UK Independence Party
The UK Independence Party is a hard Eurosceptic, right-wing political party in the United Kingdom. It has one representative in the House of Lords and seven Members of the European Parliament, it has three Assembly Members in the National Assembly for Wales and one member in the London Assembly. The party reached its greatest level of success in the mid-2010s, when it gained two Members of Parliament and was the largest UK party in the European Parliament. UKIP originated as the Anti-Federalist League, a single-issue Eurosceptic party established in London by the historian Alan Sked in 1991, it was renamed UKIP in 1993 but its growth remained slow. It was eclipsed by the Eurosceptic Referendum Party until the latter's 1997 dissolution. In 1997, Sked was ousted by a faction led by Nigel Farage. In 2006, Farage became leader and under his direction the party adopted a wider policy platform and capitalised on concerns about rising immigration, in particular among the White British working class; this resulted in significant breakthroughs at the 2013 local elections, 2014 European elections, 2015 general election.
The pressure UKIP exerted on the government was the main reason for the 2016 referendum which led to the UK's commitment to withdraw from the European Union. Farage stepped down as UKIP leader, the party's vote share and membership declined. Following repeat leadership crises, Gerard Batten took over. Under Batten, UKIP was characterised as moving into far-right territory, at which point many longstanding members–including Farage–left. Farage launched the Brexit Party. Ideologically positioned on the right-wing of British politics, UKIP is characterised by political scientists as part of a broader European radical right. UKIP's primary emphasis has been on Euroscepticism, calling for the United Kingdom's exit from the European Union, it promotes a British unionist and British nationalist agenda, encouraging a unitary British identity in opposition to growing Welsh and Scottish nationalisms. Political scientists have argued that in doing so, it conflates Britishness with Englishness and appeals to English nationalist sentiment.
UKIP has placed emphasis on lowering immigration, rejecting multiculturalism, opposing what it calls the "Islamification" of Britain. Influenced by Thatcherism and classical liberalism, it describes itself as economically libertarian and promotes liberal economic policies. On social issues like LGBT rights, education policy, criminal justice it is conservative. Having an ideological heritage stemming from the right-wing of the Conservative Party, it distinguishes itself from the mainstream political establishment through heavy use of populist rhetoric, including describing its supporters as the "People's Army". Governed by its leader and National Executive Committee, UKIP is divided into twelve regional groups. A founding member of the Alliance for Direct Democracy in Europe European political party, most of UKIP's MEPs sit with the Europe of Freedom and Direct Democracy group in the European Parliament. While gaining electoral support from various sectors of British society, psephologists have established that its primary voting base is in England and consists of older, working-class white Britons.
UKIP has faced a critical reception from mainstream political parties, much of the media, anti-fascist groups. Its discourse on immigration and cultural identity generated accusations of racism and xenophobia, both of which it denies. UKIP began as the Anti-Federalist League, a Eurosceptic political party established in 1991 by the historian Alan Sked; the League opposed the signed Maastricht Treaty and sought to sway the governing Conservative Party toward removing the United Kingdom from the European Union. A former Liberal Party candidate, member of the Bruges Group, professor at the London School of Economics, Sked had converted to Euroscepticism while teaching the LSE's European Studies programme. Under the Anti-Federalist League's banner, Sked was a candidate for Member of Parliament for Bath at the 1992 general election, gaining 0.2% of the vote. At a League meeting held in the LSE on 3 September 1993, the group was renamed the UK Independence Party, deliberately avoiding the term "British" so as to avoid confusion with the far-right British National Party.
UKIP contested the 1994 European Parliament election with little financing and much infighting, securing itself as the fifth largest party in that election with 1% of the vote. During this period, UKIP was viewed as a typical single-issue party by commentators, some of whom drew comparisons with the French Poujadist movement. Following the election, UKIP lost much support to the Referendum Party. In the 1997 general election, UKIP secured 0.3 % of the national vote. UKIP was beaten by the Referendum Party in 163 of the 165 seats in which they stood against each other; the Referendum Party disbanded following Goldsmith's death that year and many of its candidates joined UKIP. After the election, Sked was pressured into resigning by a party faction led by Farage, David Lott and Michael Holmes, who deemed him too intellectual and dictatorial. Sked left the party, alleging that it had been infiltrated by racist and far-right elements, including BNP spies; this connection was emphasised in the press when Farage was photographed meeting with BNP activists.
Holmes took over as party leader, in the 1999 European Parliament elections—the first UK electio
Liberal Democrats (UK)
The Liberal Democrats are a liberal political party in the United Kingdom. They have 11 Members of Parliament in the House of Commons, 96 members of the House of Lords, one member of the European Parliament, five Members of the Scottish Parliament and one member in the Welsh Assembly and London Assembly. At the height of its influence, the party formed a coalition government with the Conservative Party from 2010 to 2015 with its leader Nick Clegg serving as Deputy Prime Minister, it is led by Sir Vince Cable. In 1981, an electoral alliance was established between the Liberal Party, a group, the direct descendent of the 18th-century Whigs, the Social Democratic Party, a splinter group from the Labour Party. In 1988 this alliance was formalised as the Liberal Democrats. Under the leadership of Paddy Ashdown and Charles Kennedy, the party grew during the 1990s and 2000s, focusing its campaigning on specific seats and becoming the third largest party in the House of Commons. Under its leader Nick Clegg, the Liberal Democrats were junior partners in a coalition government headed by Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron, with Clegg serving as Deputy Prime Minister.
The coalition damaged the Liberal Democrats' electoral prospects: the party was reduced from 57 to 8 seats at the 2015 election. Positioned in the centre ground of British politics, the Liberal Democrats are ideologically liberal. Emphasising stronger protections for civil liberties, the party promotes liberal approaches to issues like LGBT rights, education policy, criminal justice. Different factions take different approaches to economic issues; the party is pro-Europeanist, supporting continued UK membership of the European Union and greater European integration. It calls for electoral reform with a transition from the first-past-the-post voting system to one of proportional representation. Other policies have included further environmental protections and drug liberalisation laws, while it has opposed certain UK military engagements like the Iraq War; the party is a member of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe and Liberal International. The Liberal Democrats are strongest in northern Scotland, southwest London, southwest England, mid-Wales.
The Liberal Democrats were formed on 3 March 1988 by a merger between the Liberal Party and the Social Democratic Party, which had formed a pact nearly seven years earlier as the SDP–Liberal Alliance. The Liberal Party, founded in 1859, were descended from the Whigs and Peelites, while the SDP were a party created in 1981 by former Labour Party members, MPs and cabinet ministers, but gained defections from the Conservative Party. Having declined to third party status after the rise of the Labour Party from 1918 and during the 1920s, the Liberals were challenged for this position in the 1980s when a group of Labour MPs broke away and established the Social Democratic Party; the SDP and the Liberals realised that there was no space for two political parties of the centre and entered into the SDP–Liberal Alliance so that they would not stand against each other in elections. The Alliance was led by Roy Jenkins; the two parties had their own policies and emphases, but produced a joint manifesto for the 1983 and 1987 general elections.
Following disappointing results in the 1987 election, Steel proposed to merge the two parties. Although opposed by Owen, it was supported by a majority of members of both parties, they formally merged in March 1988, with Steel and Robert Maclennan as joint interim leaders; the new party was named Social and Liberal Democrats with the unofficial short form The Democrats being used from September 1988. The name was subsequently changed to Liberal Democrats in October 1989, shortened to Lib Dems; the new party logo, the Bird of Liberty, was adopted in 1989. The minority of the SDP who rejected the merger remained under Owen's leadership in a rump SDP. Michael Meadowcroft joined the Liberal Democrats in 2007 but some of his former followers continue still as the Liberal Party, most notably in a couple of electoral wards of the cities of Liverpool and Peterborough; the then-serving Liberal MP Paddy Ashdown was elected leader in July 1988. At the 1989 European Elections, the party received only 6% of the vote, putting them in fourth place after the Green Party.
They failed to gain a single Member of the European Parliament at this election. Over the next three years, the party recovered under Ashdown's leadership, they performed better at the 1990 local elections and in by-elections—including at Eastbourne in 1990 which saw the first success by a Liberal Democrat standing for parliament. They had further successes in Ribble Valley and Kincardine & Deeside in 1991; the Lib Dems did not reach the share of national votes in the 1990s that the Alliance had achieved in the 1980s. At their first election in 1992, they won 17.8 % of twenty seats. In the 1994 European Elections, the party gained its first two Members of European Parliament. Following the election of Tony Blair as Labour leader in July 1994 after the death of his predecessor John Smith, Ashdown pursued co-operation between the two parties becaus
Labour Party (UK)
The Labour Party is a centre-left political party in the United Kingdom, described as an alliance of social democrats, democratic socialists and trade unionists. The party's platform emphasises greater state intervention, social justice and strengthening workers' rights; the Labour Party was founded in 1900, having grown out of the trade union movement and socialist parties of the nineteenth century. It overtook the Liberal Party to become the main opposition to the Conservative Party in the early 1920s, forming two minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in the 1920s and early 1930s. Labour served in the wartime coalition of 1940-1945, after which Clement Attlee's Labour government established the National Health Service and expanded the welfare state from 1945 to 1951. Under Harold Wilson and James Callaghan, Labour again governed from 1964 to 1970 and 1974 to 1979. In the 1990s Tony Blair took Labour closer to the centre as part of his "New Labour" project, which governed the UK under Blair and Gordon Brown from 1997 to 2010.
After Corbyn took over in 2015, the party has moved leftward. Labour is the Official Opposition in the Parliament of the United Kingdom, having won the second-largest number of seats in the 2017 general election; the Labour Party is the largest party in the Welsh Assembly, forming the main party in the current Welsh government. The party is the third largest in the Scottish Parliament. Labour is a member of the Party of European Socialists and Progressive Alliance, holds observer status in the Socialist International, sits with the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats in the European Parliament; the party includes semi-autonomous Scottish and Welsh branches and supports the Social Democratic and Labour Party in Northern Ireland. As of 2017, Labour had the largest membership of any party in Western Europe; the Labour Party originated in the late 19th century, meeting the demand for a new political party to represent the interests and needs of the urban working class, a demographic which had increased in number, many of whom only gained suffrage with the passage of the Representation of the People Act 1884.
Some members of the trades union movement became interested in moving into the political field, after further extensions of the voting franchise in 1867 and 1885, the Liberal Party endorsed some trade-union sponsored candidates. The first Lib–Lab candidate to stand was George Odger in the Southwark by-election of 1870. In addition, several small socialist groups had formed around this time, with the intention of linking the movement to political policies. Among these were the Independent Labour Party, the intellectual and middle-class Fabian Society, the Marxist Social Democratic Federation and the Scottish Labour Party. At the 1895 general election, the Independent Labour Party put up 28 candidates but won only 44,325 votes. Keir Hardie, the leader of the party, believed that to obtain success in parliamentary elections, it would be necessary to join with other left-wing groups. Hardie's roots as a lay preacher contributed to an ethos in the party which led to the comment by 1950s General Secretary Morgan Phillips that "Socialism in Britain owed more to Methodism than Marx".
In 1899, a Doncaster member of the Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants, Thomas R. Steels, proposed in his union branch that the Trade Union Congress call a special conference to bring together all left-wing organisations and form them into a single body that would sponsor Parliamentary candidates; the motion was passed at all stages by the TUC, the proposed conference was held at the Memorial Hall on Farringdon Street on 26 and 27 February 1900. The meeting was attended by a broad spectrum of working-class and left-wing organisations—trades unions represented about one third of the membership of the TUC delegates. After a debate, the 129 delegates passed Hardie's motion to establish "a distinct Labour group in Parliament, who shall have their own whips, agree upon their policy, which must embrace a readiness to cooperate with any party which for the time being may be engaged in promoting legislation in the direct interests of labour." This created an association called the Labour Representation Committee, meant to co-ordinate attempts to support MPs sponsored by trade unions and represent the working-class population.
It had no single leader, in the absence of one, the Independent Labour Party nominee Ramsay MacDonald was elected as Secretary. He had the difficult task of keeping the various strands of opinions in the LRC united; the October 1900 "Khaki election" came too soon for the new party to campaign effectively. Only 15 candidatures were sponsored. Support for the LRC was boosted by the 1901 Taff Vale Case, a dispute between strikers and a railway company that ended with the union being ordered to pay £23,000 damages for a strike; the judgement made strikes illegal since employers could recoup the cost of lost business from the unions. The apparent acquiescence of the Conservative Government of Arthur Balfour to industrial and business interests intensified support for the LRC against a government that appeared to have little concern for the industrial proletariat and its problems. In the 1906 election, the LRC won 29 seats—helped by a secret 1903 pact between Ramsay MacDonald and Liberal Chief Whip Herbert Gladstone that aimed to avoid splitting the opposition vote between Labour and Liberal candidates in the interest of removing the Conservatives from office.
In their first meeting after the election the group's Members of Parliament decided to adop
Hayling Island
Hayling Island is an island off the south coast of England, in the borough of Havant in the county of Hampshire, near Portsmouth. An Iron Age shrine in the north of Hayling Island was developed into a Roman temple in the 1st century BC and was first recorded in Richard Scott's Topographical and Historical Account of Hayling Island, published in 1826; the site was excavated between 1897 and 1907 and again from 1976 to 1978. Remains are buried beneath cultivated farmland; the first coin credited to Commius, found in an excavated context was found at the temple. This Commius was the son of the Commius mentioned by Julius Caesar in his writings although its possible the coin was issued by the original Commius. Salt production was an industry on the island from the 11th century until the late 19th century. Construction of Northwode Chapel by the monks of Jumièges, began in about 1140, it has been claimed that St Peter's three bells, cast in about 1350, have one of the oldest peals in England. St Mary's Church is a standard design of the churches of its era, but upon close examination, the walls have been constructed from a mortar of local shells and beach pebbles.
The ancient yew tree in the churchyard is believed to be the oldest yew in the country, with a girth of some nine metres. Although estimates as to its age vary, they range from over a thousand to nearly two thousand years old; the grave of Princess Yourievsky, a member of the ill-fated Russian Royal family and who lived in North Hayling for many years, may be found in St. Peter's churchyard; the island was the location of a mock invasion during the military Exercise Fabius in May 1944, rehearsing the preparations for D-Day. In 1982, British courts recognised prior art by Peter Chilvers, who as a young boy on Hayling Island assembled his first board combined with a sail, in 1958, it incorporated all the elements of modern windsurfer. The courts found that innovations were "merely an obvious extension" and upheld the defendant's claim based on film footage; this court case set a significant precedent for patent law in the United Kingdom, in terms of Inventive step and non-obviousness. The case, Hayling, a replica of Chilvers' original board were featured on an episode of the BBC's The One Show in 2009.
On 20 October 2013, at least one hundred properties on the island were damaged when it was hit by a tornado. No injuries were reported. Hayling Island is a true island surrounded by sea. Looking at its north to south orientation, it is shaped like an inverted T, about 6.5 km long and 6.5 km wide. A road bridge connects its northern end to the mainland of England at Langstone; the Hayling Ferry is a small pedestrian ferry connecting to the Eastney area of the city of Portsmouth on the neighbouring Portsea Island. To the west is Langstone Harbour and to the east is Chichester Harbour; the natural beach at Hayling was predominantly sandy, but in recent years it has been mechanically topped with shingle dredged from the bed of the Solent in an effort to reduce beach erosion and reduce the potential to flood low-lying land. At low tide, the East Winner sandbank is visible, extending a mile out to sea; the coastline in this area has changed since Roman times: it is believed much land has been lost from the coasts of Hayling and Selsey by erosion and subsequent flooding.
As with the rest of the British Isles and Southern England, Hayling Island experiences a maritime climate with cool summers and mild winters. Temperatures have never fallen into double figures below freezing, illustrating the relative warmth of the island – comparable to the far southwest of England and its neighbour, the Isle of Wight. Temperature extremes between 1960 and 2010 have ranged from −9.4 °C during January 1963, up to 32.1 °C during June 1976. Hayling Island has a non-League football club, Hayling United F. C. which plays at Hayling Park. Although residential, Hayling is a holiday and sailing centre, the site where windsurfing was invented. In summer 2010, the Hayling Island Sailing Club hosted the 2010 World Laser Standard Senior and Junior Championships; the Senior championship was won by Australian Tom Slingsby, whilst Dane Thorbjoern Schierup won the Junior competition. Today it is home to many different types including a growing Fireball fleet; as a consequence of the island's popularity for water activities, there are two lifeboat services: Hayling Island Lifeboat Station, run by the RNLI and Hayling Island Rescue Service, an independent service run by retired RNLI helmsman, Frank Dunster.
The island hosts one of the few active Real Tennis courts in the UK. Founded in 1911, Seacourt Tennis club is one of only a handful in the UK where it is possible to play every recognised racquet sport; the racquets court itself was opened by Sir Colin Cowdrey. Seacourt Tennis Club hosts a weekly fencing club featuring all ages and weapons. Hayling Golf Club has been voted in the top 100 golf courses in the UK. A traditional links course, although short by modern standards, the strong prevailing south-westerly winds, fast greens, gorse bushes and traditional deep links bunkers make this a stern test for any golfer. Funland, an amusement park situated at Beachlands, is open year-round, as is the East Hayling Light Railway which runs from the funfair to Eastoke corner. T
Portsmouth
Portsmouth is a port city in Hampshire, with a total population of 205,400 residents. The city of Portsmouth is nicknamed Pompey and is built on Portsea Island, a flat, low-lying island measuring 24 square kilometres in area, just off the south-east coast of Hampshire. Uniquely, Portsmouth is the only island city in the United Kingdom, is the only city whose population density exceeds that of London. Portsmouth is located 70 miles south-west of London and 19 miles south-east of Southampton. With the surrounding towns of Gosport, Fareham and Waterlooville, Portsmouth forms the eastern half of the South Hampshire metropolitan area, which includes Southampton and Eastleigh in the western half. Portsmouth's history can be traced back to Roman times. A significant naval port for centuries, Portsmouth has the world's oldest dry dock. In the sixteenth century, Portsmouth was England's first line of defence during the French invasion of 1545. By the early nineteenth century, the world's first mass production line was set up in Portsmouth Dockyard's Block Mills, making it the most industrialised site in the world and birthplace of the Industrial Revolution.
Portsmouth was the most fortified town in the world, was considered "the world's greatest naval port" at the height of the British Empire throughout Pax Britannica. Defences known as the Palmerston Forts were built around Portsmouth in 1859 in anticipation of another invasion from continental Europe. In 1926, Portsmouth was elevated in status from a town to a city; the motto "Heaven's Light Our Guide" was registered to the City of Portsmouth in 1929. During the Second World War, the city of Portsmouth was a pivotal embarkation point for the D-Day landings and was bombed extensively in the Portsmouth Blitz, which resulted in the deaths of 930 people. In 1982, a large proportion of the task force dispatched to liberate the Falkland Islands deployed from the city's naval base, her Majesty's Yacht Britannia left the city to oversee the transfer of Hong Kong in 1997, which marked for many the end of the empire. In 1997, Portsmouth became a Unitary Authority, with Portsmouth City Council gaining powers of a non-metropolitan county and district council combined, responsibilities held by Hampshire County Council.
Portsmouth is one of the world's best known ports. HMNB Portsmouth is considered to be the home of the Royal Navy and is home to two-thirds of the UK's surface fleet; the city is home to some famous ships, including HMS Warrior, the Tudor carrack Mary Rose and Horatio Nelson's flagship, HMS Victory. The former HMS Vernon naval shore establishment has been redeveloped as a retail park known as Gunwharf Quays. Portsmouth is among the few British cities with two cathedrals: the Anglican Cathedral of St Thomas and the Roman Catholic Cathedral of St John the Evangelist; the waterfront and Portsmouth Harbour are dominated by the Spinnaker Tower, one of the United Kingdom's tallest structures at 560 feet. Nearby Southsea is a seaside resort with a pier amusement medieval castle. Portsmouth F. C. the city's professional football club, play their home games at Fratton Park. The city has several mainline railway stations that connect to Brighton, London Victoria and London Waterloo amongst other lines in southern England.
Portsmouth International Port is a commercial cruise ship and ferry port for international destinations. The port is the second busiest in the United Kingdom after Dover, handling around three million passengers a year; the city had its own airport, Portsmouth Airport, until its closure in 1973. The University of Portsmouth enrols 23,000 students and is ranked among the world's best modern universities. Portsmouth is the birthplace of author Charles Dickens and engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel; the Romans built a fort, at nearby Portchester in the late third century. The city's Old English name "Portesmuða" is derived from port, meaning a haven, muða, the mouth of a large river or estuary; the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle has a warrior called Port and his two sons killing a noble Briton in Portsmouth in 501. Winston Churchill, in his A History of the English-Speaking Peoples, says that Port was a pirate and he founded Portsmouth in 501; the south coast was vulnerable to Danish Viking invasions during the 9th centuries.
In 787, it was assaulted and conquered by Danish pirates, during the reign of Æthelwulf, King of Wessex in 838, a Danish fleet landed between Portsmouth and Southampton and the surrounding area was plundered. In response, Æthelwulf sent Wulfherd and the governor of Dorsetshire to confront the Danes at Portsmouth, where most of their ships were docked, they were successful. In 1001, the Danes returned and pillaged Portsmouth and surrounding locations, threatening the English with extinction; the Danes were massacred by the survivors the following year and rebuilding began, although the town suffered further attacks until 1066. Portsmouth was not mentioned in the Domesday Survey of 1086, but Bocheland and Frodentone were; some sources maintain. When King Henry II died in 1189, his son Richard I, who had spent most of his life in France, arrived in Portsmouth before he was crowned in London; when Richard returned from captivity in Austria in May 1194, he summoned a fleet of 100 ships and an army to the port.
He granted the town a royal charter on 2 May, giving permission for an annual fifteen-day free market fair, weekly markets, a local court to deal with minor matters, exempted its inhabitants from paying an annual tax of £18. Richard granted the town the arm
West Sussex
West Sussex is a county in the south of England, bordering East Sussex to the east, Hampshire to the west and Surrey to the north, to the south the English Channel. West Sussex is the western part of the historic county of Sussex a medieval kingdom. With an area of 1,991 square kilometres and a population of over 800,000, West Sussex is a ceremonial county, with a Lord Lieutenant and a High Sheriff. Chichester in the south-west is the only city in West Sussex. West Sussex has a range of scenery, including wealden and coastal; the highest point of the county is at 280 metres. It has a number of stately homes including Goodwood, Petworth House and Uppark, castles such as Arundel Castle and Bramber Castle. Over half the county is protected countryside, offering walking and other recreational opportunities. Although the name Sussex, derived from the Old English'Sūþsēaxe', dates from the Saxon period between AD 477 to 1066, the history of human habitation in Sussex goes back to the Old Stone Age; the oldest hominin remains known in Britain were found at Boxgrove.
Sussex has been occupied since those times and has succumbed to various invasions and migrations throughout its long history. Prehistoric monuments include the Devil's Jumps, a group of Bronze Age burial mounds, the Iron Age Cissbury Ring and Chanctonbury Ring hill forts on the South Downs; the Roman period saw the building of Fishbourne Roman Palace and rural villas such as Bignor Roman Villa together with a network of roads including Stane Street, the Chichester to Silchester Way and the Sussex Greensand Way. The Romans used the Weald for iron production on an industrial scale; the foundation of the Kingdom of Sussex is recorded by the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle for the year AD 477. The foundation story is regarded as somewhat of a myth by most historians, although the archaeology suggests that Saxons did start to settle in the area in the late 5th century; the Kingdom of Sussex became the county of Sussex. With its origins in the kingdom of Sussex, the county of Sussex was traditionally divided into six units known as rapes.
By the 16th century, the three western rapes were grouped together informally, having their own separate Quarter Sessions. These were administered by a separate county council from 1888, the county of Sussex being divided for administrative purposes into the administrative counties of East and West Sussex. In 1974, West Sussex was made a single ceremonial county with the coming into force of the Local Government Act 1972. At the same time a large part of the eastern rape of Lewes was transferred into West Sussex; until 1834 provision for the poor and destitute in West Sussex was made at parish level. From 1835 until 1948 eleven Poor Law Unions, each catering for several parishes, took on the job. Most settlements in West Sussex are either along the south coast or in Mid Sussex, near the M23/A23 corridor; the town of Crawley is the largest in the county with an estimated population of 106,600. The coastal settlement of Worthing follows with a population of 104,600; the seaside resort of Bognor Regis and market town Horsham are both large towns.
Chichester, the county town, has a cathedral and city status, is situated not far from the border with Hampshire. Other conurbations of a similar size are Burgess Hill, East Grinstead and Haywards Heath in the Mid Sussex district, Littlehampton in the Arun district, Lancing and Shoreham in the Adur district. Much of the coastal town population is part of the Brighton/Worthing/Littlehampton conurbation. Rustington and Southwater are the next largest settlements in the county. There are several more towns in West Sussex; the smaller towns of the county are Arundel, Petworth and Steyning. The larger villages are Billingshurst, Crawley Down, Henfield, Hurstpierpoint, Lindfield and Storrington; the current total population of the county makes up 1.53% of England's population. West Sussex is bordered by Hampshire to Surrey to the north and East Sussex to the east; the English Channel lies to the south. The area has been formed from Upper Jurassic and Lower Cretaceous rock strata, part of the Weald–Artois Anticline.
The eastern part of this ridge, the Weald of Kent and Surrey has been eroded, with the chalk surface removed to expose older Lower Cretaceous rocks of the Wealden Group. In West Sussex the exposed rock becomes older towards the north of the county with Lower Greensand ridges along the border with Surrey including the highest point of the county at Blackdown. Erosion of softer sand and clay strata has hollowed out the basin of the Weald leaving a north facing scarp slope of the chalk which runs east and west across the whole county, broken only by the valleys of the River Arun and River Adur. In addition to these two rivers which drain most of the county a winterbourne, the River Lavant, flows intermittently from springs on the dip slope of the chalk downs north of Chichester; the county makes up 1.52% of the total land of England, making it the 30th largest county in the country. West Sussex is the sunniest county in the United Kingdom, according to Met Office records. Over the last 29 years it has averaged 1902 hours of sunshine per year.
Sunshine totals are highest near the coast wi
Southampton
Southampton is the largest city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire, England. It is 70 miles south-west of 15 miles west north-west of Portsmouth. Southampton is the closest city to the New Forest, it lies at the northernmost point of Southampton Water at the confluence of the Rivers Test and Itchen, with the River Hamble joining to the south of the urban area. The city, a unitary authority, has an estimated population of 253,651; the city's name is sometimes abbreviated in writing to "So'ton" or "Soton", a resident of Southampton is called a Sotonian. Significant employers in the city include Southampton City Council, the University of Southampton, Solent University, Southampton Airport, Ordnance Survey, BBC South, the NHS, ABP and Carnival UK. Southampton is noted for its association with the RMS Titanic, the Spitfire and more in the World War II narrative as one of the departure points for D-Day, more as the home port of a number of the largest cruise ships in the world. Southampton has retail park, Westquay.
In 2014, the city council approved a neighbouring followup Westquay South which opened in 2016–2017. In the 2001 census Southampton and Portsmouth were recorded as being parts of separate urban areas; this built-up area is part of the metropolitan area known as South Hampshire, known as Solent City in the media when discussing local governance organisational changes. With a population of over 1.5 million this makes the region one of the United Kingdom's most populous metropolitan areas. Archaeological finds suggest. Following the Roman invasion of Britain in AD 43 and the conquering of the local Britons in AD 70 the fortress settlement of Clausentum was established, it was an important trading port and defensive outpost of Winchester, at the site of modern Bitterne Manor. Clausentum is thought to have contained a bath house. Clausentum was not abandoned until around 410; the Anglo-Saxons formed a new, settlement across the Itchen centred on what is now the St Mary's area of the city. The settlement was known as Hamwic, which evolved into Hamtun and Hampton.
Archaeological excavations of this site have uncovered one of the best collections of Saxon artefacts in Europe. It is from this town. Viking raids from 840 onwards contributed to the decline of Hamwic in the 9th century, by the 10th century a fortified settlement, which became medieval Southampton, had been established. Following the Norman Conquest in 1066, Southampton became the major port of transit between the capital of England and Normandy. Southampton Castle was built in the 12th century and surviving remains of 12th-century merchants' houses such as King John's House and Canute's Palace are evidence of the wealth that existed in the town at this time. By the 13th century Southampton had become a leading port involved in the import of French wine in exchange for English cloth and wool; the Franciscan friary in Southampton was founded circa 1233. The friars constructed a water supply system in 1290, which carried water from Conduit Head some 1.1 miles to the site of the friary inside the town walls.
Further remains can be observed at Conduit House on Commercial Road. The friars granted use of the water to the town in 1310; the town was sacked in 1338 by French and Monegasque ships. On visiting Southampton in 1339, Edward III ordered that walls be built to'close the town'; the extensive rebuilding—part of the walls dates from 1175—culminated in the completion of the western walls in 1380. Half of the walls, 13 of the original towers, six gates survive. In 1348, the Black Death reached England via merchant vessels calling at Southampton. Prior to King Henry's departure for the Battle of Agincourt in 1415, the ringleaders of the "Southampton Plot"—Richard, Earl of Cambridge, Henry Scrope, 3rd Baron Scrope of Masham, Sir Thomas Grey of Heton—were accused of high treason and tried at what is now the Red Lion public house in the High Street, they were summarily executed outside the Bargate. The city walls include God's House Tower, built in 1417, the first purpose-built artillery fortification in England.
Over the years it has been used as home to the city's gunner, the Town Gaol and as storage for the Southampton Harbour Board. Until September 2011, it housed the Museum of Archaeology; the walls were completed in the 15th century, but development of several new fortifications along Southampton Water and the Solent by Henry VIII meant that Southampton was no longer dependent upon its fortifications. During the Middle Ages, shipbuilding had become an important industry for the town. Henry V's famous warship HMS Grace Dieu was built in Southampton and launched in 1418; the friars passed on ownership of the water supply system itself to the town in 1420. On the other hand, many of the medieval buildings once situated within the town walls are now in ruins or have disappeared altogether. From successive incarnations of the motte and bailey castle, only a section of the bailey wall remains today, lying just off Castle Way; the friary was dissolved in 1538 but its ruins remained until they were swept away in the 1940s.
The port was the point of departure for the Pilgrim Fathers aboard Mayflower in 1620. In 1642, during the English Civil War, a Parliamentary gar
