Vale of Glamorgan
Encyclopedia : V : VA : VAL : Vale of Glamorgan
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| Area - Total - % Water | Ranked 15th 335 km² ? % | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Admin HQ | Barry | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| ONS code | 00PD | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The Vale of Glamorgan (Welsh: Bro (or rarely Dyffryn) Morgannwg) is an exceptionally rich agricultural area in the southern part of Glamorgan, Wales. It has a rugged coastline, but its rolling countryside is quite untypical of Wales as a whole. The Vale also boasts many tourist attractions which lure many visitors every year, these include Barry Island Pleasure Park, Vale of Glamorgan Railway, St Donats Castle, Cosmeston Country Park and many more. It is also the location of Atlantic College, one of the United World Colleges.
GeographyIt has been a county borough since 1996, previously being part of South Glamorgan. It is also a parliamentary constituency, with John Smith as its Member of Parliament. The main town and largest centre of population is Barry. Other small towns are Cowbridge, Dinas Powys, Llantwit Major and Penarth, but a large proportion of the population inhabits villages, hamlets and individual farms.The awesome yellow-grey cliffs on the Glamorgan Heritage Coast (which stretches between Llantwit Major to Ogmore by Sea) are absolutely unique on the Celtic Sea coastline (i.e Cornwall, Wales, Ireland and Brittany) as they are formed of a combination of liassic limestone, shale and carboniferous sandstone/limestone - totally unique for a coastline on the Celtic sea. They were formed 200 million years ago when Wales (as well as Cornwall, Brittany and Ireland) lay underneath a warm, shallow, equatorial sea during the beginning of the jurassic age. Today the cliffs contain elements of jurassic age sea-creatures (although not land dinosaurs - what is now the Celtic sea coastline was underneath the sea), such as ammonites. The stratification of overlapping shale, sandstone and limestone was caused by a geological upheaval known as the Variscan orogeny, which literally pushed the cliffs out of the sea, contorting them as they did so. (This stratification can also be found on other parts of the Celtic seaboard, such as Bude in Cornwall, across the Bristol Channel). As the cliffs and land contain elements of calcium carbonate found in the limestone, it allows farmers in the vale to grow crops which would be difficult elsewhere in Wales or the West country, such as Devon and Cornwall (whose soil is predominantly acidic as most of the west country is made of poor quality Devonian soils). The liassic limestone and carboniferous sandstone is also used in the vale for building materials; in previous centuries it was taken by sloops across the Bristol Channel to north Cornish ports such as Bude, Boscastle and Port Isaac to fertilise Cornwall's poor slate soils for the farming communities; while the hard Devonian slate of cornwall was brought back as a roofing material for houses in the vale. As the Glamorgan Heritage Coast faces westwards out to the Alantic, it bears the brunt of brutal on-shore (west,south-westerly) winds; ideal for surfing, but a nightmare for ships trying to sail up the bristol channel into Cardiff. Just like North Cornwall or South-West Ireland, the fierce Alantic gales created ideal conditions for pre-meditated shipwrecking, which up until 100 years was very common along the coast (although shipwrecking was common across all the celtic seaboard). Nash point, Southerndown and Ogmore-by-sea have some of the highest shipwreck victims on the coast of Wales; as recently as 1962 an oil tanker crashed into Nash point, was torn to shreds by the brutal reefs and eventually sank. The district borders Cardiff, Rhondda Cynon Taff and Bridgend to the north, and the Bristol Channel to the south. GovernmentThe region is governed by the Vale of Glamorgan council.Electoral divisionsThe county is divided into 23 electoral wards returning 47 councillors. Some of these wards are coterminous with communities (parishes) of the same name. Other wards may encompass several communities and in some cases communities can encompass more than one ward. The following table lists council wards, communities and associated geographical areas. Communities with a community council are indicated with a '*':
See also
From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||