still took 16 hours, prompting Samuel Taylor Coleridge to remark that ‘a
tortoise could outgallop us! ’From around 1815 onwards, turnpike roads both
increased in length and improved in quality. An example is the Snake Road,
built under the direction of Thomas Telford in 1819-21 (now the A57); the name
refers to the crest of the Dukes of Devonshire. The Cromford Canal opened in
1794, carrying coal, lead and iron ore to the Erewash Canal.
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