Railway Sleepers

Worthing West Sussex

Approximate Population: 99,600

Worthing is a large seaside town and a local government borough in West Sussex, England.   Around 100,000 people live within the borough itself and 183,000 in the urban area.   Situated in the centre of an 80 km (50-mile) wide bay on the Sussex coast, between Beachy Head and Selsey Bill, the borough of Worthing also lies at the foot of the South Downs, a proposed national park.

The area around Worthing has been populated for at least 6,000 years and contains Britain’s greatest concentration of Stone Age flint mines, which are some of the earliest mines in Europe.   Lying within the borough, the Iron Age hill fort of Cissbury Ring is one of Britain’s largest.   Worthing means “(place of) Worth/Worō’s people”, from the Old English personal name Worth/Worō (the name means “valiant one, one who is noble”), and -ingas “people of” (reduced to -ing in the modern name).

For many centuries Worthing was a small mackerel fishing hamlet until in the late eighteenth century it developed into an elegant Georgian seaside resort and attracted the well-known and wealthy of the day.   In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries the area was one of Britain’s chief market gardening centres.

Railway Sleepers Worthing West Sussex

Railway Sleepers

Wakefield West Yorkshire

Approximate Population: 76,886

Wakefield was a centre for cloth dealing and had its own Piece Hall.   For much of the 18th and 19th century, Wakefield had an unusually diverse economy for Yorkshire, but it was a much smaller town during that period. Textile mills grouped around the River Calder, and a large glass works in the east of the city was a large employer.

There were several collieries around the outskirts of the town, and engineering works in the centre that had strong links to mining.   The Eastmoor area was once home to large brickyards. Its position as the seat of local government for the West Riding also provided many local jobs in the councils, courts and prison.

Many Wakefield families were and indeed still are prominent in the Wakefield area. The Parkinson’s of Wakefield held a well respected position due to their wealth and fairness.   Many of the family now live in Normanton on the outskirts of Wakefield, however Andrew Parkinson, does still live within the centre of Wakefield and many hold the same respect for him as those held for his ancestors of old.

Railway Sleepers Wakefield West Yorkshire

Railway Sleepers

Shrewsbury West Midlands

Approximate Population: 70,689

Shrewsbury is home to the Ditherington Flax Mill, the world’s first iron-framed building, which is commonly regarded as “the grandfather of the skyscraper”. Its importance was officially recognised in the 1950s, resulting in it becoming a Grade I listed building.  Shrewsbury in the Industrial Revolution was also located on the Shrewsbury Canal which linked it to the Shropshire Canal and wider canal network of Great Britain.

Shrewsbury has also played a unique part in Western intellectual history, by being the town in which the naturalist Charles Darwin was born and raised. Darwin later published his seminal text On the Origin of Species and developed the theory of natural selection.   Nearby is the village of Wroxeter, 5 miles (8 km) to the south-west, where the now ruined Roman city of Viroconium Cornoviorum lies. Viroconium was the fourth largest civitas capital in Roman Britain. As Caer Guricon it may have served as the early Dark Age capital of the kingdom of Powys.

The town avoided bombing in World War II and so many of its ancient buildings remain intact and there was little redevelopment during the 1960s and 1970s, which arguably destroyed the character of many historic towns in the UK. However, a large area of half timbered houses and businesses was destroyed to make way for the Raven Meadows multi-story car park, and other historic buildings were demolished to make way for the brutalist architectural style of the 1960s.  The town was saved from a new ‘inner ring road’ due to its challenging geography.

Railway Sleepers Shrewsbury West Midlands

Railway Sleepers

Westminster Greater London

Approximate Population: 181,766

Westminster is an area of Central London, within the City of Westminster.   It lies on the north bank of the River Thames, southwest of the City of London and 0.5 miles (0.8 km) southwest of Charing Cross.   It has a large concentration of London’s historic and prestigious landmarks and visitor attractions, including Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey and much of the West End of London.

Historically a part of Middlesex, the name Westminster was the ancient description for the area around Westminster Abbey–the West Minster, or monastery church, that gave the area its name–which had been the seat of the government of England for almost a thousand years.   Since its construction in the mid-19th century, Westminster has been location of the Palace of Westminster, a UNESCO World Heritage Site which houses the Parliament of the United Kingdom.

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Westminster Greater London

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Cambridge Cambridgeshire

Approximate Population:  280,305

The city of Cambridge is a university town and the administrative centre of the county of Cambridgeshire, England.   It lies about 50 miles (80 km) north of London.   It is also at the heart of the high-technology centre known as Silicon Fen.

Cambridge is best known as the home of the University of Cambridge, one of the world’s premier universities.   The university includes the renowned Cavendish Laboratory, King’s College Chapel, and the Cambridge University Library.   The Cambridge skyline is dominated by the last two buildings, along with the chimney of Addenbrooke’s Hospital in the far south of the city and St John’s College Chapel tower in the north.   The pronunciation of the city’s name is distinct from that of Cambridge in Gloucestershire, England, which is /ˈkæmbrɪdʒ/.

According to the 2001 United Kingdom census, the City’s population was 108,863 (including 22,153 students), and the population of the urban area (which includes parts of South Cambridgeshire district) is estimated to be 130,000. Cambridge is surrounded by many smaller towns and villages.

Railway Sleepers Cambridge Cambridgeshire

Railway Sleepers

Sunderland Tyne and Wear

Approximate Population: 177,739

As the former heavy industries have declined in Sunderland, so electronic, chemical, paper and motor manufactures have replaced them, including the Nissan car plant at Washington.

From 1990, the banks of the Wear experienced a massive physical regeneration with the creation of housing, retail parks and business centres on former shipbuilding sites.   Alongside the creation of the National Glass Centre the University of Sunderland has also built a new campus on the St. Peter’s site.   The clearance of the Vaux Breweries site on the north west fringe of the City Centre has created a further opportunity for new development in the city centre.

Like many cities, Sunderland comprises a number of areas with their own distinct histories, for example Fulwell, Monkwearmouth, Roker, and Southwick on the northern side of the Wear, and Bishopwearmouth and Hendon to the south.

Railway Sleepers Sunderland Tyne and Wear