 The
Southeast
Counties: Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Hampshire,
Kent, Isle of Wight, Surrey,
Oxfordshire, East Sussex, West Sussex
The Southeast is more densely populated than any other part of England.
Landscape
A mixture of lowlands and chains of small hills. To the far north west are the Cotswold Hills, while the Chilterns extend from Oxfordshire across Buckinghamshire into Hertfordshire.
A horseshoe-shaped
ring of chalk hills known as the Downs run down to the sea through Kent and Sussex. The South Downs reach the coast near Brighton, the North Downs at Dover, where they end in the famous white cliffs, which are the first sight of England for travellers by sea from continental Europe.
 
Important
towns and cities
 Oxford is the largest city in the region and is home to one of Britain's oldest
universities.
The M25, the motorway which rings London, is linked by other motorways
with the Channel ports of Dover, Southhampton and Portsmouth. Dover is
England's busiest port. Ferries carry passengers and freight to and from
the continent of Europe. The terminus for the Channel Tunnel, which opened
in 1994 and links English mainland with the rest of Europe, is at Folkestone.
There are several busy seaside resorts in the Southeast, including Margate,
Worthing, Brighton and Eastbourne. The cathedral cities of Canterbury
and Winchester also attract many visitors each year.
Other important towns include Reading and Windsor in Berkshire.
Airports
Heathrow Airport is located 15 miles west of Central London. It is the UK’s largest airport and Europe’s busiest airport for passenger traffic. It also handles more international traffic than any other airport in the world.
Gatwick Airport, the UK's second busiest airport, is about 15 miles south west of London.
Industry and
farming
The Southeast has mainly light industries and is also home to the largest
oil refinery at Fawley, near Southhampton. There are hovercraft factories
on the Isle of Wight. Kent has paper mills, shipyards, and a nuclear
power station at Dungeness. Away from the towns, there are hundreds
of small farms, with orchards and fruit farms. Kent, known as the
'Garden of England', is famous for its apples and for hops, used
in brewing beer. Lamberhurst is known for its vineyards and produces
English wines.
Industry in Berkshire centres around Bracknell, Maidenhead, Reading and Slough, with electronics concentrated in Milton Keynes. Hertforshire is known for engineering, mostly at St Albans, Hatfield, Letchworth and Watford. The Oxford suburb of Cowly has huge car factories and was the birthplace of the classic Morris Minor.
 The Garden of England - The county of Kent is known as “ the Garden of England ” because it produces a lot of fruit and vegetables. It is also famous for growing a fruit called hops, used to make beer, Britain 's favourite alcoholic drink. Hops used to be dried in oast-houses (see picture) an unusual building and a very popular sight in Kent. Nowadays, they are not used, but have been converted to fashionable, unique houses.
The
Weald - An area
in the south of England which separates the North Downs and South
Downs. Cinque
Ports - (pronounced 'sink' ports). Five seaports on the
south coast of Kent and Sussex - Hastings, Romney, Hythe, Dover
and Sandwich, later increased with Winchelsea and Rye who were
ordered in the Middle Ages to produce ships for service and were
granted special privileges for doing so. Only Dover, Hastings and
Hythe are still on the coast. |
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