UK 2021 "National Parks"

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Issue Date 14.01.2021
ID Michel: Scott: UPU: Category: Ot
Design Studio Mean
Stamps in set 10
Value 1st class stamps: Dartmoor National Park
New Forest National Park
Lake District National Park
Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park
Snowdonia National Park Parc Cenedlaethol Eryri
North York Moors National Park
South Downs National Park
Peak District National Park
Pembrokeshire Coast National Park Parc Cenedlaethol Arfordir Penfro
Broads National Park
Size (width x height) 36.5mm x 34.7mm
Layout Two Mini-Sheets of 25 and two Mini-sheets of 50 stamps
Products FDCx1, MSx4, PPx1, PCx10
Paper
Perforation
Print Technique Lithography
Printed by International Security Printers
Quantity
Issuing Authority Royal Mail
National Parks on stamp of UK 2021


The set of 10 stamps, printed in two horizontal se-tenant strips, with images selected in collaboration with the National Parks, commemorates the 70th anniversary of the opening of the first of the UK’s 15 National Parks.

National Parks make up 10 percent of England, Scotland and Wales and were created to open up the countryside to ‘ordinary people’.
The National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act was passed in 1949.
The Lake District, Peak District, Dartmoor and Snowdonia national parks were created two years later.

These 1st class stamps shows landscapes of the following National Parks: the Peak District, Snowdonia, Dartmoor, North York Moors, The Broads, New Forest, The Lake District, South Downs, Pembrokeshire Coast and Loch Lomond and The Trossachs.
Some of this parks are also great places for fossil hunters.

South Downs
National Parks on stamp of UK 2021 The South Downs National Park forms a large area that includes the chalk range of the South Downs and large parts of the Weald.
The South Downs are a range of chalk hills that extends for about 670 km2 across the south-eastern coastal counties of England from the Itchen Valley of Hampshire in the west to Beachy Head, in the Eastbourne Downland Estate, East Sussex, in the east.
The South Downs are characterised by rolling chalk downland with close-cropped turf and dry valleys, and are recognised as one of the most important chalk landscapes in England. The range is one of the four main areas of chalk downland in southern England.

Some fossils from The Fossils of the South Downs book of Gideon Mantel
Illustration of Ammonites and other marine fossils made by Mary Ann Mantell in a book by her husband Gideon Mantel "The fossils of the South Downs: or, Illustrations of the geology of Sussex", published in London in 1822.
The South Downs are formed from a thick band of chalk which was deposited during the Cretaceous Period between 75 and 90 million years ago this part of the country was under a shallow tropical sea. Chalk muds were laid down at the bottom of this sea and were very thick and widespread.

The rock is composed of the microscopic skeletons of plankton which lived in the sea, hence its colour. The chalk has many fossils, and bands of flint occur throughout the formation. The Chalk is divided into the Lower, Middle and Upper Chalk, a thin band of cream-coloured nodular chalk known as the Melbourn Rock marking the boundary between the Lower and Middle units.

Fossils of marine prehistoric animals such as ammonites, echinoids and molluscs can be found at coastline at the foot of the South Downs National Park.
One of the most famous English paleontologists of the XIX century, Gideon Mantell (1790-1852) made some research at the region, then published his results in a book "The fossils of the South Downs : or, Illustrations of the geology of Sussex", printed in London in 1822 and contains several nice illustration of the marine fossils, made by Mary Ann Mantell.

Mary Ann Mantell (1795–1869) was a wife of Gideon Mantel.
She is credited with the discovery of the first fossils of the dinosaur Iguanodon. Mary Ann Mantell drew up 364 fine lithographs of the fossils, that were then used in her husband's scientific publication "The Fossils of the South Downs" and in "Illustrations of the Geology of Sussex" published in 1827, in which Gideon Mantell describes the Iguanodon.




Products
FDC Mini Sheets
National Parks on FDC of UK 2021 National Parks on stamp Mini Sheets of UK 2021 National Parks on stamp Mini Sheets of UK 2021
Book Presentation Pack Post Cards
National Parks on stampss of UK 2021 National Parks on stampss of UK 2021 National Parks on Postcards of UK 2021
The accompanying information sheet is written by Carey Davies, Editor of The Great Outdoors Magazine, and describes what you might see and experience as you visit each one.



References:
Acknowledgements:
Many thanks to
  • Dr. Peter Voice from Department of Geological and Environmental Sciences, Western Michigan University, for the draft page review and his very valuable comments.



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