Silicon Gorge is a region in South West England in which several high-tech and research companies are based, specifically the triangle of Bristol, Swindon and Gloucester. [1] It was ranked fifth of such areas in Europe in 2002, [2] and is named after the Avon Gorge.
Bath is home to a number of high-tech companies ranging from fabless semiconductor designers to eCommerce retailers. Many companies have been started by ex-employees of companies such as Future Publishing and IPL, two long standing employers in the area.
Bristol is part of the Silicon Gorge, along with Gloucester and Swindon [4] and hosts a number of high-tech and creative industries including research group HP Labs and animation studio Aardman Animations. The cluster of high-tech electronics industries began when Fairchild Semiconductor located a design office in Bristol in 1972. [5] Bristol also has the strongest digital media supply chain in England, outside London [6] and has been pinpointed as a "hot spring" for innovation on the McKinsey/World Economic Forum innovation map. [7]
Cities sometimes associated with the region:
Bristol is a city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, the most populous city in the region. Built around the River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south. The county is the West of England combined authority area, this includes the Greater Bristol area and nearby places such as Bath.
South West England, or the South West of England, is one of the nine official regions of England in the United Kingdom. It consists of the counties of Cornwall, Dorset, Devon, Gloucestershire, Somerset and Wiltshire. Cities and large towns in the region include Bath, Bristol, Bournemouth, Cheltenham, Exeter, Gloucester, Plymouth and Swindon. It is geographically the largest of the nine regions of England with a land area of 9,203 square miles (23,836 km2), but the third-least populous, with approximately 5.7 million residents.
The University of the West of England is a public research university, located in and around Bristol, England, UK. With more than 36,000 students and 4,200 staff, it is the largest provider of higher education in the South West of England.
Richard Hill is a rugby union coach and former English international rugby footballer.
CSR plc was a multinational fabless semiconductor company headquartered in Cambridge, United Kingdom. Its main products were connectivity, audio, imaging and location chips. CSR was listed on the London Stock Exchange and was a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index until it was acquired by Qualcomm in August 2015. Under Qualcomm's ownership, the company was renamed Qualcomm Technologies International, Ltd.
The Great Western Railway Swindon Class were broad gauge 0-6-0 locomotives built for goods train work. This class entered service between November 1865 and March 1866, and were withdrawn between June 1887 and the end of the GWR broad gauge in May 1892. The entire class was sold to the Bristol and Exeter Railway between July 1872 and September 1874 and were numbered 96-109, but returned to the GWR when that railway was absorbed. The locomotives were then renumbered 2077-2090; their names were not restored.
The M4 corridor is an area in the United Kingdom adjacent to the M4 motorway, which runs from London to South Wales. It is a major hi-tech hub. Important cities and towns linked by the M4 include London, Slough, Bracknell, Maidenhead, Reading, Newbury, Swindon, Bath, Bristol, Newport, Cardiff, Port Talbot and Swansea. The area is also served by the Great Western Main Line, the South Wales Main Line, and London Heathrow Airport. Technology companies with major operations in the area include Adobe, Amazon, Citrix Systems, Dell, Huawei, Lexmark, LG, Microsoft, Novell, Nvidia, O2, Oracle, Panasonic, SAP, and Symantec.
The South Wales Main Line, originally known as the London, Bristol and South Wales Direct Railway or simply as the Bristol and South Wales Direct Railway, is a branch of the Great Western Main Line in Great Britain. It diverges from the core London-Bristol line at Royal Wootton Bassett beyond Swindon, first calling at Bristol Parkway, after which the line continues through the Severn Tunnel into South Wales.
Swindon railway station is on the Great Western Main Line in South West England, serving the town of Swindon, Wiltshire. The station is 77 miles 23 chains down the line from the zero point at London Paddington and lies between Didcot Parkway and Chippenham. It is managed by Great Western Railway, which also operates all of the services from the station.
The South West of England Regional Development Agency (SWRDA) was one of the nine Regional Development Agencies set up by the United Kingdom government in 1999. Its purpose was to lead the development of a sustainable economy in South West England, investing to unlock the region's business potential. It was abolished along with all the other RDAs on 31 March 2012, with some of its functions being replaced by local enterprise partnerships.
Rail services in the West of England refer to passenger rail journeys made in the Bristol commuter area. 17 million passenger rail journeys were made in 2019-20 within the Gloucestershire, Wiltshire and Bristol/Bath region.
The South West Rugby League (SWRL) also known as the South West Men's League, is a rugby league competition for teams in the South West of England. It was formerly part of the Rugby League Conference.
A West Country derby is a sporting fixture involving teams from the West Country, in England.
Phil Sawdon is an artist, writer and academic.
The Shepton Mallet Digital Arts Festival is a British annual public arts festival and creative industry showcase based in the Somerset town of Shepton Mallet at venues including Kilver Court.
Colin Gordon Maggs is a railway historian and the author of more than 100 books about British railways, particularly those in the southwest of England. He has also written many newspaper and magazine articles about them and made several TV appearances and radio broadcasts on the subject.
The GW4 Alliance is a consortium of four research intensive universities in South West England and Wales. It was formed in January 2013 by the universities of Bath, Bristol, Cardiff and Exeter to enhance research collaboration and innovation, and launched at the House of Commons in October 2014. It is the UK's first pan-regional partnership, involving an institution from a devolved nation.
The SETsquared Partnership, usually known simply as SETsquared, is a business incubation network run by five universities in Southern England. SETsquared stands for Southern England Technology Triangle. The partnership was formed in 2002, between the University of Bath, the University of Bristol, the University of Southampton and the University of Surrey. The University of Exeter joined the partnership in 2011.
Heart West is a regional radio station owned and operated by Global as part of the Heart network. It broadcasts in South West England and South Wales from studios in Bristol.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)