England lies in the south of Great Britain
The north of England is a country of factories. You can hear the noise of machines everywhere, from morning until night and in some places all night too. Thousands and thousands of men and women work in the factories, and the things that they make go to countries everywhere.
England began to make machines and build factories earlier than other countries. More than a hundred years ago, English people began to say, “Our country is the world”. Of course England is not the workshop of the world today. But we know that the industrial revolution came to England first, that England was a pioneer in industry.
We have already said that the people of the north are factory workers. In the south the people are farmers, and they send meat and milk and fruit to London and other big cities.
England has many small farms, but not enough big farms, so English farmers cannot send enough food for the millions of workers in the cities. England gets only one-third of her bread and meat from her farms, and only one-tenth of the butter that she needs. Every day big ships come to English ports with food from Canada and the United States and South America. Every day smaller ships bring food from Europe to London and other English ports.
London, the capital of England, is on the Thames river, 50 kilometres from the sea. People sometimes ask, “Why did London, a city in the south-east of England and not near the centre, become the capital?”
To find the answer to this questions, we must remember that in old times England was not an industrial country. There were less people, and they lived in the warmer parts of England. In the south and east they could plant grain and get food easier. The place on the Thames river where London now stands was very important. There was a good port there for ships that came from Europe. People came to the Thames to sell things and to buy the things that the ships brought from other countries.
Where London now stands, there was a good place for a bridge. The Romans that came to England almost two thousand years ago built the first bridge there. They built many roads from the bridge into the whole country round. The most important road was the road from the London bridge to the south-east of England, because from there the way to Europe was the shortest.
Very early in history London became England's biggest port and most important city. Today London is one of the most important cities in the world.
Answer the questions.
• What can you say about the north of England?
• Why is the south of England different from the north?
• What can you say about the south of England?
• Where does England get the food that she needs?
• Where is London?
• Why did London become the capital of England?