ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the brief sketch of the history of England and Wales. The rocks of northern Scotland are much older than most of those of England and Wales. To understand the geological history of England we must know a little of world geology. Many geologists think that Britain and Ireland were once close to Newfoundland, and that the Atlantic was only formed in the last two hundred million years. The ocean floors are formed of a group of rocks of which basalt is a representative in which magnesium silicate predominates. England has sometimes been above the sea and sometimes below it, but probably never either very far from land, or very deep under the sea. It is the result of a struggle between two processes, erosion, mainly by water, which wears down mountains, and folding, which builds them up.
