Everything about North Wales totally explained
North Wales (
Welsh:
Gogledd Cymru) is the northernmost unofficial region of
Wales, bordered to the south by
Mid Wales and to the east by
England.
It comprises the
island of
Anglesey, the
Llŷn peninsula and the
Snowdonia mountain range, together with the catchments of the
Rivers
Conwy,
Clwyd and
Dee.
Traditionally, most of North Wales was covered by the
kingdom of Gwynedd.
The region is currently made up of the following
administrative areas:
However, "North Wales" could be used to describe the northern half of
Wales, which would also include the northern parts of
Powys and
Ceredigion.
The area is mostly rural with many
mountains and valleys. This, in combination with its coast (on the
Irish Sea), has ensured that
tourism is the principal industry.
Farming, which was once the principal economic force in the area, is now much reduced in importance. The average income per capita of the local population is the lowest in the
UK and much of the region has
EU Objective 1 status
(External Link
).
The eastern part of North Wales contains the most populous areas, with more than 300,000 people living in the areas around
Wrexham and
Deeside. Wrexham is North Wales' largest town, with a population of 68,000 in 2005. The majority of other settlements are along the coast, including some popular resorts, such as
Rhyl,
Llandudno and
Pwllheli. The
A55 expressway links these towns with the north of
England and the port of
Holyhead for ferries to
Ireland; few routes connect North Wales with
South Wales. There are two cathedral cities —
Bangor and
St. Asaph, and a number of mediaeval castles (for example:
Criccieth,
Dolbadarn,
Harlech,
Caernarfon,
Beaumaris,
Conwy).
North Wales has a distinct regional identity. Its dialect of the
Welsh language differs from that of other regions such as
South Wales in some ways; for example
llefrith is used in most of the North instead of
llaeth for "milk"; a simple sentence such as
go upstairs now would be
Dos i fyny'r grisiau rwan in North Wales, where it would be
Cer lan y stâr nawr in the South. Colloquially, a person from North Wales (especially one who speaks with this dialect or accent) is known as a
North Walian, or a
Gog (from the Welsh
gogledd, meaning "north").
For many purposes Wales can be divided into only three regions, North Wales,
South Wales and
West Wales. In this scenario the boundary between North Wales and West Wales is marked by the Ceredigion - Powys border. Powys itself is divided with the Traditional County of
Brecknockshire being included in South Wales with
Montgomeryshire included in North Wales.
Local media
Television is provided by BBC Wales throughout the area and by BBC North West in eastern border areas. Flintshire, Denbighshire and Greater Wrexham lie within the broadcast area of both ITV Wales and ITV Granada/ITV Central West, and S4C and Channel 4.
Independent local radio stations in this area include: 105.4 Century RadioMarcher Sound (Wrexham, Chester and Flintshire), Coast 96.3 (North Wales coast), Champion 103 (Gwynedd and Anglesey), and Radio Maldwyn (mid Wales; signal particularly strong in Greater Wrexham). Radio City 96.7, Dee 106.3, Signal One, Beacon Radio, Buzz 97.1 (a sister station of Marcher Sound) and other stations are very much accessible in the north-east.
No local BBC radio stations exist for North Wales, but the national services BBC Radio Wales and BBC Radio Cymru serve much of the area. BBC Radio Merseyside, Manchester and Lancashire are strong in north eastern areas, with reception of BBC Radio Cumbria in some coastal areas.
Related Constituencies
North Wales was a European Parliament constituency until 1999.
Currently, there's an electoral region for the National Assembly for Wales with the name (used, in parallel with the smaller constituencies, to elect top-up members under the Additional Member System), which covers the North-East of Wales (specifically the entire area of the former pre-1996 county of Clwyd) as well as the Northern-most coastal areas of north-western Wales; the rest of North Wales is covered by Mid and West Wales (National Assembly for Wales electoral region).
Further Information
Get more info on 'North Wales'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://north_wales.totallyexplained.com">North Wales Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
