Approximate Population: 47,288

Great Yarmouth, often known to locals as Yarmouth, is a coastal town in Norfolk, England. It is at the mouth of the River Yare, 20 miles east of Norwich.

It has been a seaside resort since 1760, and is the gateway from the Norfolk Broads to the sea. For hundreds of years it has been a fishing port dependent on the herring fishery, and today it services offshore natural gas rigs. The town has a popular beach and two promenades.

The town itself is on a thin spit sandwiched between the North Sea and River Yare. It is home to the historic rows and the main tourist sector on the seafront. The area is linked to Gorleston, Cobholm and Southtown by Haven Bridge and to the A47, A149 and A12 by the Breydon Bridge.

The unparished urban area that makes up the town of Great Yarmouth has an area of 26.54 km² and according to the Office for National Statistics in 2002 had a population of 47,288. It is the main town in the larger Borough of Great Yarmouth. The ONS identify a Great Yarmouth Urban Area, which has a population of 66,788, including the sub-areas of Caister-on-Sea (8,756) and Great Yarmouth (58,032). The wider borough of Great Yarmouth has a population of around 92,500.

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Watford Hertfordshire

Approximate Population: 79,600

Watford is a major regional centre for the northern home counties.   It is the most westerly of these commercial centres and the only one in Hertfordshire.   Hertfordshire County Council designates Watford and Stevenage to be its major sub-regional centres, heading its list of preferred sites for retail development.  The primary shopping area is the Harlequin Shopping Centre, a large purpose-built indoor mall with over 140 shops, restaurants and cafes built during the 1990s, opened officially in June 1992.

The High Street, running through the town centre, is the main focus of activity at night having a high concentration of the town’s bars, clubs and restaurants.

The head offices of a number of national companies such as Camelot Group, operator of the National Lottery; Iveco, manufacturers of commercial vehicles; Haden Young, the building services division of Balfour Beatty; Bathstore, the largest bathroom retailer in the UK; construction firm Taylor Woodrow; and Mothercare, are located in the town.   The borough is also the UK base of many multi-nationals including Total Oil, Sanyo, TK Maxx, Costco, Vinci, and Beko.

The town was home to the Scammell Lorries Factory from 1922 until its closure in 1988.   The site is now a residential area.  Plans are underway to develop a new Health Campus complete with heliport adjacent to the site of the current Watford General Hospital.

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Aberystwyth Wales

Approximate Population: 11,607

The recorded history of Aberystwyth, however, may be said to date from the building of a fortress in 1109 by Gilbert Fitz Richard (grandfather of Richard de Clare, known as Strongbow, the Cambro-Norman lord notable for his leading role in the Norman invasion of Ireland).   Gilbert Fitz Richard was granted lands and the Lordship of Cardigan by Henry I, including Cardigan Castle.   The fortress built in Aberystwyth was located about a mile and a half south of today’s town, on a hill over the south bank of the Ystwyth River.

Edward I replaced Strongbow’s castle in 1277, after its destruction by the Welsh.   His castle was however built in a different location, at the current Castle Hill, the high point of the town.   Between the years 1404 and 1408 Aberystwyth Castle was in the hands of Owain Glyndŵr, but finally surrendered to Prince Harry (the future King Henry V of England).   Shortly after this the town was incorporated under the title of Ville de Lampadarn (the ancient name of the place being Llanbadarn Gaerog, or the fortified Llanbadarn, to distinguish it from Llanbadarn Fawr, the village one mile (1.6 km) inland).

It is thus styled in a Royal charter granted by Henry VIII, but by Elizabeth I’s time the town was invariably termed Aberystwyth in all documents.   In 1649 the Parliamentarian troops razed the castle[5], so that its remains are now inconsiderable, though portions of three towers still exist.   Excavations in the 1970s within the castle, in what is believed to be a stables area, revealed a complete male skeleton, deliberately buried.[citation needed] Rarely surviving in Wales’ acidic soil, this skeleton was probably preserved by the addition of lime from the collapsed building.   Affectionately known as “Charlie”, he probably dates from the English Civil War period, probably dying during the Parliamentarian siege and is now housed in the Ceredigion Museum in the town.

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Approximate Population: 99, 456

Southport is a seaside town within the Metropolitan Borough of Sefton, in Merseyside, England. The town is located on the Irish Sea coast, 16.5 miles (26.6 km) to the north of Liverpool and 14.8 miles (23.8 km) west-southwest of Preston. Southport has a population of around 100,000,[1] with approximately 40% of the population over 55 years old and around 55% defined as social class ABC1.

Historically a part of Lancashire, tourist attractions include Southport Pier, the second longest seaside pleasure pier in the British Isles, Lord Street, a tree-lined shopping street once home of Napoleon III of France, and a fairground which was originally opened in 1912.

The town contains examples of Victorian architecture and town planning. These include much of Lord Street in addition to Cambridge Hall, Town Hall and Wayfarers’ Arcade.  A particular feature of the town is the extensive tree planting.   This was one of the conditions required by the Hesketh family when they made land available for development in the 19th century.   Hesketh Park at the northern end of the town is named after the Hesketh family.

Extensive sand dunes stretch for several kilometers between Birkdale and Ainsdale/Woodvale to the south of the town.   The Ainsdale sand dunes have been designated as a National Nature Reserve in England and a Ramsar site. Local fauna include the Natterjack toad and the Sand lizard.

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Croydon Greater London

Approximate Population: 316,283

Croydon is a large town and major commercial centre in South London, and the principal settlement of the London Borough of Croydon.   It is 9.5 miles (15.3 km) south of Charing Cross, and is one of the major metropolitan centres identified in the London Plan. It is located on the natural transport corridor between London and England’s south coast, just to the north of a gap in the North Downs.

Historically a part of Surrey, at the time of the Norman conquest of England Croydon had a church, a mill and around 365 inhabitants (as recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086).   Croydon expanded during the Middle Ages as a market town and a centre for charcoal production, leather tanning and brewing.   The Surrey Iron Railway from Croydon to Wandsworth opened in 1803 and was the world’s first horse-drawn railway, which later developed into an important means of transport – facilitating Croydon’s growth as a commuter town for the City of London and beyond.

In the early 20th century Croydon was an important industrial area, known for metal working, car manufacture and its airport.   In the mid 20th century these sectors were replaced with retailing and service economy, brought about as a result of a massive redevelopment of office blocks and the Whitgift shopping centre. Croydon was amalgamated into Greater London in 1965. Road traffic is now diverted away from a largely pedestrianised town centre, but its main railway station, East Croydon, is still a major hub within the national railway transport system.   The town is expected to have its urban planning changed as part of Croydon Vision 2020.

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Approximate Population: 218,063

Barnsley is a town in South Yorkshire, England. It lies on the River Dearne, 11.8 miles (19 km) north of the city of Sheffield, 17 miles (27 km) south of Leeds and 14.5 miles (23 km) west of Doncaster. Barnsley is surrounded by several smaller settlements which together form the Metropolitan Borough of Barnsley, of which Barnsley is the largest and the administrative centre. Barnsley has a total population of over 218,063.

The first historical reference occurs in 1086 in the Domesday Book, in which it is called ‘Berneslai’ with a total population of around 200.   The exact origins of the name Barnsley is still subject to debate, but Barnsley Council claims that its origins lie in the Saxon word Berne, for barn or storehouse, and Lay, for field.

The town lay in the parish of Silkstone and developed little until in the 1150s it was given to the monastery of St John, Pontefract.   The monks decided to build a new town where three roads met: the Sheffield to Wakefield, Rotherham to Huddersfield and Cheshire to Doncaster routes.   The Domesday village became known as “Old Barnsley”, and a town grew up on the new site.

The monks erected a chapel-of-ease dedicated to Saint Mary, which survived intact until 1820, and established a market.   In 1249, a Royal Charter was granted to Barnsley permitting it to hold a weekly market on Wednesdays and annual four-day fair at Michaelmas.   By the 1290s, three annual fairs were held.   The town became the main centre for the Staincross wapentake, but in the mid-sixteenth century still had only 600 inhabitants.

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Approximate Population: 80,477

In the 19th century Basingstoke began to move into industrial manufacture, Wallis and Haslam (later Wallis & Steevens), began producing agricultural equipment including threshing machines in the 1850s, moving into the production of stationary steam engines in the 1860s and then traction engines in the 1870s.

Two traders who opened their first shops within a year of each other in the town, went on to become household names nationally: Thomas Burberry in 1856 and Alfred Milward in 1857.  Burberry became famous after he invented Gabardine and Milward founded the Milwards chain of shoe shops, which could be found on almost every high street until the 1980s. London Street includes a variety of architecture from the 17th to the 20th century.

Ordinary citizens were said to be shocked by the emotive, evangelical tactics of the Salvation Army when they arrived in the town in 1880, but the reaction from those employed by the breweries or within the Licence trade quickly grew more openly hostile.   Violent clashes became a regular occurrence culminating on Sunday 27 March 1881 with troops being called upon to break up the conflict after the Mayor had read the Riot Act.   The riot and its causes led to questions in Parliament and a period of notoriety for the town.

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Approximate Population: 70,689

Shrewsbury is the county town of Shropshire, in the West Midlands region of England. Lying on the River Severn, it is home to 70,689 inhabitants, and is the primary settlement and headquarters of Shropshire Council. Consequently, it is the second largest town in the ceremonial county of Shropshire, after Telford.

Shrewsbury is a historic market town with the town centre having a largely unaltered medieval street plan. The town features over 660 historic listed buildings, including several examples of timber framing from the 15th century and 16th century. Shrewsbury Castle, a red sandstone castle fortification, and Shrewsbury Abbey, a former Benedictine monastery, were founded in 1074 and 1083 respectively, by the Norman Earl of Shrewsbury, Roger de Montgomery. The town hosts one of the oldest and largest horticultural events in the country, Shrewsbury Flower Show, and is known for its floral displays, having won various awards since the turn of the 21st century, including Britain in Bloom in 2006.

Today, lying 9 miles (14 km) east of the Welsh border, Shrewsbury serves as a cultural and commercial centre for the ceremonial county and a large area of mid-Wales, with retail output alone worth over £299 million per year. There are some light industry and distribution centres, such as Battlefield Enterprise Park, located mainly on the outskirts. The A5 and A49 trunk roads cross here, as do five railway lines at Shrewsbury railway station.

The town was known to the ancient Britons as Pengwern, signifying “the alder hill”; and to the Anglo-Saxons as Scrobbesburh (dative Scrobbesbyrig), which has several meanings; “fort in the scrub-land region”, “Scrobb’s fort”, “shrubstown” or “the town of the bushes”. This name was gradually corrupted in three directions, into ‘Sciropscire’ which became Shropshire, into ‘Sloppesberie’, which became Salop/Salopia (the historical name for the county), and into ‘Schrosberie’ which eventually became the name of the county town, Shrewsbury. Its Welsh name Amwythig means “fortified place”.

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Approximate Population: 100,100

Crawley is a town and local government district with Borough status in West Sussex, England. It is 28 miles (45 km) south of London, 18 miles (29 km) north of Brighton and Hove, and 32 miles (51 km) northeast of the county town of Chichester, covers an area of 17.36 square miles (44.96 km2) and had a population of 99,744 at the time of the 2001 Census.

The area has been inhabited since the Stone Age, and was a centre of iron-making in Roman times. Crawley developed slowly as a market town from the 13th century, serving the surrounding villages in the Weald; its location on the main road from London to Brighton brought a passing trade, encouraging the development of coaching inns. It was connected to the railway network in the 1840s. Gatwick Airport, now one of Britain’s busiest international airports, opened on the edge of the town in the 1940s, encouraging commercial and industrial growth. After the Second World War, the British Government planned to move large numbers of people and jobs out of London and into new towns around South East England. The New Towns Act 1946 designated Crawley as the site of one of these. A master plan was developed for the establishment of new residential, commercial, industrial and civic areas, and rapid development greatly increased the size and population of the town in a few decades.

The area may have been settled during the Mesolithic period: locally manufactured flints of the Horsham Culture type have been found to the southwest of the town. Tools and burial mounds from the Neolithic period, and burial mounds and a sword from the Bronze Age, have also been discovered. Crawley is on the western edge of the High Weald, which produced iron for more than 2,000 years from the Iron Age onwards. Goffs Park—now a recreational area in the south of the town—was the site of two late Iron Age furnaces. Ironworking and mineral extraction continued throughout Roman times, particularly in the Broadfield area where many furnaces were built.

Crawley has three local newspapers, two of which have a long history in the area. The Crawley Observer began life in 1881 as Simmins Weekly Advertiser, became the Sussex & Surrey Courier and then the Crawley and District Observer, and took its current name in 1983. The newspaper is now owned by Johnston Press. The Crawley News was first published in 1979, and later took over the operations of the older Crawley Advertiser which closed in 1982. The newspaper is now owned by the Trinity Mirror group and is a free publication. In September 2008 Johnston Press launched a new weekly broadsheet newspaper called the Crawley Times based on the companies paper produced in Horsham, the West Sussex County Times.

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Approximate Population: 174,994

Walsall  is a large industrial town in the West Midlands of England.   It is located northwest of Birmingham and east of Wolverhampton.   Historically a part of Staffordshire, Walsall is a component area of the West Midlands conurbation, and is sometimes described as part of the Black Country. Walsall folk (informally known as ‘Walsallians’) generally object to being referred to as Brummie, preferring instead to promote their own proud heritage to people outside the West Midlands conurbation.

Walsall is the administrative headquarters of the Metropolitan Borough of Walsall.  In the 2001 census, the town had a population of 170,994 with the wider borough having a population of 253,500.   Neighbouring towns in the borough include Willenhall, Bloxwich and Aldridge.

Walsall Arboretum was officially opened on 4 May 1874 by the wealthy Hatherton family. It was hoped that the park would provide “a healthy change from dogfights, bull-baiting and cockfights”, however the 2d (old pence) admission was not popular with the public and within seven years the council took over ownership to provide free admission.

Walsall is home to the University of Wolverhampton’s Sports and Art Campus. Walsall College provides further education, and is based around three sites across Walsall. There are ten secular junior schools and two religious junior schools in Walsall. 45% of pupils in the Borough of Walsall achieved five GCSEs with grades of A*-C, below the national average of 56%.

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