[DanaC]

Yeah - well, we got really creative about where it's acceptable to build and threw up a bunch of stuff on the flood plains and that went really well.

A lot of it is about where we allow building to preserve the countryside. But a lot of it is about where it becomes so difficult to build on that the cost of making it so would be prohibitive. Cherry and I live pretty near to the Pennines as well as moorlands. The whole region is undercut with ancient and medieval mining, a lot of it is of rock types that are highly prone to subsidence and sinkholes - lot of gypsum. The landscape of much of this region is pretty much concertinaed. Craggy hills and valleys in quick succession. Or swathes of moors, with pete bogs, marshland and occasional hidden quicksand. Not much good land for crops, and herds are smaller, more broken up than in the flatter places.

Water is a massive factor in where we can build. There are a lot of waterways.

You'll always find someone who managed to build in the most unlikely and inhospitable spot, but to build anything of scale in some of these places would just be folly.