1.
Channel Islands (California)
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The Channel Islands of California are a chain of eight islands located in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of southern California along the Santa Barbara Channel in the United States of America. Five of the islands are part of Channel Islands National Park, the islands were first colonized by the Chumash and Tongva Native Americans 13,000 years ago, who were then displaced by European settlers who used the islands for fishing and agriculture. The U. S. military uses the islands as training grounds, weapons test sites, the Channel Islands and the surrounding waters house a diverse ecosystem with many endemic species and subspecies. Eight islands are split among the jurisdictions of three separate California counties, Santa Barbara County, Ventura County, and Los Angeles County, the islands are divided into two groups, the northern Channel Islands and the southern Channel Islands. The four northern Islands used to be a single known as Santa Rosae. The archipelago extends for 160 miles between San Miguel Island in the north and San Clemente Island in the south, together, the islands’ land area totals 221,331 acres, or about 346 square miles. Five of the islands were made into the Channel Islands National Park in 1980, the Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary encompasses the waters six nautical miles off Anacapa, Santa Cruz, San Miguel, Santa Rosa, and Santa Barbara islands. Santa Catalina Island is the one of the eight islands with a significant permanent civilian settlement—the resort city of Avalon, California. Natural seepage of oil occurs at places in the Santa Barbara Channel. Tar balls or pieces of tar in small numbers are found in the kelp, Native Americans used naturally occurring tar, bitumen, for a variety of purposes which include roofing, waterproofing, paving and some ceremonial purposes. The Channel Islands at low elevations are virtually frost-free and constitute one of the few areas in the 48 contiguous US states. It snows only rarely, on mountain peaks. Separated from the California mainland throughout recent geological history, the Channel Islands provide the earliest evidence for seafaring in the Americas. It is also the site of the discovery of the earliest paleontological evidence of humans in North America, the northern Channel Islands are now known to have been settled by maritime Paleo Indian peoples at least 13,000 years ago. Archaeological sites on the island provide a unique and invaluable record of human interaction with Channel Island marine, historically, the northern islands were occupied by the island Chumash, while the southern islands were occupied by the Tongva. Author Scott ODell wrote about the peoples living on the island in his novel Island of the Blue Dolphins. Aleut hunters visited the islands to hunt otters in the early 1800s, the Aleuts purportedly clashed with the native Chumash, killing many over trading disputes. Aleut interactions with the natives were also detailed in ODells book, the Chumash and Tongva were removed from the islands in the early 19th century, taken to Spanish missions and pueblos on the adjacent mainland
2.
Chausey
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Chausey is a group of small islands, islets and rocks off the coast of Normandy, in the English Channel. It lies 17 kilometres from Granville and forms a quartier of the Granville commune in the Manche département. Chausey forms part of the Channel Islands from a point of view. There are no scheduled transport links between Chausey and the other Channel Islands, although two and four daily shuttles link Chausey to mainland France, depending on the season. The -ey ending of the name Chausey may be assumed to be associated with the Norse -ey, as not only in Jersey, Guernsey, Alderney. In 933, the Duchy of Normandy annexed the Channel Islands including Chausey, Minquiers, in 1022, Richard II, Duke of Normandy, gave Chausey and the barony of Saint-Pair-sur-Mer, to the Benedictine monks of Mont Saint-Michel, who built a priory on the Grande île. The islands became subject to the Kingdom of England following the conquest of England by William, john refused to appear and, in 1204, Philip occupied continental Normandy, although he failed in his attempts to occupy the islands in the Channel. The 1259 Treaty of Paris confirmed the loss of Normandy but the retention of the islands which the King of England should hold under suzerainty of the King of France, the vassalage requirement was extinguished in the Treaty of Calais of 1360. Chausey was for a time an object of rivalry between England and France. Although the UK government has contended that, until about 1764, Chausey belonged to England, Chausey, unlike its Channel Islands neighbours, has, in fact and it was administered from Jersey until 1499, when the Jerseymen abandoned it to the French for reasons unknown. Seafarers engaged in illegal business long valued this maze of islands as a den of piracy, the Sound, the natural channel running along the Grande île, or the Passe Beauchamp, were ideally secluded anchorages. The fortress of Matignon was built in 1559 as a fort with a round tower, cellars, a bakery. The English destroyed the fort in 1744, a new fort was built at the other end of the island, which the English destroyed in 1756. In 1772, the Louis XV granted the archipelago to the Abbot Nolin, napoleon III ordered the construction of the present fort in 1859, and the work was completed by 1866. The fort then served briefly as a prison for Communards in 1871, although the fort ceased to be a military site in 1906, during World War I it held some 300 German and Austrian prisoners of war. The automobile engineer Louis Renault purchased it and restored it between 1922 and 1924, with the result that it became known as Château Renault and he used it as a retreat from business. During World War II German soldiers garrisoned the fort, today the fort serves as the homes of several fishermen. Grande-Île, the island, is 1.5 kilometres long and 0.5 kilometres wide at its widest, though this is just the tip of a substantial
3.
French language
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French is a Romance language of the Indo-European family. It descended from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire, as did all Romance languages, French has evolved from Gallo-Romance, the spoken Latin in Gaul, and more specifically in Northern Gaul. Its closest relatives are the other langues doïl—languages historically spoken in northern France and in southern Belgium, French was also influenced by native Celtic languages of Northern Roman Gaul like Gallia Belgica and by the Frankish language of the post-Roman Frankish invaders. Today, owing to Frances past overseas expansion, there are numerous French-based creole languages, a French-speaking person or nation may be referred to as Francophone in both English and French. French is a language in 29 countries, most of which are members of la francophonie. As of 2015, 40% of the population is in Europe, 35% in sub-Saharan Africa, 15% in North Africa and the Middle East, 8% in the Americas. French is the fourth-most widely spoken mother tongue in the European Union, 1/5 of Europeans who do not have French as a mother tongue speak French as a second language. As a result of French and Belgian colonialism from the 17th and 18th century onward, French was introduced to new territories in the Americas, Africa, most second-language speakers reside in Francophone Africa, in particular Gabon, Algeria, Mauritius, Senegal and Ivory Coast. In 2015, French was estimated to have 77 to 110 million native speakers, approximately 274 million people are able to speak the language. The Organisation internationale de la Francophonie estimates 700 million by 2050, in 2011, Bloomberg Businessweek ranked French the third most useful language for business, after English and Standard Mandarin Chinese. Under the Constitution of France, French has been the language of the Republic since 1992. France mandates the use of French in official government publications, public education except in specific cases, French is one of the four official languages of Switzerland and is spoken in the western part of Switzerland called Romandie, of which Geneva is the largest city. French is the language of about 23% of the Swiss population. French is also a language of Luxembourg, Monaco, and Aosta Valley, while French dialects remain spoken by minorities on the Channel Islands. A plurality of the worlds French-speaking population lives in Africa and this number does not include the people living in non-Francophone African countries who have learned French as a foreign language. Due to the rise of French in Africa, the total French-speaking population worldwide is expected to reach 700 million people in 2050, French is the fastest growing language on the continent. French is mostly a language in Africa, but it has become a first language in some urban areas, such as the region of Abidjan, Ivory Coast and in Libreville. There is not a single African French, but multiple forms that diverged through contact with various indigenous African languages, sub-Saharan Africa is the region where the French language is most likely to expand, because of the expansion of education and rapid population growth
4.
Norman language
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Norman is a Romance language which can be classified as one of the Oïl languages along with Picard and Walloon. The name Norman-French is sometimes used to not only the Norman language. For the most part, the forms of Norman and modern French are intercomprehensible. Norman is spoken in mainland Normandy in France where it has no official status and it is taught in a few colleges near Cherbourg-Octeville. In the Channel Islands, the Norman language has developed separately, Jèrriais and Guernésiais are recognized as regional languages by the British and Irish governments within the framework of the British–Irish Council. Sercquiais is in fact a descendant of the 16th century Jèrriais used by the colonists from Jersey who settled the then uninhabited island. The last first language speakers of Auregnais, the dialect of Norman spoken on Alderney, died during the 20th century, the dialect of Herm also lapsed, at an unknown date. An isogloss termed the Joret line separates the northern and southern dialects of the Norman language, there are also dialectal differences between western and eastern dialects. Three different standardized spellings are used, continental Norman, Jèrriais and these represent the different developments and particular literary histories of the varieties of Norman. Norman may therefore be described as a pluricentric language, the Anglo-Norman dialect of Norman was a language of administration in England following the Norman conquest of England in 1066. This left a legacy of Law French in the language of English courts, in Ireland, Norman remained strongest in the area of south-east Ireland, where the Hiberno-Normans invaded in 1169. Norman is still in use for very formal legal purposes in the UK, such as when the monarch gives Royal Assent to an Act of Parliament using the phrase. The Norman conquest of southern Italy also brought the language to Sicily and the part of the Italian Peninsula. See, Norman French and French influence on Sicilian, literature in Norman ranges from early Anglo-Norman literature through the 19th-century Norman literary renaissance to modern writers. Today, the Norman language is strongest in the accessible areas of the former Duchy of Normandy, the Channel Islands and the Cotentin Peninsula in the west. In time, the communities converged, so that Normandy continued to form the name of the region while the original Normans became assimilated by the Gallo-Romance people, later when conquering England, the Norman rulers in England would eventually assimilate, thereby adopting the speech of the local English. However, in cases, the élites contributed elements of their own language to the newly enriched languages that developed in the territories. In Normandy, the new Norman language inherited vocabulary from Old Norse, the influence on phonology is more disputed, although it is argued that the retention of aspirated /h/ and /k/ in Norman is due to Norse influence
5.
Western Europe
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Western Europe, or West Europe, is the region comprising the western part of Europe. Below, some different geographic and geopolitical definitions of the term are outlined, prior to the Roman conquest, a large part of Western Europe had adopted the newly developed La Tène culture. This cultural and linguistic division was reinforced by the later political east-west division of the Roman Empire. The division between these two was enhanced during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages by a number of events, the Western Roman Empire collapsed, starting the Early Middle Ages. By contrast, the Eastern Roman Empire, mostly known as the Greek or Byzantine Empire, survived, in East Asia, Western Europe was historically known as taixi in China and taisei in Japan, which literally translates as the Far West. The term Far West became synonymous with Western Europe in China during the Ming dynasty, the Italian Jesuit priest Matteo Ricci was one of the first writers in China to use the Far West as an Asian counterpart to the European concept of the Far East. In his writings, Ricci referred to himself as Matteo of the Far West, the term was still in use in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Post-war Europe would be divided into two spheres, the West, influenced by the United States, and the Eastern Bloc. With the onset of the Cold War, Europe was divided by the Iron Curtain, behind that line lie all the capitals of the ancient states of Central and Eastern Europe. Although some countries were neutral, they were classified according to the nature of their political. This division largely defined the popular perception and understanding of Western Europe, the world changed dramatically with the fall of the Iron Curtain in 1989. The Federal Republic of Germany peacefully absorbed the German Democratic Republic, COMECON and the Warsaw Pact were dissolved, and in 1991, the Soviet Union ceased to exist. Several countries which had part of the Soviet Union regained full independence. Although the term Western Europe was more prominent during the Cold War, it remains much in use, in 1948 the Treaty of Brussels was signed between Belgium, France, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. It was further revisited in 1954 at the Paris Conference, when the Western European Union was established and it was declared defunct in 2011, after the Treaty of Lisbon, and the Treaty of Brussels was terminated. When the Western European Union was dissolved, it had 10 member countries, six member countries, five observer countries. The CIA divides Western Europe into two smaller subregions, regional voting blocs were formed in 1961 to encourage voting to various UN bodies from different regional groups. The European Union is an economic and political union of 28 member states that are located primarily in Europe, some Western and Northern European countries of Iceland, Norway, Switzerland and Liechtenstein are members of EFTA, though cooperating to varying degree with the European Union
6.
Geographic coordinate system
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A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation
7.
English Channel
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The English Channel, also called simply the Channel, is the body of water that separates southern England from northern France, and links the southern part of the North Sea to the Atlantic Ocean. It is about 560 km long and varies in width from 240 km at its widest to 33.3 km in the Strait of Dover and it is the smallest of the shallow seas around the continental shelf of Europe, covering an area of some 75,000 km2. The International Hydrographic Organization defines the limits of the English Channel as follows, a line joining Isle Vierge to Lands End. The southwestern limit of the North Sea, the IHO defines the southwestern limit of the North Sea as a line joining the Walde Lighthouse and Leathercoat Point. The Walde Lighthouse is 6 km east of Calais, and Leathercoat Point is at the end of St Margarets Bay. The Strait of Dover, at the Channels eastern end, is its narrowest point and it is relatively shallow, with an average depth of about 120 m at its widest part, reducing to a depth of about 45 m between Dover and Calais. Eastwards from there the adjoining North Sea reduces to about 26 m in the Broad Fourteens where it lies over the watershed of the land bridge between East Anglia and the Low Countries. It reaches a depth of 180 m in the submerged valley of Hurds Deep,48 km west-northwest of Guernsey. The eastern region along the French coast between Cherbourg and the mouth of the Seine river at Le Havre is frequently referred to as the Bay of the Seine. There are several islands in the Channel, the most notable being the Isle of Wight off the English coast. The coastline, particularly on the French shore, is indented, several small islands close to the coastline, including Chausey. The Cotentin Peninsula in France juts out into the Channel, whilst on the English side there is a parallel channel known as the Solent between the Isle of Wight and the mainland. The Celtic Sea is to the west of the Channel, the time difference of about six hours between high water at the eastern and western limits of the Channel is indicative of the tidal range being amplified further by resonance. It was never defined as a border and the names were more or less descriptive. It was not considered as the property of a nation, strangely, before the development of the modern nations, British scholars very often referred to it as Gaulish and the French one as British or English. The name English Channel has been used since the early 18th century. In modern Dutch, however, it is known as Het Kanaal, later, it has also been known as the British Channel or the British Sea having been called the Oceanus Britannicus by the 2nd-century geographer Ptolemy. The same name is used on an Italian map of about 1450, the Anglo-Saxon texts often call it Sūð-sǣ as opposed to Norð-sǣ
8.
Jersey
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Jersey, officially the Bailiwick of Jersey, is a Crown dependency of the United Kingdom, ruled by the Crown in right of Jersey, off the coast of Normandy, France. Jersey was part of the Duchy of Normandy, whose dukes went on to become kings of England from 1066. After Normandy was lost by the kings of England in the 13th century, and the ducal title surrendered to France, Jersey, Jersey is a self-governing parliamentary democracy under a constitutional monarchy, with its own financial, legal and judicial systems, and the power of self-determination. The Lieutenant Governor on the island is the representative of the Queen. The island of Jersey is the largest of the Channel Islands, although the bailiwicks of Jersey and Guernsey are often referred to collectively as the Channel Islands, the Channel Islands are not a constitutional or political unit. Jersey has a relationship to the Crown from the other Crown dependencies of Guernsey. It is not part of the United Kingdom, and has an identity separate from that of the UK. The definition of United Kingdom in the British Nationality Act 1981 is interpreted as including the UK, Jersey is not fully part of the European Union but has a special relationship with it, notably being treated as within the European Community for the purposes of free trade in goods. The name Caesarea has been used as the Latin name for Jersey since William Camdens Britannia, the Latin name Caesarea was also applied to the colony of New Jersey as Nova Caesarea. Andium, Agna and Augia were used in antiquity, scholars variously surmise that Jersey and Jèrri derive from jarð or jarl, or perhaps a personal name, Geirr. The ending -ey denotes an island, Jersey history is influenced by its strategic location between the northern coast of France and the southern coast of England, the islands recorded history extends over a thousand years. La Cotte de St Brelade is a Palaeolithic site inhabited before rising sea levels transformed Jersey into an island, Jersey was a centre of Neolithic activity, as demonstrated by the concentration of dolmens. Evidence of Bronze Age and early Iron Age settlements can be found in locations around the island. In June 2012 it was announced what could be Europes largest hoard of Iron Age coins had been found in Grouville by two persons using metal detectors, the hoard may be worth up to £10 M. People had been searching for treasure for 30 years. It was reported that the hoard weighed about three quarters of a tonne and could contain up to 50,000 Roman and Celtic coins, in 2012 the same two men had found 60 Iron Age coins in the same area. Jersey was part of Neustria with the same Gallo-Frankish population as the continental mainland, Jersey was invaded by Vikings in the 9th century. In 933 it was annexed to the future Duchy of Normandy, together with the other Channel Islands, Cotentin and Avranchin, by William Longsword, count of Rouen and it became one of the Norman Islands
9.
Guernsey
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Guernsey is a jurisdiction within the Bailiwick of Guernsey, a Crown dependency. The jurisdiction is not part of the United Kingdom, however, defence and most foreign relations are handled by the British Government. Taken together with the jurisdictions of Alderney and Sark it forms the Bailiwick of Guernsey. The two Bailiwicks of Guernsey and Jersey together form the geographical grouping known as the Channel Islands, the name Guernsey, as well as that of neighbouring Jersey, is of Old Norse origin. The second element of word, -ey, is the Old Norse for island, while the original root, guern, is of uncertain origin. Around 6000 BC, rising seas created the English Channel and separated the Norman promontories that became the bailiwicks of Guernsey and Jersey from continental Europe, neolithic farmers then settled on its coast and built the dolmens and menhirs found in the islands today. During their migration to Brittany, Britons occupied the Lenur islands including Sarnia or Lisia and Angia, travelling from the Kingdom of Gwent, Saint Sampson, later the abbot of Dol in Brittany, is credited with the introduction of Christianity to Guernsey. In 933 AD, the Cotentin Peninsula including Avranchin which included the islands, were placed by the French King Ranulf under the control of William I, the island of Guernsey and the other Channel Islands represent the last remnants of the medieval Duchy of Normandy. During the Middle Ages, the island was a haven for pirates that would use the technique to ground ships close to her waters. This intensified during the Hundred Years War, when, starting in 1339, the Guernsey Militia was operational in 1337 and would help defend the island for a further 600 years. In 1372, the island was invaded by Aragonese mercenaries under the command of Owain Lawgoch, Owain and his dark-haired mercenaries were later absorbed into Guernsey legend as invading fairies from across the sea. In the mid-16th century, the island was influenced by Calvinist reformers from Normandy, during the Marian persecutions, three women, the Guernsey Martyrs, were burned at the stake for their Protestant beliefs. During the English Civil War, Guernsey sided with the Parliamentarians, the allegiance was not total, however, there were a few Royalist uprisings in the southwest of the island, while Castle Cornet was occupied by the Governor, Sir Peter Osborne, and Royalist troops. In December 1651, with honours of war, Castle Cornet surrendered. By the beginning of the 18th century, Guernseys residents were starting to settle in North America, the threat of invasion by Napoleon prompted many defensive structures to be built at the end of that century. The 19th century saw an increase in the prosperity of the island, due to its success in the global maritime trade. During the First World War, about 3,000 island men served in the British Expeditionary Force, of these, about 1,000 served in the Royal Guernsey Light Infantry regiment formed from the Royal Guernsey Militia in 1916. For most of the Second World War, the Channel Islands were occupied by German troops, before the occupation, 80% of Guernsey children had been evacuated to England to live with relatives or strangers during the war
10.
Les Platons
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Les Platons is the highest point of Jersey, a British Crown Dependency, with an elevation of 136 metres. It is located in the Vingtaine de la Ville-à-lÉvêque in the parish of Trinity, there are radio transmitters, and a radar station located at Les Platons. In October 1955, Les Platons was used as a site for a transmitter to bring BBC Television transmissions to the Channel Islands. It transmitted BBC Television on the VHF405 line service on Channel 4 from Monday 3 October 1955, from 1955 the site was also used to bring the BBC national radio stations to the Channel Islands. Before 1955 the Channel Islands had no transmitters, and received radio transmissions of the BBC national radio stations from mainland England, the BBC started FM transmissions on 16 October 1961 from Les Platons, of the Home, Light and Third Programmes. Later this became 91.1 as Radio 2,94.75 as Radio 3, the Fremont Point transmitter would go on the air in September 1962 bringing Independent Television to the Channel Islands for the first time in the form of the ITV franchise Channel Television. In due course Fremont Point became the television transmitter site for the Channel Islands. It started broadcasting UHF625 television in 1976 along with the introduction for the first time of BBC Two, Les Platons television transmissions ceased in 1985 when the old VHF405 line transmissions ceased in the UK. From 1985 onwards Les Platons has been a radio transmitter site only, geography of Jersey Les Platons, Jersey, Channel Islands, Planet Ware
11.
Bailiwick of Guernsey
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Guernsey is a jurisdiction within the Bailiwick of Guernsey, a Crown dependency. The jurisdiction is not part of the United Kingdom, however, defence and most foreign relations are handled by the British Government. Taken together with the jurisdictions of Alderney and Sark it forms the Bailiwick of Guernsey. The two Bailiwicks of Guernsey and Jersey together form the geographical grouping known as the Channel Islands, the name Guernsey, as well as that of neighbouring Jersey, is of Old Norse origin. The second element of word, -ey, is the Old Norse for island, while the original root, guern, is of uncertain origin. Around 6000 BC, rising seas created the English Channel and separated the Norman promontories that became the bailiwicks of Guernsey and Jersey from continental Europe, neolithic farmers then settled on its coast and built the dolmens and menhirs found in the islands today. During their migration to Brittany, Britons occupied the Lenur islands including Sarnia or Lisia and Angia, travelling from the Kingdom of Gwent, Saint Sampson, later the abbot of Dol in Brittany, is credited with the introduction of Christianity to Guernsey. In 933 AD, the Cotentin Peninsula including Avranchin which included the islands, were placed by the French King Ranulf under the control of William I, the island of Guernsey and the other Channel Islands represent the last remnants of the medieval Duchy of Normandy. During the Middle Ages, the island was a haven for pirates that would use the technique to ground ships close to her waters. This intensified during the Hundred Years War, when, starting in 1339, the Guernsey Militia was operational in 1337 and would help defend the island for a further 600 years. In 1372, the island was invaded by Aragonese mercenaries under the command of Owain Lawgoch, Owain and his dark-haired mercenaries were later absorbed into Guernsey legend as invading fairies from across the sea. In the mid-16th century, the island was influenced by Calvinist reformers from Normandy, during the Marian persecutions, three women, the Guernsey Martyrs, were burned at the stake for their Protestant beliefs. During the English Civil War, Guernsey sided with the Parliamentarians, the allegiance was not total, however, there were a few Royalist uprisings in the southwest of the island, while Castle Cornet was occupied by the Governor, Sir Peter Osborne, and Royalist troops. In December 1651, with honours of war, Castle Cornet surrendered. By the beginning of the 18th century, Guernseys residents were starting to settle in North America, the threat of invasion by Napoleon prompted many defensive structures to be built at the end of that century. The 19th century saw an increase in the prosperity of the island, due to its success in the global maritime trade. During the First World War, about 3,000 island men served in the British Expeditionary Force, of these, about 1,000 served in the Royal Guernsey Light Infantry regiment formed from the Royal Guernsey Militia in 1916. For most of the Second World War, the Channel Islands were occupied by German troops, before the occupation, 80% of Guernsey children had been evacuated to England to live with relatives or strangers during the war
12.
Saint Peter Port
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Saint Peter Port is the capital of Guernsey as well as the main port. The population in 2001 was 16,488, in Guernésiais and in French, historically the official language of Guernsey, the name of the town and its surrounding parish is St Pierre Port. The port distinguishes this parish from Saint Pierre Du Bois, as well as being a parish, St. Peter Port is a small town consisting mostly of steep narrow streets and steps on the overlooking slopes. It is known that a trading post/town has existed here since before Roman times, the postal code for addresses in this parish starts with GY1. People from St. Peter Port, were nicknamed les Villais or cllichards in Guernésiais, St. Peter Port is located on the east coast of Guernsey. It borders St. Sampson in the north, The Vale in the north-west, St. Andrew in the west and St. Martin in the south. On the seaward side it faces Herm to the east, across the Little Russel, the Bréhon Tower sits in the Little Russel between St. Peter Port and Herm. Relief The land in the north and by the harbour is low lying but in the south and this means that there are quite a few cliffs on the coast between Havelet and Fermain. They belong to Electoral district Saint Peter Port South, St. Peter Port has an English Isthmian League club, Guernsey F. C. who play at Footes Lane. The Guernsey Rugby Football Club also play at Footes Lane and compete in National League 3 London & SE, candie Gardens, an award-winning restored Victorian Garden features a statue of Victor Hugo. Cambridge Park is a park that includes a skate park. In 2014 the parish was a Gold & Category Winner in the RHS Britain in Bloom competition, followed in 2016 with another Gold medal. In the Guernsey general election,2016 in, St Peter Port South there was a 2,068 or 63% turnout to elect five Deputies St Peter Port North there was a 2,639 or 65% turnout to elect six Deputies
13.
Saint Helier
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Saint Helier is one of the twelve parishes of Jersey, the largest of the Channel Islands in the English Channel. St Helier has a population of about 33,500, roughly 34. 2% of the population of Jersey. The greater part of St Helier is rural, the parish covers a surface area of 4.1 square miles, being 9% of the total land area of the Island. The parish arms are two crossed axes on a blue background, the blue symbolising the sea, and the axes symbolising the martyrdom of Helier at the hands of Saxon pirates in 555 AD. It is thought that the site of St Helier was settled at the time of the Roman control of Gaul, before land reclamation and port construction started, boats could be tied up to the churchyard wall on the seaward side. An Abbey of St Helier was founded in 1155 on LIslet, closed at the Reformation, the site of the abbey was fortified to create the castle that replaced Mont Orgueil as the Islands major fortress. The new Elizabeth Castle was named after the Queen by the Governor of Jersey 1600-1603, la Cohue stood on one side of the square, now rebuilt as the Royal Court and States Chamber. The market cross in the centre of the square was pulled down at the Reformation, george II gave £200 towards the construction of a new harbour - previously boats would be beached on a falling tide and unloaded by cart across the sands. Many of St Heliers road names and street names are bilingual English/French or English/Jèrriais, the names in the various languages are not usually translations, distinct naming traditions survive alongside each other. The Royal Square was also the scene of the Battle of Jersey on 6 January 1781, john Singleton Copleys epic painting The Death of Major Pierson captures an imaginative version of the scene. As harbour construction moved development seaward, a growth in population meant that marshland, settlement by English immigrants added quarters of colonial-style town houses to the traditional building stock. Continuing military threats from France spurred the construction of a fortress, Fort Regent, on the Mont de la Ville. This was the start of Jerseys agricultural prosperity in the 19th century, from the 1820s, peace with France and better communications by steamships and railways to coastal ports encouraged an influx of English-speaking residents. Speculative development covered the basin north of the central coastal strip as far as the hills within a period of about 40 years. In the second half of the 19th century, hundreds of trucks laden with potatoes and this prompted a programme of road-widening which swept away many of the ancient buildings of the town centre. Pressure for redevelopment has meant that few buildings remain in urban St Helier which date to before the 19th century. Pierre Le Sueur, reforming Constable of St Helier, was responsible for installing sewerage, an obelisk with fountain in the town centre was raised to his memory following his premature death in office from overwork. In the 1970s, a programme of pedestrianisation of the streets was undertaken
14.
Greenwich Mean Time
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Greenwich Mean Time is the mean solar time at the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, London. GMT was formerly used as the civil time standard, now superseded in that function by Coordinated Universal Time. Today GMT is considered equivalent to UTC for UK civil purposes and for navigation is considered equivalent to UT1, consequently, the term GMT should not be used for precise purposes. Due to Earths uneven speed in its orbit and its axial tilt, noon GMT is rarely the exact moment the sun crosses the Greenwich meridian. This event may occur up to 16 minutes before or after noon GMT, noon GMT is the annual average moment of this event, which accounts for the word mean in Greenwich Mean Time. Originally, astronomers considered a GMT day to start at noon while for almost everyone else it started at midnight, to avoid confusion, the name Universal Time was introduced to denote GMT as counted from midnight. Astronomers preferred the old convention to simplify their observational data, so each night was logged under a single calendar date. Today Universal Time usually refers to UTC or UT1, in some countries Greenwich Mean Time is the legal time in the winter and the population uses the term. For an explanation of why this is, see GMT in legislation below, synchronisation of the chronometer on GMT did not affect shipboard time, which was still solar time. Most time zones were based upon GMT, as an offset of a number of hours ahead of GMT or behind GMT and it was gradually adopted for other purposes, but a legal case in 1858 held local mean time to be the official time. On 14 May 1880, a signed by Clerk to Justices appeared in The Times, stating that Greenwich time is now kept almost throughout England. For example, our polling booths were opened, say, at 813 and closed at 413 PM. This was changed later in 1880, GMT was adopted on the Isle of Man in 1883, Jersey in 1898 and Guernsey in 1913. Ireland adopted GMT in 1916, supplanting Dublin Mean Time, hourly time signals from Greenwich Observatory were first broadcast on 5 February 1924, rendering the time ball at the observatory redundant in the process. The daily rotation of the Earth is irregular and constantly slows, on 1 January 1972, GMT was superseded as the international civil time standard by Coordinated Universal Time, maintained by an ensemble of atomic clocks around the world. Indeed, even the Greenwich meridian itself is not quite what it used to be—defined by the centre of the instrument at the Observatory at Greenwich. Nevertheless, the line in the old observatorys courtyard today differs no more than a few metres from that line which is now the prime meridian of the world. Historically GMT has been used two different conventions for numbering hours. The long-standing astronomical convention dating from the work of Ptolemy, was to refer to noon as zero hours and this contrasted with the civil convention of referring to midnight as zero hours dating from the Romans
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Daylight saving time
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Daylight saving time is the practice of advancing clocks during summer months by one hour so that evening daylight lasts an hour longer, while sacrificing normal sunrise times. Typically, regions that use Daylight Savings Time adjust clocks forward one hour close to the start of spring, American inventor and politician Benjamin Franklin proposed a form of daylight time in 1784. New Zealander George Hudson proposed the idea of saving in 1895. The German Empire and Austria-Hungary organized the first nationwide implementation, starting on April 30,1916, many countries have used it at various times since then, particularly since the energy crisis of the 1970s. The practice has both advocates and critics, DST clock shifts sometimes complicate timekeeping and can disrupt travel, billing, record keeping, medical devices, heavy equipment, and sleep patterns. Computer software often adjusts clocks automatically, but policy changes by various jurisdictions of DST dates, industrialized societies generally follow a clock-based schedule for daily activities that do not change throughout the course of the year. The time of day that individuals begin and end work or school, North and south of the tropics daylight lasts longer in summer and shorter in winter, with the effect becoming greater as one moves away from the tropics. However, they will have one hour of daylight at the start of each day. Supporters have also argued that DST decreases energy consumption by reducing the need for lighting and heating, DST is also of little use for locations near the equator, because these regions see only a small variation in daylight in the course of the year. After ancient times, equal-length civil hours eventually supplanted unequal, so civil time no longer varies by season, unequal hours are still used in a few traditional settings, such as some monasteries of Mount Athos and all Jewish ceremonies. This 1784 satire proposed taxing window shutters, rationing candles, and waking the public by ringing church bells, despite common misconception, Franklin did not actually propose DST, 18th-century Europe did not even keep precise schedules. However, this changed as rail transport and communication networks came to require a standardization of time unknown in Franklins day. Modern DST was first proposed by the New Zealand entomologist George Hudson, whose shift work job gave him time to collect insects. An avid golfer, he also disliked cutting short his round at dusk and his solution was to advance the clock during the summer months, a proposal he published two years later. The proposal was taken up by the Liberal Member of Parliament Robert Pearce, a select committee was set up to examine the issue, but Pearces bill did not become law, and several other bills failed in the following years. Willett lobbied for the proposal in the UK until his death in 1915, william Sword Frost, mayor of Orillia, Ontario, introduced daylight saving time in the municipality during his tenure from 1911 to 1912. Starting on April 30,1916, the German Empire and its World War I ally Austria-Hungary were the first to use DST as a way to conserve coal during wartime, Britain, most of its allies, and many European neutrals soon followed suit. Russia and a few other countries waited until the year
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Archipelago
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An archipelago, sometimes called an island group or island chain, is a chain, cluster or collection of islands. The word archipelago is derived from the Greek ἄρχι- – arkhi-, in Italian, possibly following a tradition of antiquity, the Archipelago was the proper name for the Aegean Sea and, later, usage shifted to refer to the Aegean Islands. It is now used to refer to any group or, sometimes. Archipelagos may be isolated in large amounts of water or neighbouring a large land mass. For example, Scotland has more than 700 islands surrounding its mainland which form an archipelago, archipelagos are often volcanic, forming along island arcs generated by subduction zones or hotspots, but may also be the result of erosion, deposition, and land elevation. Depending on their origin, islands forming archipelagos can be referred to as oceanic islands, continental fragments. Oceanic islands are mainly of volcanic origin, continental fragments correspond to land masses that have separated from a continental mass due to tectonic displacement. Indonesia, Japan, Taiwan, the Philippines, New Zealand, Maldives, the Bahamas, Greece, Hawaii, the largest archipelagic state in the world by area and population is Indonesia. Island arc List of landforms List of archipelagos by number of islands List of archipelagos List of islands Chisholm, Hugh, ed. Archipelago
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Normandy
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Normandy is one of the regions of France, roughly corresponding to the historical Duchy of Normandy. Administratively, Normandy is divided into five departments, Calvados, Eure, Manche, Orne and it covers 30,627 km², forming roughly 5% of the territory of France. Its population of 3.37 million accounts for around 5% of the population of France, Normans is the name given to the inhabitants of Normandy, and the region is the homeland of the Norman language. The historical region of Normandy comprised the region of Normandy, as well as small areas now part of the départements, or departments of Mayenne. For a century and a following the Norman conquest of England in 1066, Normandy and England were linked by Norman. Archaeological finds, such as paintings, prove that humans were present in the region in prehistoric times. Celts invaded Normandy in successive waves from the 4th to the 3rd century BC, when Julius Caesar invaded Gaul, there were nine different Celtic tribes living in Normandy. The Romanisation of Normandy was achieved by the methods, Roman roads. Classicists have knowledge of many Gallo-Roman villas in Normandy, in the late 3rd century, barbarian raids devastated Normandy. Coastal settlements were raided by Saxon pirates, Christianity also began to enter the area during this period. In 406, Germanic tribes began invading from the east, while the Saxons subjugated the Norman coast, the Roman Emperor withdrew from most of Normandy. As early as 487, the area between the River Somme and the River Loire came under the control of the Frankish lord Clovis, the Vikings started to raid the Seine Valley during the middle of the 9th century. As early as 841, a Viking fleet appeared at the mouth of the Seine, after attacking and destroying monasteries, including one at Jumièges, they took advantage of the power vacuum created by the disintegration of Charlemagnes empire to take northern France. The fiefdom of Normandy was created for the Norwegian Viking leader Hrólfr Ragnvaldsson, Rollo had besieged Paris but in 911 entered vassalage to the king of the West Franks, Charles the Simple, through the Treaty of Saint-Clair-sur-Epte. In exchange for his homage and fealty, Rollo legally gained the territory which he, the name Normandy reflects Rollos Viking origins. The descendants of Rollo and his followers adopted the local Gallo-Romance language and they became the Normans – a Norman-speaking mixture of Saxons and indigenous Franks and Celts. Besides the Norman conquest of England and the subsequent conquests of Wales and Ireland, Norman families, such as that of Tancred of Hauteville, Rainulf Drengot and Guimond de Moulins played important parts in the Norman conquest of southern Italy and Crusades. They also carved out a place for themselves and their descendants in the Crusader states of Asia Minor, the 14th century Norman explorer Jean de Béthencourt established a kingdom in the Canary Islands
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Crown dependencies
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The Crown dependencies are the Isle of Man in the Irish Sea and the Bailiwicks of Jersey and Guernsey in the English Channel. Being independently administered jurisdictions, they do not form part of either the United Kingdom or the British Overseas Territories and they are self-governing possessions of the Crown. Internationally, the dependencies are considered territories for which the United Kingdom is responsible rather than as sovereign states, as a result, they are not member states of the Commonwealth of Nations. However, they do have a relationship with the Commonwealth, the European Union and they are not part of the European Union, although they are within the EUs customs area. In each case, the head of government is referred to as a Chief Minister, the Crown is defined differently in each crown dependency. Legislation of the Isle of Man defines the Crown in right of the Isle of Man as being separate from the Crown in right of the United Kingdom and this constitutional concept is also worded as the Crown in right of the Bailiwick of Guernsey. Each Bailiwick is a Crown dependency and each is headed by a Bailiff, each Bailiwick has its own legal and healthcare systems, and their own separate immigration policies, with local status in one Bailiwick having no jurisdiction in the other. The two Bailiwicks exercise bilateral double taxation treaties, since 1961, the Bailiwicks have had separate courts of appeal, but generally the Bailiff of each Bailiwick has been appointed to serve on the panel of appellate judges for the other Bailiwick. The Bailiwick of Guernsey comprises three separate jurisdictions, Guernsey, which also the nearby islands of Herm and Jethou. Sark, which includes the nearby island of Brecqhou. Alderney, including smaller surrounding uninhabited islands, the parliament of Guernsey is the States of Deliberation, the parliament of Sark is called the Chief Pleas, and the parliament of Alderney is called the States of Alderney. The three parliaments together can also approve joint Bailiwick-wide legislation that applies in those parts of the Bailiwick whose parliaments approve it. Guernsey issues its own coins and banknotes, Guernsey banknotes Coins of the Guernsey pound These circulate freely in both Bailiwicks alongside UK coinage and English and Scottish banknotes and they are not legal tender within the UK. There are no parties in any of the parliaments, candidates stand for election as independents. e. 5432 on 2 wheels and on 4 wheels, the Bailiwick of Jersey consists of the island of Jersey and a number of surrounding uninhabited islands. The parliament is the States of Jersey, the first known mention of which is in a document of 1497, Jersey issues its own coins and banknotes, Jersey banknotes Coins of the Jersey pound These circulate freely in both Bailiwicks alongside UK coinage and English and Scottish banknotes. They are not legal tender within the UK but are legal currency backed by deposits at the Bank of England, there are few political parties, as candidates generally stand for election as independents. The Isle of Mans Tynwald claims to be the worlds oldest parliament in continuous existence, candidates often stand for election as independents, rather than being selected by political parties
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Alderney
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Alderney is the northernmost of the inhabited Channel Islands. It is part of the Bailiwick of Guernsey, a British Crown dependency and it is 3 miles long and 1 1⁄2 miles wide. The area is 3 square miles, making it the third-largest island of the Channel Islands, and the second largest in the Bailiwick. It is around 10 miles from the west of La Hague on the Cotentin Peninsula, Normandy and it is the closest of the Channel Islands to both France and the United Kingdom. It is separated from Cap de la Hague by the dangerous Alderney Race, as of April 2013, the island had a population of 1,903, natives are traditionally nicknamed vaques after the cows, or else lapins after the many rabbits seen in the island. Formally, they are known as Ridunians, from the Latin Riduna, the only parish of Alderney is the parish of St Anne, which covers the whole island. The main town, St Anne, historically known as La Ville, is referred to as St Annes by visitors and incomers. The towns High St, which formerly had a handful of shops, is now almost entirely residential, crossing Victoria St at its highest point. The town area features a church and an unevenly cobbled main street. There are a school, a secondary school, a post office. Other settlements include Braye, Crabby, Longis, Mannez, La Banquage, Alderney shares its prehistory with the other islands in the Bailiwick of Guernsey, becoming an island in the Neolithic period as the waters of the Channel rose. A cist survives near Fort Tourgis, and Longis Common has remains of an Iron Age site, there are traces of Roman occupation including a fort, built in the late 300s, at 49°43′09″N 2°10′36″W above the islands only natural harbour. The etymology of the name is obscure. It is known in Latin as Riduna but as with the names of all the Channel Islands in the Roman period there is a degree of confusion, Riduna may be the original name of Tatihou, while Alderney is conjectured to be identified with Sarnia. Alderney/Aurigny is variously supposed to be a Germanic or Celtic name and it may be a corruption of Adreni or Alrene, which is probably derived from an Old Norse word meaning island near the coast. Alternatively it may derive from three Norse elements, alda, renna and öy or -ey, Alderney may be mentioned in Paul the Deacons Historia Langobardorum as Evodia in which he discussed a certain dangerous whirlpool. The name Evodia may in turn originate from the seven Haemodae of uncertain identification in Plinys Natural History, puffins on Burhou and gannets on Les Étacs just off Alderney are a favourite of many visitors to the island. About a quarter of Alderney hedgehogs are of the white or blonde variety and these are not albinos, but descent of rarely met blonde European hedgehogs, with a blonde pair released on the island in the 1960s
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Sark
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Sark is an island in the Channel Islands in the southwestern English Channel, off the coast of Normandy, France. It is a fief, which forms part of the Bailiwick of Guernsey, with its own set of laws based on Norman law. It has a population of about 600, Sark has an area of 2.10 square miles. Sark is one of the few remaining places in the world where cars are banned from roads and only tractors, in 2011, Sark was designated as a Dark Sky Community and the first Dark Sky Island in the world. Sark consists of two parts, Greater Sark, located at about 49°25′N 2°22′W, and Little Sark to the south. They are connected by an isthmus called La Coupée which is 300 feet long and has a drop of 330 feet on each side. Protective railings were erected in 1900, before then, children would crawl across on their hands, there is a narrow concrete road covering the entirety of the isthmus that was built in 1945 by German prisoners of war under the direction of the Royal Engineers. Due to its isolation, the inhabitants of Little Sark had their own form of Sercquiais. The highest point on Sark is 374 feet above sea level, a windmill, dated 1571, is found there, the sails of which were removed during World War I. This high point is named Le Moulin, after the windmill, the location is also the highest point in the Bailiwick of Guernsey. Little Sark had a number of mines accessing a source of galena, at Port Gorey, the ruins of silver mines may be seen. Off the south end of Little Sark are the Venus Pool, Sark is made up mainly of amphibolite and granite gneiss rocks, intruded by igneous magma sheets called quartz diorite. The quartz diorite sheets were intruded during this Cadomian deformation and metamorphic event, all the Sark rocks formed during geological activity in the continental crust above an ancient subduction zone. This geological setting would have been analogous to the subduction zone of the Pacific Ocean plate colliding and subducting beneath the North and South American continental plate. Sark also exercises jurisdiction over the island of Brecqhou, only a few hundred feet west of Greater Sark and it is a private island, but it has recently been opened to some visitors. Since 1993, Brecqhou has been owned by Sir David Barclay and they contest Sarks control over the island. However, the candidates endorsed by their various business interests on the Island failed to win any seats in the held in 2008 and 2010. The etymology of Sark is unknown, however, Richard Coates has suggested that in the absence of a Proto-Indo-European etymology it may be worthwhile looking for a Proto-Semitic source for the name
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Duchy of Normandy
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The Duchy of Normandy grew out of the 911 Treaty of Saint-Clair-sur-Epte between King Charles III of West Francia and Rollo, leader of the Vikings. From 1066 until 1204 it was held by the kings of England, except for the rule of Robert Curthose. Normandy was declared forfeit by Philip II of France in 1202 and it remained disputed territory until the Treaty of Paris of 1259, when the English sovereigns ceded their claim, except for the Channel Islands. The duchy was named for its inhabitants, the Normans, the title of Duke of Normandy was then sporadically conferred in the kingdom of France as an honorific but non-feudal title, the last one having been Louis XVII of France from 1785 to 1789. The first Viking attack on the river Seine took place in 820, by 911, the area had been raided many times and there were even small Viking settlements on the lower Seine. The text of the Treaty of Saint-Clair-sur-Epte has not survived and it is only known through the historian Dudo of Saint-Quentin, who was writing a century after the event. The exact date of the treaty is unknown, but it was likely in the autumn of 911, by the agreement, Charles III, king of the West Franks, granted to the Viking leader Rollo some lands along the lower Seine that were apparently already under Danish control. Whether Rollo himself was a Dane or a Norwegian is not known, for his part, Rollo agreed to defend the territory from other Vikings and that he and his men would convert to Christianity. The territory ceded to Rollo comprised the pagi of the Caux, Évrecin, Roumois and this was territory formerly known as the county of Rouen, and which would become Upper Normandy. A royal diploma of 918 confirms the donation of 911, using the verb adnuo. There is no evidence that Rollo owed any service or oath to the king for his lands, nor there were any legal means for the king to take them back. Likewise, Rollo does not seem to have created a count or given comital authority. In 924, King Radulf extended Rollos county westward up to the river Vire, including the Bessin, in 933, King Radulf granted the Avranchin and Cotentin to Rollos son and successor, William Longsword. These areas had been previously under Breton rule, the northern Cotentin had been settled by Norwegians coming from the region of the Irish Sea. There was initially much hostility between these Norwegian settlers and their new Danish overlords and these expansions brought the boundaries of Normandy roughly in line with those of the ecclesiastical province of Rouen. There were two distinct patterns of Norse settlement in the duchy, in the Danish area in the Roumois and the Caux, settlers intermingled with the indigenous Gallo-Romance-speaking population. Rollo shared out the estates with his companions and gave agricultural land to his other followers. Danish settlers cleared their own land to farm it, and there was no segregation of populations, in the northern Cotentin on the other hand, the population was purely Norwegian
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United Kingdom
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The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom or Britain, is a sovereign country in western Europe. Lying off the north-western coast of the European mainland, the United Kingdom includes the island of Great Britain, Northern Ireland is the only part of the United Kingdom that shares a land border with another sovereign state—the Republic of Ireland. The Irish Sea lies between Great Britain and Ireland, with an area of 242,500 square kilometres, the United Kingdom is the 78th-largest sovereign state in the world and the 11th-largest in Europe. It is also the 21st-most populous country, with an estimated 65.1 million inhabitants, together, this makes it the fourth-most densely populated country in the European Union. The United Kingdom is a monarchy with a parliamentary system of governance. The monarch is Queen Elizabeth II, who has reigned since 6 February 1952, other major urban areas in the United Kingdom include the regions of Birmingham, Leeds, Glasgow, Liverpool and Manchester. The United Kingdom consists of four countries—England, Scotland, Wales, the last three have devolved administrations, each with varying powers, based in their capitals, Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast, respectively. The relationships among the countries of the UK have changed over time, Wales was annexed by the Kingdom of England under the Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542. A treaty between England and Scotland resulted in 1707 in a unified Kingdom of Great Britain, which merged in 1801 with the Kingdom of Ireland to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Five-sixths of Ireland seceded from the UK in 1922, leaving the present formulation of the United Kingdom of Great Britain, there are fourteen British Overseas Territories. These are the remnants of the British Empire which, at its height in the 1920s, British influence can be observed in the language, culture and legal systems of many of its former colonies. The United Kingdom is a country and has the worlds fifth-largest economy by nominal GDP. The UK is considered to have an economy and is categorised as very high in the Human Development Index. It was the worlds first industrialised country and the worlds foremost power during the 19th, the UK remains a great power with considerable economic, cultural, military, scientific and political influence internationally. It is a nuclear weapons state and its military expenditure ranks fourth or fifth in the world. The UK has been a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council since its first session in 1946 and it has been a leading member state of the EU and its predecessor, the European Economic Community, since 1973. However, on 23 June 2016, a referendum on the UKs membership of the EU resulted in a decision to leave. The Acts of Union 1800 united the Kingdom of Great Britain, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have devolved self-government
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Commonwealth of Nations
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The Commonwealth of Nations, also known as simply the Commonwealth, is an intergovernmental organisation of 52 member states that are mostly former territories of the British Empire. The Commonwealth dates back to the century with the decolonisation of the British Empire through increased self-governance of its territories. It was formally constituted by the London Declaration in 1949, which established the states as free. The symbol of free association is Queen Elizabeth II who is the Head of the Commonwealth. The Queen is also the monarch of 16 members of the Commonwealth, the other Commonwealth members have different heads of state,31 members are republics and five are monarchies with a different monarch. Member states have no obligation to one another. Instead, they are united by language, history, culture and their values of democracy, free speech, human rights. These values are enshrined in the Commonwealth Charter and promoted by the quadrennial Commonwealth Games, the Commonwealth covers more than 29,958,050 km2, 20% of the worlds land area, and spans all six inhabited continents. She declared, So, it marks the beginning of that free association of independent states which is now known as the Commonwealth of Nations. As long ago as 1884, however, Lord Rosebery, while visiting Australia, had described the changing British Empire—as some of its colonies became more independent—as a Commonwealth of Nations. Conferences of British and colonial prime ministers occurred periodically from the first one in 1887, the Commonwealth developed from the imperial conferences. Newfoundland never did, as on 16 February 1934, with the consent of its parliament, Newfoundland later joined Canada as its 10th province in 1949. Australia and New Zealand ratified the Statute in 1942 and 1947 respectively, after World War II ended, the British Empire was gradually dismantled. Most of its components have become independent countries, whether Commonwealth realms or republics, there remain the 14 British overseas territories still held by the United Kingdom. In April 1949, following the London Declaration, the word British was dropped from the title of the Commonwealth to reflect its changing nature, burma and Aden are the only states that were British colonies at the time of the war not to have joined the Commonwealth upon independence. Hoped for success was reinforced by such achievements as climbing Mount Everest in 1953, breaking the four minute mile in 1954, however, the humiliation of the Suez Crisis of 1956 badly hurt morale of Britain and the Commonwealth as a whole. More broadly, there was the loss of a role of the British Empire. That role was no longer militarily or financially feasible, as Britains withdrawal from Greece in 1947 painfully demonstrated, Britain itself was now just one part of the NATO military alliance in which the Commonwealth had no role apart from Canada
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European Union
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The European Union is a political and economic union of 28 member states that are located primarily in Europe. It has an area of 4,475,757 km2, the EU has developed an internal single market through a standardised system of laws that apply in all member states. Within the Schengen Area, passport controls have been abolished, a monetary union was established in 1999 and came into full force in 2002, and is composed of 19 EU member states which use the euro currency. The EU operates through a system of supranational and intergovernmental decision-making. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community, the community and its successors have grown in size by the accession of new member states and in power by the addition of policy areas to its remit. While no member state has left the EU or its antecedent organisations, the Maastricht Treaty established the European Union in 1993 and introduced European citizenship. The latest major amendment to the basis of the EU. The EU as a whole is the largest economy in the world, additionally,27 out of 28 EU countries have a very high Human Development Index, according to the United Nations Development Programme. In 2012, the EU was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, through the Common Foreign and Security Policy, the EU has developed a role in external relations and defence. The union maintains permanent diplomatic missions throughout the world and represents itself at the United Nations, the World Trade Organization, the G7, because of its global influence, the European Union has been described as an emerging superpower. After World War II, European integration was seen as an antidote to the nationalism which had devastated the continent. 1952 saw the creation of the European Coal and Steel Community, the supporters of the Community included Alcide De Gasperi, Jean Monnet, Robert Schuman, and Paul-Henri Spaak. These men and others are credited as the Founding fathers of the European Union. In 1957, Belgium, France, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and West Germany signed the Treaty of Rome and they also signed another pact creating the European Atomic Energy Community for co-operation in developing nuclear energy. Both treaties came into force in 1958, the EEC and Euratom were created separately from the ECSC, although they shared the same courts and the Common Assembly. The EEC was headed by Walter Hallstein and Euratom was headed by Louis Armand, Euratom was to integrate sectors in nuclear energy while the EEC would develop a customs union among members. During the 1960s, tensions began to show, with France seeking to limit supranational power, Jean Rey presided over the first merged Commission. In 1973, the Communities enlarged to include Denmark, Ireland, Norway had negotiated to join at the same time, but Norwegian voters rejected membership in a referendum
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Capital city
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A capital city is the municipality exercising primary status in a country, state, province, or other region, usually as its seat of government. A capital is typically a city that encompasses the offices and meeting places of its respective government. In some jurisdictions, including countries, the different branches of government are located in different settlements. In some cases, a distinction is made between the capital and the seat of government, which is in another place. The word capital derives from the Latin caput, meaning head, in several English-speaking states, the terms county town, county seat, and borough seat are also used in lower subdivisions. In unitary states, subnational capitals are known as administrative centres. The capital is often, but not necessarily, the largest city of its constituent, historically, the major economic centre of a state or region often becomes the focal point of political power, and becomes a capital through conquest or federation. Examples are Ancient Babylon, Abbasid Baghdad, Ancient Athens, Rome, Constantinople, Changan, Ancient Cusco, Madrid, Paris, London, Moscow, Beijing, Tokyo, Vienna, and Berlin. Some of these cities are or were also religious centres, e. g. Constantinople, Rome, Jerusalem, Ancient Babylon, Moscow, Belgrade, Paris, and Peking. A capital city that is also the economic, cultural. The convergence of political and economic or cultural power is by no means universal, traditional capitals may be economically eclipsed by provincial rivals, e. g. Nanking by Shanghai, Quebec City by Montreal, and numerous US state capitals. The decline of a dynasty or culture could also mean the extinction of its city, as occurred at Babylon. Although many capitals are defined by constitution or legislation, many long-time capitals have no legal designation as such, for example Bern, Edinburgh, Lisbon, London, Paris, are located in or near them. In Canada, there is a capital, while the ten provinces. The states of such countries as Mexico, Brazil, and Australia all have capital cities, for example, the six state capitals of Australia are Adelaide, Brisbane, Hobart, Melbourne, Perth, and Sydney. In Australia, the capital cities is regularly used, to refer to the aforementioned state capitals plus the federal capital Canberra and Darwin. Abu Dhabi is the city of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi. In unitary states which consist of multiple constituent countries, such as the United Kingdom or the Kingdom of Denmark, the national capitals of Germany and Russia, the Stadtstaat of Berlin and the Federal City of Moscow, are also constituent states of both countries in their own right
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Legislature
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A legislature is a deliberative assembly with the authority to make laws for a political entity such as a country or city. Legislatures form important parts of most governments, in the separation of model, they are often contrasted with the executive. Laws enacted by legislatures are known as legislation, legislatures observe and steer governing actions and usually have exclusive authority to amend the budget or budgets involved in the process. The members of a legislature are called legislators, each chamber of legislature consists of a number of legislators who use some form of parliamentary procedure to debate political issues and vote on proposed legislation. There must be a number of legislators present to carry out these activities. Some of the responsibilities of a legislature, such as giving first consideration to newly proposed legislation, are delegated to committees made up of small selections of the legislators. The members of a legislature usually represent different political parties, the members from each party generally meet as a caucus to organize their internal affairs, the internal organization of a legislature is also shaped by the informal norms that are shared by its members. Legislatures vary widely in the amount of power they wield, compared to other political players such as judiciaries, militaries. In 2009, political scientists M. Steven Fish and Matthew Kroenig constructed a Parliamentary Powers Index in an attempt to quantify the different degrees of power among national legislatures, such a system renders the legislature more powerful. Legislatures will sometime delegate their legislative power to administrative or executive agencies, legislatures are made up of individual members, known as legislators, who vote on proposed laws. For example, a legislature that has 100 seats has 100 members, by extension, an electoral district that elects a single legislator can also be described as a seat, as, for, example, in the phrases safe seat and marginal seat. In parliamentary systems of government, the executive is responsible to the legislature which may remove it with a vote of no confidence, names for national legislatures include parliament, congress, diet and assembly. A legislature which operates as a unit is unicameral, one divided into two chambers is bicameral, and one divided into three chambers is tricameral. In bicameral legislatures, one chamber is considered the upper house. In federations, the upper house typically represents the component states. This is a case with the legislature of the European Union. Tricameral legislatures are rare, the Massachusetts Governors Council still exists, tetracameral legislatures no longer exist, but they were previously used in Scandinavia. Legislatures vary widely in their size, among national legislatures, Chinas National Peoples Congress is the largest with 2987 members, while Vatican Citys Pontifical Commission is the smallest with 7
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Royal Navy
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The Royal Navy is the United Kingdoms naval warfare force. Although warships were used by the English kings from the medieval period. The modern Royal Navy traces its origins to the early 16th century, from the middle decades of the 17th century and through the 18th century, the Royal Navy vied with the Dutch Navy and later with the French Navy for maritime supremacy. From the mid 18th century it was the worlds most powerful navy until surpassed by the United States Navy during the Second World War. The Royal Navy played a key part in establishing the British Empire as the world power during the 19th. Due to this historical prominence, it is common, even among non-Britons, following World War I, the Royal Navy was significantly reduced in size, although at the onset of the Second World War it was still the worlds largest. By the end of the war, however, the United States Navy had emerged as the worlds largest, during the Cold War, the Royal Navy transformed into a primarily anti-submarine force, hunting for Soviet submarines, mostly active in the GIUK gap. The Royal Navy is part of Her Majestys Naval Service, which includes the Royal Marines. The professional head of the Naval Service is the First Sea Lord, the Defence Council delegates management of the Naval Service to the Admiralty Board, chaired by the Secretary of State for Defence. The strength of the fleet of the Kingdom of England was an important element in the power in the 10th century. English naval power declined as a result of the Norman conquest. Medieval fleets, in England as elsewhere, were almost entirely composed of merchant ships enlisted into service in time of war. Englands naval organisation was haphazard and the mobilisation of fleets when war broke out was slow, early in the war French plans for an invasion of England failed when Edward III of England destroyed the French fleet in the Battle of Sluys in 1340. Major fighting was confined to French soil and Englands naval capabilities sufficed to transport armies and supplies safely to their continental destinations. Such raids halted finally only with the occupation of northern France by Henry V. Henry VII deserves a large share of credit in the establishment of a standing navy and he embarked on a program of building ships larger than heretofore. He also invested in dockyards, and commissioned the oldest surviving dry dock in 1495 at Portsmouth, a standing Navy Royal, with its own secretariat, dockyards and a permanent core of purpose-built warships, emerged during the reign of Henry VIII. Under Elizabeth I England became involved in a war with Spain, the new regimes introduction of Navigation Acts, providing that all merchant shipping to and from England or her colonies should be carried out by English ships, led to war with the Dutch Republic. In the early stages of this First Anglo-Dutch War, the superiority of the large, heavily armed English ships was offset by superior Dutch tactical organisation and the fighting was inconclusive
28.
Herm
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Herm is one of the Channel Islands and part of the Parish of St Peter Port in the Bailiwick of Guernsey. It is located in the English Channel, north-west of France and it is 1.5 miles long and under 0.5 miles wide, orientated north-south, with several stretches of sand along its northern coast. The much larger island of Guernsey lies to the west and Jersey to the south-east, Herm was first discovered in the Mesolithic period, and the first settlers arrived in the Neolithic and Bronze Ages. Many tombs from that period remain today, the majority in the north of the island, the island was annexed to the Duchy of Normandy in 933, but returned to the English Crown with the division of Normandy in 1204. It was occupied by Germany in the Second World War and the scene of Operation Huckaback, but was largely bypassed. Herm is currently managed by Herm Island Ltd, formed by Starboard Settlement, Herms harbour is on its west coast. During a busy season, up to 100,000 tourists visit the island. Cars are banned from the island, as are bicycles, quad bikes and tractors used for staff, Herm was first found in the Mesolithic period, when hunters were in search of food. e. The Common, was set apart for burials, in 709, a storm washed away the strip of land which connected the island with Jethou. In 1111 Brother Claude Panton was a hermit in Erm and in 1117 the then hermit, Brother Francis Franche Montague is recorded as living on Erm. After the annexation, Herm gradually lost its inhabitants, and between 1570 and 1737 the governors of Guernsey used it as a hunting ground, visiting to shoot, hunt. Most were quarrymen working in new granite quarries, several quarries can still be seen at present, such as on the Common. When the Prince and Princess Blücher leased the island from the British government during the First World War and they increased up to the First World War, after which they decreased in numbers, and the remaining few were re-captured and put in enclosures. Compton Mackenzie, an English born Scottish novelist, acquired the tenancy and he recalled that his three years there had numerous logistical problems. At one point Mackenzie threatened to sue, however, Mackenzie did love islands and would graduate from Herm to the Hebrides. The German occupation of the Channel Islands during the Second World War essentially by-passed Herm, Herm had only a little German construction during the war, a flak battery was placed on the island for a few weeks, and mines were placed in an area. Occasionally German soldiers would travel to Herm to cut wood for fuel, in April 1945 a German officer, Oberst von Helldorf was exiled to Herm for not displaying sufficient loyalty to the Führer. Porteous finally managed to climb up the bed of a stream and they later reported that they had found no sign of any Islanders or Germans
29.
Jethou
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Jethou is a small island that is part of the Bailiwick of Guernsey in the Channel Islands. It is privately leased, and not open to the public and it is immediately south of Herm and has an area of approximately 44 acres. There is evidence of flint manufacturing in an area exposed only at low water between the island and Crevichon which shows occupation around 10,000 BC and it is said that in AD709 a storm washed away the strip of land that connected the island with Herm. The Viking name for the island was Keitholm, the islands name contains the Norman -hou suffix, meaning small island or small hill. In 1416, it part of Henry Vs estate and still remains a Crown lease. It is said that in times, pirates were hanged on it with chains. In 1867 Lt Colonel Montague Fielden became tenant however he was discovered using the island as a storehouse for smuggling Brandy. From 1920 to 1923 it was leased by the Scottish novelist Compton MacKenzie along with Herm and remained part of estate for years. The British 1957 musical Free as Air by Dorothy Reynolds & Julian Slade was set on the island of Terhou. From September 1964 until December 1971 the island was occupied by the Faed family consisting of Mr Angus Faed, his wife Susan Faed and their four children, Colin, Erik, Colette, mrs. Susan Faed was the 22nd tenant of Jethou. It is flanked by two islets, Crevichon to the north and Fauconniere to the south, there is one house on the island and two cottages as well as a large garage where vehicles such as quad bikes and tractors are stored. It is now leased by Sir Peter Ogden of IT company Computacenter, recognised in 2016 as an area of international environmental importance under the Ramsar Convention. At the back of Jethou, puffins can be seen swimming off the rocks
30.
Brecqhou
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Brecqhou is one of the Channel Islands, located just west of Sark. Brecqhou is a British Crown Dependency, and is part of Sark and part of the Bailiwick of Guernsey. It has been established in the courts that Brecqhou is a tenement of Sark, the Ministry of Justice, the department of the United Kingdom government with responsibility for the Channel Islands, considers Brecqhou part of Sark. The name Brecqhou derives from the Old Norse brekka and holmr, a mere islet, Brecqhou has a surface area of just 74 acres. The island is separated from Sark by a narrow sound which. However, in reality it is traversed frequently by yachts during each summer and by fishing boats year round, in Sark, the word tenant is used, and often pronounced, as in French in the sense of feudal landholder rather than the common English meaning of lessee. The landholdings of Sark are held by 40 tenants representing the parcels of the 40 families who colonised Sark, the relevance of the Seigneurial privileges and of the obligations that distinguish feudal from civil landowning has decreased, most of the obligations being connected to agriculture and defence. Originally, La Moinerie de Haut, named after the medieval monastery whose site is close to it, was a parcel of land in the north west of Sark that was, at that time, owned by the Seigneur himself. When Sibyl Hathaway sold the island of Brecqhou to Angelo Clarke in 1929 and this was no great loss for her, as she owned more than one tenement and every member of Chief Pleas was entitled to only one vote. Since 1993 the tenement of Brecqhou has been owned by the Barclay brothers, the brothers bought the island for £2.3 million in September 1993. Under the Reform Law 1951, the tenant is David Barclay, since the purchase the Barclays have been in several legal disputes with the government of Sark, and have expressed a desire to make Brecqhou politically independent from Sark. They drive cars on the island, and have a helicopter, according to the Barclays, this retention is invalid, as Brecqhou was never part of the fief of Sark. They argue that letters patent establishing the fief do not mention the smaller island, while the Seigneur eventually came into the ownership of Brecqhou, the island was not merged into the fief. Therefore, in respect of Brecqhou, the Barclays claim that the Seigneurs never held the privileges valid in the fief of Sark, the conflict caused a lawsuit and the founding of a Brecqhou relationship sub-committee of Sarks Chief Pleas. Tenants 1966–1987, Leonard Joseph Matchan From 1993, Sir David Barclay The former tenant, although frequently considered the island flag, this was only a personal flag, and is not in use any more. Leonard Joseph Matchan had issued stamps in 1969, Matchan occupied Brecqhou until his death on October 6,1987. The current tenants have issued postage stamps annually since 1999, in 2012, it was reported that the island is open to the public, by prior arrangement. Le Dicotentin, Lepelley, Cherbourg 2001, ISBN 2-913920-06-3 BBC Pronouncing Dictionary of British Names BBC TODAY PROGRAM People of Sark fear take over by Barclay
31.
Minquiers
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The Minquiers are a group of islands and rocks, about 15 km south of Jersey. The Minquiers forms part of the Bailiwick of Jersey and they are administratively part of the Parish of Grouville. At low tide, the shelf around the Minquiers has a larger surface area than Jersey itself. The largest of these is Maîtresse, which is about 50 m long and 20 m wide and has ten stone cottages in various states of repair. However, they have no permanent inhabitants, though fishermen, vraic collectors, yachtsmen, kayakers, the etymology of the name is disputed, and could either come from the Breton language minihi meaning a sanctuary, or from minkier meaning a seller of fish. The most significant islands in the group are, Maîtresse Île / Maîtr Île Les Maisons, Others include, Le Niêsant Les Faucheurs La Haute Grune. Thousands of years ago, around the time of the last glacial period, when sea level was lower, in 933 CE, the Duchy of Normandy annexed the islets, along with the other Channel Islands and the Cotentin Peninsula. After William, Duke of Normandy conquered England in 1066, the islands remained united to the Duchy until Philip Augustus conquered mainland Normandy in 1204, in 1259 Henry III did homage to the French king for the Channel Islands. Edward III, in the 1360 Treaty of Brétigny, waived his claims to the crown of France and to Normandy, the 1911 Britannica says that Maîtresse Île affords a landing and shelter for fishermen. A small company of Wehrmacht soldiers on the Minquiers were among the last to surrender in World War II, a French fishing boat, skippered by Lucian Marie, approached the island of Minquiers and anchored nearby. This was on 23 May 1945, three weeks after the war in Europe ended, in 1950 Britain and France went to the International Court of Justice for friendly discussions to decide to which country the Minquiers and Écréhous belonged. The French fished in the waters, but Jersey exercised various administrative rights, the ICJ considered the historical evidence, and in its Judgment of 17 November 1953 awarded the islands to Jersey. In 1998 some French invaded the Minquiers on behalf of the King of Patagonia in retaliation for the British occupation of the Falkland Islands, the Union Jack was restored the next day. Notably, Les Minquiers are mentioned at length by Victor Hugo in his novel Ninety-Three and he mentions how treacherous they are, and says that their combined area is bigger than mainland Jersey itself. Hugo lived in both Guernsey and Jersey at various points in his life, and so was familiar with local lore. The British/French dispute over Les Minquiers is an element in Nancy Mitfords novel Dont Tell Alfred. Les Minquiers feature in the adventure novel The Wreck of the Mary Deare, by Hammond Innes. The Minquiers are designated protected under the Ramsar convention, files on the ICJ case can be found in the National Archives, mostly in the FO371 sequence
32.
Pierres de Lecq
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Only three of the rocks remain visible at high tide, LÊtaîthe, La Grôsse and La Vouêtaîthe. The area has one of the greatest tidal ranges in the world, the name Paternosters is connected with a legend relating to the colonisation of Sark in the 16th century. According to this legend a boatload of women and children was wrecked on the reef, superstitious sailors would say the Lords Prayer when passing the rocks, hence the name Paternosters. The rocks are a Ramsar site, and support a variety of cetaceans including dolphins. It is considered to form a biogeographical boundary
33.
Burhou
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Burhou is a small island about 1.4 miles northwest of Alderney that is part of the Channel Islands. It has no permanent residents, and is a bird sanctuary, the islands wildlife includes a colony of puffins and many rabbits. It has no landing stage as such, but visitors use a small inlet, in rough weather it may be impossible to land. The Guernsey botanist E. D. Marquand called it, the most desolate and he once had to spend the night there, as his return journey was delayed by fog. The 1906 book, The Channel Pilot states – Between Ortac, Verte Tête and Burhou Island, are scattered many dangerous rocks, the States of Alderney member, John Beaman has political responsibility for the island. Despite being isolated, and inhabited briefly and infrequently, Burhou has a long history, formerly, like the rest of the English Channel, it would have been linked to both modern-day England and France by dry land many thousands of years ago. Burhou, like many other Channel Islands, has the Norman suffix -hou, meaning a small island, according to Dr. S. K. Kellet-Smith, bur refers to a storehouse – Burhou is just the place where a fisherman would place a depository for his gear. However, signs of human occupation/visitation are much older, flint flakes have been found on the island, and one is currently in the Alderney Museum. In 1847, F. C. Lukis found two standing stones, but these have since been lost, according to the archaeologist David Johnston, according to the Assize Roll of the 14th century, Burhou was a rabbit warren, and a refuge for fishermen. As Victor Coysh deduces, this would have meant that there would have some kind of shelter there. A hut was built on the island in 1820 as a shelter for fishermen and sailors at the instigation of General Le Mesurier, the hut was replaced in 1953, with basic accommodation which is rented out to visitors by Alderney Harbour Office. Attempts have been made to raise sheep there. In 1900, a French couple lived there for a year, the soil is thin, and spray frequently goes right over the island, ensuring high soil salinity. The island has no water supply for much of the year. The islands animals are mainly of the variety, although rabbits are long established here. The island has many puffins and some storm petrels, although the latter have declined, they used to nest in the cottages storm loft. Roderick Dobson in Birds of the Channel Islands said that puffins had been plentiful for over a century, the Birds of Guernsey by Cecil Smith states likewise. The puffins have had to compete with gulls, and in 1949, the rabbit holes on the island make good nesting for them
34.
Les Casquets
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Les Casquets or Casquets, is a group of rocks 13 km northwest of Alderney and are part of an underwater sandstone ridge. Other parts which emerge above the water are the islets of Burhou, a map dated from around 1640 gives a Latin name Casus Rupes, which would seem to confirm the third theory above, but which may be a folk etymology. There have been numerous wrecks on the islets, fierce tides reaching 6–7 knots on springs, the most famous include SS Stella, wrecked in 1899. The largest wreck was the 8000 tonne water tanker Constantia S lost in 1967, however, when the wreck of that ship was found in 2008, it was over 60 nautical miles from the Casquets. In the raid the entire garrison of seven was captured and returned to England as prisoners, swinburnes poem Les Casquets is based on the Houguez family who actually lived on the island for 18 years. The Houguez were originally from Alderney, and the poem describes their life on Les Casquets, the daughter falls in love with a carpenter from Alderney, but moving to his island, finds life there too busy. She finds the small streets of serene St Anne and the sight of the works of men too much. On a straight frontage, such of that of the Ortac, if the wave carries the vessel on the rock she breaks on it, and is lost. Casquets lighthouses SS Stella Website Alderney society and museum – Geology Channel Islets – Victor Coysh Thumbnails of pictures of the Casquets
35.
Ortac
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Ortac is a small uninhabited islet about 5 kilometres west of the coast of Alderney near to the islet of Burhou. It measures roughly 50 by 70 metres, and rises 24 metres above the sea level, a. H. Ewen surmised that the rocks name meant large rock at the edge from the Norman language or + etac. Alexander Deschamps said that the French formerly knew it as the Eagles Nest, Ortac and Alderney, along with the Casquets, are part of the same sandstone ridge. Paul Naftel, a Guernsey artist, sketched it, and the appeared in Ansted & Lathams book. The 1906 book, The Channel Pilot states – Between Ortac, Verte Tête and Burhou Island, are scattered many dangerous rocks and it also supposedly contains a cave known as the Oven. The Ortac, all of a piece, rises up in a line to eighty feet above the angry beating of the waves. An immovable cliff, it plunges its rectilinear planes apeak into the numberless serpentine coils of the sea, at night it stands an enormous block, resting on the folds of a huge black sheet. In time of storm it awaits the stroke of the axe which is the thunderclap. To be wrecked on the Casquets is to be cut into ribbons, on a straight frontage, such of that of the Ortac, neither the wave nor the cannon ball can ricochet. If the wave carries the vessel on the rock she breaks on it, accordingly the sailors, as they passed, were in the habit of kneeling many times before the Ortac rock, until the day when the fable was destroyed, and the truth took its place. For it has discovered, and is now well established, that the lonely inhabitant Of the rock is not a saint. This evil spirit, whose name is Jochmus, had the impudence to pass himself of, even the Church herself is not proof against snares of this kind. The demons Ragubel, Oribel, and Tobiel were regarded as saints until the year 745 and this sort of weeding of the saintly calendar is certainly very useful, but it can only be practiced by very accomplished judges of devils and their ways. The islet is noted for its large gannet colony and this is of fairly recent origin. On June 19,1940, Major J. A. A. Wallace, preparing for the evacuation of Alderney and he found none on Les Etacs off Alderney. Now both swarm with the birds, in 1979, a mission with two naval helicopters was launched to remove nets and rubbish used in nests and which were trapped. Quebec 41 is an Airway over the English Channel from the Channel Islands Control Area to the Solent Control Area, there is a reporting point named ORTAC at southern boundary between Quebec 41 and the Channel Islands Control Zone. Its position is 49°59 57N, 2°0 18W, which is about 30 miles north-north-east of Alderney and this is not coincident with the islet named Ortac, but its name is undoubtedly derived from the islet. Many Standard Instrument Approach and Departure Procedures into Channel Islands airports use ORTAC as part of the procedure
36.
Crevichon
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Crevichon is an islet off Herm, immediately to the north of Jethou, in the Channel Islands According to Dr S. K. Kellett-Smith, it means isle of crabs, crayfish or cranes. Like other names in the region it is Norman in origin, a thousand years ago, the water level was ten feet lower, making these creatures far more abundant there. The island measures about 212 by 168 metres, which yields an area of less than three hectares, the distance to Jethou is about 215 metres. A 16th-century drawing, now in the British Museum, shows Crevichon as apparently a wooded islet, john Le Patourel, in The Building of Castle Cornet, mentions that in 1566 iron and hammers were taken to Creavissham, and the island quarried for the castle. The quarry has been used intermittently since then, making the less visible, to make up for that. Crevichon may have provided the granite for the steps of St. Pauls Cathedral in London and it is said that, in earlier times, pirates were hanged with chains both on Crevichon and on nearby Jethou. Compton Mackenzie, former owner of Herm, called Crevichon Merg in his book Fairy Gold, in 1953, Victor Coysh says that he saw the remains of a German bomber, from the time of the occupation. Other wrecks include the Courier, a Guernsey steamer, that grounded in 1905 with 80 passengers, forty, George Channel Islands at War, A German Perspective. ISBN 978-0711030718 Channel Islets - Victor Coysh
37.
Houmets
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Les Houmets are to the east of Guernsey in the Channel Islands. Their name derives from a diminutive of hou, a Norman/Guernésiais word meaning islets, among the islets are Houmet Benest/Houmet Benêt, Houmet Paradis and Houmet Hommetol. In fact, they have been islets for a long time. Did the author ever visit them, I wonder, Victor Hugo who wrote about many of the Channel Islands in his books, described Les Houmets, in his work The Toilers of the Sea. Gilliat, the character lives on Houmet Paradis, This house was called the Bû de la Rue. It was situated on the point of a tongue of land, or rather of rock, the water was very deep here. This house was all alone on the point, almost off the land, the high tides sometimes inundated the garden. She was an Englishwoman, at least, she was not French and she had a name which the Guernsey pronunciation and the country folks’ bad spelling had finally converted into Gilliatt. the house of the Bû de la Rue was haunted at this period. For more than thirty years no one had inhabited it, the garden, so often invaded by the sea, could produce nothing. The house, demon included, was offered for sale for a few pounds sterling, the stranger woman became the purchaser, evidently tempted by the devil, or by the advantageous bargain. She did more than purchase the house, she took up her abode there with the child, the Bû de la Rue has found a fit tenant, said the country people. There was no longer any light seen there save that of the candle of the newcomer. Witch’s candle is as good as devil’s torch, the proverb satisfied the gossips of the neighbourhood. Today it would be useless to look for the cove of Houmet Paradis, for Gilliats house, the Bû de la Rue no longer exists. All this ridge of rock has long ago taken to London. The novel was written in the 1860s and set in the 1820s when the islands were still inhabited, Houmet Benest/Benêt is about two hundred yards from the shore, preceded by a small rock called Hommet from the same root. It is triangular, and 80 ×50 yards, there is an 18th-century gun battery here, to defend against the French. The German occupation added their own, and the British another after the Germans left, the steamer Clarrie sank off Houmet Benêt in 1921, in the Great Roussel
38.
Lihou
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Lihou is a small tidal island located just off the west coast of the island of Guernsey, in the English Channel, between Great Britain and France. Administratively, Lihou forms part of the Parish of St. Peters in the Bailiwick of Guernsey, since 2006, the island has been jointly managed by the Guernsey Environment Department and the Lihou Charitable Trust. In the past the island was used by locals for the collection of seaweed for use as a fertiliser, but today Lihou is mainly used for tourism, including school trips. Lihou is also an important centre for conservation, forming part of a Ramsar wetland site for the preservation of birds and plants as well as historic ruins of a priory. In common with several nearby islands such as Jethou and Brecqhou, the name could have developed from the Breton words lydd or ligg, which means in or near water. There are also instances of people with the surname having migrated from the Channel Islands to the United States. Lihou is the furthest west of the Channel Islands and at low tide it is linked to the nearby LErée headland, on Guernsey, apart from shingle beaches, the island has a 20 m high ridge running approximately north-south. Lihou is mainly composed of weathered rock below which are found granite, the island has a mild oceanic climate like other Channel Islands, due to being buffered by the nearby English and French coastlines. Lihou shares the features of Guernsey, with winter temperatures falling to 4.4 °C in February. Two small islets, close to the island, called Lissroy and Lihoumel, are breeding places for a number of endangered species of birds, including Eurasian oystercatchers, numerous other species of birds and plants are found on Lihou such as peregrine falcons and sea storksbill. The Guernsey Environment Department does not allow visitors to go to the two islets and the bank at certain times of the year in order to allow the birds to breed. Approximately 800 metres north of the island is a ledge called Grand Etacre. Lihou island was identified as a Site of Nature Conservation Importance in 1989, on 1 March 2006, Lihou and the LErée headland were designated a part of Guernseys first Ramsar wetland site, covering about 427 hectares of land and sea. This has created a reserve for the extensive variety of wildlife including more than 200 species of seaweed on the shores of Lihou. The geology of Lihou Island is rather complex, but closely associated with neighbouring Guernsey, the history of Lihou is closely linked to the history of Guernsey in particular and the Channel Islands in general. The earliest evidence of habitation are Mesolithic era objects recovered from archaeological digs of the 1990s, the recorded history of Lihou began in 933 AD when the Channel Islands were seized from Brittany by the ruler of Normandy. Lihou and the nearby Neolithic tombs were traditionally believed to have been meeting places for local witches and this led to conflict with church authorities, especially when a priory was established on Lihou, dedicated to St. Mary. A number of dates have been suggested for the establishment of the priory, with estimates ranging from as early as 1114, records suggest that the priory was an arriére-fief of the Benedictine abbey of Mont St. Michel under whose authority it operated
39.
-hou
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-hou and hou is a place-name element found commonly in the Norman toponymy of the Channel Islands and continental Normandy. Its etymology and meaning are disputed, but most specialists think it comes from Saxon or Anglo-Saxon hōh heel, sometimes hō, then heel-shaped promontory, rocky steep slope and this toponymic appellative appears as a final -hou or associated with the Romance definite article le Hou. It can be everywhere in Normandy, but more in the western part of it. The English toponymy uses this Saxon or Anglo-Saxon element the same way, northoo, Poddinghoo, Millhoo, Fingringhoe, Rainow, Soho, etc. As an independent element it is Hoe, Hoo, Hooe, Ho or the Hoe, in Normandy, it may have sometimes mixed up with Old Norse hólmr, meaning a small island, and often found anglicised elsewhere as holm. It can still be found in modern Scandinavian languages, e. g. Stockholm, the normal evolution of hólmr in Normandy is -homme, -houme, even -onne at the end of a toponym and le Homme, le Houlme, le Hom with the article. The Norman toponym and diminutive hommet / houmet also derives from this element, in Parisian French, the equivalent is îlot, which is cognate with the English islet. Off Guernsey Lihou Les Houmets including - Houmet Benest/Benet, Houmet Paradis & Houmet Hommetol, off Alderney Burhou Off Herm Jethou Le Plat Houmet Off Sark Brecqhou Les Écréhous Le Plat Hommet Le Hommet du Ouaisné Les Hommets La Rocco Icho Manche Bléhou, hamlet at Sainteny. Bunehou, hamlet and manor at Saint-Germain-le-Gaillard, cap Lihou, à Granville Néhou, hamlet at Auvers
40.
Old Norse
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Old Norse was a North Germanic language that was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and inhabitants of their overseas settlements during about the 9th to 13th centuries. These dates, however, are not absolute, since written Old Norse is found well into the 15th century, Old Norse was divided into three dialects, Old West Norse, Old East Norse and Old Gutnish. Old West and East Norse formed a continuum, with no clear geographical boundary between them. For example, Old East Norse traits were found in eastern Norway, although Old Norwegian is classified as Old West Norse, most speakers spoke Old East Norse in what is present day Denmark and Sweden. Old Gutnish, the more obscure dialectal branch, is included in the Old East Norse dialect due to geographical associations. It developed its own features and shared in changes to both other branches. The 12th century Icelandic Gray Goose Laws state that Swedes, Norwegians, Icelanders and Danes spoke the same language, another term used, used especially commonly with reference to West Norse, was norrœnt mál. In some instances the term Old Norse refers specifically to Old West Norse, the Old East Norse dialect was spoken in Denmark, Sweden, settlements in Kievan Rus, eastern England, and Danish settlements in Normandy. The Old Gutnish dialect was spoken in Gotland and in settlements in the East. In the 11th century, Old Norse was the most widely spoken European language, in Kievan Rus, it survived the longest in Veliky Novgorod, probably lasting into the 13th century there. Norwegian is descended from Old West Norse, but over the centuries it has heavily influenced by East Norse. Old Norse also had an influence on English dialects and Lowland Scots and it also influenced the development of the Norman language, and through it and to a smaller extent, that of modern French. Various other languages, which are not closely related, have heavily influenced by Norse, particularly the Norman dialects, Scottish Gaelic. The current Finnish and Estonian words for Sweden are Ruotsi and Rootsi, of the modern languages, Icelandic is the closest to Old Norse. Written modern Icelandic derives from the Old Norse phonemic writing system, contemporary Icelandic-speakers can read Old Norse, which varies slightly in spelling as well as semantics and word order. However, pronunciation, particularly of the phonemes, has changed at least as much as in the other North Germanic languages. Faroese retains many similarities but is influenced by Danish, Norwegian, although Swedish, Danish and the Norwegian languages have diverged the most, they still retain asymmetric mutual intelligibility. Speakers of modern Swedish, Norwegian and Danish can mostly understand each other without studying their neighboring languages, the languages are also sufficiently similar in writing that they can mostly be understood across borders
41.
British Isles
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The British Isles are a group of islands off the north-western coast of continental Europe that consist of the islands of Great Britain, Ireland and over six thousand smaller isles. Situated in the North Atlantic, the islands have an area of approximately 315,159 km2. Two sovereign states are located on the islands, Ireland and the United Kingdom of Great Britain, the oldest rocks in the group are in the north west of Scotland, Ireland and North Wales and are 2,700 million years old. During the Silurian period the north-western regions collided with the south-east, the topography of the islands is modest in scale by global standards. Ben Nevis rises to an elevation of only 1,344 metres, and Lough Neagh, the climate is temperate marine, with mild winters and warm summers. The North Atlantic Drift brings significant moisture and raises temperatures 11 °C above the average for the latitude. This led to a landscape which was dominated by temperate rainforest. The region was re-inhabited after the last glacial period of Quaternary glaciation, Ireland, which became an island by 12,000 BC, was not inhabited until after 8000 BC. Great Britain became an island by 5600 BC, Hiberni, Pictish and Britons tribes, all speaking Insular Celtic, inhabited the islands at the beginning of the 1st millennium AD. Much of Brittonic-controlled Britain was conquered by the Roman Empire from AD43, the first Anglo-Saxons arrived as Roman power waned in the 5th century and eventually dominated the bulk of what is now England. Viking invasions began in the 9th century, followed by permanent settlements. Most of Ireland seceded from the United Kingdom after the Irish War of Independence, the term British Isles is controversial in Ireland, where there are objections to its usage due to the association of the word British with Ireland. The Government of Ireland does not recognise or use the term, as a result, Britain and Ireland is used as an alternative description, and Atlantic Archipelago has had limited use among a minority in academia, while British Isles is still commonly employed. Within them, they are sometimes referred to as these islands. The earliest known references to the islands as a group appeared in the writings of sea-farers from the ancient Greek colony of Massalia. The original records have been lost, however, later writings, e. g. Avienuss Ora maritima, in the 1st century BC, Diodorus Siculus has Prettanikē nēsos, the British Island, and Prettanoi, the Britons. Strabo used Βρεττανική, and Marcian of Heraclea, in his Periplus maris exteri, historians today, though not in absolute agreement, largely agree that these Greek and Latin names were probably drawn from native Celtic-language names for the archipelago. Along these lines, the inhabitants of the islands were called the Πρεττανοί, the shift from the P of Pretannia to the B of Britannia by the Romans occurred during the time of Julius Caesar
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Manche
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Manche is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on March 4,1790. It was created from part of the province of Normandie, the first capital was Coutances until 1796, and it resumed that role after World War II because of the almost complete destruction of Saint-Lô during the battle of Normandy following D-Day. When Saint-Lô was rebuilt, it became the capital. The Department includes the Cotentin Peninsula down to the famous Mont St Michel, Manche borders the Normandy departments of Calvados to the east and Orne to the southeast. Mayenne, a department of the Pays de la Loire, is to the south-east, the region is lush and green with sandy beaches, remaining very rural and farming oriented. Flat marsh areas in the department are known for their bird watching, the region and around St Lo is also the horse capital of France, where the cooler climate compared to the south is ideal for breeding and training. Frances first EPR reactor is near completion at Cherbourg and the TGV fast trains are planned for Paris to Caen, the climate is oceanic, with relatively mild winters temperatures can go below zero for a few days occasionally. Temperate summers, around 20 °C, can occasionally reach 35 °C in direct sun light, precipitation is substantial, and varies greatly by region, between 700mm on the coast and 1300mm in the southern central area. Highly localised, not life-threatening flash flooding has been experienced over the last few years in the spring period, the west coast benefits from the Gulf streams influence, allowing the naturalization of many Mediterranean and exotic plants. There is often a sea breeze on the coast, which combined with tides contributes to quick temperature changes over a single day, sea temperatures can be very pleasant for swimming between July and October. Inhabitants of the department are called Manchots or Manchois, football, main clubs, AS Cherbourg, US Avranches, Saint-Lô, Granville, Villedieu, UST Équeurdreville-Hainneville. Cycling, the Tour de France has visited the department 21 times with stages ending at Cherbourg, Avranches, Granville, Saint-Hilaire-du-Harcouët, sailing, the Solitaire du Figaro has come to Cherbourg several times. Tennis, hosts the Challenger La Manche tournament, thai boxing, Villedieu-les-Poêles Badminton, Two local clubs compete in the national championship, St Hilaire du Harcouet and Hainneville. Prefecture website General Council website Manche at DMOZ A whole wiki about the Manche, comité départemental du tourisme de la Manche
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Jersey Legal French
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Jersey Legal French, also known as Jersey French, is the official dialect of French used administratively in Jersey. Since the anglicisation of the island, it survives as a language for some laws, contracts. Jerseys parliament, the States of Jersey, is part of the Assemblée parlementaire de la Francophonie, the English language has been allowed in parliamentary debates since February 2,1900, the current use of French in the parliament is generally restricted to formalities. Jerseys two official languages are French and English, Jersey Legal French is not to be confused with Jèrriais, a variety of the Norman language also called Jersey Norman-French, spoken on the island. The French of Jersey differs little from that of France and it is characterised by several terms particular to Jersey administration and a few expressions imported from Norman. It is notable that the term for the archipelago is îles de la Manche — îles anglo-normandes is a somewhat recent invention in continental French. As in Swiss French and Belgian French, the numbers 70 and 90 are septante and nonante, respectively, initial capital letters are commonly used in writing the names of the days of the week and months of the year. Messire is used for the title of knighthood – for example, Jersey English has imported a number of Jersey Legal French titles and terminology. Many of these, in turn, derive from Jèrriais, a Glossary for the Historian of Jersey, Chris Aubin,2000, ISBN 978-0-9538858-0-0
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"Channel Islands". Encyclopædia Britannica. 5 (11th ed.). 1911.
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