Botany Bay topographic map

Average elevation: 66 m

Sheffield nestles on the eastern foothills of the Pennines and is sculpted by a dramatic hill-and-valley system formed where five rivers — the Don, Sheaf, Rivelin, Loxley and Porter — converge, producing steep-sided valleys and gritstone ridgelines with much of the urban area built directly onto hillsides…

Average elevation: 168 m

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Birmingham is a snowy city relative to other large UK conurbations, due to its inland location and comparatively high elevation. Between 1961 and 1990 Birmingham Airport averaged 13.0 days of snow lying annually, compared to 5.33 at London Heathrow. Snow showers often pass through the city via the Cheshire gap…

Average elevation: 138 m

Average elevation: 64 m

Kent was also the location of the largest number of art schools in the country during the nineteenth century, estimated by the art historian David Haste, to approach two hundred. This is believed to be the result of Kent being a front line county during the Napoleonic Wars. At this time, before the invention…

Average elevation: 37 m

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Near Weybridge are the UK headquarters of Sony with SSP Group (situated in Byfleet) and Procter & Gamble (next door to each other on The Heights Business Park near the former Brooklands racing circuit) with Kia Motors UK and Petroleum Geo-Services UK, and Gallaher Group (cigarettes) is to the north, next to…

Average elevation: 69 m

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The city, like most of the UK, has a maritime climate highly influenced by the Gulf Stream. Located in the driest region of Britain, Cambridge's rainfall averages around 570 mm (22.44 in) per year, around half the national average, with some years occasionally falling into the semi-arid (under 500 mm (19.69…

Average elevation: 18 m

Average elevation: 118 m

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Average elevation: 66 m

Lincoln lies 157 mi (253 km) north of London, at an altitude of 67 ft (20.4 m) by the River Witham up to 246 ft (75.0 m) on Castle Hill. It fills a gap in the Lincoln Cliff escarpment, which runs north and south through central Lincolnshire, with altitudes up to 200 feet (61 metres). The city lies on the River…

Average elevation: 29 m

Average elevation: 22 m

The East of England region has the lowest elevation range in the UK. Twenty percent of the region is below mean sea level, most of this in North Cambridgeshire, Norfolk and on the Essex Coast. Most of the remaining area is of low elevation, with extensive glacial deposits. The Fens, a large area of reclaimed…

Average elevation: 39 m

Average elevation: 166 m

Wakefield's Parish Church was raised to cathedral status in 1888 and after the elevation of Wakefield to diocese, Wakefield Council immediately sought city status and this was granted in July 1888. However the industrial revolution, which changed West and South Yorkshire significantly, led to the growth of…

Average elevation: 172 m

Average elevation: 23 m

Bath is in the Avon Valley and is surrounded by limestone hills as it is near the southern edge of the Cotswolds, a designated Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, and the limestone Mendip Hills rise around 7 miles (11 km) south of the city. The hills that surround and make up the city have a maximum altitude…

Average elevation: 100 m

Kingston upon Hull is on the northern bank of the Humber Estuary. The city centre is west of the River Hull and close to the Humber. The city is built upon alluvial and glacial deposits which overlie chalk rocks but the underlying chalk has no influence on the topography. The land within the city is generally…

Average elevation: 3 m

The Lake District is a roughly circular upland massif, deeply dissected by a broadly radial pattern of major valleys which are largely the result of repeated glaciations over the last 2 million years. The apparent radial pattern is not from a central dome, but from an axial watershed extending from St Bees…

Average elevation: 206 m

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Average elevation: 81 m

Many settlements developed because of their strategic importance in relation to geographical features, such as river crossings or valleys in ranges of hills. Examples include Axbridge on the River Axe, Castle Cary on the River Cary, North Petherton on the River Parrett, and Ilminster, where there was a…

Average elevation: 96 m

North East England has a Marine west coast climate (generally found along the west coast of middle latitude continents) with narrower temperature ranges than the south of England and sufficient precipitation in all months. Summers and winters are mild rather than extremely hot or cold, due to the strong…

Average elevation: 165 m

Average elevation: 115 m

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Cambridgeshire has a maritime temperate climate which is broadly similar to the rest of the United Kingdom, though it is drier than the UK average due to its low altitude and easterly location, the prevailing southwesterly winds having already deposited moisture on higher ground further west. Average winter…

Average elevation: 32 m

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Average elevation: 39 m

London's topography is characterized by a gently rolling terrain shaped by the River Thames and its tributaries. The city lies within the London Basin, a natural depression bordered by higher grounds such as the North Downs to the south and the Chiltern Hills to the northwest. The Thames flows west to east,…

Average elevation: 66 m

The highest elevation in Surrey is Leith Hill near Dorking. It is 295 m (968 ft) above sea level and is the second highest point in southeastern England after Walbury Hill in West Berkshire which is 297 m (974 ft).

Average elevation: 69 m

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Although hardly damaged in the First and Second World Wars, Sleaford has close links with the Royal Air Force due to proximity to several RAF bases, including RAF Cranwell and RAF Waddington. Lincolnshire's topography – flat and open countryside – and its location in the east of the country made it ideal…

Average elevation: 18 m

Average elevation: 63 m

Average elevation: 17 m

In Yorkshire there is a very close relationship between the major topographical areas and the geological period in which they were formed. The Pennine chain of hills in the west is of Carboniferous origin. The central vale is Permo-Triassic. The North York Moors in the north-east of the county are Jurassic in…

Average elevation: 130 m

Ely is built on a 23-square-mile (60 km2) Kimmeridge Clay island which, at 85 feet (26 m), is the highest land in the Fens. It was due to this topography that Ely was not waterlogged like the surrounding Fenland, and was an island separated from the mainland. Major rivers including the Witham, Welland, Nene…

Average elevation: 4 m

Bridport is in the county of Dorset in South West England. Measured directly, it is about 14 miles (23 km) west of the county town Dorchester, 15.5 miles (25 km) SSW of Yeovil in Somerset, 33 miles (53 km) east of Exeter in Devon and 1.5 miles (2.4 km) inland from the English Channel at West Bay. The town…

Average elevation: 39 m

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Average elevation: 197 m

The west of the county lies on more resistant Cretaceous chalk. This chalk is responsible for a sweeping tract of largely downland landscapes that stretches from Dorset in the south west to Dover in the south east and north through East Anglia to the Yorkshire Wolds. The chalk is less easily eroded so forms…

Average elevation: 35 m

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Average elevation: 17 m

The Lake District is a roughly circular upland massif, deeply dissected by a broadly radial pattern of major valleys which are largely the result of repeated glaciations over the last 2 million years. The apparent radial pattern is not from a central dome, but from an axial watershed extending from St Bees…

Average elevation: 206 m

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Kent was also the location of the largest number of art schools in the country during the nineteenth century, estimated by the art historian David Haste, to approach two hundred. This is believed to be the result of Kent being a front line county during the Napoleonic Wars. At this time, before the invention…

Average elevation: 37 m

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Jane Austen attended Reading Ladies Boarding School, based in the Abbey Gateway, in 1784–1786. Mary Russell Mitford lived in Reading for a number of years and then spent the rest of her life just outside the town at Three Mile Cross and Swallowfield. The fictional Belford Regis of her eponymous novel, first…

Average elevation: 54 m

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Average elevation: 48 m

The source of the river at Teeshead just below Cross Fell is at an elevation of about 2,401 feet (732 m). It flows east-north-east through an area of shake holes through Carboniferous Limestone. Below Viewing Hill, it turns south to the Cow Green Reservoir constructed to store water to be released in dry…

Average elevation: 218 m

Elevations are higher in the north and west, reaching more than 800 feet (240 m) in the Chilterns near Tring. The county centres on the headwaters and upper valleys of the rivers Lea and the Colne; both flow south, and each is accompanied by a canal. Hertfordshire's undeveloped land is mainly agricultural,…

Average elevation: 82 m

Average elevation: 153 m

Average elevation: 141 m

Average elevation: 70 m

The city of Exeter was established on the eastern bank of the River Exe on a ridge of land backed by a steep hill. It is at this point that the Exe, having just been joined by the River Creedy, opens onto a wide flood plain and estuary which results in quite common flooding. Historically this was the lowest…

Average elevation: 56 m