Wallace Arnold
Wallace Arnold was one of the UKs largest holiday motorcoach tour operators. Wallace Arnold was founded in 1912 and was named after its founders Wallace Cunningham, in February 1969, the Evan Evans tour business in London was purchased. In the late 1970s, Wallace Arnold commenced operating services under the Euroways banner to Europe, by 1980 it operated 290 coaches from its headquarters in Leeds, and owned a subsidiary based in Devon. It left after a year and briefly ran its own service from London to Torbay, the business was owned by the Barr & Wallace Arnold Trust. In 1997, Wallace Arnold was sold to 3i, in April 2005, Wallace Arnold merged with Shearings to become WA Shearings. In 2007 the Wallace Arnold name was dropped and now the company is known as Shearings Holidays, the merger included eight travel shops in Yorkshire, rebranded from Wallace Arnold Travel to WA Shearings. These kept the WA Shearings name until 2010, when they reverted to their original Wallace Arnold Travel name, Wallace Arnold was the largest operator of the Bedford VAL3 axle coach.
After becoming a large Leyland Leopard and Volvo B58 customer, in years it standardised on Volvo B10M and Volvo B12Ms, mostly with Jonckheere. Wallace Arnold Days Roger Davis Ian Allan 2010 ISBN9780711034389 Flickr gallery
Setra
Setra is a German bus division of EvoBus GmbH, itself a wholly owned subsidiary of the Daimler AG. The name Setra comes from selbsttragend and this refers to the integral nature of the construction of the vehicles back in the 1950s when competitor vehicles still featured a separate chassis and body. It is possible that, with an eye to export markets, the company was mindful that for non-German speakers, until 1995 the firm operated under the name Kässbohrer-Setra, but in that year economic difficulties enforced its sale to Daimler Benz. Since 1995, Setra has been a member of the Daimler Benz subsidiary, the first Setra bus, the Type S8, so called because it contained eight rows of seats, was introduced in April 1951 at the German Internationale Automobil-Ausstellung. It featured a body designed by Otto Kässbohrer, a concept now featured in most modern buses
Volvo B10M
The Volvo B10M was a mid-engined city bus and coach chassis manufactured by Volvo between 1978 and 2003. It succeeded the B58 and was equipped with the same 9. 6-litre horizontally mounted Volvo diesel engine mounted under the floor behind the front axle. An articulated version under the model name Volvo B10MA was offered, as was a version known as the C10M. Designed as a successor to the Volvo B58, a portion of B10M chassis were built in Sweden. The B10M was one of the chassis in the United Kingdom throughout the 1980s and 1990s. Having originally been produced only as a chassis, the B10M was made available as a city bus. It was available as B10M-46, B10M-50, B10M-55, B10M-60, B10M-62, B10M-65 and B10M-70, many bodybuilders did however shorten or extend the chassis to fit their needs. No than 1981 a tri-axle chassis was introduced, available as B10M-50B, B10M-55B, B10M-60B, B10M-65B and B10M-70B, a double-decker version of the B10M was developed for Strathclyde PTE in 1981. It was launched in early 1982, with an engine from the coach.
Eastern Scottish and Fife Scottish bought many of early versions in 1985-1987. Two were exported in 1984, one of them to Singapore Bus Service and the other to Kowloon Motor Bus, the Citybus lasted until the end of B10M production but fell out of favour after Volvo re-engineered the Leyland Olympian as the Volvo Olympian in 1993. The B9M was launched in 1982 as a light-weight, stripped-down and it was available as B9M-46, B9M-50, B9M-55 and B9M-60. Although technically not a successor to the B57, it more or less the same place in the markets where it was available. The B9M had the same 9. 6-litre engine as the B10M and it sold well in the Nordic countries, with the exception of Denmark, where only a few were sold. The model was available at least past 1996, in the United Kingdom, the B9M-46 was sold as a shorter 9.5 to 9.7 metre version of the B10M from 1985. From 1984, a RHD version of the B10M-55B was available as the B10M-T, in 1984, Swiss bodybuilder Ramseier & Jenzer collaborated with Volvo to unveil a semi-integral coach known as the C10M, with the engine in the middle of the chassis.
Production of the C10M was ended in 1987, but the position of the engine was available as an option. Coach operators National Express, Parks of Hamilton and Wallace Arnold all purchased large quanties of B10Ms, in the 1990s, Stagecoach standardised on the bus version of the B10M as their full-size single decker
Southport
Southport is a large seaside town in Merseyside, England. At the 2001 census, it had a population of 90,336, Southport lies on the Irish Sea coast and is fringed to the north by the Ribble estuary. The town is 16.7 miles north of Liverpool and 14.8 miles southwest of Preston. Historically part of Lancashire, the town was founded in 1792 when William Sutton, at that time, the area, known as South Hawes, was sparsely populated and dominated by sand dunes. At the turn of the 19th century, the area popular with tourists due to the easy access from the nearby Leeds. The rapid growth of Southport largely coincided with the Industrial Revolution, extensive sand dunes stretch for several miles between Birkdale and Woodvale to the south of the town. The Ainsdale sand dunes have been designated as a nature reserve. Local fauna include the Natterjack toad and the Sand lizard, the town contains examples of Victorian architecture and town planning, on Lord Street and elsewhere. A particular feature of the town is the tree planting.
This was one of the conditions required by the Hesketh family when they made available for development in the 19th century. Hesketh Park at the end of the town is named after them. Southport today is one of the most popular seaside resorts in the UK. It hosts various events, including an air show on and over the beach. The town is at the centre of Englands Golf Coast and has hosted the Open Championship at the Royal Birkdale Golf Club, there have been settlements in the area now comprising Southport since the Domesday Book, and some parts of the town have names of Viking origin. Roman coins have found at Halsall Moss and Crossens, although the Romans never settled southwest Lancashire. The first real evidence of a settlement here is in the Domesday Book. The name is derived from Oddrgrimir meaning the son of Grimm and is linked to the Old Norse word melr meaning sandbank, the Domesday Book states that there were 50 huts in Otergimele, housing a population of 200. The alluvium provided fertile land and the river itself stocks of fish
Oldham
Oldham /ˈɒldəm/ is a town in Greater Manchester, amid the Pennines between the rivers Irk and Medlock,5.3 miles south-southeast of Rochdale and 6.9 miles northeast of Manchester. Together with several surrounding towns, it is part of the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham, population 230,800 as of 2015. Historically in Lancashire, and with little early history to speak of and it was a boomtown of the Industrial Revolution, and among the first ever industrialised towns, rapidly becoming one of the most important centres of cotton and textile industries in England. At its zenith, it was the most productive cotton spinning mill town in the world, producing more cotton than France, Oldhams textile industry fell into decline in the mid-20th century, the towns last mill closed in 1998. The demise of textile processing in Oldham depressed the local economy, today Oldham is a predominantly residential town, and a centre for further education and the performing arts. It is, still distinguished architecturally by the cotton mills.
The town has a population of 103,544 and an area of around 26 square miles, the toponymy of Oldham seems to imply old village or place from Eald signifying oldness or antiquity, and Ham a house, farm or hamlet. Oldham is however known to be a derivative of Aldehulme, undoubtedly an Old Norse name and it is believed to be derived from the Old English ald combined with the Old Norse holmi or holmr, meaning promontory or outcrop, possibly describing the towns hilltop position. It has alternatively been suggested that it may mean holm or hulme of a farmer named Alda, the name is understood to date from 865, during the period of the Danelaw. Evidence of Roman and Celtic activity is confirmed by an ancient Roman road, nearby Chadderton is pre-Anglo-Saxon in origin, from the Old Welsh cadeir, itself deriving from the Latin cathedra meaning chair. Although not mentioned in the Domesday Book, Oldham does appear in documents from the Middle Ages, invariably recorded as territory under the control of minor ruling families.
In the 13th century, Oldham was documented as a manor held from the Crown by a family surnamed Oldham, by 1756, Oldham had emerged as centre of the hatting industry in England. The rough felt used in the process is the origin of the term Owdham Roughyed a nickname for people from Oldham. The climate and topography of Oldham were unrelenting constraints upon the social, at 700 feet above sea level and with no major river or visible natural resources, Oldham had poor geographic attributes compared with other settlements for investors and their engineers. Within a year,11 other mills had been constructed, Oldhams small local population was greatly increased by the mass migration of workers from outlying villages, resulting in a population increase from just over 12,000 in 1801 to 137,000 in 1901. The speed of this urban growth meant that Oldham, with little pre-industrial history to speak of, was born as a factory town. Oldham became the manufacturing centre for cotton spinning in the second half of the 19th century.
In 1851, over 30% of Oldhams population was employed within the textile sector, in 1871, Oldham had more spindles than any country in the world except the United States, and in 1909, was spinning more cotton than France and Germany combined
Leyland Tiger
The Leyland Tiger, known as the B43, was a mid-engined bus and coach chassis manufactured by Leyland between 1981 and 1992. This name had previously used for a front-engined bus built between 1927 and 1968. It replaced the Leyland Leopard, which had been in production for over 20 years, the Leyland Tiger was released in 1981. Initially only one engine was offered, the turbocharged Leyland TL11, faced with this possibility, Leyland offered Gardner 6HLX-series engines in the Tiger from 1984. To facilitate this, the Tiger chassis had to be modified, although the threat from the Dorchester was successfully warded off, there proved to be a limited market for the Gardner-engined Tiger outside of Scottish Bus Group. A North American engine, the Cummins L10, was made an option by 1987. The Cummins engine was being specified more often from around 1988, and with this engine, Volvo took over Leyland in 1988, and from 1989 the Tiger was offered with the Volvo THD100-series engine. The large majority of Volvo-engined Tigers went to Northern Ireland, at around this time, the TL11 and Gardner options were dropped, leaving only the Cummins and Volvo options available.
Like the Leopard, the Tiger was sold as a bus, usually it would have a downrated engine, and leaf springs in place of the standard air suspension. The Scottish Bus Group bought batches of Tigers usually with Alexander TS-type bodywork and it was popular with National Bus Company subsidiaries. Shearings purchased many Tigers for use as coaches, the Tiger proved to be very popular in Northern Ireland, with Ulsterbus and Citybus purchasing 747 between 1983 and 1993. The very last Tiger to enter service did so in Northern Ireland in August 1993, the Tiger was popular in Australia. The biggest customer for the Tiger was Ventura Bus Lines, Melbourne who purchased 65 Tigers over a period from March 1984. Another large purchaser was North & Western Bus Lines, premier Illawarra, Rover Motors, Surfside Buslines, Gold Coast and Thompsons Bus Service, Brisbane all built up large fleets of new and second hand Tigers. A number of chassis were bodied as coaches. The last Tiger to be bodied in Australia had been imported in 1984, at least one articulated chassis was built, being bodied by Superior in Australia in June 1987.
Leyland Bus was acquired by in a management buyout led by Ian McKinnon in January 1987, just over 12 months in March 1988 Volvo purchased the business, bringing the United Kingdoms two best-selling coaches, the Leyland Tiger and Volvo B10M, under common ownership. Volvo was aware that Leyland had a following, and that the Tiger had a good reputation
National Bus Company (UK)
The National Bus Company was a nationalised bus company that operated in England and Wales between 1969 and 1988. NBC did not run itself, but was the owner of a number of regional subsidiary bus operating companies. Following the Labour Party victory at the 1966 general election, Barbara Castle was appointed Minister for Transport, Castle immediately ordered a review of public transport, with a view to formulating a new transport policy. Among the issues to be tackled were the ownership and operation of bus services, the state owned a considerable proportion of scheduled bus operators outside the major cities, having obtained the Tilling Group companies in 1948 as a byproduct of nationalising the railways. The Tilling Group was subsequently placed under the ownership of the nationalised Transport Holding Company, London Transport was nationalised in 1948 and others voluntarily aquiesced, such as Red & White in 1950. When the Labour Party suddenly lost power to the Conservatives in 1951, however, in November 1967 British Electric Traction unexpectedly offered to sell its bus operations to the government. BET, who had been the major private bus operating group.
The deal meant that the state or municipal bus operators now operated some 90% of scheduled bus services in England, instead of forming the regional authorities, the government published a white paper proposing the merger of the THC and BET organisations into a single National Bus Company. The recommendations of the paper formed part of the Transport Act 1968. The 1968 Act reorganised the already nationalised bus operation in Scotland, the National Bus Company was formed on 1 January 1969. Buses were operated by locally managed subsidiary companies, with their own fleetnames and liveries, in the early years of the company, there was some rationalisation, generally leading to the amalgamation of operators into larger units and the transfer of areas between them. One was the merging of Aldershot & District with Thames Valley on 1 January 1972, another example was the transfer of the land-locked Trowbridge operations from Western National to Bristol Omnibus in 1970. Following the appointment of Fred Wood as chairman in 1972, NBC introduced corporate images, henceforward its coaches were branded as National Travel and painted in unrelieved white, with the NBC logo and the NATIONAL name in alternate red & blue letters.
The services were rebranded as National Express soon afterwards, the addition of blue and white stripes appeared in 1978. The coaches were managed by a few areas and included travel agent booking offices based at major bus stations, a hub and spoke system operated with the main hub at Cheltenham. Around the same time the company launched a number of UK holiday services under the banner National Holidays. This brand and its travel agent booking offices existed until the mid-1990s when the coach holiday division closed, although NBC operated throughout England and Wales, it was not a monopoly. The NBC inherited from the Transport Holding Company 75% shareholdings in chassis manufacturer Bristol Commercial Vehicles, in 1969 NBC formed a joint venture with British Leyland, by means of which British Leyland became a 50% owner of the NBCs manufacturing companies
Blackburn
Blackburn /ˈblækbərn/ is a large town in Lancashire, England. It lies to the north of the West Pennine Moors on the edge of the Ribble Valley,9 miles east of Preston,20.9 miles NNW of Manchester and 9 miles north of the Greater Manchester border. Blackburn is bounded to the south by Darwen, with which it forms the unitary authority of Blackburn with Darwen, Blackburn is its administrative centre. At the time of the UK Governments 2001 census, Blackburn had a population of 105,085, Blackburn had a population of 106,537 in 2011, a slight increase since 2001. Blackburn is made up of fifteen wards in the Northeast of the surrounding borough, a former mill town, textiles have been produced in Blackburn since the middle of the 13th century, when wool was woven in peoples houses in the domestic system. Flemish weavers who settled in the area during the 14th century helped to develop the woollen cottage industry, Blackburn was a boomtown of the Industrial Revolution and amongst the first industrialised towns in the world.
Blackburn has had significant investment and redevelopment since 1958 through government funding, Blackburn was recorded in the Domesday Book as Blacheborne in 1086. The origins of the name are uncertain and it has been suggested that it may be a combination of an Old English word for bleach, together with a form of the word burn, meaning stream, and may be associated with a bleaching process. Alternatively, the name of the town may mean black burn. There is little evidence of settlement in the Blakewater valley. Evidence of activity in the form of two urn burials has been discovered from the Bronze Age in the hills around Blackburn. In 1879, an urn was discovered at a tumulus at Revidge, north of the town, another was excavated in 1996 at Pleasington Cemetery, west of the town. The presence of a sacred spring—perhaps in use during the Iron Age—provides evidence of activity in the town centre. Blackburn is located where a Roman military road crossed the river Blakewater, the road linked Bremetennacum Veteranorum and Mamucium.
The route of the road passed east of Blackburn Cathedral and probably crossed the river in the Salford neighbourhood just east of the town centre. It is not clear whether the road predated the settlement, christianity is believed to have come to Blackburn by the end of the 6th century, perhaps in 596 as there is a record of a church of Blagbourne in that year, or 598 AD. The town was important during the Anglo-Saxon era when the Blackburnshire Hundred came into existence as a division of the kingdom of Northumbria. The name of the town appears in the Domesday Book as Blachebourne, archaeological evidence from the demolition of the medieval parish church on the site of the cathedral in 1820 suggests that a church was built during the late 11th or early 12th century
London
London /ˈlʌndən/ is the capital and most populous city of England and the United Kingdom. Standing on the River Thames in the south east of the island of Great Britain and it was founded by the Romans, who named it Londinium. Londons ancient core, the City of London, largely retains its 1. 12-square-mile medieval boundaries. London is a global city in the arts, education, fashion, healthcare, professional services and development, tourism. It is crowned as the worlds largest financial centre and has the fifth- or sixth-largest metropolitan area GDP in the world, London is a world cultural capital. It is the worlds most-visited city as measured by international arrivals and has the worlds largest city airport system measured by passenger traffic, London is the worlds leading investment destination, hosting more international retailers and ultra high-net-worth individuals than any other city. Londons universities form the largest concentration of education institutes in Europe. In 2012, London became the first city to have hosted the modern Summer Olympic Games three times, London has a diverse range of people and cultures, and more than 300 languages are spoken in the region.
Its estimated mid-2015 municipal population was 8,673,713, the largest of any city in the European Union, Londons urban area is the second most populous in the EU, after Paris, with 9,787,426 inhabitants at the 2011 census. The citys metropolitan area is the most populous in the EU with 13,879,757 inhabitants, the city-region therefore has a similar land area and population to that of the New York metropolitan area. London was the worlds most populous city from around 1831 to 1925, Other famous landmarks include Buckingham Palace, the London Eye, Piccadilly Circus, St Pauls Cathedral, Tower Bridge, Trafalgar Square, and The Shard. The London Underground is the oldest underground railway network in the world, the etymology of London is uncertain. It is an ancient name, found in sources from the 2nd century and it is recorded c.121 as Londinium, which points to Romano-British origin, and hand-written Roman tablets recovered in the city originating from AD 65/70-80 include the word Londinio. The earliest attempted explanation, now disregarded, is attributed to Geoffrey of Monmouth in Historia Regum Britanniae and this had it that the name originated from a supposed King Lud, who had allegedly taken over the city and named it Kaerlud.
From 1898, it was accepted that the name was of Celtic origin and meant place belonging to a man called *Londinos. The ultimate difficulty lies in reconciling the Latin form Londinium with the modern Welsh Llundain, which should demand a form *lōndinion, from earlier *loundiniom. The possibility cannot be ruled out that the Welsh name was borrowed back in from English at a date, and thus cannot be used as a basis from which to reconstruct the original name. Until 1889, the name London officially applied only to the City of London, two recent discoveries indicate probable very early settlements near the Thames in the London area
North Wales
North Wales is the northernmost unofficial region of Wales. Retail and educational infrastructure are centred on Wrexham, Colwyn Bay and Bangor. It is bordered to the south by the counties of Ceredigion and Powys in Mid Wales, the southern boundary is arbitrary and its definition may depend on the use being made of the term. For example, the boundary of North Wales Police differs from the boundary of the North Wales area of the Natural Resources Wales, montgomeryshire is sometimes referred to as being in north Wales. The region is steeped in history and was for almost a millennium known as the Kingdom of Gwynedd, the mountainous stronghold of Snowdonia formed the nucleus of that realm and would become the last redoubt of independent Wales — only overcome in 1283. To this day it remains a stronghold of the Welsh language, the area is home to two of the three UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Wales. These are Pontcysyllte Aqueduct and canal and, the Edwardian castles and town walls of the region which comprise those at Caernarfon, Beaumaris and Harlech.
It shares with Powys and Ceredigion the distinction of hosting the only UNESCO Biosphere reserve in Wales, the area is mostly rural with many mountains and valleys. This, in combination with its coast, has ensured that tourism is the principal industry, which was once the principal economic force in the area, is now much reduced in importance. The average income per capita of the population is the lowest in the UK. The eastern part of North Wales contains the most populous areas, with more than 300,000 people living in the areas around Wrexham, Wrexham is North Wales largest town, with a population of 63,084 in 2001. The total population of North Wales is 687,937, the majority of other settlements are along the coast, including some popular resort towns, such as Rhyl and Pwllheli. The A55 road links these towns to cities like Manchester and Birmingham, the highest mountain in Wales, Snowdon, is situated in north west Wales. North Wales has a diverse and complex geology with Precambrian schists along the Menai Strait.
To the east, around Llangollen, to the north on Halkyn Mountain, added to all this are the complexities posed by Parys Mountain and the outcrops of unusual minerals such as Jasper and Mona Marble which make the area of special interest to geologists. North Wales has a regional identity. Colloquially, a person from North Wales is known as a North Walian, areas close to the border with Cheshire can have Scouse accents of English, and along the coast Manchester accents are common. Two daily newspapers are published in the region, a weekly Welsh-language newspaper, Y Cymro is published each week by the Cambrian News from its Porthmadog office alongside two localised Welsh titles, Y Cyfnod and Y Dydd
John o' Groats
John o Groats is a village lying 2.5 miles NE of the village of Canisbay, Caithness, in the far north of Scotland. It is not quite the most northerly point on the island of Britain, John o Groats is 690 miles from London,280 miles from Edinburgh,6 miles from the Orkney Isles and 2,200 miles from the North Pole. It is 4.25 miles from the island of Stroma. A passenger ferry operates from John o Groats to Burwick on South Ronaldsay in Orkney, the settlement takes its name from Jan de Groot, a Dutchman who once plied a ferry from the Scottish mainland to Orkney, which had recently been acquired from Norway by King James IV. Local legend has that the o Groats refers to Johns charge of one groat for use of his ferry, people from John o Groats are known as Groaters. The name John o Groats has a particular resonance because it is used as a starting or ending point for cycles and charitable events to. The phrase Lands End to John o Groats is frequently both as a literal journey and as a metaphor for great or all-encompassing distance, similar to the American phrase coast to coast.
In 2007, the population of John o Groats was about 300, the village is dispersed but has a linear centre with council housing, sports park and a shop which is on the main road from the nearest town of Wick. John o Groats attracts large numbers of tourists all across the world all year round. 2013 however saw the completion of redevelopment work which hopes to revitalise the area. With the re-opening of the Hotel, a new permanent sign was erected, John o Groats has two football clubs, John o Groats and John O Groats Juniors. John o Groats FC is a team which plays in the top flight of Caithness Amateur Football. They have the distinction of being the most northerly clubs on the island of Great Britain, the John O Groats Juniors Under 15s of 2012 were regarded as the best in the county and best ever junior Groats side. The John o Groats House Hotel was built on or near the site of Jan de Groots house and was established in 1875 and it has been described by Highlands and Islands Labour MSP Rhoda Grant as one of the UKs most famous landmarks.
It was closed for years and fell into disrepair until undergoing a radical transformation by Edinburgh-based architects GLM for self-catering holiday specialists Natural Retreats. It reopened for business in August 2013, each came in by this contrivance at his own door, and sat at an octagon table, at which, of course, there was no chief place or head
Isle of Wight
The Isle of Wight /ˈaɪl əv ˈwaɪt/ is a county and the largest and second-most populous island in England. It is located in the English Channel, about 4 miles off the coast of Hampshire, the island has resorts that have been holiday destinations since Victorian times, and is known for its mild climate, coastal scenery, and verdant landscape of fields and chines. The island has been home to the poets Swinburne and Tennyson and to Queen Victoria and it has a maritime and industrial tradition including boat building, sail making, the manufacture of flying boats, the hovercraft, and Britains space rockets. The island hosts annual festivals including the Isle of Wight Festival. It has well-conserved wildlife and some of the richest cliffs and quarries for dinosaur fossils in Europe, the Isle was owned by a Norman family until 1293 and was earlier a kingdom in its own right. Rural for most of its history, its Victorian fashionability and the affordability of holidays led to significant urban development during the late 19th.
The island was part of Hampshire until 1890 when it became its own administrative county, apart from a shared police force, there is now no administrative link with Hampshire, although a combined local authority with Portsmouth and Southampton is being considered. Until 1995 the island had a governor, the quickest public transport link to the mainland is the hovercraft from Ryde to Southsea, while three ferry and two catamaran services cross the Solent to Southampton and Portsmouth. During the Ice Age, sea levels were lower and the Solent was part of a river flowing south east from current day Poole Harbour towards mid-Channel. As sea levels rose, the valley became flooded. The first inhabitants are assumed to have been hunter-gatherers migrating by land during the Paleolithic or Old Stone Age period, as the ice age began to recede. From the Neolithic era onwards, there are indications that the island had wide trading links, with a port at Bouldnor, evidence of Bronze Age tin trading, caesar reported that the Belgae took the Isle of Wight in about 85 BC and gave its name as Vectis.
The Roman historian Suetonius mentions that the island was captured by the commander Vespasian, the Romans built no towns or roads on the island, but the remains of at least seven Roman villas have been found, indicating the prosperity of local agriculture. During the Dark Ages the island was settled by Jutes as the kingdom of Wihtwara under King Arwald. In 685 it was invaded by Caedwalla, who tried to replace the inhabitants with his own followers and it suffered especially from Viking raids, and was often used as a winter base by Viking raiders when they were unable to reach Normandy. Later, both Earl Tostig and his brother Harold Godwinson held manors on the island, the Norman Conquest of 1066 created the position of Lord of the Isle of Wight, the island being given by William the Conqueror to his kinsman William FitzOsbern. Carisbrooke Priory and the fort of Carisbrooke Castle were founded, allegiance was sworn to FitzOsbern rather than the king, the Lordship was subsequently granted to the de Redvers family by Henry I, after his succession in 1100.
For nearly 200 years the island was a semi-independent feudal fiefdom, the final private owner was the Countess Isabella de Fortibus, who, on her deathbed in 1293, was persuaded to sell it to Edward I
_581_YJ03VOM_(9123873295).jpg)
Media related to Shearings at Wikimedia Commons
