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England has a vast culture that encompasses elements both old and new. Modern culture of England is sometimes difficult to identify and separate clearly from the culture of the wider United Kingdom, so intertwined are its composite nations. However, the traditional and historic culture of England is more clearly defined.

English Heritage is a governmental body with a broad remit of managing the historic sites, artifacts and environments of England.

The English have played a significant role in the development of the arts and sciences.

Architecture
England has played a big part in the advancement of Architecture, boasting some of the finest buildings and architecture in the world.

England is home to some of the finest medieval castles and forts in the world (see Castles in England), including Warwick Castle, the Tower of London and Windsor Castle (the largest inhabited castle in the world and, dating back to the time of William the Conqueror, it is the oldest in continuous occupation). It also has some of the most exclusive country houses and historic homes in the world (see List of historic houses in England).

English architects have devised a number of styles over the centuries, including Tudor style architecture, English Baroque, Victorian architecture.

Some of the best known English architects include Norman Foster, designer of 30 St Mary Axe (the Gherkin).

Salisbury Cathedral by John Constable, ca. 1825.

Art
Significant figures in English art include William Blake, William Hogarth, J.M.W. Turner and John Constable in the 18th and early 19th centuries, through to the influential William Morris in the late 19th, to L. S. Lowry during the 20th century, and most recently names such as David Hockney and Damien Hirst in the present day.

Engineering and innovation

Famous English engineers include Isambard Kingdom Brunel, best known for the creation of the Great Western Railway, a series of famous steamships, and numerous important bridges.

Recent English inventors include James Dyson, inventor of the Dual Cyclone bagless vacuum cleaner.

Folklore

English folklore is rich and diverse. Many of the land's oldest legends share themes and sources with the Celtic/Gaelic folklore of Wales, Scotland and Ireland, a typical example being the legend of Herne the Hunter, which shares many similarities with the traditional Welsh legend of Gwyn ap Nudd.

Successive waves of pre-Norman invaders and settlers, from the Romans onwards, via Saxons, Jutes, Angles, Norse to the Norman Conquest have all influenced the myth and legend of England. Some tales, such as that of The Lambton Wyrm show a distinct Norse influence, whilst others, particularly some of the events and characters associated with the Arthurian legends show a distinct romano-gaulic slant.

The most famous of English folktales concerns the legends of King Arthur, although it would be wrong to associate these stories as purely English in origin as they also concern Wales and to a lesser extent Ireland and Scotland, and therefore should be considered as part of the folklore of the British Isles as a whole.

Post-Norman stories include the tales of Robin Hood, which exists in many forms, and stories of other folk heroes such as Hereward The Wake and Dunn of Cumbria who, although being based on historical characters, have grown to become legends in their own right.

Finally, other historical figures (such as Sir Francis Drake and 'Drakes Drum') have legends associated with them who move them out of the realm of historical fact and into the realm of mythology.

William Shakespeare; an English poet and playwright widely regarded as the greatest writer of the English language, as well as one of the greatest in Western literature.

Literature
The English language boasts a rich and prominent literary heritage. England has produced a wealth of significant literary figures including playwrights William Shakespeare, [arguably the most famous in the history of the English language], Christopher Marlowe, Ben Jonson, John Webster, as well as writers Daniel Defoe, Henry Fielding, Jane Austen, William Makepeace Thackeray, Charlotte Bronte, Emily Bronte, Charles Dickens, George Eliot, Rudyard Kipling, Virginia Woolf and Harold Pinter. Others, such as Agatha Christie, Enid Blyton and J.K. Rowling have been among the best-selling novelists of the last century. Among the poets, Geoffrey Chaucer, Edmund Spenser, Sir Philip Sydney, Thomas Kyd, John Donne, Andrew Marvell, Alexander Pope, Lord Byron, John Keats, John Milton, Samuel Taylor Coleridge and many others remain read and studied around the world. Among men of letters, Samuel Johnson, William Hazlitt and George Orwell are some of the most famous.

Music

Main article: Music of England
Composers from England have often not achieved recognition as broad as that earned by their literary counterparts, and particularly during the nineteenth century were overshadowed in international reputation by other European composers; however, the work of earlier composers such as Henry Purcell and Thomas Tallis is still frequently performed today, and a revival of England's musical status began during the twentieth century with the prominence of composers such as Edward Elgar, Gustav Holst and Benjamin Britten.

In popular music, English bands such as The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, The Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd, The Who, The Kinks, Black Sabbath, Iron Maiden, The Clash, Radiohead, Cream (band), Oasis and Queen have all been cited as among the most influential and best-selling Rock bands of all time, along with solo artists such as David Bowie, Kate Bush, Robbie Williams and Elton John. England is also credited with being the birthplace of many pop-culture movements such as glam rock, drum and bass, "baggy", grindcore, progressive rock, punk, shoegazing and acid house.

Science and philosophy
Prominent English figures from the field of science include Sir Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin and Stephen Hawking.

England played an important role in the development of western philosophy, particularly during the Enlightenment. Major English philosophers include Francis Bacon, Jeremy Bentham, Thomas Hobbes, John Locke and John Stuart Mill.

Sport
England, during the nineteenth century, was the location of the codification of a number of modern sports, including association and rugby football (both the union and league codes in rugby football), cricket, tennis and badminton. Of these, association football remains the country's most popular spectator sport. England contains more UEFA grade A stadiums than any other[citation needed], and is home to some of the sport's top clubs. The England national football team are considered one of the game's superpowers (currently ranked 5th by FIFA and 7th by Elo), having won the World Cup in 1966 when it was hosted in England. Since then, however, they have failed to reach a final of a major international tournament, though they reached the semi-finals of the World Cup in 1990 and the quarter-finals in 2002 and 2006 and Euro 2004 .

London 2012 Summer Olympics logoThe England national rugby union team and England cricket team are often among the best performing in the world, with the rugby union team winning the 2003 Rugby World Cup, and the cricket team winning The Ashes in 2005. Rugby union clubs such as Leicester Tigers and the Northampton Saints have had success in the Europe-wide Heineken Cup. At rugby league, the England national rugby league team are to compete more regularly after 2006, when England will become a full test nation in lieu of the Great Britain national rugby league team, when that team is retired after the 2006 Rugby League Tri-Nations.

Sport England is the governing body responsible for distributing funds and providing strategic guidance for sporting activity in England.

The 2012 Summer Olympics are to be hosted by London, England. It will run from 26 July to 12 August 2012. London will become the first city to have hosted the modern Olympic Games three times, having previously done so in 1908 and 1948.