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114-713: Paul Boyton achieved international notice with various demonstrations of a rubber suit, which was a life saving device, similar to a type of kayak, for example, by crossing the English Channel . He travelled around the United States with an aquatic circus and in 1894 established an amusement park in Chicago . He then decided to settle in Coney Island and purchased the land behind the Elephant Hotel as

228-694: A calque , such as Canale della Manica in Italian or the Ärmelkanal in German, or a direct borrowing , such as Canal de la Mancha in Spanish. The International Hydrographic Organization defines the limits of the English Channel as: The Strait of Dover (French: Pas de Calais ), at the Channel's eastern end, is its narrowest point, while its widest point lies between Lyme Bay and

342-504: A 19.5% influx of new residents since 1991. The 2011 census government speaker targets (a 5% increase) were missed and the proportion of Welsh speakers decreased, causing much concern, from 21% in 2001 to 19% in 2011. For October 2020 to 30 September 2021, the Annual Population Survey showed that 29.5% of people aged three or older were able to speak Welsh, which equates to approximately 892,500 people. However, when

456-543: A 25 kilometres (16 mi) stretch of light steel netting called the Dover Barrage , which it was hoped would ensnare submerged submarines. After initial success, the Germans learned how to pass through the barrage, aided by the unreliability of British mines. On 31 January 1917, the Germans resumed unrestricted submarine warfare leading to dire Admiralty predictions that submarines would defeat Britain by November,

570-568: A Welsh-language television channel was not established. In early September 1980, Evans addressed thousands at a gathering in which "passions ran high", according to the historian John Davies . The government yielded by 17 September, and the Welsh Fourth Channel ( S4C ) was launched on 2 November 1982. The Welsh Language Act 1993 provided a new law for public organisations in Wales to have bilingual schemes, which would be supervised by

684-472: A ballroom (1899). By 1902, Boyton could not keep up the pace of new attraction introductions that the public craved. Boyton tried to keep the public interested by investing $ 100,000 in a revamp of Sea Lion Park during the winter of 1901, and he also purchased Topsy , a well-known elephant, early in the spring of 1902 from Forepaugh's Circus. However, the 1902 season was rainy and not profitable. The nearby Steeplechase Park had opened on Coney Island in 1897 and

798-522: A campaign to withhold licence fees. The pressure was successful, and by the mid-1930s more programmes in Welsh were broadcast, with the formal establishment of a Welsh regional broadcasting channel by 1937. However, no dedicated Welsh-language television channel would be established until 1982. According to the 1931 census, out of a population of just over 2.5 million, the percentage of Welsh speakers in Wales had dropped to 36.8%, with Anglesey recording

912-420: A community that speaks a foreign language, then you lose your indigenous tongue almost immediately". Plaid Cymru had long advocated controls on second homes, and a 2001 task force headed by Dafydd Wigley recommended that land should be allocated for affordable local housing, called for grants for locals to buy houses, and recommended that council tax on holiday homes should double, following similar measures in

1026-820: A district level, Llanfyrnach rural district in Pembrokeshire had the highest percentage of Welsh speakers at 97.5%, while Penllyn rural district in Merioneth had the highest percentage of Welsh monoglots, at 57.3%. Bethesda urban district in Caernarfonshire was the most Welsh-speaking urban district in Wales; 96.6% of the district's population could speak Welsh. The Welsh nationalist party Plaid Genedlaethol Cymru ('the National Party of Wales'; later abbreviated to Plaid Cymru, 'the Party of Wales')

1140-526: A medium of instruction in schools, many of which actively discouraged the use of Welsh using measures such as the Welsh Not . Welsh was increasingly restricted in scope to the non-conformist religious chapels, who would teach children to read and write in Sunday schools. Individuals such as Matthew Arnold championed the virtues of Welsh literature whilst simultaneously advocating the replacement of Welsh as

1254-591: A paralysis of helplessness", the Conservative Home Secretary announced in September 1979 that the government would not honour its pledge to establish a Welsh-language television channel, much to widespread anger and resentment in Wales. In early 1980 over two thousand members of Plaid Cymru pledged to go to prison rather than pay the television licence fees, and by that spring Gwynfor Evans announced his intention to go on hunger strike if

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1368-484: A permanent location for his aquatic show featuring 40 sea lions. The most popular attraction, aside from the aquatic show, was a ride called the Water Chute . The attraction, designed by Boyton and Thomas Polk, consisted of flat bottomed boat that slid down a ramp into a pool of water at the bottom. When the boat hit the pool it would skim across the surface of the pool. Boyton, a consummate showman, also publicized

1482-658: A private school named Ysgol Gymraeg yr Urdd composed of only seven children, it later became Ysgol Gymraeg Aberystwyth and now teaches over 400 children. Ysgol Glan Clwyd was opened in 1956 with 94 pupils in Rhyl , becoming the first secondary school with a formal remit to teach through the medium of Welsh. It moved to St Asaph in 1969. In 1949 Cardiff gained its first Welsh medium primary school, Ysgol Gymraeg Caerdydd, renamed Ysgol Bryntaf and moved to Llandaf in 1952. In 1978 Ysgol Glantaf opened, Cardiff's first Welsh-medium secondary school. In 1962 Rhydfelen secondary school

1596-513: A protected World Heritage Site coastline. The ship had been damaged and was en route to Portland Harbour . The English Channel, despite being a busy shipping lane, remains in part a haven for wildlife. Atlantic oceanic species are more common in the westernmost parts of the channel, particularly to the west of Start Point, Devon , but can sometimes be found further east towards Dorset and the Isle of Wight. Seal sightings are becoming more common along

1710-602: A provision in the Wales and Berwick Act 1746 that the term "England" should include Wales, thus defining Wales to be a separate entity from England within the United Kingdom. The act allowed the use of Welsh alongside English in courts of law in Wales, partly based on the Hughes Parry Report. Following the defeat of the "Yes Campaign" for a Welsh Assembly in 1979, and believing Welsh nationalism to be "in

1824-502: Is commemorated in Wales with the graffitied slogan Cofiwch Dryweryn ('Remember Tryweryn'). The flooding of Tryweryn continues to influence debates on forced removal even today. Songs and poems also pay tribute to the loss and shame of the event. In a 1968 newspaper report the existence of a small number of elderly Welsh monoglots in the Llŷn Peninsula of North Wales was described. The leader of Plaid Cymru, Gwynfor Evans , won

1938-533: Is generally considered to date to the Primitive Welsh period. However, much of this poetry was supposedly composed in the Hen Ogledd, raising further questions about the dating of the material and language in which it was originally composed. Middle Welsh ( Cymraeg Canol ) is the label attached to the Welsh of the 12th to 14th centuries, of which much more remains than for any earlier period. This

2052-531: Is the language of nearly all surviving early manuscripts of the Mabinogion , although the tales themselves are certainly much older. It is also the language of the existing manuscripts of Welsh law . Middle Welsh is reasonably intelligible, albeit with some work, to a modern-day Welsh speaker. The famous cleric Gerald of Wales tells the story of King Henry II of England . During one of the King's many raids in

2166-558: The Basque Country as successful examples to emulate. Lord Elis-Thomas , the former president of Plaid Cymru, disagreed with Dafis's assessment, however. At the Urdd Eisteddfod , Elis-Thomas said that there was no need for another Welsh language act, citing that there was "enough goodwill to safeguard the language's future". His comments prompted Cymdeithas yr Iaith Gymraeg and many others to call for his resignation as

2280-460: The Battle of Britain featured German air attacks on Channel shipping and ports; despite these early successes against shipping the Germans did not win the air supremacy necessary for Operation Sealion , the projected cross-Channel invasion. The Channel subsequently became the stage for an intensive coastal war, featuring submarines, minesweepers , and Fast Attack Craft . The narrow waters of

2394-629: The Early Middle Ages , the British language began to fragment due to increased dialect differentiation, evolving into Welsh and the other Brythonic languages ( Breton , Cornish , and the extinct Cumbric ). It is not clear when Welsh became distinct. Kenneth H. Jackson suggested that the evolution in syllabic structure and sound pattern was complete by around 550, and labelled the period between then and about 800 "Primitive Welsh". This Primitive Welsh may have been spoken in both Wales and

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2508-641: The Exmoor National Park authority in England began to consider limiting second home ownership there, which was also driving up local housing prices by as much as 31%. Elfyn Llwyd , Plaid Cymru's Parliamentary Group Leader, said that the issues in Exmoor National Park were the same as those in Wales, however, in Wales, there is the added dimension of language and culture. Reflecting on the controversy Glyn's comments caused earlier in

2622-661: The Glorious Revolution of 1688, while the concentration of excellent harbours in the Western Channel on Britain's south coast made possible the largest amphibious invasion in history, the Normandy Landings in 1944. Channel naval battles include the Battle of the Downs (1639), Battle of Dover (1652), the Battle of Portland (1653) and the Battle of La Hougue (1692). In more peaceful times,

2736-602: The Hen Ogledd ('Old North'), the Brythonic-speaking areas of what is now northern England and southern Scotland , and may therefore have been the ancestor of Cumbric as well as Welsh. Jackson, however, believed that the two varieties were already distinct by that time. The Welsh language in documents predating around 1150. The earliest Welsh poetry – that attributed to the Cynfeirdd or 'Early Poets' –

2850-586: The Neolithic front in southern Europe to the Mesolithic peoples of northern Europe." The Ferriby Boats , Hanson Log Boats and the later Dover Bronze Age Boat could carry a substantial cross-Channel cargo. Diodorus Siculus and Pliny both suggest trade between the rebel Celtic tribes of Armorica and Iron Age Britain flourished. In 55 BC Julius Caesar invaded, claiming that the Britons had aided

2964-558: The Norman Conquest beginning with the Battle of Hastings , while retaining the fiefdom of Normandy for himself and his descendants. In 1204, during the reign of King John , mainland Normandy was taken from England by France under Philip II , while insular Normandy (the Channel Islands ) remained under English control. In 1259, Henry III of England recognised the legality of French possession of mainland Normandy under

3078-840: The North Sea to the Western Atlantic via the Strait of Dover is of geologically recent origin, having formed late in the Pleistocene period. The English Channel first developed as an arm of the Atlantic Ocean during the Pliocene period (5.3-2.6 million years ago) as a result of differential tectonic uplift along pre-existing tectonic weaknesses during the Oligocene and Miocene periods. During this early period,

3192-637: The Scottish Highlands . However, the Welsh Labour – Liberal Democrat Assembly coalition rebuffed these proposals, with the Assembly housing spokesman Peter Black stating that "we [cannot] frame our planning laws around the Welsh language", adding "Nor can we take punitive measures against second homeowners in the way that they propose as these will have an impact on the value of the homes of local people". In contrast, by autumn 2001

3306-633: The Snowdonia National Park (Welsh: Parc Cenedlaethol Eryri ) and Pembrokeshire Coast National Park (Welsh: Parc Cenedlaethol Arfordir Penfro ) authorities began limiting second home ownership within the parks, following the example set by Exmoor. According to planners in Snowdonia and the Pembrokeshire Coast, applicants for new homes must demonstrate a proven local need or that the applicant had strong links with

3420-535: The Strait of Dover at its northeastern end. It is the busiest shipping area in the world. It is about 560 kilometres (300 nautical miles; 350 statute miles) long and varies in width from 240 km (130 nmi; 150 mi) at its widest to 34 km (18 nmi; 21 mi) at its narrowest in the Strait of Dover . It is the smallest of the shallow seas around the continental shelf of Europe, covering an area of some 75,000 square kilometres (22,000 square nautical miles; 29,000 square miles). The Channel aided

3534-705: The Treaty of Paris . His successors, however, often fought to regain control of mainland Normandy. With the rise of William the Conqueror , the North Sea and Channel began to lose some of their importance. The new order oriented most of England and Scandinavia's trade south, toward the Mediterranean and the Orient. Although the British surrendered claims to mainland Normandy and other French possessions in 1801,

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3648-491: The Treaty of Paris of 1259 , the surrender of French possessions in 1801, and the belief that the rights of succession to that title are subject to Salic Law which excludes inheritance through female heirs. French Normandy was occupied by English forces during the Hundred Years' War in 1346–1360 and again in 1415–1450. From the reign of Elizabeth I , English foreign policy concentrated on preventing invasion across

3762-614: The United Kingdom in becoming a naval superpower, serving as a natural defence to halt attempted invasions, such as in the Napoleonic Wars and in the Second World War . The northern, English coast of the Channel is more populous than the southern, French coast. The major languages spoken in this region are English and French . Roman sources as Oceanus Britannicus (or Mare Britannicum , meaning

3876-652: The Veneti against him the previous year. He was more successful in 54 BC , but Britain was not fully established as part of the Roman Empire until Aulus Plautius 's 43 AD invasion . A brisk and regular trade began between ports in Roman Gaul and those in Britain. This traffic continued until the end of Roman rule in Britain in 410 AD, after which the early Anglo-Saxons left less clear historical records. In

3990-597: The Welsh Language Board . Some private sector companies, including British Telecom and British Gas , had already included Welsh-language schemes in company policies before this Act. In a speech at the 2000 National Eisteddfod at Llanelli , the Plaid Cymru Assembly Member Cynog Dafis called for a new Welsh-language movement with greater powers to lobby for the language at the Assembly, UK, and EU levels. Dafis felt

4104-606: The Welsh Languages Act . Late Modern Welsh began with the publication of William Morgan 's translation of the Bible in 1588. Like its English counterpart, the King James Version , this proved to have a strong stabilizing effect on the language, and indeed the language today still bears the same Late Modern label as Morgan's language. Of course, many changes have occurred since then. The 19th century

4218-526: The 12th century, Henry asked an old man of Pencader, Carmarthenshire , whether he thought the Welsh language had any chance: Modern Welsh can be divided into two periods. The first, Early Modern Welsh, ran from the early 15th century to roughly the end of the 16th century. In the Early Modern Welsh Period use of the Welsh language began to be restricted, such as with the passing of Henry VIII's 1536 Act of Union . Through this Act Wales

4332-615: The 17th century. The name is usually said to refer to the sleeve (French: la manche ) shape of the Channel. Folk etymology has derived it from a Celtic word meaning 'channel' that is also the source of the name for the Minch in Scotland, but this name is not attested before the 17th century, and French and British sources of that time are clear about its etymology. The name in French has been directly adapted in other languages as either

4446-474: The 1911 census, out of a population of just under 2.5 million, 43.5% of those aged three years and upwards in Wales and Monmouthshire spoke Welsh (8.5% monoglot Welsh speakers, 35% bilingual in English and Welsh). This was a decrease from the 1891 census with 49.9% speaking Welsh out of a population of 1.5 million (15.1% monoglot, 34.8% bilingual). The distribution of those speaking the language however

4560-407: The Assembly's presiding officer. In the 1991 census, the Welsh language stabilised at the 1981 level of 18.7%. According to the 2001 census, the number of Welsh speakers in Wales increased for the first time in over 100 years, with 20.8% in a population of over 2.9 million claiming fluency in Welsh. Further, 28% of the population of Wales claimed to understand Welsh. The census revealed that

4674-465: The Atlantic. The flooding destroyed the ridge that connected Britain to continental Europe , although a land connection across the southern North Sea would have existed intermittently at later times when periods of glaciation resulted in lowering of sea levels. During interglacial periods (when sea levels were high) between the initial flooding 450,000 years ago until around 180,000 years ago,

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4788-535: The Channel by ensuring no major European power controlled the potential Dutch and Flemish invasion ports. Her climb to the pre-eminent sea power of the world began in 1588 as the attempted invasion of the Spanish Armada was defeated by the combination of outstanding naval tactics by the English and the Dutch under command of Charles Howard, 1st Earl of Nottingham with Sir Francis Drake second in command, and

4902-532: The Channel did not connect to the North Sea, with Britain and Ireland remaining part of continental Europe , linked by an unbroken Weald–Artois anticline , a ridge running between the Dover and Calais regions. During Pleistocene glacial periods this ridge acted as a natural dam holding back a large freshwater pro-glacial lake in the Doggerland region, now submerged under the North Sea . During this period,

5016-455: The Channel for several weeks, but was thwarted following the British naval victory at the Battle of Quiberon Bay in 1759 and was unsuccessful (The last French landing on English soil being in 1690 with a raid on Teignmouth, although the last French raid on British soil was a raid on Fishguard, Wales in 1797). Another significant challenge to British domination of the seas came during the Napoleonic Wars . The Battle of Trafalgar took place off

5130-670: The Channel served as a link joining shared cultures and political structures, particularly the huge Angevin Empire from 1135 to 1217. For nearly a thousand years, the Channel also provided a link between the Modern Celtic regions and languages of Cornwall and Brittany . Brittany was founded by Britons who fled Cornwall and Devon after Anglo-Saxon encroachment. In Brittany, there is a region known as " Cornouaille " (Cornwall) in French and "Kernev" in Breton . In ancient times there

5244-414: The Channel were considered too dangerous for major warships until the Normandy Landings with the exception, for the German Kriegsmarine , of the Channel Dash (Operation Cerberus) in February 1942, and this required the support of the Luftwaffe in Operation Thunderbolt . Modern Welsh The history of the Welsh language ( Welsh : hanes yr iaith Gymraeg ) spans over 1400 years, encompassing

5358-416: The Channel would still have been separated from the North Sea by a landbridge to the north of the Strait of Dover (the Strait of Dover at this time formed part of a estuary fed by the Thames and Scheldt ), restricting interchange of marine fauna between the Channel and the North Sea (except perhaps by occasional overtopping). During the Last Interglacial/Eemian (115–130,000 years ago) the connection between

5472-460: The English Channel, with both Grey Seal and Harbour Seal recorded frequently. The Channel is thought to have prevented Neanderthals from colonising Britain during the Last Interglacial/Eemian, though they returned to Britain during the Last Glacial Period when sea levels were lower. The Channel has in historic times been both an easy entry for seafaring people and a key natural defence, halting invading armies while in conjunction with control of

5586-411: The English coast, and the Channel Islands , British Crown Dependencies off the coast of France. The coastline, particularly on the French shore, is deeply indented, with several small islands close to the coastline, including Chausey and Mont-Saint-Michel . The Cotentin Peninsula on the French coast juts out into the Channel, with the wide Bay of the Seine (French: Baie de Seine ) to its east. On

5700-481: The English side there is a small parallel strait , the Solent , between the Isle of Wight and the mainland. The Celtic Sea is to the west of the Channel. The Channel acts as a funnel that amplifies the tidal range from less than a metre at sea in eastern places to more than 6 metres in the Channel Islands , the west coast of the Cotentin Peninsula and the north coast of Brittany in monthly spring tides . The time difference of about six hours between high water at

5814-419: The Gulf of Saint Malo , near its midpoint. Well on the continental shelf, it has an average depth of about 120 m (390 ft) at its widest; yet averages about 45 m (148 ft) between Dover and Calais , its notable sandbank hazard being Goodwin Sands . Eastwards from there the adjoining North Sea reduces to about 26 m (85 ft) across the Broad Fourteens (14 fathoms) where it lies over

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5928-400: The North Sea allowing Britain to blockade the continent. The most significant failed invasion threats came when the Dutch and Belgian ports were held by a major continental power, e.g. from the Spanish Armada in 1588, Napoleon during the Napoleonic Wars , and Nazi Germany during World War II . Successful invasions include the Roman conquest of Britain , the Norman Conquest in 1066 and

6042-404: The North Sea and almost all of the British Isles were covered by ice. The lake was fed by meltwater from the Baltic and from the Caledonian and Scandinavian ice sheets that joined to the north, blocking its exit. The sea level was about 120 m (390 ft) lower than it is today. Then, between 450,000 and 180,000 years ago, at least two catastrophic glacial lake outburst floods breached

6156-417: The North Sea and the English Channel was fully open as it is today, resulting in Britain being an island during this interval, before lowered sea levels reconnected it to the continent during the Last Glacial Period . From the end of the Last Glacial Period, to the beginning of the Holocene rising sea levels again resulted in the unimpeded connection between the North Sea and the English Channel resuming due to

6270-440: The Ocean, or the Sea, of the Britons or Britannī ). Variations of this term were used by influential writers such as Ptolemy , and remained popular with British and continental authors well into the modern era. Other Latin names for the sea include Oceanus Gallicus (the Gaulish Ocean) which was used by Isidore of Seville in the sixth century. The term British Sea is still used by speakers of Cornish and Breton , with

6384-420: The Weald–Artois anticline. These contributed to creating some of the deepest parts of the channel such as Hurd's Deep . The first flood of 450,000 years ago would have lasted for several months, releasing as much as one million cubic metres of water per second. The flood started with large but localised waterfalls over the ridge, which excavated depressions now known as the Fosses Dangeard . The flow eroded

6498-440: The Welsh language unless direct action was taken. Lewis was responding to the 1961 census, which showed a decrease in the number of Welsh speakers from 36% in 1931 to 26% in 1961, out of a population of about 2.5 million. Meirionnydd, Anglesey, Carmarthen, and Caernarfon averaged a 75% concentration of Welsh speakers, but the most significant decrease was in the counties of Glamorgan , Flint , and Pembroke . Lewis's intent

6612-422: The area. The Welsh Language (Wales) Measure 2011 modernised the 1993 Welsh Language Act and gave Welsh an official status in Wales for the first time, a major landmark for the language. Welsh is the only official de jure language of any country in the UK. The Measure was also responsible for creating the post of Welsh Language Commissioner , replacing the Welsh Language Board. Following the referendum in 2011,

6726-405: The average earned income in Wales and meant that many local people could not afford to purchase their first home or compete with second-home buyers. In 2001 nearly a third of all properties sold in Gwynedd were bought by buyers from out of the county, and some communities reported as many as a third of local homes used as holiday homes. Holiday homeowners spend less than six months of the year in

6840-434: The beginning of the Viking Age . For the next 250 years the Scandinavian raiders of Norway, Sweden, and Denmark dominated the North Sea, raiding monasteries, homes, and towns along the coast and along the rivers that ran inland. According to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle they began to settle in Britain in 851. They continued to settle in the British Isles and the continent until around 1050, with some raids recorded along

6954-401: The centre of the Straits of Dover and into the English Channel. It left streamlined islands, longitudinal erosional grooves, and other features characteristic of catastrophic megaflood events, still present on the sea floor and now revealed by high-resolution sonar. Through the scoured channel passed a river, the Channel River , which drained the combined Rhine and Thames westwards to

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7068-439: The channel coast of England, including at Wareham, Portland, near Weymouth and along the river Teign in Devon. The fiefdom of Normandy was created for the Viking leader Rollo (also known as Robert of Normandy). Rollo had besieged Paris but in 911 entered vassalage to the king of the West Franks Charles the Simple through the Treaty of St.-Claire-sur-Epte . In exchange for his homage and fealty , Rollo legally gained

7182-408: The coast of Spain against a combined French and Spanish fleet and was won by Admiral Horatio Nelson , ending Napoleon 's plans for a cross-Channel invasion and securing British dominance of the seas for over a century. The exceptional strategic importance of the Channel as a tool for blockading was recognised by the First Sea Lord Admiral Fisher in the years before World War I . "Five keys lock up

7296-434: The eastern and western limits of the Channel is indicative of the tidal range being amplified further by resonance . Amphidromic points are the Bay of Biscay and varying more in precise location in the far south of the North Sea, meaning both those associated eastern coasts repel the tides effectively, leaving the Strait of Dover as every six hours the natural bottleneck short of its consequent gravity-induced repulsion of

7410-450: The end of the century, novels all appearing in the language, as well as countless newspapers, journals and periodicals. An ongoing interest in antiquarianism ensured the dissemination of the language's medieval poetry and prose (such as the Mabinogion ). A further development was the publication of some of the first complete and concise Welsh dictionaries . Early work by Welsh lexicographic pioneers such as Daniel Silvan Evans ensured that

7524-414: The end of the war and the project was abandoned. The naval blockade in the Channel and North Sea was one of the decisive factors in the German defeat in 1918. During the Second World War , naval activity in the European theatre was primarily limited to the Atlantic . During the Battle of France in May 1940, the German forces succeeded in capturing both Boulogne and Calais , thereby threatening

7638-408: The everyday language of the country with English, and many Welsh speakers themselves such as David Davies and John Ceiriog Hughes advocated bilingualism, if not necessarily the extinction of Welsh. By the end of the nineteenth century, English came to prevail in the large cities of south-east Wales. Welsh remained strong in the north-west and in parts of mid-Wales and south-west Wales. Rural Wales

7752-565: The five predominantly Welsh-speaking counties, Welsh was spoken by more than 75% of the population, and was more widely understood than English: Denbighshire was the only other county where a majority could still speak Welsh; here, 51.0% could speak Welsh and 94.0% could speak English. As for larger urban areas, Aberdare was the only one where a majority could still speak Welsh, here 59.0% could speak Welsh while 95.4% could speak English. In Cardiff , Wales's largest city, 5.2% of people could speak Welsh, while 99.7% of people could speak English. At

7866-454: The following stormy weather. Over the centuries the Royal Navy slowly grew to be the most powerful in the world. The building of the British Empire was possible only because the Royal Navy eventually managed to exercise unquestioned control over the seas around Europe, especially the Channel and the North Sea. During the Seven Years' War , France attempted to launch an invasion of Britain . To achieve this France needed to gain control of

7980-402: The frontier of Switzerland to the English Channel", they reached the coast at the North Sea. Much of the British war effort in Flanders was a bloody but successful strategy to prevent the Germans reaching the Channel coast. At the outset of the war, an attempt was made to block the path of U-boats through the Dover Strait with naval minefields . By February 1915, this had been augmented by

8094-399: The highest concentration of speakers at 87.4%, followed by Cardigan at 87.1%, Merionethshire at 86.1%, and Carmarthen at 82.3%. Caernarfon listed 79.2%. Radnorshire and Monmouthshire ranked lowest with a concentration of Welsh speakers less than 6% of the population. The first Welsh-medium primary school was established in Aberystwyth in 1939 by Ifan ab Owen Edwards . Originally

8208-516: The increase was most significant in urban areas, such as Cardiff with an increase from 6.6% in 1991 to 10.9% in 2001, and Rhondda Cynon Taf with an increase from 9% in 1991 to 12.3% in 2001. However, the number of Welsh speakers declined in Gwynedd from 72.1% in 1991 to 68.7%, and in Ceredigion from 59.1% in 1991 to 51.8%. Ceredigion, in particular, experienced the greatest fluctuation with

8322-651: The language was documented as accurately as possible. Modern dictionaries such as Geiriadur Prifysgol Cymru (the University of Wales Dictionary) are direct descendants of these dictionaries. Despite these outward signs of health, it was during the nineteenth century that English replaced Welsh as the most widely spoken language within the country. Wales, particularly the South Wales Coalfield , experienced significant population growth and in-migration (primarily from England and Ireland), which changed

8436-583: The large increase in the total population over the century (due to the effects of industrialisation and in-migration) meant that the total number of Welsh speakers grew throughout the 19th century, peaking in the 1911 census at over one million even as the proportion of the Welsh population that could speak Welsh fell below 50% for the first time. Especially when compared to other stateless languages in Europe, Welsh boasted an extraordinarily active press, with poetry, religious writing, biography, translations, and, by

8550-686: The line of retreat for the British Expeditionary Force . By a combination of hard fighting and German indecision, the port of Dunkirk was kept open allowing 338,000 Allied troops to be evacuated in Operation Dynamo . More than 11,000 were evacuated from Le Havre during Operation Cycle and a further 192,000 were evacuated from ports further down the coast in Operation Aerial in June 1940. The early stages of

8664-542: The linguistic profile of some areas (though other areas would remain Welsh-speaking despite the changes). Welsh held no official recognition and had limited status under the British state. It did not become officially recognised as the language of Wales until the passing of the Welsh Language (Wales) Measure 2011 . Learning English was enthusiastically encouraged; in contrast, Welsh was not taught or used as

8778-416: The local community. The issue of locals being priced out of the local housing market is common to many rural communities throughout the United Kingdom, but in Wales, the added dimension of language further complicates the issue, as many new residents do not learn the Welsh language. Concern for the Welsh language under these pressures prompted Glyn to say "Once you have more than 50% of anybody living in

8892-403: The location for this military site after plans for similar bases in the English counties of Northumberland and Dorset had met with protests. The prime minister Stanley Baldwin refused to hear the case against basing this RAF establishment in Wales, despite a deputation claiming to represent half a million Welsh protesters. The opposition against "British" military usage of this site in Wales

9006-448: The majority of those living in Wales did not speak English, meaning that interpreters were regularly needed in order to conduct hearings. Before passing the Act many gentry and government officials already spoke English; however, the Act codified the class ruling of the English language, with numbers who were fluent in English rising significantly after its passing. The Act's primary function

9120-659: The monarch of the United Kingdom retains the title Duke of Normandy in respect to the Channel Islands. The Channel Islands (except for Chausey ) are Crown Dependencies of the British Crown . Thus the Loyal toast in the Channel Islands is Le roi, notre Duc ("The King, our Duke"). The British monarch is understood to not be the Duke of Normandy in regards of the French region of Normandy described herein, by virtue of

9234-703: The most dangerous situation Britain faced in either world war. The Battle of Passchendaele in 1917 was fought to reduce the threat by capturing the submarine bases on the Belgian coast, though it was the introduction of convoys and not capture of the bases that averted defeat. In April 1918 the Dover Patrol carried out the Zeebrugge Raid against the U-boat bases. During 1917, the Dover Barrage

9348-577: The name was popularly understood by English people. By the eighteenth century, the name English Channel was in common usage in England . Following the Acts of Union 1707 , this was replaced in official maps and documents with British Channel or British Sea for much of the next century. However, the term English Channel remained popular and was finally in official usage by the nineteenth century. The French name la Manche has been used since at least

9462-483: The needs of the Welsh language were ignored during the first year of the Assembly, and that to ensure the language's dynamic growth a properly resourced strategy was needed. In his speech Dafis encouraged other Welsh-language advocacy groups to work more closely together to create a more favourable climate in which the use of Welsh was "attractive, exciting, a source of pride and a sign of strength". Additionally, Dafis pointed towards efforts in areas such as Catalonia and

9576-749: The party's first ever Parliamentary seat in Carmarthen in 1966, which "helped change the course of a nation". This, paired with the Scottish National Party 's Winnie Ewing 's winning a seat in 1967, may have contributed to pressure on the Labour prime minister Harold Wilson to form the Kilbrandon Commission . This event may have also contributed to the passing of the Welsh Language Act 1967 . The act repealed

9690-593: The power vacuum left by the retreating Romans, the Germanic Angles , Saxons , and Jutes began the next great migration across the North Sea. Having already been used as mercenaries in Britain by the Romans, many people from these tribes crossed during the Migration Period , conquering and perhaps displacing the native Celtic populations. The attack on Lindisfarne in 793 is generally considered

9804-475: The results of the 2021 census were published, they showed a further decrease to 17.8%, equating to 538,000 speakers. The decline in Welsh speakers in Gwynedd and Anglesey (Ynys Môn) may be attributable to non–Welsh-speaking people moving to North Wales, driving up property prices to levels that local Welsh speakers cannot afford, according to Seimon Glyn , a former Gwynedd county councillor with Plaid Cymru. Glyn

9918-541: The retaining ridge, causing the rock dam to fail and releasing lake water into the Atlantic. After multiple episodes of changing sea level, during which the Fosses Dangeard were largely infilled by various layers of sediment, another catastrophic flood some 180,000 years ago carved a large bedrock-floored valley, the Lobourg Channel , some 500 m wide and 25 m deep, from the southern North Sea basin through

10032-427: The ride by staging contests in which animals ranging from lions to bears and even baby elephants would ride the chutes. The park also included the infamous Flip Flap Railway , which was a roller coaster ride, designed by Lina Beecher , that inverted the riders in a loop after fall from a height of 20m. The ride was too dangerous and was closed. Boyton also added an old mill style ride called Cages of Wild Wolves, and

10146-555: The sea as Sūð-sǣ (South Sea), but this term fell out of favour, as later English authors followed the same conventions as their Latin and Norman contemporaries. One English name that did persist was the Narrow Seas , a collective term for the channel and North Sea . As England (followed by Great Britain and the United Kingdom) claimed sovereignty over the sea, a Royal Navy Admiral was appointed with maintaining duties in

10260-535: The sea as Britanicus Oceanus nunc Canalites Anglie (Ocean of the Britons but now English Channel). The map is possibly the first recorded use of the term English Channel and the description suggests the name had recently been adopted. In the sixteenth century, Dutch maps referred to the sea as the Engelse Kanaal (English Channel) and by the 1590s, William Shakespeare used the word Channel in his history plays of Henry VI , suggesting that by that time,

10374-525: The sea known to them as Mor Bretannek and Mor Breizh respectively. While it is likely that these names derive from the Latin term, it is possible that they predate the arrival of the Romans in the area. The modern Welsh is often given as Môr Udd (the Lord's or Prince's Sea); however, this name originally described both the Channel and the North Sea combined. Anglo-Saxon texts make reference to

10488-606: The sinking of Doggerland , with Britain again becoming an island. As a busy shipping lane, the Channel experiences environmental problems following accidents involving ships with toxic cargo and oil spills. Indeed, over 40% of the UK incidents threatening pollution occur in or very near the Channel. One occurrence was the MSC Napoli , which on 18 January 2007 was beached with nearly 1700 tonnes of dangerous cargo in Lyme Bay,

10602-525: The southern cusp of the former land bridge between East Anglia and the Low Countries . The North Sea reaches much greater depths east of northern Britain. The Channel descends briefly to 180 m (590 ft) in the submerged valley of Hurd's Deep , 48 km (30 mi) west-northwest of Guernsey . There are several major islands in the Channel, the most notable being the Isle of Wight off

10716-620: The southward tide (surge) of the North Sea (equally from the Atlantic). The Channel does not experience, but its existence is necessary to explain the extent of North Sea storm surges , such as necessitate the Thames Barrier , Delta Works , Zuiderzee works ( Afsluitdijk and other dams). In the UK Shipping Forecast the Channel is divided into the following areas, from the east: The full English Channel connecting

10830-619: The stages of the language known as Primitive Welsh, Old Welsh , Middle Welsh , and Modern Welsh . Welsh evolved from British , the Celtic language spoken by the ancient Britons . Alternatively classified as Insular Celtic or P-Celtic , it probably arrived in Britain during the Bronze Age or Iron Age and was probably spoken throughout the island south of the Firth of Forth . During

10944-570: The territory he and his Viking allies had previously conquered. The name "Normandy" reflects Rollo's Viking (i.e. "Northman") origins. The descendants of Rollo and his followers adopted the local Gallo-Romance language and intermarried with the area's inhabitants and became the Normans – a Norman French -speaking mixture of Scandinavians , Hiberno-Norse , Orcadians , Anglo-Danish , and indigenous Franks and Gauls . Rollo's descendant William, Duke of Normandy became king of England in 1066 in

11058-569: The two seas. The office was maintained until 1822, when several European nations (including the United Kingdom) adopted a three-mile (4.8 km) limit to territorial waters. The word channel was first recorded in Middle English in the 13th century and was borrowed from the Old French word chanel (a variant form of chenel 'canal'). By the middle of the fifteenth century, an Italian map based on Ptolemy 's description named

11172-635: The world! Singapore, the Cape, Alexandria , Gibraltar, Dover." However, on 25 July 1909 Louis Blériot made the first Channel crossing from Calais to Dover in an aeroplane. Blériot's crossing signalled a change in the function of the Channel as a barrier-moat for England against foreign enemies. Because the Kaiserliche Marine surface fleet could not match the British Grand Fleet, the Germans developed submarine warfare , which

11286-506: The year, Llwyd observed "What is interesting is, of course, it is fine for Exmoor to defend their community but in Wales when you try to say these things it is called racist". Llwyd called on other parties to join in a debate to bring the Exmoor experience to Wales when he said "I really do ask them and I plead with them to come around the table and talk about the Exmoor suggestion and see if we can now bring it into Wales". By spring 2002 both

11400-405: Was a critical period in the history of the language and one that encompassed many contradictions. In 1800 Welsh was the main spoken language of the vast majority of Wales, with the only exceptions being some border areas and other places which had seen significant settlement, such as south Pembrokeshire ; by the 1901 census, this proportion had declined to a little over half of the population, though

11514-414: Was a stronghold of the Welsh language, and so also were the industrial slate-quarrying communities of Caernarfonshire and Merionethshire. Many of the nonconformist churches throughout Wales were strongly associated with the Welsh language. By the 20th century, the numbers of Welsh speakers were shrinking at a rate which suggested that the language would be extinct within a few generations. According to

11628-459: Was also a " Domnonia " (Devon) in Brittany as well. In February 1684 , ice formed on the sea in a belt 4.8 km (3.0 mi) wide off the coast of Kent and 3.2 km (2.0 mi) wide on the French side. Remnants of a mesolithic boatyard have been found on the Isle of Wight . Wheat was traded across the Channel about 8,000 years ago. "... Sophisticated social networks linked

11742-511: Was commenting on a report underscoring the dilemma of rocketing house prices outstripping what locals could pay, with the report warning that "traditional Welsh communities could die out" as a consequence. Much of the rural Welsh property market was driven by buyers looking for second homes for use as holiday homes or for retirement. Many buyers were drawn to Wales from England because of relatively inexpensive house prices in Wales as compared to those in England. The rise in house prices outpaced

11856-603: Was founded at a meeting in the 1925 National Eisteddfod in Pwllheli , Gwynedd, with the primary aim of promoting the Welsh language. Concern for the Welsh language was ignited in 1936 when the British government decided to build an RAF training camp and aerodrome at Penyberth on the Llŷn Peninsula in Gwynedd. The events surrounding the protest became known as Tân yn Llŷn ('Fire in Llŷn'). The government had settled on Llŷn as

11970-518: Was founded, the first Welsh medium secondary school in South Wales (later Ysgol Garth Olwg ). The Welsh Courts Act was passed in 1942, repealing Henry VIII's earlier laws; this finally permitted limited use of the Welsh language in courts of law. In 1962 Saunders Lewis gave a radio speech entitled Tynged yr Iaith ('The Fate of the Language'), in which he predicted the extinction of

12084-426: Was governed solely under English law . Only 150 words of this Act were concerned with the use of the Welsh language. Section 20 of the Act banned the use of the language in court proceedings and those who solely spoke Welsh and did not speak English could not hold government office. Wales was to be represented by 26 members of parliament who spoke English. Outside certain areas in Wales such as South Pembrokeshire ,

12198-478: Was presenting even newer competition. By the end of 1902, Frederic Thompson and Elmer "Skip" Dundy obtained a long term lease for Sea Lion Park and it was re-opened as Luna Park . English Channel The English Channel , also known as the Channel , is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that separates Southern England from northern France . It links to the southern part of the North Sea by

12312-495: Was re-sited with improved mines and more effective nets, aided by regular patrols by small warships equipped with powerful searchlights. A German attack on these vessels resulted in the Battle of Dover Strait in 1917 . A much more ambitious attempt to improve the barrage, by installing eight massive concrete towers across the strait was called the Admiralty M-N Scheme but only two towers were nearing completion at

12426-409: Was summed up by Saunders Lewis when he wrote that the government was intent upon turning one of the "essential homes of Welsh culture , idiom , and literature " into a place for promoting a barbaric method of warfare. On 8 September 1936, the building was set on fire, and the Welsh nationalists Saunders Lewis , Lewis Valentine and D. J. Williams claimed responsibility for the arson. The case

12540-587: Was to become a far greater threat to Britain. The Dover Patrol , set up just before the war started, escorted cross-Channel troopships and prevented submarines from sailing in the Channel, obliging them to travel to the Atlantic via the much longer route around Scotland. On land, the German army attempted to capture French Channel ports in the Race to the Sea but although the trenches are often said to have stretched "from

12654-403: Was to create uniform control over the now united England and Wales ; however, it laid a foundation for the superiority of classes through the use of language. Welsh was now seen as a language spoken by the lower working classes, with those from higher classes seen superior and given roles in government for choosing to speak English over Welsh. This part of the Act was not repealed until 1993 under

12768-690: Was to motivate Plaid Cymru to take more direct action to promote the language; however, it led to the formation of Cymdeithas yr Iaith Gymraeg (the Welsh Language Society) later that year at a Plaid Cymru summer school held in Pontardawe in Glamorgan . In 1965 the village of Capel Celyn was drowned in the Tryweryn valley . This created tension between natural resources provision and the protection of cultural identity. This event

12882-616: Was tried at Caernarfon, where the jury failed to reach a verdict. It was then sent to the Old Bailey in London, where the "Three" were convicted and sentenced to nine months' imprisonment. On their release from Wormwood Scrubs they were greeted as heroes by a crowd of 15,000 people at a pavilion in Caernarfon . With the advent of broadcasting in Wales , Plaid Cymru protested against the lack of Welsh-language programming and launched

12996-406: Was unevenly distributed with five counties remaining overwhelmingly and predominantly Welsh-speaking: Outside these five counties, a further two areas were noted as having a majority who spoke Welsh, those being: The 1921 census recorded that of the population of Wales (including Monmouthshire), 38.7% of the population could speak Welsh while 6.6% of the overall population were Welsh monoglots. In

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