Читать книгу Cycling in the Lake District. Week-long tours and day rides онлайн

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Since then, the only observable changes to the landscape have been due to the activity of man, either creating fields for livestock or mining and quarrying for minerals and building materials. Over the centuries, rock has been quarried for constructing buildings and the many miles of dry stone walls and slate for roofing. At the same time, lead, copper and other ores have been mined from veins in the rocks of the Borrowdale Volcanic Group at various sites in the centre of the area particularly during the 18th and 19th centuries. Today there is still some limited quarrying within the boundaries of the Lake District National Park, but by the 20th century mining had largely ended as financially viable veins of ore became exhausted.

The coastal region of West Cumbria has a particularly fascinating industrial history, revealed in local museums and heritage centres. Shipbuilding, coal and iron ore mining, steel making and chemical manufacturing have all been major employers, but today little of these industries remain.