| RUSTBELT | Term for the declining industrial heartland of the U.S. Midwest, including its steel-producing towns (4,4) |
| MIDDLEAMERICA | Term for the typically conservative heartland of the U.S. (6,7) |
| RUHR | This river valley is the traditional industrial heartland of Germany. (4) |
| COWARD | Plummy "playboy of the West End world" whose repertoire included the witty ditty Mad Dogs and Englishmen and a satirical look at the declining fortunes of the British aristocracy in their stately home |
| GHANA | This West African republic was once the heartland of the Ashanti Kingdom |
| IRAN | Heartland of the Persian Empire |
| TOLEDO | City on the River Tagus in central Spain famous for its steel and swords (6) |
| STETIENNE | French steel-producing city, with a 5km-long main street, the capital of Loire department |
| ALTHORP | Ancestral Northamptonshire seat of the Spencer family for some 500 years including its ninth earl, Charles, younger brother of Diana, Princess of Wales (7) |
| BURTON | Designer of Kew's Palm and Temperate Houses and also the grounds of London Zoo including its raven's cage and Tuscan giraffe house with five-metre-high doors (6) |
| FARM | From a Latin word originally used to denote a tax or rent, a tract of land for the cultivation of crops or rearing of livestock, including its associated barns and homestead (4) |
| SELECTED | It's chosen for its steel deck, mainly (8) |
| VALLEY | Sport personnel and head of volunteers - everyone emotionally gutted in industrial heartland (4,6) |
| FABRIC | Felted, knitted or woven cloth; the material of a building, including its roof and walls; or, the structure of something, such as society (6) |
| HASTINGS | Seaside town and Cinque Port in East Sussex whose history, including its now-ruined Norman motte and bailey castle established by William the Conqueror in 1066, is stitched into the very fabric of the |
| PYRAMID | Any one of the three ancient monumental sacred structures in Giza including its largest, built for Khufu (or Cheops) (7) |
| LAYER | Hen kept for her eggs; or, any one of Earth's concentric coverings including its mantle and crust (5) |
| NATURE | Meaning "birth", the collective organic phenomena of the physical world including its flora and fauna (6) |
| NAVY | A nation's maritime force including its crew; or, a literary word for a fleet of ships (4) |
| MIDDLE | ___ C (important part of a piano...and of this crossword's grid, including its center square) |
