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Weston-super-Mare

Weston-super-Mare

Weston-super-Mare is an English seaside resort town in North Somerset, population 71,758 (2001 census). It is situated on the Bristol Channel approximately 18 miles (28 km) south west of Bristol. The town has spread along the coast between the bounding high ground of Worlebury Hill and Brean Down. It is well known for its sandy beaches, although at low tide the sea can be over a mile from the beachfront. It is the most populous civil parish in England. Weston comes from the Anglo-Saxon for the west tun or settlement. The descriptive part of its name is unusual because it is in medieval Latin and was first recorded by an unknown medieval church clerk, presumably to distinguish it from other Westons in the area. It is a popular myth that the description was a later Victorian invention. It means literally "on sea". It is pronounced mair rather than mahrey, however. Weston owes its growth and prosperity to the Victorian era boom in seaside holidays. Along with nearby Burnham-on-Sea, it benefited from proximity to Bristol, Bath and South Wales. With the coming of the railways, thousands of visitors came to the town, on works outings and Bank Holidays — many mining families coming directly by steamer from Wales. To cater for them, Birnbeck Pier was completed in 1867, offering in its heyday amusement arcades, tea rooms, funfair rides and a photographic studio. However, it now stands in a derelict state and is in danger of collapsing into the sea. Weston has been (and still is) a location for some significant business ventures. In 1885 the first transatlantic cable of the Commercial Cable Company was brought ashore and the company started a long association with the town, ending in 1962. Philip Harris Ltd moved their production unit to the town in the 1970s to join their biological supplies division, which moved from Sheffield in 1965. Some biological supplies work still continues under different owners. 1965 Local traders, unhappy that visitors were not coming as far as the centre of the town, began the construction of a new pier closer to the main streets. Opened in 1904, and known as the Grand Pier, it was originally planned to be 1.5 miles (2.4 km) long. It still stands in truncated form today, although amusements and cafes have replaced the original music-hall theatre it supported, with the present building dating from 1933. Further development occurred after World War I, with the Winter Gardens and Pavilion (1927), the Open Air Pool and an airfield all dating from the inter-war period. Art Deco influences can be seen in much of the town's architecture from this period. During World War II many evacuees were accommodated in the town. Weston suffered several bombing raids, damaging parts of the town centre. evacuees In the post-war period Weston suffered a large decline in popularity, like virtually all British seaside resorts. The advent of cheap foreign holidays and the break-up of large industries like mining contributed, as working communities became less likely to holiday together. The town had become a centre of industries such as aircraft production. Road transport links were improved with the M5 motorway running closely by, and the town now supports several light industries and distribution depots, and functions partly as a dormitory town for Bristol. The tourist traffic has never completely vanished and Weston nowadays could be considered to be weathering hard times moderately well. It has a shopping centre, helicopter museum, a sea life centre and miniature railway. Made an urban district in 1894, Weston-super-Mare become a municipal borough in 1937. In 1974, under the Local Government Act 1972, it was merged into the Woodspring district of the County of Avon, and became a Charter Trustees town. When Avon was split up in 1996, it became the administrative headquarters of North Somerset, one of the successor authorities. Weston-super-Mare regained a town council in 2000, becoming a civil parish. Well-known former residents of the town include author and politician Jeffrey Archer, guitarist Ritchie Blackmore, actor John Cleese, author Roald Dahl, journalist Jill Dando, and actor Rupert Graves. The writer Bill Bryson had a wet time visiting, recounted in Notes from a Small Island. Arthur Stanley Eddington, one of the foremost astrophysicists of the early 20th Century grew up in the town.

External links


- [http://www.weston-super-mare.com/ Weston-super-Mare]
- [http://www.bbc.co.uk/somerset BBC Somerset]
- [http://www.grandpierwsm.co.uk/ Grand Pier]
- [http://www.helicoptermuseum.co.uk/ Helicopter Museum]
- [http://www.thewintergardens.com/ Winter Gardens]
- [http://www.n-somerset.gov.uk/enjoying/tourism/blueskies Blue Skies Project] - mostly in PDF format. Research and conclusions of North Somerset District council, involving the identity crisis and re-branding of Weston-Super-Mare. Category:North Somerset Category:English seaside resorts Category:Towns in Somerset simple:Weston-super-Mare

England

:For an explanation of often-confusing terms like England, (Great) Britain and United Kingdom see British Isles (terminology). England is a nation and the largest and most populous constituent country of the United Kingdom accounting for more than 83% of the total UK population. It occupies most of the southern two-thirds of the island of Great Britain and shares land borders with fellow home nations Scotland, to the north, and Wales, to the west. Elsewhere, it is bordered by the sea. England is named after the Angles, one of a number of Germanic tribes believed to have originated in Angeln in Northern Germany, who settled in England in the 5th and 6th centuries. It has not had a distinct political identity since 1707, when Great Britain was established as a unified political entity; however, it has a legal identity separate from those of Scotland and Northern Ireland, as part of the entity "England and Wales;". England's largest city, London, is also the capital of the United Kingdom.

History

Main article: History of England England has been inhabited for at least 500,000 years, although the repeated Ice Ages made much of Britain uninhabitable for extended periods until as recently as 20,000 years ago. Stone Age hunter-gatherers eventually gave way to farmers and permanent settlements, with a spectacular and sophisticated megalithic civilisation arising in western England some 4,000 years ago. It was replaced around 1,500 years later by Celtic tribes migrating from Western and continental Europe, mainly from France. These tribes were known collectively as "Britons", a name bestowed by Phoenician traders — an indication of how, even at this early date, the island was part of a Europe-wide trading network. The Britons were significant players in continental politics and supported their allies in Gaul militarily during the Gallic Wars with the Roman Republic. This prompted the Romans to invade and subdue the island, first with Julius Caesar's raid in 55 BC, and then the Emperor Claudius' conquest in the following century. The whole southern part of the island — roughly corresponding to modern day England and Wales — became a prosperous part of the Roman Empire. It was finally abandoned early in the 5th century when a weakening Empire pulled back its legions to defend borders on the Continent. Unaided by the Roman army, Roman Britannia could not long resist the Germanic tribes who arrived in the 5th and 6th centuries, enveloping the majority of modern day England in a new culture and language and pushing Romano-British rule back into modern-day Wales and western extremities of England, notably Cornwall and Cumbria. Others emigrated across the channel to modern-day Brittany, thus giving it its name and language (Breton). But many of the Romano-British remained in and were assimilated into the newly "English" areas. The invaders fell into three main groups: the Jutes, the Saxons, and the Angles. As they became more civilised, recognisable states formed and began to merge with one another. (The most well-known state of affairs being the Anglo-Saxon heptarchy.) From time to time throughout this period, one Anglo-Saxon king, recognised as the "Bretwalda" by other rulers, had effective control of all or most of the English; so it is impossible to identify the precise moment when the Kingdom of England was unified. In some sense, real unity came as a response to the Danish Viking incursions which occupied the eastern half of "England" in the 8th century. Egbert, King of Wessex (d. 839) is often regarded as the first king of all the English, although the title "King of England" was first adopted, two generations later, by Alfred the Great (ruled 871–899). The principal legacy left behind in those territories from which the language of the Britons were displaced is that of toponyms. Many of the place-names in England and to a lesser extent Scotland are derived from celtic British names, including London, Dumbarton, York, Dorchester, Dover and Colchester. Several place-name elements are thought to be wholly or partly Brythonic in origin, particularly bre-, bal-, and -dun for hills, carr for a high rocky place, coomb for a small deep valley. Until recently it has been believed that those areas settled by the Anglo-Saxons were uninhabited at the time or the Britons had fled before them. However, genetic studies show that the British were not pushed out to the Celtic fringes – many tribes remained in what was to become England (see C. Capelli et al. A Y chromosome census of the British Isles. Current Biology 13, 979–984, (2003)). Capelli's findings strengthen the research of Steven Bassett of the University of Birmingham; his work during the 1990s suggests that much of the West Midlands was only very lightly colonised with Anglian and Saxon settlements.
This royal throne of kings, this sceptred isle,
This earth of majesty, this seat of Mars,
This other Eden, demi-paradise,
This fortress built by Nature for herself
Against infection and the hand of war,
This happy breed of men, this little world,
This precious stone set in the silver sea,
Which serves it in the office of a wall
Or as a moat defensive to a house,
Against the envy of less happier lands,—
This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England.
The English are great lovers of themselves, and of everything belonging to them; they think that there are no other men than themselves, and no other world but England; and whenever they see a handsome foreigner, they say that 'he looks like an Englishman', and that 'it is a great pity that he should not be an Englishmen'.
Venetian ambassador to England
Early 16th century
Charlotte Augusta Sneyd
Italian Relations of England (p. 20)
Richard II] Richard II] In 1066, William the Conqueror and the Normans conquered the existing Kingdom of England and instituted an Anglo-Norman administration and nobility who, retaining proto-French as their language for the next three hundred years, ruled as custodians over English commoners. Although the language and racial distinctions faded rapidly during the middle ages, the class system born in the Norman/Saxon divide persisted longer — arguably with traces lasting to the modern day. While Old English continued to be spoken by common folk, Norman feudal lords significantly influenced the language with French words and customs being adopted over the succeeding centuries evolving to a Romance-Germanic hybrid of Middle English widely spoken in Chaucer's time. England came repeatedly into conflict with Wales and Scotland, at the time an independent principality and an independent kingdom respectively, as its rulers sought to expand Norman power across the entire island of Britain. The conquest of Wales was achieved in the 13th century, when it was annexed to England and gradually came to be a part of that kingdom for most legal purposes, although in the modern era it is more usually thought of as a separate nation (fielding, for example, its own athletic teams). Norman power in Scotland waxed and waned over the years, with the Scots managing to maintain a varying degree of independence despite repeated wars with the English. Although it was on the whole only a moderately successful power in military terms, England became one of the wealthiest states in medieval Europe, due chiefly to its dominance in the lucrative wool market. The failure of English territorial ambitions in continental Europe prompted the kingdom's rulers to look further afield, creating the foundations of the mercantile and colonial network that was to become the British Empire. The turmoil of the Reformation embroiled England in religious wars with Europe's Catholic powers, notably Spain, but the kingdom preserved its independence as much through luck as through the skill of charismatic rulers such as Elizabeth I. Elizabeth's successor, James I was already king of Scotland (as James VI); and this personal union of the two crowns into the crown of Great Brittaine was followed a century later by the Act of Union 1707, which formally unified England, Scotland and Wales into the Kingdom of Great Britain. This later became the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland (1801 to 1927) and then the modern state of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (1927 to present) For post-unification history, see history of the United Kingdom.

Politics

Main article: Politics of the United Kingdom, Government of England Since the promulgation of the 1284 Statute of Rhuddlan and the Laws in Wales Acts 1535-1542, Wales has shared a legal identity with England as the joint entity of England and Wales. The Act of Union with the Kingdom of Scotland in 1707 created the Kingdom of Great Britain, subsuming England, Wales and Scotland into a single political entity. Scotland, along with Northern Ireland, retain separate legal systems. The duchy of Cornwall also retains some unique rights. All of Great Britain has been ruled by the government of the United Kingdom since that date, although in 1999 the first elections to the newly created Scottish Parliament and National Assembly for Wales left England as the only part of the Union with no devolved assembly or parliament. As all legislation for England is passed by Parliament at Westminster there are some complaints about the ability of non-English Members of Parliament to influence purely English affairs. This apparent anomaly has been highlighted by both English and non-English politicians, often those opposed to devolution, and has become popularly known as the West Lothian question. Administratively, England is something of an anomaly within the UK. Unlike the other three nations, it has no local parliament or government and its administrative affairs are dealt with by a combination of the UK government, the UK parliament and a number of England-specific quangos, such as English Heritage. There are calls from some for a devolved English Parliament and from others for the dissolution of the UK and an independent England. The current Labour government favoured the establishment of regional administration, claiming that England was too large to be governed as a sub-state entity. A referendum on this issue in North East England on 4 November 2004 decisively rejected the proposal. Some criticised the English regional proposals for not decentralising enough, saying that they amounted not to devolution, but to little more than local government reorganisation, with no real power being removed from central government. The English regions would not even have had the limited powers of the Welsh Assembly, much less the tax-varying and legislative powers of the Scottish Parliament. Rather, power was simply re-allocated within the region, with little new resource allocation and no real prospects of Assemblies being able to change the pattern of regional aid. Responsibility for regional transport was added to the proposals late in the process. This was perhaps crucial in the North East, where resentment at the Barnett Formula, which delivers greater regional aid to adjacent Scotland, was a significant impetus for the North East devolution campaign. There has also been a campaign for a Cornish assembly along Welsh lines by groups such as Mebyon Kernow, which recently collected 50,000 signatures in support. Some eurosceptics believe that the establishment of English regions as administrative entities is designed to undermine the concept of English nationhood and more easily fit England into a European federal model. Conventionally the national capital of England is London, although technically it would be more exact to call London the capital of "England and Wales" given England's lack of a distinctive political identity separate from the Principality. Winchester served as the country's first national capital until some time in the late 11th century after the Norman Conquest. The City of London became England's commercial capital, while the City of Westminster (where the Royal court was located) became the political capital. These roles have, broadly speaking, been maintained to the present day.

Subdivisions

Main article: Subdivisions of England Historically, the highest level of local government in England was the county. These divisions had emerged from a range of units of old, pre-unification England, whether they were Kingdoms, such as Essex and Sussex; Duchies, such as Yorkshire, Cornwall and Lancashire or simply tracts of land given to some noble, as is the case with Berkshire. Until 1867, they were subdivided into smaller divisions called hundreds. These counties all still exist in, or near to, their original form as the traditional counties. In many places, however, they have been heavily modified or abolished outright as administrative counties. This came about due to a number of factors. The fact that the counties were so small meant, and still means, that there was no regional government able to coordinate an overarching plan for the area. This was especially true in the metropolitan areas surrounding the cities, as the county lines were usually drawn up before the industrial revolution and the mass urbanisation of England. The solution was the creation of large metropolitan counties centred on cities. These were later broken up, with several other counties, into unitary authorities, unifying the county and district/borough levels of government. London is a special case, and is the one region which currently has a representative authority as well as a directly elected mayor. The 32 London boroughs and the Corporation of London remain the local form of government in the city. Other than Greater London, the official regions are:
- North East England
- North West England
- Yorkshire and the Humber
- West Midlands
- East Midlands
- East of England
- South West England
- South East England Outside London the regions have very little power and are not accountable to elected representatives; regional authority is placed in the hands of unelected assemblies. If, as now seems unlikely, regions opt to replace these bodies with elected assemblies, local government in England will remain as variable and, some might say, as confusing as ever

Geography

Main articles: Geography of the United Kingdom, Geography of England Geography of England England comprises the central and southern two-thirds of the island of Great Britain, plus offshore islands of which the largest is the Isle of Wight. It is bordered to the north by Scotland and to the west by Wales. It is closer to continental Europe than any other part of Britain, divided from France only by a 38 km (24 statute mile or 21 nautical mile) sea gap. Most of England consists of rolling hills, but it is more mountainous in the north with a chain of low mountains, the Pennines, dividing east and west. The dividing line between terrain types is usually indicated by the Tees-Exe line. There is also an area of flat, low-lying marshland in the east, much of which has been drained for agricultural use. The list of England's largest cities is much debated because in British English the normal meaning of city is "a continuously built-up urban area"; these are hard to define and various other definitions are preferred by some people to boost the ranking of their own city. London is by far the largest English city. Manchester and Birmingham vie for second place. A number of other cities, mainly in the north of England, are of substantial size and influence. These include: Liverpool, Leeds, Newcastle, Nottingham, Bristol and Sheffield Using the standard U.S. city limits definition of a city the top six are: Birmingham, Leeds, Sheffield, Bradford, Liverpool and Manchester. Note that London is not on this list (Greater London is a region and the City of London is tiny), and that one of the two candidates for the status of England's "second city", Manchester, is down in sixth. In the UK, this method of ranking cities is generally used only by people whose own city is promoted by it. The Channel Tunnel, near Folkestone, links England to the European mainland. The English/French border is halfway along the tunnel. The largest harbour in England is at Poole, on the south-central coast. Internationally, it is the second largest harbour in the world, although this fact is disputed (See harbors for a list of other potential second largest harbours) The highest temperature ever recorded in England is 38.5 °C (101.3 °F) on August 10, 2003 in Kent. [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/kent/3153532.stm]. The lowest temperature ever recorded in England is -26.1 °C (-15.0 °F) on January 10, 1982 at Newport in Shropshire. [http://www.metoffice.com/climate/uk/location/england/#temperature]

Major rivers

Shropshire.]]
- Thames
- Severn
- Trent
- Humber
- Yorkshire Ouse
- Tyne
- Mersey
- Dee
- Avon Main article: Waterways in the United Kingdom

Major Conurbations

:See main article: List of towns in England The largest cities in England are much debated but according to the urban area populations (continuous built up areas) these would be the 15 largest conurbations. (Population figures taken from 2001 census) #Greater London (8,278,251) #West Midlands (2,284,093) #Greater Manchester (2,244,931) #Leeds/Bradford (1,499,465) #Tyneside (879,996) #Liverpool (816,216) #Nottingham (666,358) #Sheffield (640,720) #Bristol (551,066) #Brighton/Worthing/Littlehampton (461,181) #Portsmouth (442,252) #Leicester (441,213) #Bournemouth/Poole (383,713) #Reading (369,804) #Teesside (365,323)

Economy

Main article: Economy of England

Demographics

Main articles: Demographics of England, Population of England England is both the most populous and the most ethnically diverse nation in the United Kingdom with around 49 million inhabitants, of which roughly a tenth are from non-White ethnic groups. It is one of the most densely populated countries in Europe, second only to the Netherlands. This population is made up of, and descended from, immigrants who have arrived over millennia. The principal waves of migration have been in c. 600 BC (Celts), the Roman period (garrison soldiers from throughout the Empire), 350–550 (Angles, Saxons, Jutes), 800–900 (Vikings, Danes), 1066 (Normans), 1650–1750 (European refugees and Huguenots), 1840–1850 (Irish), 1880–1940 (Irish, Jews), 1950— (Irish, Caribbeans, Africans, South Asians), 1985— (citizens of European Community member states especially Ireland, East Europeans, Iranians, Kurds, refugees). The general prosperity of England as the largest partner of the UK, has also made it a destination for economic migrants particularly from Ireland and Scotland. This segment of English homogeneous society continues to create a diverse and dynamic language that is widely used internationally. The other image of foreign ethnic components in England is still mostly seen as a legacy of the British Empire; especially the Commonwealth of Nations.

English identity

The simplest view is that an English person is someone who is from England and holds British nationality, regardless of his or her racial origin. However, inhabitants of England quite commonly refer to themselves as "British" rather than "English"; centuries of English dominance within the United Kingdom has created a situation where to be English is, as a linguist would put it, an "unmarked" state (i.e. a British person, institution, custom, city, etc. is assumed English unless specified otherwise). The English frequently include their neighbours in the general term "British" while the Scots and Welsh, proud of their separate identities, tend to be more forward about referring to themselves by one of those more specific terms. Although currently a part of England, a notable percentage of those living in Cornwall feel similarly, considering themselves Cornish first. One significant exception is in Northern Ireland, where the Unionist community tend to identify very strongly as "British" (Republicans living in the province are more likely to consider themselves "Irish"), and there is not a "Northern Ireland" or "Northern Irish" identity to the same extent as there is (e.g.) a Scottish one. A person, therefore, using the term "English" to describe him or herself (regardless of personal history) may be going out of his or her way to do so; hence he or she may also be seen (rightly or wrongly, and not necessarily pejoratively) as nationalistic. While Scottish, Welsh, Irish and Cornish patriotism are widely exhibited, specifically English patriotism has often been viewed with suspicion, and most English people feel more comfortable identifying themselves with Britain as a whole. However, this may be to avoid being seen as bullies by their neighbours. The extent to which specifically English patriotism is linked to a right-wing xenophobic agenda has also generated discomfort. The appropriation of English symbols by racist far-right organisations such as the National Front made many people uncomfortable with expressions of Englishness. In recent years, English identity has recently been a topic of debate in the national press, with many English people trying to "reclaim" the term and the flag from the far-right. See English nationalism. One notable exception to the above is in relation to sports, in particular Association football, Rugby football and to a lesser extent Cricket. Transient successes are often accompanied by a revival of the use of the "St George's Cross". While it has not yet replaced the "Union Flag" its use is on the increase. Many English people who have spent a lot of time overseas fall into the habit of referring to themselves as "English". It is the most recognisable designation by speakers of many languages, especially where their own language uses a similar word. Even in other English-speaking countries, people are often perplexed by concepts of "British" or the "United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland". All these distinctions are only possible because there is no "English citizenship" or legal definition of Englishness. Moreover, the hazy understanding many people have of the distinction between "England" and "Britain" compounds the confusion. If in doubt, refer to an "English" person as "British": this will always be correct. It may not be as precise as "English", but it will avoid offence in the event the person is actually from a different part of Britain.

Culture

Union Flag Main article: Culture of England
- English literature
  - Sir Thomas Browne
  - Geoffrey Chaucer
  - John Milton
  - William Shakespeare
  - Jane Austen
  - Mary Shelley
  - Charles Dickens
  - Thomas Hardy
  - George Orwell
  - J. R. R. Tolkien
  - C. S. Lewis
  - Douglas Adams
- List of national parks of England and Wales
- Food and Drink
- English folklore
- English art
  - English school of painting
- Music of England

Languages

Music of England.]] As its name suggests, the English language, today spoken by hundreds of millions of people around the world, originated as the language of England, where it remains the principal tongue today (although not officially designated as such). An Indo-European language in Anglo-Frisian branch of the Germanic family, it is closely related to Scots and Frisian. As the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms merged into England, "Old English" emerged; some of its literature and poetry has survived. Used by aristocracy and commoners alike before the Norman Conquest (1066), English was displaced in cultured contexts under the new regime by the Norman French language of the new Anglo-French aristocracy. Its use was confined primarily to the lower social classes while official business was conducted in a mixture of Latin and French. Over the following centuries, however, English gradually came back into fashion among all classes and for all official business except certain traditional ceremonies. (Some survive to this day.) But Middle English, as it had by now become, showed many signs of French influence, both in vocabulary and spelling. During the Renaissance, many words were coined from Latin and Greek origins; and more recent years, Modern English has extended this custom, being always remarkable for its far-flung willingness to incorporate foreign-influenced words. The law does not recognise any language as being official, but English is the only language used in England for general official business. The other national languages of the UK (Welsh, Irish Gaelic and Scottish Gaelic) are confined to their respective nations, and only Welsh is treated by law as an equal to English (and then only for organisations which do business in Wales). The only non-Anglic native spoken language in England is the Cornish language, a Celtic language spoken in Cornwall, which became extinct in the 19th century but has been revived and is spoken in various degrees of fluency by around 3,500 people. This has no official status (unlike Welsh) and is not required for official use, but is nonetheless supported by national and local government under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. Cornwall County Council has produced [http://www.cornwall.gov.uk/cornish/strategy/english/engl01.htm a draft strategy] to develop these plans. There is, however, no programme as yet for public bodies to actively promote the language. Scots is spoken by some adjacent to the Anglo-Scottish Border. Most deaf people within England speak British sign language (BSL), a sign language native to Britain. The British Deaf Association estimates that 70,000 people throughout the UK speak BSL as their first or preferred language, but does not give statistics specific to England. Like Cornish, BSL has no official status, but has been granted a degree of recognition by the government. The BBC broadcasts several of its programmes with BSL interpreters. Different languages from around the world, especially from the former British Empire and the Commonwealth of Nations, have been brought to England by immigrants. Many of these are widely spoken within ethnic minority communities, including Punjabi, Hindi, Urdu, Bengali, Gujarati, Chinese and Vietnamese. These are often used by official bodies to communicate with the relevant sections of the community, particularly in big cities, but this occurs on an "as needed" basis rather than as the result of specific legislative ordinances. Other languages have also traditionally been spoken by minority populations in England, including Romany. Despite the relatively small size of the nation, there are a large number of distinct English regional accents. Those with particularly strong accents may not be easily understood elsewhere in the country.

Nomenclature

The country is named after the Angles, one of several Germanic tribes who settled the country in the 5th and 6th centuries. There are two distinct linguistic patterns for the name of the country. The majority of European languages use names akin to "England":
- "England" (Danish, German, Swedish, Norwegian)
- "Engeland" (Dutch)
- "Inglismaa" (Estonian)
- "Angleterre" (French)
- "Inghilterra" (Italian)
- "Inglaterra" (Spanish, Portuguese, Galician)
- "Anglia" (Hungarian, Polish, Romanian, Albanian)
- "Anglija" (Russian, Slovene, Lithuanian, Ukrainian)
- "Engleska" (Croatian, Serbian)
- "Αγγλία" ("Anglía") (Greek)
- "Englanti" (Finnish) The Celtic names are quite different:
- "Bro-Saoz" (Breton)
- "Pow Sows" (Cornish)
- "Sasana" (Irish)
- "Sasainn" (Scottish Gaelic)
- "Lloegr" (Welsh) — but "Saeson" for the inhabitants.
- "Sostyn" (Manx Gaelic) Except for Lloegr, which is an ancient geographic term, these names are all derived from the Saxons, another family of Germanic tribes which arrived at about the same time as the Angles. See: Wiktionary:England for a further list of non-English names for England. "England" is sometimes mistakenly used to refer to the entire United Kingdom, the island of Great Britain, or the British Isles. This may offend people from other parts of the UK. Frequently the English use the less-specific "Britain" or "the UK", even when "England" is technically correct and commonly also use "England" when "Britain" would be correct. Alternative names include:
- the slang "Blighty", from the Hindustani "bila yati" meaning "foreign"
- "Albion", an ancient name popularised by Pliny the Elder and Ptolemy in the 1st century. Supposedly referring to the white (Latin alba) cliffs of Dover, this term has also been interpreted as a relative of Alba, today the Scots Gaelic name for Scotland. Whatever its origins, "Albion" originally referred to the whole island of Great Britain and is still sometimes seen that way today — but is more often used for England.
- More poetically, England has been called "this sceptred isle...this other Eden" and "this green and pleasant land", quotations respectively from the poetry of William Shakespeare (in Richard II) and William Blake (And did those feet in ancient time). The inhabitants of England are the English. The slang terms sometimes used for them include "Sassenachs" (from the Scots Gaelic), "Limeys" (in reference to the citrus fruits carried aboard English sailing vessels to prevent scurvy) and "Pom/Pommy" (used in Australian English and New Zealand English), but these may be perceived as offensive. Also see alternative words for British.

Symbols and insignia

alternative words for British.]] The two traditional symbols of England are the St. George's cross (the English flag) and the Three Lions coat of arms (see above), both derived from the great Norman powers that formed the monarchy – the Cross of Aquitaine and the Lions of Anjou. The three lions were first definitely used by Richard I (Richard the Lionheart) in the late 12th century (although it is also possible that Henry I may have bestowed it on his son Henry before then). Historian Simon Schama has argued that the Three Lions are the true symbol of England because the English throne descended down the Angevin line. A red cross acted as a symbol for many Crusaders in the 12th and 13th centuries. It became associated with St George and England, along with other countries and cities (such as Georgia, Milan and the Republic of Genoa), which claimed him as their patron saint and used his cross as a banner. It remained in national use until 1707, when the Union Flag (which English and Scottish ships had used at sea since 1606) was adopted for all purposes to unite the whole of Great Britain under a common flag. The flag of England no longer has much of an official role, but it is widely flown by Church of England properties and at sporting events. (Paradoxically, the latter is a fairly recent development; until the late 20th century, it was commonplace for fans of English teams to wave the Union Flag, rather than the St George's Cross). The rose is widely recognised as the national flower of England and is used in a variety of contexts. Predominantly, this is a red rose (which also symbolises Lancashire), such as the badge of the English Rugby Union team. However, a white rose (which also symbolises Yorkshire) or a "tudor rose" (symbolising the end of the War of the Roses) may also be used on different occasions. The Three Lions badge performs a similar role for the English national football team and English national cricket team.

National anthems

Although England does not have an official anthem of its own, the following are widely regarded as English national hymns:
- "Jerusalem:" Words by William Blake, Music by Hubert Parry
- "I Vow to Thee, My Country": Words by Cecil Spring-Rice, Music by Gustav Holst
- "Land of Hope and Glory": Words by A C Benson, Music by Edward Elgar (although this refers to all of Great Britain, not only England)
- "Nimrod": Music by Edward Elgar "God Save The Queen" (the national anthem for the UK as a whole) is usually played for English sporting events (e.g. football matches), although "Land of Hope and Glory" has also been used as the English anthem for the Commonwealth Games. "Rule Britannia" despite being a song about Britain as a whole was often used for the English national football team when they play against another of the home nations but more recently "God Save The Queen" has been used by both the rugby and football teams. Many believe that English teams should use their own anthems, most popular of which is the use of "Jerusalem".

References


- [http://www.statistics.gov.uk Office of National Statistics]

See also


-
- English language
- English law
- English (people)
- List of monarchs of England – Kings of England family tree
- List of English people
- Angeln (region in northern Germany, presumably the origin of the Angles for whom England is named)
- UK topics
- List of not fully sovereign nations
- Education in England

References

External links


- [http://www.enjoyengland.com/ The official website of the English Tourist Board — Enjoy England]
- [http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/state/nations/ BBC Nations]: articles on England and her neighbours Category:Monarchies Category:European countries als:England zh-min-nan:England ko:잉글랜드 ms:England ja:イングランド simple:England th:แคว้นอังกฤษ

Seaside resort

, England.]] A seaside resort is a resort located on the coast. Where a beach is the primary focus for tourists, it may be called a beach resort. The coast has long-standing appeal as a recreational environment, although until the mid-nineteenth century, such recreation was a luxury afforded only to the wealthy. Even in Roman times, the town of Baiae, by the Tyrrhenian Sea in Italy, offered a resort to those who were sufficiently prosperous. During the early nineteenth century, the Prince Regent popularised Brighton, on the south coast of England, as a fashionable alternative to the wealthy spa towns such as Bath. Later, Queen Victoria's long-standing patronage of the Isle of Wight ensured the seaside residence was a highly fashionable possession for those wealthy enough to afford more than one home. It was in the mid-nineteenth century that it became popular for people from less privileged classes to take holidays at seaside resorts. Improvements in transportation brought about by the industrial revolution enabled people to take regular holidays away from home, and led to the redevelopment and growth of many coastal towns as seaside resorts. This is perhaps most strongly evidenced in England, an area shaped such that its coast is no more than 180km from any point.

English seaside resorts

England]] As the nineteenth century progressed, British working class day-trippers often travelled on organised trips such as railway excursions, or by steamer, for which were erected long piers so that the ships bringing the trade could berth. The popularisation of the seaside resort during this period was nowhere more pronounced than in Blackpool. Blackpool flourished, catering for workers from across industrial Northern England, who packed its beaches and promenade. Other northern towns (for example Scarborough, Bridlington and Skegness) shared in the success of this new concept, which spread rapidly to coastal towns along all English shores. From the last quarter of the twentieth century, the popularity of the English seaside resort has declined for the same reason that it first flourished: advancements in transportation. The greater accessibility of foreign holiday destinations, through package holidays and, more recently, European low-cost airlines, affords people the freedom to holiday abroad. Despite the loyalty of returning holiday-makers, resorts such as Blackpool have struggled to compete against the favourable weather of Southern European alternatives. Now, many symbols of the traditional British resort (holiday camps, end-of-the-pier shows and saucy postcards) are regarded by some as drab and outdated; the skies are imagined to be overcast and the beach windswept. In contrast, the fortunes of Brighton, which has neither holiday camps nor end-of-the-pier shows, have grown considerably, and, because of this, the resort is repeatedly held up as the model of a modern resort. However, unlike the Golden Miles of other British resorts, the sea is not Brighton's primary attraction: rather it is a backdrop against which is set an attitude of broad-minded cosmopolitan hedonism. The resulting sense of uniqueness has, coupled with the city's proximity to London, led to Brighton's restoration as a fashionable resort and the dwelling-place of the affluent. Other English coastal towns have successfully sought to project a sense of their unique character. In particular, Southwold on the Suffolk coast is an active yet peaceful retirement haven with an emphasis on calmness, quiet countryside and jazz. Weymouth in Dorset offers itself as 'the gateway to the Jurassic Coast', Britain's only natural World Heritage Site. Newquay in Cornwall offers itself as the 'surfing capital of Britain', hosting international surfing events on its shores.

See also


- Pier
- Ski resort
- Coney Island
- Tourism
- La Jolla, California

External links


- [http://www.n-somerset.gov.uk/enjoying/tourism/blueskies Blue Skies Project] - mostly in PDF format. Research and conclusions of North Somerset District council, involving the identity crisis and re-branding of Weston-super-Mare. Indicative of the need for English resorts to adapt.

North Somerset

North Somerset is a unitary authority in England, historically part of the county of Somerset but now administered independently. Between 1974 and April 1, 1996, it was the Woodspring district of the county of Avon (named after Woodspring Priory, an isolated mediaeval church near the coast just north of Weston-super-Mare). It borders the non-metropolitan counties of Bristol, Bath and North East Somerset and Somerset, and contains the parliamentary constituencies of Woodspring and Weston-super-Mare. The district was formed on April 1, 1974 from the municipal borough of Weston-super-Mare, Clevedon and Portishead urban districts, Long Ashton Rural District, and part of Axbridge Rural District. Its administrative headquarters are in the town hall in Weston-super-Mare.

Towns and villages


- Abbots Leigh,
- Backwell, Banwell, Barrow Gurney, Blagdon, Bleadon, Bourton, Brockley, Burrington, Butcombe,
- Chelvey, Christon, Churchill, North Somerset, Clapton in Gordano, Claverham, Clevedon, Cleeve, Congresbury
- Downside, Dundry
- East End, East Rolstone, Easton in Gordano
- Failand, Farleigh, Felton, Flax Bourton
- Ham Green, Hewish, Hutton
- Icelton
- Kenn, Kewstoke, Kingston Seymour
- Leigh Woods, Locking, Long Ashton, Lower Langford, Lower Failand, Loxton, Lulsgate Bottom
- Nailsea
- Portishead
- Weston-super-Mare
- Milton
- North End
- Pill, Portbury, Puxton
- Redcliff Bay, Redhill, Regil, Rickford
- Sandford, Sheepway, Sidcot, St George's, St Mary's Grove
- Tickenham
- Uphill, Upper Town
- Walton in Gordano, West Wick, West Hill, West End, West Town, Weston in Gordano, Wick St Lawrence, Winford, Winscombe, Worle, Wraxall, Wrington
- Yatton

External links


- [http://www.bbc.co.uk/somerset BBC Somerset] ---- Category:North Somerset Category:Local government in Somerset Category:Avon Category:Unitary authorities in England

Bristol Channel

The Bristol Channel is a major inlet in the island of Great Britain, separating South Wales from South West England and extending from the lower estuary of the River Severn to that part of the North Atlantic Ocean known as the Celtic Sea. It takes its name from the English city of Bristol.

Ecology

At low tide large parts of the channel may become mud flats, as the estuary has a tidal range of 15 metres, the second largest in the world. The estuary is an important area for wildlife, in particular waders, and has protected areas, including National Nature Reserves. Various development schemes have been proposed along the channel, including an airport and a tidal barrier for electricity generation, but the conservation issues have always blocked such schemes. Major islands in the Bristol Channel are Lundy, Steep Holm and Flat Holm. The islands and headlands provide some shelter for the upper reaches of the channel from storms. These islands are mostly uninhabited and protected as nature reserves, and are home to some unique wild flower species.

Coastal towns

There are many towns along the coast of the Bristol Channel, particularly in the industrial areas of South Wales. The sheltered upper reaches of the channel protect a number of ports. On the English coast is the city of Bristol, and associated ports at Avonmouth and Portishead, and the towns of Clevedon, Weston-super-Mare and Minehead in Somerset, and Ilfracombe and Barnstaple in Devon. On the Welsh coast are the port cities of Swansea, Cardiff and Newport and the town of Chepstow.

Crossings

At two of the narrower parts, near Bristol and Chepstow, the channel is crossed by the Severn Bridge and the Second Severn Crossing carrying, respectively, the M48 and M4 motorways. Previous to the contruction of the first bridge in 1966, the channel was crossed by the Aust ferry. The Severn Tunnel carries a railway line under the channel, situated near the second road bridge.

1607 flood

:Main article: Bristol Channel floods, 1607 On 30 January 1607 (New style) thousands of people were drowned, houses and villages swept away, farmland inundated and flocks destroyed when a flood hit the shores of the channel. The devastation was particularly bad on the Welsh side from Laugharne in Carmarthenshire to above Chepstow on the English border. Cardiff was the most badly affected town. There remain plaques up to 8ft above sea level to show how high the waters rose on the sides of the surviving churches. It was commemorated in a contemporary pamphlet "God's warning to the people of England by the great overflowing of the waters or floods." The cause of the flood remains disputed. Before the 2004 tsunami disaster the BBC made a programme covering research by Professor Simon Haslett, from Bath Spa University College, and Australian geologist Ted Bryant, from the University of Wollongong. They found evidence including massive boulders that had been displaced up the beach by enormous force, and a layer up to 20cm thick comprised of sand, shells and stones within an otherwise constant deposit of mud. Written evidence from the time describes events that were uncannily similar to the tragedies that unfolded in South East Asia, including a wave of water that rushed in faster than men could run, and a crowd of people who stood and watched the wave coming towards them until it was too late to run. The idea that the 1607 flood was due to a tsunami was first put forward by Haslett and Bryant in a scientific paper published in 2002 in the journal Archaeology in the Severn Estuary. The BBC programme was not broadcast until 2nd April 2005 ([http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/wales/4397679.stm "BBC News"]), but was covered in The Times ([http://www.timesonline.co.uk/printFriendly/0,,1-17089-1424953,00.html article]) on 4th January 2004, leading some to wrongly suggest that the notion of a tsunami in 1607 was simply speculation following the 2004 tsunami disaster. Prior to this it had long been believed that the floods were caused by a combination of meteorological extremes and tidal peaks. There was indeed an unusually high tide at the time. ([http://www.severnsolutions.co.uk/twblog/archive/2005/01/06/greatflood1606 discussion]). Category:Estuaries in England Category:Somerset Category:Devon Category:River Severn

Bristol

:This article is about the English city of Bristol. For other uses please see Bristol (disambiguation). Bristol is a unitary authority with city and ceremonial county status in South West England. Bristol is England's eighth, and the United Kingdom's eleventh, most populous city. As such, it is one of England's core cities. For half a millennium Bristol was the second largest English city after London, until the rapid rise of Liverpool, Manchester and Birmingham, in the 1780s. From its earliest days, its prosperity has been linked to that of the Port of Bristol, the commercial port, which was in the city centre but has now moved to the Bristol Channel coast at Avonmouth and Portbury.

Local Government

The Avon traditionally marks the border between Gloucestershire and Somerset. In 1373 Edward III of England proclaimed "that the said town of Bristol withall be a County by itself and called the county of Bristol for ever", but maps usually show it as part of Gloucestershire, and as the city spilled south of the river, it took the county with it. In 1974 Bristol became a non-metropolitan district of the newly formed non-metropolitan county of Avon. When that county was abolished on the 1st April 1996, Bristol returned to its former status of a city and county in itself. The city borders on the unitary districts of Bath and North East Somerset, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire.

History

:Main article: History of Bristol. The town of Brycgstow (Old English, "the place at the bridge") was in existence by the beginning of the 11th century, and under Norman rule acquired one of the strongest castles in southern England. The River Avon in the city centre has slowly evolved into Bristol Harbour, and since the 12th century the harbour has been an important port, handling much of England's trade with Ireland. In 1247 a new bridge was built and the town was extended to incorporate neighbouring suburbs, becoming in 1373 a county in its own right. During this period Bristol also became a centre of shipbuilding and manufacturing. By the 14th century Bristol was England's third-largest town (after London and York), with perhaps 15-20,000 inhabitants on the eve of the Black Death of 1348-49. The plague inflicted a prolonged pause in the population growth of Bristol, with numbers remaining at 10-12,000 through most of the 15th and 16th centuries. Bristol was made a city in 1542, with the former Abbey of St Augustine becoming Bristol Cathedral. During the Civil War the city suffered (1643-45) through Royalist military occupation and plague. In 1497 Bristol was the starting point for John Cabot's voyage of exploration to North America. Renewed growth came with the 17th Century rise of England's American colonies and the rapid 18th Century expansion of England's part in the Atlantic trade in Africans taken for slavery in the Americas. Bristol, along with Liverpool, became a significant centre for the slave trade although few slaves were brought to Britain. During the height of the slave trade, from 1700 to 1807, more than 2000 slaving ships were fitted out at Bristol, carrying a (conservatively) estimated half a million people from Africa to the Americas and slavery. Competition from Liverpool from c.1760, the disruption of maritime commerce through war with France (1793) and the abolition of the slave trade (1807) contributed to the city's failure to keep pace with the newer manufacturing centres of the North and Midlands. The long passage up the heavily tidal Avon Gorge, which had made the port highly secure during the middle ages, had become a liability which the construction of a new "Floating Harbour" (designed by William Jessop) in 1804-9 failed to overcome. Nevertheless, Bristol's population (66,000 in 1801) quintupled during the 19th Century, supported by new industries and growing commerce. It was particularly associated with the Victorian engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel, who designed the Great Western Railway between Bristol and London, two pioneering Bristol-built steamships, and the Clifton Suspension Bridge. Bristol's city centre suffered severe damage from bombing during World War II. The original central area, near the bridge and castle, is now a park, featuring two bombed out churches and some tiny fragments of the castle. A third bombed church has a new lease of life as St Nicholas' Church Museum. Slightly to the north, the Broadmead shopping centre was built over bomb-damaged areas. The removal of the docks to Avonmouth, seven miles (11 km) downstream from the city centre, relieved congestion in the central zone and allowed substantial redevelopment of the old central dock area (the "Floating Harbour") in recent decades, although at one time the continued existence of the docks was in jeopardy as it was seen merely as derelict industry rather than a potential asset. On March 4, 2005, Bristol was granted Fairtrade City status.

Aeronautics

In the 20th century, Bristol's manufacturing activities expanded to include aircraft production at Filton, six miles (10 km) north of the city centre, by the Bristol Aeroplane Company, and aero-engine manufacture by Bristol Aero Engines (later Rolls-Royce) at Patchway. The aeroplane company became famous for the WWI Bristol Fighter, and Second World War Blenheim and Beaufighter aircraft. In the 1950s it became one of the country's major manufacturers of civil aircraft, with the Bristol Freighter and Britannia and the huge Brabazon airliner. In the 1960s Filton played a key role in the Anglo-French Concorde supersonic airliner project. Concorde components were manufactured in British and French factories and shipped to the two final assembly plants by road, sea and air. The French assembly lines were in Toulouse in southern France with the British lines in Filton. Luckily the very large three-bay hangar built for the Bristol Brabazon was available for Concorde production. Bristol Brabazon 2003. The aircraft is seen a few minutes before landing on the Filton runway from which she first flew in 1969]] The French manufactured the centre fuselage and centre wing and the British the nose, rear fuselage, fin and wingtips. The largest proportion of the British share of the work was the powerplant, the Rolls-Royce/Snecma 593. The engine's manufacture was split between British Aircraft Corporation, Rolls-Royce (Filton) and SNECMA at Villaroche near Paris. The British Concorde prototype G-BSST made its 22 minute maiden flight from Filton to RAF Fairford on 9 April 1969, the French prototype F-WTSS had flown from Toulouse five weeks earlier. Most of the employees of BAC and Rolls Royce, plus a huge crowd, watched from around the airfield. Fairford was chosen as the test airfield for Concorde because the runway at Filton was rejected for test flying, its length was inadequate and there were problems with the slope, and the first 1000 feet (300 m) of the runway at its eastern (A38) end could not be used. However, from the end of 1977, all test flying on the second production aircraft G-BBDG was done from Filton, following the closure of the BAC Fairford test base. In 2003 the two airlines using Concorde (British Airways and Air France) and the company supplying spares and support (Airbus) made the decision to cease flying the aircraft and to retire them to locations (mostly museums) around the world. For the location of all the aircraft see Concorde. On 26 November 2003, Concorde 216 (G-BOAF) made the final ever Concorde flight, returning to Filton airfield to be kept there permanently as the centrepiece of a projected air museum. This museum will include the existing Bristol Aero Collection which is currently kept in a hangar at Kemble Airfield, forty miles (60 km) from Filton. This collection includes a Bristol Britannia aircraft. The major aeronautical companies in Bristol now are BAE Systems, Airbus and Rolls-Royce, both based at Filton. Another important aeronautical company in the city is Cameron Balloons, the world's largest manufacturer of hot air balloons. Annually, in August, the city is host to the Bristol International Balloon Fiesta, one of Europe's largest hot air balloon events.

Bristol Cars

The Bristol Aeroplane Company diversified into car manufacturing in the 1940s, building luxury hand-built cars at their factory in Filton. The car manufacturer became independent from the Bristol Aeroplane Company in 1960.

Arts, leisure and media

The city has two significant football clubs: Bristol City F.C. who play in Football League One and Bristol Rovers F.C. who play in Football League Two. The city is also home to a Rugby Union club known as Bristol Rugby, who have won promotion to the Guinness Premiership, and a first-class cricket side, Gloucestershire C.C.C. Gloucestershire C.C.C. In summer the grounds of Ashton Court to the west of the city play host to the Bristol International Balloon Fiesta, a major event for hot-air ballooning in Britain. The Fiesta draws a substantial crowd even for the early morning lift that typically begins at about 6.30 am. Events and a fairground entertain the crowds during the day. A second mass ascent is then made in the early evening, again taking advantage of lower wind speeds. Ashton Court also plays host to the Ashton Court festival each summer, an outdoors music festival which used to be known as the Bristol Community Festival. Ashton Court festival The city's principal theatre company, the Bristol Old Vic, was founded in 1946 as an offshoot of the Old Vic company in London. Its premises on King Street consist of the 1766 Theatre Royal (400 seats), a modern studio theatre called the New Vic (150 seats), and foyer and bar areas in the adjacent Coopers' Hall (built 1743). The Theatre Royal is a grade I listed building and the oldest continuously-operating theatre in England. The Bristol Old Vic also runs a prominent Theatre School. The Bristol Hippodrome is a larger theatre (1981 seats) which hosts national touring productions, while the 2000-seat Colston Hall, named after Edward Colston, is the city's main concert venue. The music scene is thriving and significant. From the late 1970's onwards it was home to a crop of cultish bands combining punk, funk, dub and political consciousness, the most celebrated being The Pop Group. Ten years later, Bristol was the birthplace of a type of English hip-hop music called trip hop or the Bristol Sound, epitomised in the work of artists such as Tricky, Portishead, Smith & Mighty and Massive Attack. It is also a stronghold of drum n bass with notable bands like the Mercury Prize winning Roni Size/Reprazent and Kosheen as well as the pioneering DJ Krust and More Rockers. This music is part of the wider Bristol Urban Culture scene which received international media attention in the 1990s and still thrives today. Bristol's musical pioneering spirit continues as the home to one of the largest and most diverse DIY music communities in the UK. Artists such as Gravenhurst and Chikinki have revived popular interest over the past few years. Other highly influential cult acts include Wall Planner, Pricktaster, Snakes On A Plane and November's Ashes In The Rain. A dynamic community of bands, artists, promoters and music fans has developed around the [http://www.ttyc.co.uk/viewforum.php?f=1 Choke forum], named after a popular fanzine and club night which has championed underground music from Bristol and beyond since 2001. Bristol is home to many live music venues, of which The Old Duke is perhaps the best known. Internationally recognised jazz and blues musicians active in Bristol include Eddie Martin, Jim Blomfield and Andy Sheppard. The Bristol City Museum and Art Gallery houses a collection of natural history, archaeology, local glassware, Chinese ceramics and art. The Bristol Industrial Museum, on the dockside, shows local industrial heritage and operates a steam railway, boat trips, and working dockside cranes. The City Museum also runs three preserved historic houses: the Tudor Red Lodge, the Georgian House, and Blaise Castle House. The Watershed media centre and Arnolfini gallery, both in disused dockside warehouses, exhibit contemporary art, photography and cinema. Stop frame animation films and commercials painstakingly produced by Aardman Animations and high quality television series focusing on the natural world have also brought fame and artistic credit to the city. Bristol is where the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) has its regional headquarters, and Natural History Unit. Bristol is also the birthplace of the actor Cary Grant. Bristol is the home of a regional morning newspaper, the Western Daily Press, a local evening paper, the Evening Post and a weekly free newspaper, the Bristol Observer. A Bristol edition of Metro is distributed for free on buses in the area. The local listings magazine, Venue, is now published weekly after many years as a fortnightly publication and comprehensively covers the city's music, theatre and arts scenes. The Spark magazine (Since 1993) covers the surging interest in all things green, ethical and New Age. [http://www.bristol.indymedia.org Bristol indymedia] is a resource for Bristols anarchist and activist community and is the sixth largest website associated with the city.

Education

Bristol is home to two major institutions of higher education: the University of Bristol, a "redbrick" chartered in 1909, and the University of the West of England, formerly Bristol Polytechnic, which gained university status in 1992. The city also has two dedicated further education institutions, City of Bristol College and Filton College as well as a theological college, Trinity College, Bristol. The Create centre is home to many sustainable development projects and life long learning schemes. The city has 129 primary schools and three city learning centres. There are also many independent schools of a high quality in the city, including Queen Elizabeth's Hospital, an all boys school, the only of its kind in the area.

Transport

Queen Elizabeth's Hospital There are two principal railway stations in Bristol: Bristol Parkway and Bristol Temple Meads. Bristol was never well served by suburban railways, though the Severn Beach Line to Avonmouth and Severn Beach survived the Beeching Axe and is still in operation today. The Portishead Railway was closed in the Beeching Axe but was relaid between 2000-2002 as far as the Royal Portbury Dock with a Strategic Rail Authority rail-freight grant. Plans to relay a further three miles of track to Portishead, a largely dormitory town with only one connecting road, have been discussed but there is insufficient funding to rebuild stations [http://www.theyworkforyou.com/debates/?id=2005-01-24.134.0&m=841]. Long-standing plans for a light rail system in the Bristol area have not so far succeeded, and as a consequence public transport within the city is still largely bus based. The majority of the local bus service is operated by First Group. The central part of the city also has water-based routes, operated as the Bristol Ferry Boat, which provide both leisure and commuter services on the harbour. The city is connected by road on an east-west axis from London to Wales by the M4 motorway, and on a north-southwest axis from Birmingham to Exeter by the M5 motorway. The M32 motorway is a spur from the M4 to the city centre. The city is also served by its own airport (BRS), at Lulsgate, which has seen substantial improvements to its runway, terminal and other facilities. Despite being hilly, Bristol is one of the prominent cycling cities of England, and is home to the national cycle campaigning group Sustrans. It has a number of urban cycle routes, as well as links to National Cycle Network routes to Bath and London, to Gloucester and Wales, and to the south-western peninsula of England.

Dialect

Many Bristolians speak a distinctive dialect of English (known colloquially as Brizzle or Bristle). Uniquely for an urban area of Britain, this is a rhotic dialect, in which the r in words like car is pronounced. The most unusual feature of this dialect, unique to Bristol, is the Bristol L (or Terminal L), in which an L sound is appended to words that end in a letter a. Thus "area" becomes "areal", etc. This may lead to confusions between expressions like area engineer and aerial engineer which in "Bristle" sound identical. Other examples include 'Americal' and 'Canadal', and, when unsure, the answer 'I have no ideal'. In the same way, the Swedish Ikea is known by some as 'Ikeal'. Another Bristolian linguistic feature is the addition of a superfluous “to” in questions relating to direction or orientation. For example, “Where’s that?” would be phrased as “Where’s that to?” and “Where’s the park?” would become “Where’s the park to?” For a full listing of all of Bristol's colloquialisms vist: [http://www.thatbebristle.co.uk/dictionary/ That Be Bristol - Dictionary]

Areas and towns

The following areas and towns make up the city of Bristol and its outskirts. It includes some adjoining areas of South Gloucestershire, marked SG.

Places of interest

Famous People

Many notable people have been associated with Bristol, including musicians, engineers, scientists, sailors and explorers.
- Isambard Kingdom Brunel came to Bristol to build the Clifton Suspension Bridge, and went on to be the engineer of the Great Western Railway and the designer of the SS Great Western.
- Tony Benn, veteran socialist politician and former MP for the city (1960s). The first peer to renounce his hereditary title after campaigning for a change in the British Consitution that became the Peerage Act 1963.
- Edmund Burke was Member of Parliament for the city for six years from 1774. He famously insisted that he was a Member of Parliament first, rather than a representative of his constituents' interests.
- John Cabot set sail from Bristol in 1497 in search of exotic goods from the far east, but instead discovered North America. He first sighted Newfoundland, today a province of Canada.
- Sir Humphry Davy was a scientist who worked in Hotwells and discovered laughing gas.
- Paul Dirac was born in Bishopston, and made many crucial contributions to quantum mechanics and shared the 1933 Nobel Prize for Physics 'for the discovery of new and productive forms of atomic theory'
- Francis Greenway was an architect and convict who was transported to Australia in 1814 and subsequently built many of the early iconic buildings of the city of Sydney.
- John Harvey founded the Bristol wine merchants John Harvey & Sons, and their sherry brand Harvey's Bristol Cream has taken the name of Bristol all over the world.
- Famous musicians native to Bristol include Roni Size, Tricky and Massive Attack. The group Portishead is based in the city, and the band's name and roots come from the neighbouring town.
- Samuel Plimsoll, 'the Sailor's friend' campaigned fearlessly to make the seas safer. He was shocked by the scandal of overloaded cargoes and successfully fought for a compulsory loadline on ships - the Plimsoll line during Disraeli's Conservative Government (1874-80).
- Wallace and Gromit; heroes of the animation world and stars of the Oscar-winning 'The Wrong Trousers', 'A Grand Day Out', 'A Close Shave' and 'The Curse of the Were-Rabbit' were created in Bristol by Aardman Animations.
- Svetlana Alliluyeva, Stalin's daughter, lived briefly in Bristol in the early 1990s.
- John Wesley founded the very first Methodist Chapel in Bristol in 1739, which can still be visited today.
- Matt Lucas, comedy actor and star of the highly acclaimed Little Britain television sketch show, studied Drama at Bristol University.
- Tony Robinson actor, trained with Bristol Old Vic and has lived in Bristol and also been active politically there, for nearly thirty years. He is known to television viewers for his part as 'Baldrick' in the comedy Blackadder.
- Richard Gregory, psychologist, resides in Bristol.
- Cary Grant, Hollywood actor, born in Horfield, moved to America when he was a child.
- Keith Floyd, TV chef, ran several restaurants in Bristol, and got his start in TV at BBC Bristol.
- Johnny Morris, TV celebrity, resided in Bristol, and made his television programmes at Bristol Zoo.
- James May, BBC Top Gear presenter and Daily Telegraph columnist was born in Bristol
- Paul Stephenson, race relations activist who led a boycott of the city's buses in 1963, when the Bristol Omnibus Co. refused to employ black drivers and conductors. The boycott is known to have influenced the creation of the UK's first Race Relations Act in 1965.

See also

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