Kilsby Tunnel
The Kilsby Tunnel is on the West Coast Main Line in England. The railway tunnel is near the village of Kilsby in Northamptonshire 5 miles south-east of Rugby and is 2,432 yards long. On opening, it was the longest railway tunnel in the world; as of 2018, it is the 18th longest tunnel on the British railway system. The Kilsby Tunnel was designed and engineered by Robert Stephenson for the London & Birmingham Railway, it was constructed by contractors Joseph Nowell & Sons and by the L&BR. It took much longer to construct and exceeded its estimated cost, attributed to a roof collapse and consequential flooding; the tunnel had atypically large ventilation shafts, because of a lack of experience as to how much ventilation would be needed for steam locomotives to pass through. On opening in 1838, the tunnel was single track and in 1879, double-track was laid. In March 1987, Kilsby Tunnel portals and its two ventilation shafts were given listed status. In the 1830s, Robert Stephenson developed the Birmingham Railway.
After opposition from several landowners and proprietors in Northampton in July 1832, the House of Lords rejected the original bill to authorise construction of the line. Stephenson surveyed an alternative route to the west of the town; the 2,423 yard tunnel would be the world's longest railway tunnel. In May 1835, Joseph Nowell & Sons was awarded the tunnel contract, valued at £98,988. Construction proved to be less than straightforward. Within months of work commencing, the second of the working shafts was flooded because of large amounts of quicksand not revealed by trial borings into the hill. Similar problems had been encountered during the construction of Blisworth Tunnel on the Grand Union Canal a few decades earlier. Problems posed by the quicksand at tunnel level were so severe that abandoning the shaft and restarting work elsewhere was considered. Stress from the project was said to have caused Joseph Nowell's death. At the recommendation of George Stephenson, several steam-powered pumps were installed to extract water from the quicksand inside the tunnel.
The pumps removed up to 2,000 gallons of water from a depth of 120 feet every minute of operation and took up to eight months. Seven more shafts were sunk to install timber cylinders to hold back the sand. During this time, multiple attempts were made to construct the tunnel's brick lining using a raft to float men and materials into position; as a protective measure, the lining's thickness was increased from 18 inches to in excess of two feet and straw was used to deflect and control the ingress of water to prevent wet concrete from being washed away from newly laid bricks. An unusual feature of the tunnel is the size of its ventilation shafts, which were adapted from ten of the working shafts used during its construction. In May 1836, work started on the first of two shafts, which were 132 feet deep and 20 yards in diameter; the shafts were sunk using sequentially dug trenches around the circumference and took over a year to reach the bottom of each shaft. Its three-foot-thick walls required over one million bricks and weighed an estimated 4,034 tonnes, for aesthetic reasons, both shafts are castellated.
Author Graeme Bickerdike has speculated that, while their size is excessive in regards to providing airflow, considerable importance was placed on overcoming public perceptions and worries over personal health due to insufficient ventilation in regards to the use of steam locomotives inside lengthy tunnels. Several newspapers had negatively commented on the issues, it is that Stephenson would have wanted to silence critics and assuage these sentiments by visibly demonstrating how much ventilation was being provided. On 21 June 1838, resident engineer Charles Lean laid the final brick of the tunnel, marking its completion, it took three years, cost £320,000 to build — three times the original estimate. The high accident rate in the course of its construction included the deaths of 26 of the 1,250 workers; the length of time it took to build delayed the opening of the L&BR. On 20 August 1838, the directors of the L&BR conducted the first rail journey between Birmingham Curzon Steet railway station and Euston railway station, London.
On the way, the train stopped at the tunnel so that they could marvel at the structure and meet with some of the workmen. Regular services using the tunnel commenced soon after. Kilsby Tunnel opened with a single track. During early operations, train movements were controlled by two policeman, one at either end of the tunnel, who signalled the presence of a train to each other, only one train was allowed to enter the tunnel at a time. In June 1852, a fatal collision occurred between a ballast train and a coal train as a result of signals that were either not issued or were not received. In 1879, the single track was doubled. In March 1987, both the north and south portals of Kilsby Tunnel were Grade II* listed. During the tunnel's service life, there have been no major problems or difficulties with the structure have been experienced. During a survey conducted during the 2010s, it was found to be in a good condition. During the 2010s, Kilsby Tunnel was restored by Network Rail. Maintenance focused on inspecting the ventilation shafts and repairs to the brickwork of one shaft was carried out, sections of the tunnel's lining were replaced.
While unusual means of access were used because of the listed status of the shafts, the repairs were described as routine. Kilsby Tunnel in
A45 road
The A45 is a major road in England. It runs east from Birmingham past the National Exhibition Centre and the M42 bypasses Coventry and Rugby, where it merges with the M45 until it continues to Daventry, it heads to Northampton and Wellingborough before running north of Rushden and Higham Ferrers and terminating at its junction with the A14 road in Thrapston. Prior to the construction of the M6 motorway it was the main route from the Midlands to Ipswich and to the Haven ports; when the A1-M1 link road section of the current A14 opened in 1994 most of the A45 to the east of Cambridge was re-designated as the A14 and some sections to the west were downgraded to B-roads. The original route of the A45 was Birmingham to Ipswich; the road was extended to Felixstowe in 1935, replacing the A139. Around the same time, the A45 was re-routed around the south of Coventry when the city's southern bypass was completed ); the A45 passed through Ipswich to Felixstowe. A bypass for the village of Eltisley was built in 1972, along with a bypass on the B1040 road.
The 3-mile £8 million St Neots bypass opened in December 1985 on what was the A45. Small Heath Meriden Coventry Daventry Northampton Higham Ferrers When the new A14 link road between A1 near Huntingdon and the M1 was opened to traffic in the mid-1990s, the Cambridge to Felixstowe stretch of the A45 was re-designated as the A14 and the St Neots to Cambridge section became part of an extended A428; the route through Felixstowe at the end of the A14 is now the A154. The road starts on the A4540 Birmingham Ring Road, bypassing Small Heath and crossing the B4145, it passes over the River Cole and meets the A4040 at a grade-separated junction at the Swan Shopping Centre in Yardley. It meets the B425 at traffic lights in Sheldon enters the borough of Solihull; the section of the A45 from Birmingham city centre to the M45 is all dual carriageway — urban dual carriageway with traffic lights until Birmingham Airport rural grade-separated between the airport and Coventry. The Bickenhill Junction intersects with the B4438, a dual carriageway access road for the airport, N.
E. C. and Birmingham International railway station. There is another grade-separated junction with the M42 junction 6. On this junction, there is access to the National Motorcycle Museum; the road meets the A452 at Stonebridge at a grade separated junction and passes over the River Blythe where the road enters Warwickshire. Meriden is bypassed to the north; the Heart of England Way passes under the road, the road enters the borough of Coventry. The A45 becomes an urban road and skirts the south side of Coventry, crossing the A4114 near Allesley Park, the B4101 at Tile Hill, West Coast Main Line, A429 and B4113. Beyond here the road takes a more rural nature, with a grade-separated junction with the A46 and the A444. Between here and the next junction, the A45 runs concurrent with the A46; the Tollbar End roundabout was one of the busiest in the Midlands. It had exits for the A46 north / Coventry Eastern Bypass, Coventry Airport and B4110. In early 2017, the Tollbar End roundabout was upgraded and the junction is now a roundabout interchange with an underpass for the A46.
Crossing the River Avon, the road re-enters Warwickshire. The A423 exits to the south-east at a forked junction near the former Peugeot factory; the A445 crosses at a roundabout near Ryton on Dunsmore, followed by the War Memorial Roundabout with the B4455 Fosse Way. This Portland stone memorial obelisk on the roundabout just north of Stretton-on-Dunsmore commemorates King George V's review of the 29th Division before they were sent to Gallipoli. There is a further grade-separated junction with the B4453 towards Rugby; the final roundabout on this section is the start of the M45 and the B4429. For 2 miles, the A45 runs concurrent with the M45 until a new junction beyond Dunchurch; the B4429 carried the A45. Heading towards Daventry, the road is single carriageway; the road passes two prisons: HMP Rye Hill. After Willoughby, the road enters Northamptonshire, where it crosses the Oxford Canal and Grand Union Canal near Braunston; the Jurassic Way crosses the road here. The road enters Daventry and runs concurrent with the A425 heading to Leamington Spa heads south-east on the Daventry bypass, here called the Stefen Way.
The road meets the B4038 at a roundabout. The road heads west past Dodford and bypasses Weedon Bec, crossing the West Coast Main Line and Grand Union Canal and meets the A5 at a roundabout constructed as part of the Daventry Development Link Road realignment which opened on 15 November 2018; this road bypasses Flore, before meeting the grade-separated M1 Junction 16 running concurrent with the M1. The A45 resumes at M1 Junction 15 as a dual carriageway, heading around the south side of Northampton, it meets the older route at the A45 / A508 grade-separated junction, near Northampton High School. It crosses the River Nene and Nene Way, after that, there is a large grade-separated junction with the A428 and the
Stage station
A Stage station or Relay station known as a staging post, a posting station, or stage stop is a place where an exhausted horse or horses could be replaced by fresh animals. A long journey was much faster with no delay to rest horses. Stage is the space between the places known as stations or stops — known to Europeans as posts or relays. Organised long-distance land travel became known as posting. Stagecoaches, post chaises, private vehicles, individual riders and the like followed the long-established system for messengers and letter-carriers. Through metonymy the name stage came to be used for a stagecoach alone; until well into the 19th century an overland traveller anxious to reach a destination as fast as possible depended on animals. Systems of arranging a supply of fresh horses to expedite travel along a particular route had been in use at least as far back as the ancient Romans when they were used by messengers and couriers or bearers of letters. Individually mounted. Posting could continue indefinitely with brief stops for fresh horses and crew.
In addition to a carriage's obvious advantages on long trips it tended to be the most rapid form of passenger travel. In the 18th century a stagecoach on good roads when provided with fresh horses traveled at an average speed of about five miles per hour and might cover around 60 or 70 miles in a day. Post-horses would be hired from a postmaster at a post house. Sometimes, to be sure of return of the same horses, with a postilion as passenger. Unless a return hire was anticipated a postilion of a spent team was responsible for returning them to the originating post house. Stagecoaches and mail coaches were known in continental Europe as postcoaches. Common in England and continental Europe posting declined once railways provided faster transport, much more comfortable. Posting remained popular in other European countries with less developed rail networks. In a 1967 article in The Carriage Journal, published for the Carriage Association of America, Paul H Downing recounts that the word post is derived from the Latin postis which in turn derives from the word which means to place an upright timber as a convenient place to attach a public notice.
Postal and postage follow from this. Medieval couriers were caballari riders of the posts; the riders mounted fresh horses at each post on their route and rode on. Post came to be applied to the riders to the mail they carried and to the whole system. In England regular posts were set up in the 16th century; the riders of the posts carried the government’s letters. The local postmasters delivered the letters as well as providing horses to the royal couriers, they provided horses to other travellers. Beginning in the 18th century crude wagons began to be used to carry passengers between cities and towns, first within New England in 1744 between New York and Philadelphia in 1756. Travel time was reduced on this run from three days to two in 1766 with an improved coach called the Flying Machine; the first mail coaches appeared in the 18th century carrying passengers and the mails, replacing the earlier post riders on the main roads. Coachmen carried letters and money transacting business or delivering messages for their customers.
By 1829 Boston was the hub of 77 stagecoach lines. The Pioneer Stage Company ran four stages in 1864, daily and in each direction, between Sacramento and Virginia City — now the path of US-50 W. A station master lived at a home station and travellers would be supplied with meals. A swing station only provided fresh horses; the first route ran from Edinburgh to Leith. By the mid 17th century, a basic infrastructure had been put in place; this was followed by a steady proliferation of other routes around the country. By the mid 17th century a coach would depart every Monday and Thursday from London to Liverpool and, during the summer months, take about ten days to make the journey. By the end of the 17th century, stage-coach routes ran down the three main roads in England; the London-York route was advertised in 1698: Whoever is desirous of going between London and York or York and London, Let them Repair to the Black Swan in Holboorn, or the Black Swan in Coney Street, where they will be conveyed in a Stage Coach, which starts every Thursday at Five in the morning.
Stagecoaches carried bundles of bank notes. They took over the business of carrying mail and newspapers, they took businessmen about their business. At first travel by coach was regarded as effeminate for a man; the first public scheduled stagecoach service was in 1637 and long-distance coaches are believed to have begun in the 1650s. There were at least 420 stagecoach services to and from London each week in 1690, but only about a quarter of them took passengers beyond 40 miles from London. Provincial routes developed in the following century in the 1770s. There was another burst of expansion from the mid 1820s. During this time improving incomes allowed people to travel, there were more people and there was much more economic activity. Speeds improved from 5 miles per hour in the 1690s to ten miles per hour in the 1830s. Part of this was due to improved roading — see Turnpike trusts — and part to improved vehicles. Better suspension allowed coaches to remain safe. Lighter faster and better-b
Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington
Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, was an Anglo-Irish soldier and Tory statesman, one of the leading military and political figures of 19th-century Britain, serving twice as Prime Minister. His victory against Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815 puts him in the first rank of Britain's military heroes. Wellesley was born in Dublin into the Protestant Ascendancy in Ireland, he was commissioned as an ensign in the British Army in 1787, serving in Ireland as aide-de-camp to two successive Lords Lieutenant of Ireland. He was elected as a Member of Parliament in the Irish House of Commons, he was a colonel by 1796, saw action in the Netherlands and in India, where he fought in the Fourth Anglo-Mysore War at the Battle of Seringapatam. He was appointed governor of Seringapatam and Mysore in 1799 and, as a newly appointed major-general, won a decisive victory over the Maratha Confederacy at the Battle of Assaye in 1803. Wellesley rose to prominence as a general during the Peninsular campaign of the Napoleonic Wars, was promoted to the rank of field marshal after leading the allied forces to victory against the French Empire at the Battle of Vitoria in 1813.
Following Napoleon's exile in 1814, he was granted a dukedom. During the Hundred Days in 1815, he commanded the allied army which, together with a Prussian Army under Blücher, defeated Napoleon at Waterloo. Wellington's battle record is exemplary. Wellington is famous for his adaptive defensive style of warfare, resulting in several victories against numerically superior forces while minimising his own losses, he is regarded as one of the greatest defensive commanders of all time, many of his tactics and battle plans are still studied in military academies around the world. After the end of his active military career, Wellington returned to politics, he was twice British prime minister as part of the Tory party: from 1828 to 1830, for a little less than a month in 1834. He oversaw the passage of the Catholic Relief Act 1829, but opposed the Reform Act 1832, he continued as one of the leading figures in the House of Lords until his retirement and remained Commander-in-Chief of the British Army until his death.
Wellesley was born into an aristocratic Anglo-Irish family in Ireland as The Hon. Arthur Wesley, the third of five surviving sons of Anne and Garret Wesley, 1st Earl of Mornington, his mother was the eldest daughter of The 1st Viscount Dungannon. As such, he belonged to the Protestant Ascendancy, his biographers follow the same contemporary newspaper evidence in saying that he was born on 1 May 1769, the day before he was baptised. His birthplace is uncertain, he was most born at his parents' townhouse, 24 Upper Merrion Street, now the Merrion Hotel. But his mother Anne, Countess of Mornington, recalled in 1815 that he had been born at 6 Merrion Street, Dublin. Other places have been put forward as the location of his birth, including Mornington House, as his father had asserted, he spent most of his childhood at his family's two homes, the first a large house in Dublin and the second Dangan Castle, 3 miles north of Summerhill on the Trim Road in County Meath. In 1781, Arthur's father died and his eldest brother Richard inherited his father's earldom.
He went to the diocesan school in Trim when at Dangan, Mr Whyte's Academy when in Dublin, Brown's School in Chelsea when in London. He enrolled at Eton College, where he studied from 1781 to 1784, his loneliness there caused him to hate it, makes it unlikely that he said "The Battle of Waterloo was won on the playing fields of Eton", a quotation, attributed to him. Moreover, Eton had no playing fields at the time. In 1785, a lack of success at Eton, combined with a shortage of family funds due to his father's death, forced the young Wellesley and his mother to move to Brussels; until his early twenties, Arthur showed little sign of distinction and his mother grew concerned at his idleness, stating, "I don't know what I shall do with my awkward son Arthur."A year Arthur enrolled in the French Royal Academy of Equitation in Angers, where he progressed becoming a good horseman and learning French, which proved useful. Upon returning to England in late 1786, he astonished his mother with his improvement.
Despite his new promise, he had yet to find a job and his family was still short of money, so upon the advice of his mother, his brother Richard asked his friend the Duke of Rutland to consider Arthur for a commission in the Army. Soon afterward, on 7 March 1787, he was gazetted ensign in the 73rd Regiment of Foot. In October, with the assistance of his brother, he was assigned as aide-de-camp, on ten shillings a day, to the new Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Lord Buckingham, he was transferred to the new 76th Regiment forming in Ireland and on Christmas Day, 1787, was promoted lieutenant. During his time in Dublin his duties were social. While in Ireland, he overextended himself in borrowing due to his occasional gambling, but in his defence stated that "I have known what it was to be in want of money, but I have never got helplessly into debt". On 23 January 1788, he transferred into the 41st Regiment of Foot again on 25 June 1789, still a lieutenant, he transferred to the 12th Regi
Warwickshire
Warwickshire is a landlocked county in the West Midlands region of England. The county town is Warwick; the county is famous for being the birthplace of William Shakespeare. The county is divided into five districts of North Warwickshire and Bedworth, Rugby and Stratford-on-Avon; the current county boundaries were set in 1974 by the Local Government Act 1972. The historic county boundaries include Solihull, as well as much of Birmingham; the county is bordered by Leicestershire to the northeast, Staffordshire to the northwest and the West Midlands to the west, Northamptonshire to the east and southeast, Gloucestershire to the southwest and Oxfordshire to the south. The northern tip of the county is only 3 miles from the Derbyshire border. An average-sized English county covering an area of 2,000 km2, it runs some 60 miles north to south. Equivalently it extends as far north as Shrewsbury in Shropshire and as far south as Banbury in north Oxfordshire; the majority of Warwickshire's population live in the centre of the county.
The market towns of northern and eastern Warwickshire were industrialised in the 19th century, include Atherstone, Bedworth and Rugby. Of these, Atherstone has retained most of its original character. Major industries included coal mining, textiles and cement production, but heavy industry is in decline, being replaced by distribution centres, light to medium industry and services. Of the northern and eastern towns, only Nuneaton and Rugby are well known outside of Warwickshire; the prosperous towns of central and western Warwickshire including Royal Leamington Spa, Stratford-upon-Avon, Alcester and Wellesbourne harbour light to medium industries and tourism as major employment sectors. The north of the county, bordering Staffordshire and Leicestershire, is mildly undulating countryside and the northernmost village, No Man's Heath, is only 34 miles south of the Peak District National Park's southernmost point; the south of the county is rural and sparsely populated, includes a small area of the Cotswolds, at the border with northeast Gloucestershire.
The plain between the outlying Cotswolds and the Edgehill escarpment is known as the Vale of Red Horse. The only town in the south of Warwickshire is Shipston-on-Stour; the highest point in the county, at 261 m, is Ebrington Hill, again on the border with Gloucestershire, grid reference SP187426 at the county's southwest extremity. There are no cities in Warwickshire since both Coventry and Birmingham were incorporated into the West Midlands county in 1974 and are now metropolitan authorities in themselves; the largest towns in Warwickshire in 2011 were: Nuneaton, Leamington Spa, Warwick and Kenilworth. Much of western Warwickshire, including that area now forming part of Coventry and Birmingham, was covered by the ancient Forest of Arden, thus the names of a number of places in the central-western part of Warwickshire end with the phrase "-in-Arden", such as Henley-in-Arden, Hampton-in-Arden and Tanworth-in-Arden. The remaining area, not part of the forest, was called the Felden – from fielden.
Areas part of Warwickshire include Coventry, Sutton Coldfield and some of Birmingham including Aston and Edgbaston. These became part of the metropolitan county of West Midlands following local government re-organisation in 1974. In 1986 the West Midlands County Council was abolished and Birmingham and Solihull became effective unitary authorities, however the West Midlands county name has not been altogether abolished, still exists for ceremonial purposes, so the town and two cities remain outside Warwickshire; some organisations, such as Warwickshire County Cricket Club, based in Edgbaston, in Birmingham, still observe the historic county boundaries. The flag of the historic county was registered in October 2016, it is a design of a bear and ragged staff on a red field, long associated with the county. Coventry is in the centre of the Warwickshire area, still has strong ties with the county. Coventry and Warwickshire are sometimes treated as a single area and share a single Chamber of Commerce and BBC Local Radio Station.
Coventry has been a part of Warwickshire for only some of its history. In 1451 Coventry was separated from Warwickshire and made a county corporate in its own right, called the County of the City of Coventry. In 1842 the county of Coventry was abolished and Coventry was remerged with Warwickshire. In recent times, there have been calls to formally re-introduce Coventry into Warwickshire, although nothing has yet come of this; the county's population would increase by a third-of-a-million overnight should this occur, Coventry being the UK's 11th largest city. The town of Tamworth was divided between Warwickshire and Staffordshire, but since 1888 has been in Staffordshire. In 1931, Warwickshire gained the town of Shipston-on-Stour from Worcestershire and several villages, including Long Marston and Welford-on-Avon, from Gloucestershire. Warwickshire contains a large expanse of green belt area, surrounding the West Midlands and Coventry conurbations, was first drawn up from the 1950s. All the county's districts contain some portion of the belt.
The following towns and villages in Warwickshire have populations of over 5,000. Warwickshire came into being as a divisio
England
England is a country, part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to Scotland to the north-northwest; the Irish Sea lies west of England and the Celtic Sea lies to the southwest. England is separated from continental Europe by the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south; the country covers five-eighths of the island of Great Britain, which lies in the North Atlantic, includes over 100 smaller islands, such as the Isles of Scilly and the Isle of Wight. The area now called England was first inhabited by modern humans during the Upper Palaeolithic period, but takes its name from the Angles, a Germanic tribe deriving its name from the Anglia peninsula, who settled during the 5th and 6th centuries. England became a unified state in the 10th century, since the Age of Discovery, which began during the 15th century, has had a significant cultural and legal impact on the wider world; the English language, the Anglican Church, English law – the basis for the common law legal systems of many other countries around the world – developed in England, the country's parliamentary system of government has been adopted by other nations.
The Industrial Revolution began in 18th-century England, transforming its society into the world's first industrialised nation. England's terrain is chiefly low hills and plains in central and southern England. However, there is upland and mountainous terrain in the west; the capital is London, which has the largest metropolitan area in both the United Kingdom and the European Union. England's population of over 55 million comprises 84% of the population of the United Kingdom concentrated around London, the South East, conurbations in the Midlands, the North West, the North East, Yorkshire, which each developed as major industrial regions during the 19th century; the Kingdom of England – which after 1535 included Wales – ceased being a separate sovereign state on 1 May 1707, when the Acts of Union put into effect the terms agreed in the Treaty of Union the previous year, resulting in a political union with the Kingdom of Scotland to create the Kingdom of Great Britain. In 1801, Great Britain was united with the Kingdom of Ireland to become the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.
In 1922 the Irish Free State seceded from the United Kingdom, leading to the latter being renamed the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. The name "England" is derived from the Old English name Englaland, which means "land of the Angles"; the Angles were one of the Germanic tribes that settled in Great Britain during the Early Middle Ages. The Angles came from the Anglia peninsula in the Bay of Kiel area of the Baltic Sea; the earliest recorded use of the term, as "Engla londe", is in the late-ninth-century translation into Old English of Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English People. The term was used in a different sense to the modern one, meaning "the land inhabited by the English", it included English people in what is now south-east Scotland but was part of the English kingdom of Northumbria; the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle recorded that the Domesday Book of 1086 covered the whole of England, meaning the English kingdom, but a few years the Chronicle stated that King Malcolm III went "out of Scotlande into Lothian in Englaland", thus using it in the more ancient sense.
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, its modern spelling was first used in 1538. The earliest attested reference to the Angles occurs in the 1st-century work by Tacitus, Germania, in which the Latin word Anglii is used; the etymology of the tribal name itself is disputed by scholars. How and why a term derived from the name of a tribe, less significant than others, such as the Saxons, came to be used for the entire country and its people is not known, but it seems this is related to the custom of calling the Germanic people in Britain Angli Saxones or English Saxons to distinguish them from continental Saxons of Old Saxony between the Weser and Eider rivers in Northern Germany. In Scottish Gaelic, another language which developed on the island of Great Britain, the Saxon tribe gave their name to the word for England. An alternative name for England is Albion; the name Albion referred to the entire island of Great Britain. The nominally earliest record of the name appears in the Aristotelian Corpus the 4th-century BC De Mundo: "Beyond the Pillars of Hercules is the ocean that flows round the earth.
In it are two large islands called Britannia. But modern scholarly consensus ascribes De Mundo not to Aristotle but to Pseudo-Aristotle, i.e. it was written in the Graeco-Roman period or afterwards. The word Albion or insula Albionum has two possible origins, it either derives from a cognate of the Latin albus meaning white, a reference to the white cliffs of Dover or from the phrase the "island of the Albiones" in the now lost Massaliote Periplus, attested through Avienus' Ora Maritima to which the former served as a source. Albion is now applied to England in a more poetic capacity. Another romantic name for England is Loegria, related to the Welsh word for England and made popular by its use in Arthurian legend; the earliest known evidence of human presence in the area now known as England was that of Homo antecessor, dating to approximate
