86-644: The Chiltern Hundreds is an ancient administrative area in Buckinghamshire , England, composed of three " hundreds " and lying partially within the Chiltern Hills . "Taking the Chiltern Hundreds" refers to one of the legal fictions used to effect resignation from the British House of Commons . Since Members of Parliament are not permitted to resign, they are instead appointed to an "office of profit under
172-702: A (ceremonial) Mayor of Milton Keynes. On 1 April 1997, the Borough became a self-governing unitary authority , independent of the County Council. Following award of Letters Patent in 2022, the Borough became the City of Milton Keynes , and its council became Milton Keynes City Council . The remit of the City Council extends beyond the Milton Keynes urban area , encompassing a significant rural area with villages, hamlets, and
258-561: A prosperous economic hub with the largest economy of any region in the UK, after London . The region is home to Gatwick Airport , the UK's second-busiest airport, and Heathrow Airport (the UK's busiest airport) is located adjacent to the region's boundary with Greater London . The coastline along the English Channel provides numerous ferry crossings to mainland Europe . The region is known for its countryside, which includes two national parks:
344-680: A resolution was passed by the House of Commons making it illegal for an MP to quit or wilfully give up his seat. Believing that officers of the Crown could not remain impartial, the House passed a resolution on 30 December 1680 stating that an MP who "shall accept any Office, or Place of Profit, from the Crown, without the Leave of this House ... shall be expelled [from] this House." However, MPs were able to hold Crown Stewardships until 1740, when Sir Watkin Williams-Wynn
430-630: A subdivision of the kingdom of Mercia (585–919). The history of the area predates the Anglo-Saxon period and the county has a rich history starting from the Brittonic and Roman periods, though the Anglo-Saxons perhaps had the greatest impact on Buckinghamshire: the geography of the rural county is largely as it was in the Anglo-Saxon period. Later, Buckinghamshire became an important political arena, with King Henry VIII intervening in local politics in
516-429: A time when the rich were more mobile, and leafy Bucks became a popular rural idyll: an image it still has today. Buckinghamshire is a popular home for London commuters, leading to greater local affluence; however, some pockets of relative deprivation remain. The expansion of London and coming of the railways promoted the growth of towns in the south of the county such as Aylesbury , Amersham and High Wycombe , leaving
602-471: A unitary authority, the Borough of Milton Keynes; for ceremonial purposes Milton Keynes remains part of Buckinghamshire. The administration of the remainder of the county continued to be called Buckinghamshire County Council. Buckinghamshire County Council was a large employer in the county and provided a variety of services, including education (schools, adult education and youth services), social services, highways, libraries, County Archives and Record Office,
688-682: Is a 144-ft beech at Devil's Dyke in Newtimber Woods in West Sussex. Until 1999, there was a south east Standard Statistical Region , which also included the counties of Bedfordshire , Greater London , Essex and Hertfordshire . The former south east Civil Defence Region covered the same area as the current official region. In unofficial usage, the South East can refer to a varying area – sometimes only to London, Kent, East Sussex, West Sussex, and Surrey; but sometimes to an area corresponding to
774-527: Is a level-1 NUTS region, coded "UKJ", which is subdivided as follows: Buckinghamshire, Medway and Kent, and Slough have an almost completely selective education system – not just a few grammar schools as other English areas may have – with secondary modern schools as the alternative. Kent has 33 grammar schools, Buckinghamshire 13, Medway 6 and Slough 4. The other areas are comprehensive . The top thirty schools at A level are almost exclusively selective schools; one or two are sixth form colleges . However,
860-513: Is a principal train operating company in Buckinghamshire, providing the majority of local commuter services from the centre and south of the county, with trains running into London Marylebone . Great Western operates commuter services from Taplow and Iver into London Paddington . West Midlands Trains provides these services from Milton Keynes Central into Euston or Birmingham New Street , and Southern operates commuter services via
946-531: Is an official region for statistical and strategic planning purposes, but is not served by any directly elected regional government. From 1998 to 2010 local councils sent to the voluntary South East England Regional Assembly , based in Guildford . Delegates met six times a year and it was responsible for the South East England Development Agency , a project which oversaw investment projects in
SECTION 10
#17328444120951032-594: Is at the junction of the Varsity Line (between Oxford and Cambridge) and the West Coast Main Line . The Harwell computer (Dekatron), now at the National Museum of Computing at Bletchley, was built in 1949 and is believed to be the oldest working digital computer in the world. John Wallis of Kent introduced the symbol for infinity and the standard notation for powers of numbers in 1656. Thomas Bayes
1118-399: Is limited, with agriculture predominating after service industries. The name Buckinghamshire is Anglo-Saxon in origin and means The district (scire) of Bucca's home . Bucca's home refers to Buckingham in the north of the county, and is named after the Anglo-Saxon landowner, Bucca . The county has been so named since about the 12th century; however, the county has existed since it was
1204-480: Is now a Grade II listed building . From 1974 (following the Local Government Act 1972 ) local administration was run on a two-tier system where public services were split between the county council and five district councils ( Aylesbury Vale , Chiltern , Milton Keynes , South Bucks and Wycombe ). In 1997, the northernmost part of Buckinghamshire, until then Milton Keynes District, was separated to form
1290-605: Is served by four motorways, although two are on its borders: Six important A roads also enter the county (from north to south): Also less important primary A roads enter the country: The county is poorly served with internal routes, with the A413 and A418 linking the south and north of the county. As part of the London commuter belt , Buckinghamshire is well connected to the national rail network, with both local commuter and inter-city services serving some destinations. Chiltern Railways
1376-627: Is strong support for other parties, for example, Oxford , Slough and Southampton Test for Labour and Brighton Pavilion which is held by the Green Party . Out of 84 parliamentary seats, the Conservatives hold 72. In the 2017 general election, the Conservatives won 54.8% of votes, Labour 28.6%, Liberal Democrats 10.6%, Greens 3.1%, and UKIP 2.2%. In the Eurostat Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics (NUTS), South East England
1462-434: Is the home of various notable people in connection with whom tourist attractions have been established: for example the author Roald Dahl who included many local features and characters in his works. Artists William Callow and Harriet Anne Smart Callow produced many paintings of the area in the late 19th century. Sports facilities in Buckinghamshire include half of the international Silverstone Circuit which straddles
1548-442: Is the third-largest region of England, with a land area of 19,072 square kilometres (7,364 sq mi), and is also the most populous with a total population of 9,379,833 in 2022. The region contains eight legally chartered cities : Brighton and Hove , Canterbury , Chichester , Milton Keynes , Oxford , Portsmouth , Southampton and Winchester . The region's close proximity to London has led to South East England becoming
1634-631: The A32 , is an example of a site where the Romano-British grew Roman grapes . Much of the Battle of Britain was fought in this region, especially in Kent. RAF Bomber Command was based at High Wycombe . RAF Medmenham at Danesfield House , west of Marlow in Buckinghamshire, was important for aerial reconnaissance . Operation Corona , based at RAF Kingsdown (at West Kingsdown next to Brands Hatch in Kent, between
1720-710: The County Museum and the Roald Dahl Children's Gallery in Aylesbury, consumer services and some aspects of waste disposal and planning. Buckinghamshire Council is a unitary authority covering most of the ceremonial county of Buckinghamshire. It was created in April 2020 from the areas that were previously administered by Buckinghamshire County Council and the district councils of South Bucks, Chiltern, Wycombe, and Aylesbury Vale. A local authority for North Buckinghamshire
1806-560: The Manor of Northstead are still in use. A hundred is a traditional division of an English county : the Oxford English Dictionary says that the etymology is "exceedingly obscure". The three Chiltern Hundreds were Stoke Hundred , Desborough Hundred , and Burnham Hundred . The area had been Crown property as early as the 13th century. Through the Saxon and early Norman periods
SECTION 20
#17328444120951892-956: The New Forest and the South Downs , as well as the North Downs , the Chiltern Hills and part of the Cotswolds . The River Thames flows through the region and its basin is known as the Thames Valley . It is also the location of a number of internationally known places of interest, such as HMS Victory in Portsmouth, Cliveden in Buckinghamshire, Thorpe Park and RHS Wisley in Surrey, Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire, Windsor Castle in Berkshire, Leeds Castle ,
1978-700: The River Thames . The Ridgeway Path, a long-distance footpath, passes through the county. The county also has many historic houses. Some of these are opened to the public by the National Trust , such as Waddesdon Manor , West Wycombe Park and Cliveden . Other historic houses are still in use as private homes, such as the Prime Minister 's country retreat Chequers . Claydon House (near Steeple Claydon ), Hughendon Manor (near High Wycombe), Stowe Landscaped Gardens, and Waddesdon Manor (near Aylesbury) are in
2064-656: The Rothschild banking family of England in the 19th century (see Rothschild properties in England ). The county has several annual agricultural shows, with the Bucks County Show established in 1859. Manufacturing industries include furniture-making (traditionally centred at High Wycombe ), pharmaceuticals and agricultural processing. Pinewood Studios in Iver Heath is a principal centre of operations for film and TV production in
2150-601: The West London Line from Milton Keynes Central to East Croydon . Avanti West Coast operates inter-city services from Milton Keynes Central to Euston, North West England , the West Midlands , the Scottish Central Belt , and North Wales . Great Western operates non-stop services through the south of the county from Paddington to South West England and South Wales . There are four main lines running through
2236-739: The White Cliffs of Dover and Canterbury Cathedral in Kent, Brighton Palace Pier , and Hammerwood Park in East Sussex, and Wakehurst Place in West Sussex. The region has many universities; the University of Oxford is the oldest in the English-speaking world, and ranked among the best in the world. South East England is host to various sporting events, including the annual Henley Royal Regatta , Royal Ascot and The Derby , and sporting venues include Wentworth Golf Club and Brands Hatch . Some of
2322-462: The circulation of blood . The Lilly Research Centre in Windlesham, Berkshire, part of Eli Lilly , developed Olanzapine in 1996 (for bipolar disorder , selling around $ 5bn worldwide annually). Beecham Research Laboratories at Brockham Park in 1959 discovered meticillin (or methicillin), the first semi-synthetic penicillin ( beta-lactamase stable), deriving from their discovery in 1958 of 6-APA ,
2408-758: The flying tail or all-moving tail also known as a stabilator ; this would solve the problem of stability and aircraft control at supersonic speeds , and its design was taken wholesale into the American Bell X-1 , the first supersonic aircraft . The first Harrier aircraft XV738 flew on 28 December 1967; this was the first aircraft of the RAF to have a head-up display avionics system. The first two-seat Harrier XW174 flew on 24 April 1969, later crashing at Larkhill in June 1969. The British Aerospace Sea Harrier XZ450 first flew on 20 August 1978; on 4 May 1982 this aircraft
2494-508: The government of Elizabeth I had established royal representatives ( Justices of the Peace , Sheriffs , and Lords Lieutenant ) in every county of England and Wales ; they ensured that Royal commands and laws were obeyed. By the 17th century the office of steward and bailiff had been reduced to just a title with no attached powers or duties. In the 17th century Members of Parliament (MPs) were often elected against their will. On 2 March 1623,
2580-572: The plan position indicator method of radar display as most commonly known ever since; the site became Plessey Radar in 1965, and currently is run by BAE Systems. Sperry Gyroscope in Bracknell produced the guidance systems for Britain's 1960s space rockets. The Wealden iron industry in the Weald was the site of the first blast furnace in Britain in 1491, and produced much of Britain's cast iron until
2666-472: The 16th century, and just a century later the English Civil War was reputedly started by John Hampden in mid-Bucks. Historically, the biggest change to the county came in the 19th century, when a combination of cholera and famine hit the rural county, forcing many to migrate to larger towns to find work. Not only did this alter the local economic situation, it meant a lot of land was going cheap at
Chiltern Hundreds - Misplaced Pages Continue
2752-533: The 1770s. Portsmouth Block Mills were the site of the world's first metal machine tools , built for the manufacture of wooden pulleys , invented by Henry Maudslay , and the site of the world's first industrial assembly line in 1803. South Foreland Lighthouse on 8 December 1858 was the world's first lighthouse with electric light, with the first type of industrial electrical generator made by Frederick Hale Holmes , from work he had carried out with Floris Nollet of Belgium, and 36 permanent magnets. By 1880, of
2838-474: The A20 and M20), was implemented to confuse German night fighters with native German-speakers, and coordinated by the RAF Y service . Bletchley Park in north Buckinghamshire was the principal Allied centre for codebreaking. The Colossus computer , arguably the world's first, began working on Lorentz codes on 5 February 1944, with Colossus 2 working from June 1944. The site was chosen, among other reasons, because it
2924-658: The Buckinghamshire and Northamptonshire border, the Adams Park Stadium in the south and Stadium MK in the north, and Dorney Lake (named 'Eton Dorney' for the event) was used as the rowing venue for the 2012 Summer Olympics . The county is covered by three overlapping TV regions Local radio stations are BBC Three Counties Radio , BBC Radio Berkshire (covering Marlow ), Heart Thames Valley (now Heart South ), Heart Four Counties (now Heart East ), Greatest Hits Radio Bucks, Beds and Herts (formerly Mix 96) and Wycombe Sound (covering High Wycombe ). Buckinghamshire
3010-529: The Chiltern Forest that once covered almost half the county. Either side of the shield are a buck , for Buckingham, and a swan, the county symbol. The motto of the shield is Vestigia Nulla Retrorsum . This is Latin and means 'no stepping back' (or 'no steps backwards'). Buckinghamshire has a modern service-based economy and is part of the Berkshire , Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire NUTS-2 region, which
3096-572: The Chiltern Hundreds and the Crown Steward and Bailiff of the Manor of Northstead are still in use. Buckinghamshire Buckinghamshire ( / ˈ b ʌ k ɪ ŋ ə m ʃ ər , - ʃ ɪər / , abbreviated Bucks ) is a ceremonial county in South East England and one of the home counties . It is bordered by Northamptonshire to the north, Bedfordshire to the north-east, Hertfordshire to
3182-534: The City of Milton Keynes UA, a large and relatively level expanse of land that is the southern catchment of the River Great Ouse . The county includes parts of two of the four longest rivers in England. The Thames forms the southern boundary with Berkshire , which has crept over the border at Eton and Slough so that the river is no longer the sole boundary between the two counties. The Great Ouse rises just outside
3268-475: The Crown", which requires MPs to vacate their seats. The ancient office of Crown Steward and Bailiff of the Chiltern Hundreds , having been reduced to a mere sinecure by the 17th century, was first used by John Pitt (of Encombe) in 1751 to vacate his seat in the House of Commons. Other titles were also later used for the same purpose, but only those of the Chiltern Hundreds and the Crown Steward and Bailiff of
3354-515: The M40); on 13 March 1962, the first in-flight rocket-powered ejection took place by Peter Howard , an RAF doctor based at Farnborough's Institute of Aviation Medicine in Meteor WA364 at 250 ft over Chalgrove, with the rocket giving a maximum force of 16G. The Miles M.52 , designed at Woodley Aerodrome in Berkshire by Miles Aircraft , was an advanced design of aircraft which had the innovation of
3440-525: The Milton Keynes UA, is home to Cowper and Newton Museum which celebrates the work and lives of two famous figures: William Cowper (1731–1800) a celebrated 18th-century poet; and John Newton , a prominent slave trade abolitionist who was curate in the local church. Together, Cowper and Newton wrote the Olney Hymns , including one of the world's most popular hymns, Amazing Grace . Buckinghamshire
3526-596: The UK was at Epsom telephone exchange from 18 May 1912. It was introduced as standard across the UK's 6,700 telephone exchanges in 1922, lasting for around 70 years; it could handle up to 500 lines. It used the Strowger design and was made by Automatic Telephone Manufacturing Company of Liverpool. The world's first automatic telephone exchange had opened in La Porte, Indiana in November 1892. UK-Belgium 5 , laid in 1986 from Kent,
Chiltern Hundreds - Misplaced Pages Continue
3612-427: The UK, at Farnborough; on 14 May 1909 he flew it for more than a mile. On 13 August 1909, his wife was the first woman in the UK to fly in a plane, also at Farnborough. The first human airborne ejection seat firing took place on 24 July 1946 over Chalgrove Airfield , Oxfordshire, in a Meteor , piloted by Bernard Lynch ; the first dummy ejection had been 10 May 1945 over RAF Oakley in west Buckinghamshire (today near
3698-529: The UK. This is a chart of trend of regional gross value added of Buckinghamshire at current basic prices published by the Office for National Statistics with figures in millions of Pounds sterling (except GVA index). Buckinghamshire is notable for its open countryside and natural features, including the Chiltern Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty , Stowe Landscaped Gardens near Buckingham , and
3784-523: The administrative capital of England some time in the 13th century as its influence waned while the City of London dominated commerce. The last monarch to be crowned at Winchester was Richard II in 1377, although the last monarch to be crowned by the Bishop of Winchester was Queen Mary I in 1553. The Meonhill Vineyard, near Old Winchester Hill in east Hampshire on the South Downs south of West Meon on
3870-513: The area was administered by an elder. But by the late Middle Ages the office holder was elected from among a hundred's notable landholding families. As the area was wild and notorious for outlaws, a steward and bailiff was appointed directly by the Crown (thus as a royal bailiwick it was a legal office answerable to the reigning monarch) to maintain law and order. However, by the end of the 16th century such positions had been overtaken by changes in local and Crown representations and roles –
3956-539: The astronomer, from Kent, invented the term photography in 1839, meaning light writing . and discovered the first photographic fixer , sodium thiosulphate , known as hypo , also in 1839. GLEEP was Britain's first nuclear reactor, in August 1947 at the Atomic Energy Research Establishment (AERE) at Harwell, it would stay operational until 1990. William Harvey of Folkestone, in Kent, discovered
4042-638: The care of the National Trust . Mentmore Towers , a 19th-century English country house built by the Rothschilds is located the village of Mentmore . It is the largest of the English Rothschild houses and is known for its Jacobean-styled architecture designed by Joseph Paxton . Bletchley Park in Milton Keynes is the site of World War II British codebreaking and Colossus , the world's first programmable electronic digital computer . Together with
4128-469: The co-located National Museum of Computing , it is a nationally important visitor attraction. Examples of historical architecture in the Chiltern region are preserved at the Chiltern Open Air Museum , an open-air folk museum near Chalfont St Giles . The 45-acre (180,000 m ) site contains reconstructed buildings which might otherwise have been destroyed or demolished as a result of redevelopment or road construction. The market town of Olney , in
4214-414: The conurbation known as the Greater London Urban Area . The South East has the highest percentage of people born outside of Britain other than London . According to the 2021 census, 78.8% of residents were White British , 7.1% Other White (inc. 0.8% Irish ), 7.0% British Asian , 2.8% Mixed Race , 2.4% Black British , and 1.4% of other groups . There was no census in 1941. South East England
4300-430: The core constituent; the team, led by Prof George Rolinson, won the Mullard Award in 1971. Bipyridine compounds (Paraquat-Gramoxone and Diquat) were discovered for herbicide use in 1954 by William Boon at ICI's Plant Protection division at Jealott's Hill, being released onto the market in 1958. AZT/Retrovir ( zidovudine ) was first manufactured by Wellcome in 1987 in Kent; they also introduced Zovirax ( aciclovir ), and
4386-482: The county and include Aylesbury, High Wycombe , and Chesham . For local government purposes Buckinghamshire comprises two unitary authority areas, Buckinghamshire and Milton Keynes . The historic county had slightly different borders, and included the towns of Slough and Eton . The Chiltern Hills , an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty , occupy the south of the county and contain its highest point, Haddington Hill (267 m (876 ft)). The Chilterns are
SECTION 50
#17328444120954472-417: The county and two-thirds of its population, and Milton Keynes City Council , which administers the remainder. Buckinghamshire County Council was founded in 1889 with its base in new municipal buildings in Walton Street, Aylesbury (which are still there). In 1966, the council moved into new premises: a 15-storey tower block in the centre of Aylesbury (pictured) designed by county architect Fred Pooley . It
4558-710: The county in Northamptonshire and flows east through Buckingham, Milton Keynes and Olney . The main branch of the Grand Union Canal passes through the county as do its arms to Slough and Aylesbury , as well as the disused arms to Wendover and Buckingham . The canal has been incorporated into the landscaping of Milton Keynes. The southern part of the county is dominated by the Chiltern Hills. The two highest points in Buckinghamshire are Haddington Hill in Wendover Woods (a stone marks its summit) at 267 m (876 ft) above sea level and Coombe Hill near Wendover at 260 m (850 ft). Quarrying has taken place for chalk, clay for brickmaking and gravel and sand in
4644-641: The county. The ceremonial county of Buckinghamshire consists of both unitary authority areas combined. The ceremonial county has a Lord Lieutenant and a High Sheriff . Since November 2020, the Lord Lieutenant of Buckinghamshire is The Countess Howe and the High Sheriff of Buckinghamshire is Dame Ann Geraldine Limb , DBE of Stony Stratford The office of Custos rotulorum has been combined with that of Lord Lieutenant since 1702. The ceremonial county has two top-level administrations – both are unitary authorities – Buckinghamshire Council , which administers about four-fifths of
4730-429: The county: There are the following additional lines: South East England South East England is one of the nine official regions of England in the United Kingdom at the first level of ITL for statistical purposes. It consists of the nine counties of Berkshire , Buckinghamshire , East Sussex , Hampshire , the Isle of Wight , Kent , Oxfordshire , Surrey and West Sussex . Cities and towns in
4816-434: The early 1960s. Donald Watts Davies invented packet switching in the late 1960s at the National Physical Laboratory in Teddington . Packet-switching was taken up by the Americans to form the ARPANET , the precursor to the Internet. Surrey's Alec Reeves invented pulse-code modulation (PCM) in 1937 (at ITT 's research laboratories in Paris), the standard for digital audio recordings. Sir John Herschel , son of
4902-414: The east, Greater London to the south-east, Berkshire to the south, and Oxfordshire to the west. The largest settlement is the city of Milton Keynes , and the county town is Aylesbury . The county has an area of 1,874 km (724 sq mi) and had a population of 840,138 at the 2021 census. Besides Milton Keynes, which is in the north-east, the largest settlements are in the southern half of
4988-469: The events of the 2012 Summer Olympics were held in the south east, including the rowing at Eton Dorney and part of the cycling road race in the Surrey Hills . In medieval times , South East England included much of the Kingdom of Wessex , which was the precursor to the modern state of England . Winchester was the capital of England after unification of the various states, including the kingdoms of Kent , Sussex and Mercia . Winchester stopped being
5074-439: The first point of sale terminal in Europe - the NCR 280 in 1973. The National Fruit Collection is the largest collection of fruit trees in the world, at Brogdale , and is next to the M2 at the A251 junction in Ospringe . Scalextric was invented by Fred Francis in 1956, who founded Minimodels in Havant; initially the model cars had been clockwork ; it was made from 1967 at Triang in Margate. The world's first Mars Bar
5160-405: The first to assign the correct atomic number to elements in periodic table ; he did not receive any Nobel Prize as it is not awarded posthumously (he was killed in 1915 at Gallipoli with the Royal Engineers). Carbon fibre was invented in 1963 at the RAE in Farnborough by a team led by William Watt. The Apollo LCG space-suit cooling system originated mostly from work done at RAE Farnborough in
5246-414: The former Standard Statistical Region. The South East is also occasionally used as a synonym for the home counties . The population of the region at the 2011 census was 8,634,750 making it the most populous English region. The major conurbations of the region include South Hampshire (855,000), Brighton/Worthing/Littlehampton (474,000) and Reading (318,000). Settlements closer to London are part of
SECTION 60
#17328444120955332-522: The last quarter of the 20th century, a large number of Londoners in Milton Keynes. Between 6 and 7% of the population of Aylesbury are of Asian or Asian British origin. Likewise Chesham has a similar-sized Asian community, and High Wycombe is the most ethnically diverse town in the county, with large Asian and Afro-Caribbean populations. During the Second World War there were many Polish settlements in Bucks, Czechs in Aston Abbotts and Wingrave, and Albanians in Frieth. Remnants of these communities remain in
5418-413: The market town of Olney. The traditional flag of Buckinghamshire comprises a chained swan on a bicolour of red and black. The flag was registered with the Flag Institute on 20 May 2011. The coat of arms of the former Buckinghamshire County Council features a white mute swan in chains. This dates back to the Anglo-Saxon period, when swans were bred in Buckinghamshire for the king's pleasure. That
5504-421: The naturally occurring digoxin , a cardiac glycoside . After a plane crashed near his house in Oxford in 1940, Sir Peter Medawar helped the injured pilot, and in the process discovered homograft rejection , leading to organ transplantation using azathioprine . Viagra ( Sildenafil ) was synthesized at Pfizer in Sandwich, Kent. Sir Francis Pettit Smith of Kent invented the screw propeller . On 3 May 1830
5590-409: The region are at state secondary schools (the highest in England) with 101,000 in Kent (the highest in England for a county and completely selective) then 70,000 in Hampshire, 60,000 in Surrey, 45,000 in West Sussex, 36,000 in Oxfordshire, 35,000 in Buckinghamsire. The lowest is 6,000 at Bracknell Forest, then Reading with about 6,000. Of all regions, the South-East has the greatest percentage that attend
5676-418: The region include Aldershot , Ashford , Aylesbury , Basingstoke , Bracknell , Brighton and Hove , Canterbury , Chichester , Crawley , Eastbourne , Farnborough , Gosport , Guildford , Hastings , High Wycombe , Margate , Maidstone , Medway , Milton Keynes , Newport , Oxford , Portsmouth , Ramsgate , Reading , Slough , Southampton , Winchester , Woking and Worthing . South East England
5762-565: The region is the chimney of Grain Power Station at 801 ft; it is the second-tallest chimney in the UK after Drax power station . George Albert Smith developed the first colour film process, known as Kinemacolor , in 1906 at Southwick, West Sussex . George E. Davis from Slough, is the founding father of chemical engineering. Wiggins Teape, later ARJO Wiggins Fine Papers , had the largest paper research centre in Europe at Butlers Court in Beaconsfield; built in 1891 and vacated in 2009. Bentalls in Bracknell (now Fenwick since 2017) had
5848-452: The region. It was abolished on 31 March 2009 and replaced with South East England Councils in Kingston upon Thames . The region is divided into several local council areas, most composed of two-tiered councils (the tiers are county councils and district councils) and unitary authorities : The South East of England is the most Conservative voting region of Britain in terms of both seats and votes. The area also has some seats where there
5934-438: The results for each county as a whole are not always directly related to the number of grammar schools, as Kent and Medway perform below average at A-level. The King's School, Canterbury claims to be oldest in England: 597 AD. Herschel Grammar School in Slough is the most oversubscribed school in England, with 14 people per place, Langley Grammar School in Slough is next with 13 per place, then Burnham Grammar School. 508,000 in
6020-424: The river valleys. Flint, also extracted from quarries, was often used to build older local buildings. Several former quarries, now flooded, have become nature reserves. The administration of Buckinghamshire is further sub-divided into civil parishes. Today Buckinghamshire is ethnically diverse, particularly in the larger towns. At the end of the 19th century some Welsh drover families settled in north Bucks and, in
6106-524: The source of the River Ouzel , which flows across the lowland Vale of Aylesbury in the north of the county and through Milton Keynes before meeting the River Great Ouse at Newport Pagnell . The Thames forms part of the county's southern boundary. Notable service amenities in the county are Pinewood Film Studios , Dorney rowing lake and part of Silverstone race track on the Northamptonshire border. Many national companies have head offices or major centres in Milton Keynes. Heavy industry and quarrying
6192-459: The swan is in chains illustrates that the swan is bound to the monarch , an ancient law that still applies to wild swans in the UK today. The arms were first borne at the Battle of Agincourt by the Duke of Buckingham . Above the swan is a gold band, in the centre of which is Whiteleaf Cross , representing the many ancient landmarks of the county. The shield is surmounted by a beech tree, representing
6278-519: The ten lighthouses with electric light, five were in the UK. From the lighthouse in 1899, the first international radio broadcast to France was made. Zénobe Gramme of Belgium made a much better design in 1870 with self-excitation of magnets, and the first modern dynamo . North Foreland Lighthouse was the UK's last-staffed lighthouse until 1998. Portland cement was developed in Northfleet, Kent, by William Aspdin, son of Joseph Aspdin . The development
6364-521: The town Buckingham itself to the north in a relative backwater. As a result, most county institutions are now based in the south of the county or Milton Keynes , rather than in Buckingham. The county can be split into two sections geographically. The south leads from the River Thames up the gentle slopes of the Chiltern Hills to the more abrupt slopes on the northern side leading to the Vale of Aylesbury and
6450-597: The world's first bus service was by Eastbourne Buses from Eastbourne railway station to Meads . The world's first submarine telephone cable was laid between England and France in 1891 by HMTS Monarch, enabling London-Paris calls from April 1891. On 3 December 1992, Neil Papworth of Reading, an engineer from Sema Group Telecoms at Vodafone in Newbury, sent the world's first text message from his computer to an Orbitel 901 handset of Richard Jarvis, Vodafone's technical director. The first public automatic telephone exchange in
6536-484: The world's first multi-channel flight data recorders in 1965. Although the Comet is generally accepted as the world's first production-run jet airliner, the first jet airliner ever built (individual) was a Nene -powered Vickers VC.1 Viking on 6 April 1948 from Wisley Airfield ; the world's first turboprop airliner would fly from there on 16 July 1948 by Mutt Summers . In 1939 at Cowes ( Northwood ) John Godeck invented
6622-572: The world's first passenger train service, the Canterbury and Whitstable Railway (6 miles or 10 km) began. It was built by George Stephenson and hauled by the locomotive Invicta . It introduced the world's first railway season ticket in 1834. Maidenhead Railway Bridge , known for its flat arch, was built in 1839 with 39-metre spans. The Military Vehicles and Engineering Establishment , in Chertsey, developed Chobham armour . On 12 April 1903,
6708-547: Was an important statistician from Tunbridge Wells; his theorem (of probability theory ) is used for spam filters and Google's search . Sir David N. Payne at the University of Southampton's Optoelectronics Research Centre invented the erbium-doped fibre amplifier , a type of optical amplifier , in the mid-1980s, which became essential for the internet. Henry Moseley at Oxford in 1913 discovered his Moseley's law of X-ray spectra of chemical elements that enabled him to be
6794-687: Was built in 1986. This is the world's highest-capacity submarine HVDC cable; it goes from France and lands near Folkestone, with the large transformer station (built by GEC) squeezed between the CTRL and the M20 in Aldington and Smeeth , made of eight 270 kV cables. On 16 October 1908 the British Army Aeroplane No 1 , flown by the American Samuel Franklin Cody , was the first aircraft flown in
6880-551: Was deemed to have vacated his Commons seat after becoming Steward of the Lordship and Manor of Bromfield and Yale. The post of Crown Steward and Bailiff of the three Chiltern Hundreds of Stoke, Desborough and Burnham remained a nominal office of profit under the Crown, even though it had lost its original significance. It became the first office to be used for resignation when John Pitt was appointed Crown Steward on 25 January 1751. A number of other offices have also been used, but only
6966-575: Was formed by the Local Government Act 1972, styled as the "Milton Keynes District Council" and subordinate to Buckinghamshire County Council. Its (district) council was first elected in 1973 , a year before formally coming into its powers and prior to the creation of the District of Milton Keynes on 1 April 1974. The council was granted borough status on its foundation, entitling it to be known as "Milton Keynes Borough Council" and to annually appoint
7052-635: Was hit by anti-aircraft fire at Goose Green , killing the pilot with 800 Naval Air Squadron from HMS Hermes ; the aircraft had no radar warning receiver (RWR), due to testing the Sea Eagle , so could not detect the Skyguard radar had locked on to it. It was destroyed with the Oerlikon GDF (35mm) of GADA 601 ; it was the first Sea Harrier lost in the Falklands campaign. Royston Instruments of Byfleet developed
7138-676: Was made in Slough in 1932; it was modelled on the Milky Way , popular at the time in the USA. Twix was introduced at Slough in 1967, with production moving to eastern France (Mars Chocolat France at Haguenau in Alsace ) in 2005. The Ford GT40 was developed by Ford Advanced Vehicles at Slough in the mid-1960s. The highest point is Walbury Hill in Berkshire at 297 m (974 ft). Britain's tallest native tree, according to The Tree Register in April 2015,
7224-486: Was the seventh richest subregion in the European Union in 2002. As well as the highest GDP per capita outside Inner London, Buckinghamshire has the highest quality of life, the highest life expectancy and the best education results in the country. The southern part of the county is a prosperous section of the London commuter belt . The county has fertile agricultural lands, with many landed estates , especially those of
7310-575: Was the world's first optical fibre submarine cable, and is 36 miles long. ThrustSSC , the fastest car in the world in 1997, was built in Aldingbourne , West Sussex, by G-Force Engineering, designed by Ron Ayers , with further work done by the Defence Evaluation and Research Agency at Farnborough. The BritNed 1000MW power-supply submarine cable from Isle of Grain to Rotterdam, was built in 2009. The HVDC Cross-Channel (2000MW) submarine cable
7396-497: Was to heat the ingredients to around 1450 °C, producing clinker . Previously, temperatures were taken to only 800 °C, which was not enough. The first ever cement kiln is still in Northfleet today in a cardboard factory. In the late 1800s, the rotary kiln made the process much more efficient. Concrete, effectively human-made stone, is the most widespread human-made material. 5% of all carbon emissions worldwide are from concrete production. The tallest freestanding structure in
#94905