Canal de la Somme
The Canal de la Somme is a canal in northern France. Its total length is 156.4 km with 25 locks, from the English Channel at Saint-Valéry-sur-Somme to the Canal de Saint-Quentin at Saint-Simon. The Somme River was canalized beginning in 1770; the 54 km section from St. Simon to Bray was completed by 1772, but the rest was not finished until 1843; the canal as built has seen substantial modifications since construction of the Canal du Nord in 1904-1965, is now made up of four distinct sections: 14.2 km and 1 lock from Saint-Valery-sur-Somme to Abbeville 105.3 km and 18 locks from Abbeville to Péronne 20.3 km with 2 locks the section upgraded as part of the Canal du Nord 16.4 km and 4 locks from Voyennes to Saint-Simon, closed upstream from Offoy since 2004. Some authors distinguish the Grande Somme downstream from Péronne and the Petite Somme upstream from Voyennes. Since 2005 the latter section has been closed to navigation as a result of silt deposits. In the 1960s, more than 300,000 tonnes of goods were transported on the canal.
Today it is used by pleasure boats. PK 156 Saint-Valéry-sur-Somme PK 141 Abbeville PK 92 Amiens PK 34 Péronne PK 16 Voyennes PK 0 Saint-Simon List of canals in France Canal de la Somme information on places and moorings on the canal, by the author of Inland Waterways of France, ImrayNavigation details for 80 French rivers and canals
Selle
The Selle is a river of Picardy, France. Rising at Catheux, just north of Crèvecœur-le-Grand, Oise, it flows past Conty, Salouël and Pont-de-Metz before joining the Somme River at Amiens. In many places along its course, the river widens to form or fill lakes, much appreciated by anglers and gravel extractors. Several water-powered mills can still be seen including a paper-mill at Prouzel. Brown trout thrive in the clear waters of the river. In 57 BC, the Selle was the site of the Battle of the Sabis between Julius Caesar and the Nervians and Viromandui. In World War I, during the Hundred Days Offensive of 1918, the German Army had taken up positions along the Selle near Le Cateau. General Rawlinson's Fourth Army spent two weeks preparing to assault these positions; the attack was launched on the night of 17 October when the river was crossed in foggy conditions and continued until the Germans were forced to retire on 20 October. The action is known as the Battle of the Selle. Page about the Selle on the website of the Canton de Conty Banque Hydro - Station E6426010 - La Selle à Plachy-Buyon http://www.geoportail.fr The Selle at the Sandre database This article is based on the equivalent article from the French Wikipedia, consulted on February 20, 2008
Battle of Blanchetaque
The Battle of Blanchetaque was fought on 24 August 1346 between an English army under King Edward III and a French force commanded by Godemar du Fay. The battle was part of the 1346 chevauchée of Edward III, which took place during the early stages of the Hundred Years' War; the English army had landed in the Cotentin Peninsula on 12 July. It had burnt a path of destruction through some of the richest lands in France to within 20 miles of Paris, sacking a number of towns on the way; the English marched north, hoping to link up with an allied Flemish army which had invaded from Flanders. They were out-manoeuvred by the French King, Philip VI, who garrisoned all of the bridges and fords over the River Somme and followed the English with his own field army; the area had been stripped of food stocks by the French and the English were trapped. Hearing of a ford at Blanchetaque, 10 miles from the sea, Edward marched for it and encountered the blocking force under Fay. Once the ebbing tide had lowered the water level, a force of English longbowmen marched part way across the ford, standing in the water, engaged a force of mercenary crossbowmen, whose fire they were able to suppress.
A French cavalry force attempted to push back the longbowmen, but were in turn attacked by English knights. After a disorderly melee in the river, the French were pushed back, more English troops were fed into the fight and the French broke and fled. French casualties were reported as over half of their force. Two days after Blanchetaque, the main French army under Philip was defeated at the Battle of Crécy with heavy loss of life. Edward ended the campaign by laying siege to Calais, which fell after twelve months, securing an English entrepôt into northern France, held for two hundred years. Since the Norman Conquest of 1066, English monarchs had held titles and lands within France, the possession of which made them vassals of the kings of France; the status of the English king's French fiefs was a major source of conflict between the two monarchies throughout the Middle Ages. Over the centuries, English holdings in France had varied in size, but by 1337 only Gascony in south western France and Ponthieu in northern France were left.
Following a series of disagreements between Philip VI of France and Edward III of England, on 24 May 1337 Philip's Great Council in Paris agreed that the Duchy of Aquitaine Gascony, should be taken back into Philip's hands on the grounds that Edward was in breach of his obligations as a vassal. This marked the start of the Hundred Years' War, to last 116 years. Edward determined early in 1345 to attack France on three fronts: a small force would sail for Brittany. In early 1345, the French anticipated that the English planned to make their main effort in northern France, thus they directed what resources they had to there, planning to assemble their main army at Arras on 22 July. South western France and Brittany were encouraged to rely on their own resources. Edward's main army sailed on 29 June 1345, it anchored off Sluys in Flanders until 22 July. When it sailed intending to land in Normandy, it was scattered by a storm and individual ships found their way to various English ports over the following week.
After more than five weeks on board ship the men and horses had to be disembarked. There was a further week's delay while the King and his council debated what to do, by which time it proved impossible to take any action with the main English army before winter. Aware of this, Philip VI despatched reinforcements to Gascony. During 1345, Derby led a whirlwind campaign through Gascony at the head of an Anglo-Gascon army, he defeated two large French armies at the battles of Bergerac and Auberoche, captured French towns and fortifications in much of Périgord and most of Agenais and gave the English possessions in Gascony strategic depth. John, Duke of Normandy, the son and heir of Philip VI, was placed in charge of all French forces in south west France. In March 1346 a French army numbering between 15,000 and 20,000, "enormously superior" to any force the Anglo-Gascons could field, including all of the military officers of the royal household, marched on Gascony, they besieged the strategically and logistically important town of Aiguillon, "the key to the Gascon plain", on 1 April.
On 2 April the arrière-ban, the formal call to arms for all able-bodied males, was announced for the south of France. French financial and manpower efforts were focused on this offensive. Meanwhile Edward was raising a fresh army in England and the largest fleet assembled by the English to that date, over 700 vessels; the French were aware of Edward's efforts, but given the extreme difficulty of disembarking an army other than at a port, the existence of friendly ports in Brittany and Gascony, the French assumed that Edward would sail for one of the latter. To guard against any possibility of an English landing in northern France, Philip relied on his powerful navy; this reliance was misplaced given the difficulty naval forces of the time had in interdicting opposing fleets, the French were unable to prevent Edward crossing the Channel. The campaign began on 11 July 1346; the fleet landed the next day at 20 miles from Cherbourg. The English army is estimated by modern historians to have been some 15,000 strong and consisted of both English a
Silt
Silt is granular material of a size between sand and clay, whose mineral origin is quartz and feldspar. Silt may occur as a soil or as sediment mixed in suspension with water and soil in a body of water such as a river, it may exist as soil deposited at the bottom of a water body, like mudflows from landslides. Silt has a moderate specific area with a non-sticky, plastic feel. Silt has a floury feel when dry, a slippery feel when wet. Silt can be visually observed with a hand lens, it can be felt by the tongue as granular when placed on the front teeth. Silt is created by a variety of physical processes capable of splitting the sand-sized quartz crystals of primary rocks by exploiting deficiencies in their lattice; these involve chemical weathering of rock and regolith, a number of physical weathering processes such as frost shattering and haloclasty. The main process is abrasion through transport, including fluvial comminution, aeolian attrition and glacial grinding, it is in semi-arid environments.
Silt is sometimes known as "rock flour" or "stone dust" when produced by glacial action. Mineralogically, silt is composed of quartz and feldspar. Sedimentary rock composed of silt is known as siltstone. Liquefaction created by a strong earthquake is silt suspended in water, hydrodynamically forced up from below ground level. In the Udden–Wentworth scale, silt particles range between 0.0039 and 0.0625 mm, larger than clay but smaller than sand particles. ISO 14688 grades silts between 0.063 mm. In actuality, silt is chemically distinct from clay, unlike clay, grains of silt are the same size in all dimensions. Clays are formed from thin plate-shaped particles held together by electrostatic forces, so present a cohesion. Pure silts are not cohesive. According to the U. S. Department of Agriculture Soil Texture Classification system, the sand–silt distinction is made at the 0.05 mm particle size. The USDA system has been adopted by the Agriculture Organization. In the Unified Soil Classification System and the AASHTO Soil Classification system, the sand–silt distinction is made at the 0.075 mm particle size.
Silts and clays are distinguished mechanically by their plasticity. Silt is transported in water or other liquid and is fine enough to be carried long distances by air in the form of dust. Thick deposits of silty material resulting from deposition by aeolian processes are called loess. Silt and clay contribute to turbidity in water. Silt is transported by water currents in the ocean; when silt appears as a pollutant in water the phenomenon is known as siltation. Silt, deposited by annual floods along the Nile River, created the rich, fertile soil that sustained the Ancient Egyptian civilization. Silt deposited by the Mississippi River throughout the 20th century has decreased due to a system of levees, contributing to the disappearance of protective wetlands and barrier islands in the delta region surrounding New Orleans. In southeast Bangladesh, in the Noakhali district, cross dams were built in the 1960s whereby silt started forming new land called "chars"; the district of Noakhali has gained more than 73 square kilometres of land in the past 50 years.
With Dutch funding, the Bangladeshi government began to help develop older chars in the late 1970s, the effort has since become a multi-agency operation building roads, embankments, cyclone shelters and ponds, as well as distributing land to settlers. By fall 2010, the program will have allotted some 100 square kilometres to 21,000 families. A main source of silt in urban rivers is disturbance of soil by construction activity. A main source in rural rivers is erosion from plowing of farm fields, clearcutting or slash and burn treatment of forests; the fertile black silt of the Nile river's banks is a symbol of rebirth, associated with the Egyptian god Anubis. Erosion control Nonpoint source pollution Sediment control Silt fence Siltation
River mouth
A river mouth is the part of a river where the river debouches into another river, a lake, a reservoir, a sea, or an ocean. The water from a river can enter the receiving body in a variety of different ways; the motion of a river is influenced by the relative density of the river compared to the receiving water, the rotation of the earth, any ambient motion in the receiving water, such as tides or seiches. If the river water has a higher density than the surface of the receiving water, the river water will plunge below the surface; the river water will either form an underflow or an interflow within the lake. However, if the river water is lighter than the receiving water, as is the case when fresh river water flows into the sea, the river water will float along the surface of the receiving water as an overflow. Alongside these advective transports, inflowing water will diffuse. At the mouth of a river, the change in flow condition can cause the river to drop any sediment it is carrying; this sediment deposition can generate a variety of landforms, such as deltas, sand bars and tie channels.
Many places in the United Kingdom take their names from their positions at the mouths of rivers, such as Plymouth and Great Yarmouth. Confluence River delta Estuary Liman
Ham, Somme
Ham is a commune in the Somme department in Hauts-de-France in northern France. Ham is situated on the D930 and D937 crossroads, some 21 kilometres southwest of Saint-Quentin, in the far southeast of the department, near the border with the department of the Aisne; the nearby villages of Estouilly and Saint-Sulpice joined the commune of Ham in 1965 and 1966 respectively. Mentioned for the first time in 932 as a possession of the seigneur Erard, junior member of the Counts of Ponthieu; the town was conquered by the Counts of Vermandois in the 12th century. In the 14th century it was owned by a family from Ham itself. From April 7 to June 3, 1917, Ham was home to the Lafayette Escadrille The first stone ramparts were put up in the 13th century by the local nobleman, Odon IV. In the 15th century, the château was transformed into a formidable fortress by John II of Luxembourg, Count of Ligny In 1465, John's nephew, Louis of Luxembourg, built a huge donjon, 33m high, 33m in diameter with walls 11m thick In 1917, German forces blew up much of the château.
All that remains are vestiges of the donjon and ramparts. Francis de Bourbon, Count of St. Pol, Duke of Estouteville was born at Ham in 1491 General Maximilien Sebastien Foy was born at Ham in 1775 Jacques Cassard, intrepid sailor, was imprisoned at the château of Ham from 1726 to 1740. Louis Napoleon Bonaparte, accused of plotting against the state, was imprisoned at the château of Ham from 1840 to 1846, when he escaped, disguised as a worker, carrying a plank on his shoulder. Léon Accambray, French politician Jean-Charles Peltier and meteorologist Jean-Baptiste-Henri du Trousset de Valincourt, biographer of Louis XIV Eisfeld, Germany Communes of the Somme department INSEE Ham, Official municipal website Château of Ham Article and photos about the château of Ham Ham on the Quid website
Le Crotoy
Le Crotoy is a commune in the Somme department in Hauts-de-France in northern France. The inhabitants are known as Crotellois Isabella of France, queen consort of England, her son embarked from Crotoy for Holland and England in 1326, in order to overthrow their husband and father, Edward II. During the Hundred Years' War the town was alternately under French control. Edward III stayed in Crotoy and in 1340 built a important fortress. Besieged by the English, the last French position in the Bay of the Somme, surrendered on March 1, 1424. After the Battle of Verneuil, Jean II, Duke of Alençon was interned there for three years. Joan of Arc was imprisoned there before being taken to Rouen for trial. During these troubled times, Crotoy was the place of residence of a garrison. Jacques d'Harcourt was the most famous governor: he defended Crotoy boldly and courageously against the Anglo-Burgundian armies. An eponymous street pays homage to him in the city center. During the wars of religion, Crotoy took the side of Henri de Navarre.
By an edict of 1594, Henri IV relieved the Crotellois from taxes. He stayed in the town on April 18, 1596. In 1674, under the terms of the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, the castle of Crotoy was destroyed. Le Crotoy was famous at the beginning of 20th century in the history of aviation, as the site of the Caudron brothers flying school. Le Crotoy is situated on the D143 and D71 crossroads, on the eastern side of the Baie de Somme, some 10 miles northwest of Abbeville. Today, the town is a seaside resort, it is close to Marquentera, an area with a number of lakes and habitat for flora and fauna. The beach is unusual for northern French beaches. In terms of wildlife, the bay shags; the preserved railway, the Chemin de Fer de la Baie de Somme Le port and town of Crotoy St Peter's church There are numerous restaurants in the village and it is well equipped with shops and a petrol station. Bed & Breakfast accommodation is available. Le Crotoy is one terminus of the narrow gauge "Chemin de Fer de la Baie de Somme", now a tourist attraction.
Running around the entire length of the bay, this railway connects Le Crotoy with Noyelles-sur-Mer, Saint-Valery-sur-Somme, Cayeux-sur-Mer and the sands at Brighton Plage. Main line trains to Paris take about 2 cost about 48Euro return for an adult, they run from the nearby station of Noyelles-sur-Mer, a station on the "Chemin de Fer de la Baie de Somme" narrow gauge railway. The bay of the river Somme has interesting tides in that they are both fast and have a high rise and fall. At low tide it is possible to walk across the sand and mud flats from Le Crotoy to Saint-Valery-sur-Somme. Care needs to be taken as the tides come in quickly. Fishing predominates, both for seafish and shellfish and from the coastal saltmarshes and sea-aster. Hunting and shooting, for both game and wildfowl provides food for locals and visitors alike. Sheep-rearing, on salty pastures, produces a unique flavour; the sheep of the Somme bay have been credited ‘appellation d'origine contrôlée ’. Le Crotoy has had lengthy visits from some famous figures of French history: Joan of Arc, Jules Verne, the perfumer Guerlain who has created in regard of the special shades of blue, violet which cover bay at down his well-known perfume, "L'Heure Bleue ".
Several painters as Toulouse-Lautrec, Paul Signac, Pierre Risch, the novelist Colette had been charmed by Le Crotoy. Communes of the Somme department Réseau des Bains de Mer Chemin de Fer de la Baie de Somme INSEE Picture postcards from times past Colette at Le Crotoy Site Web sur la commune de Le Crotoy Le Crotoy on the Quid website Le Crotoy, its life and history
