Abstract The distribution of Permian rocks in England and Wales ( Fig. 12.1 ) is more complex than that of the overlying Mesozoic formations, which in the onshore area form a broad swathe displaying, as William Smith noted, an overall NE–SW-trending strike. Permian sediments, by contrast, are more patchily developed but rest in many locations on Carboniferous rocks, with a palaeotopography generated by Variscan mountain building and later erosion. Assessment of how the Permian landscape might have appeared is best achieved through consideration of the sedimentary evidence from both the Permian and the preceding Carboniferous strata. There are strong indications in the rock record of a changing tectonic and palaeoclimatic regime in NW Europe during this time, which reflected broader, even global, events. The general tectonic scene was one in which the southern supercontinent Gondwana moved north through Carboniferous time to collide with its northern counterpart Laurasia in the latest Carboniferous and earliest Permian. This continental collision was achieved as the Devonian–Carboniferous Rheic Ocean closed and Pangaea formed ( Fig. 12.2 ). Simultaneously, the Ural Mountains were forming as the Kazakstan microplate collided with Fennos- candia, the final coalescence of Pangaea. The sedimentary fill of the Rheic Ocean is now preserved as deformed and locally metamorphosed pre-Permian successions in Cornwall, Devon, northern France,Belgium and Germany.