HOME
*



picture info

Barnstaple Long Bridge And Surrounding Buildings - Geograph
Barnstaple ( or ) is a river-port town in North Devon, England, at the River Taw's lowest crossing point before the Bristol Channel. From the 14th century, it was licensed to export wool and won great wealth. Later it imported Irish wool, but its harbour silted up and other trades developed such as shipbuilding, foundries and sawmills. A Victorian market building survives, with a high glass and timber roof on iron columns. The parish population was 24,033 at the 2011 census, and that of the built-up area 32,411 in 2018. The town area with nearby settlements such as Bishop's Tawton, Fremington and Landkey, had a 2020 population of 46,619. Toponymy The spelling Barnstable is obsolete, but retained by an American county and city. It appears in the 10th century and is thought to derive from the Early English ''bearde'', meaning "battle-axe", and ''stapol'', meaning "pillar", i. e. a post or pillar to mark a religious or administrative meeting place. The derivation from ''staple' ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

North Devon
North Devon is a local government district in Devon, England. North Devon Council is based in Barnstaple. Other towns and villages in the North Devon District include Braunton, Fremington, Ilfracombe, Instow, South Molton, Lynton and Lynmouth. The district was formed on 1 April 1974 as a merger of the Barnstaple municipal borough, the Ilfracombe and Lynton urban districts, and the Barnstaple and South Molton rural districts. The wider geographic area of North Devon is divided between North Devon District and the district of Torridge, based in Bideford. Population North Devon is popular with retired people. The 2011 census showed that 18% of residents were aged 15 years and under, 60% were aged 16–64 and 23% were aged 65 and over. This compares to the 20% of the population who were aged 65 and over when the 2001 census was taken. For comparison, the same age distributions across England were 19%, 64% and 17% respectively. Life expectancy for men, at 77.7, is close to the E ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

William II Of England
William II ( xno, Williame;  â€“ 2 August 1100) was King of England from 26 September 1087 until his death in 1100, with powers over Normandy and influence in Scotland. He was less successful in extending control into Wales. The third son of William the Conqueror, he is commonly referred to as William Rufus ( being Latin for "the Red"), perhaps because of his ruddy appearance or, more likely, due to having red hair as a child that grew out in later life. William was a figure of complex temperament, capable of both bellicosity and flamboyance. He did not marry nor have children, which – along with contemporary accounts – has led historians to speculate on homosexuality or bisexuality. He died after being hit by an arrow while hunting, under circumstances that remain unclear. Circumstantial evidence in the behaviour of those around him raises strong, but unproven, suspicions of murder. His younger brother Henry I hurriedly succeeded him as king. Historian Frank Barlow ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Domesday Book
Domesday Book () – the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book" – is a manuscript record of the "Great Survey" of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manuscript was originally known by the Latin name ''Liber de Wintonia'', meaning "Book of Winchester", where it was originally kept in the royal treasury. The '' Anglo-Saxon Chronicle'' states that in 1085 the king sent his agents to survey every shire in England, to list his holdings and dues owed to him. Written in Medieval Latin, it was highly abbreviated and included some vernacular native terms without Latin equivalents. The survey's main purpose was to record the annual value of every piece of landed property to its lord, and the resources in land, manpower, and livestock from which the value derived. The name "Domesday Book" came into use in the 12th century. Richard FitzNeal wrote in the ''Dialogus de Scaccario'' ( 1179) that the book ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Geoffrey De Montbray
Geoffrey de Montbray (Montbrai, Mowbray) (died 1093), bishop of Coutances ( la, Constantiensis), also known as Geoffrey of Coutances, was a Norman nobleman, trusted adviser of William the Conqueror and a great secular prelate, warrior and administrator. Career Geoffrey, from his name, was apparently from Montbrai, Manche, in the arrondissement of Saint-Lô in the Basse-Normandie region of the former Duchy of Normandy.K.S.B. Keats-Rohan, ''Domesday People, A Prosopography of Persons Occurring in English Documents 1066-1166'', Vol. I (Woodbridge: The Boydell Press, 1999), p. 228 In 1049 he obtained the see of Coutances, arranged by his brother Malger (see Mowbray). He was consecrated at Rouen on 12 March 1049, presumably by Mauger who was Archbishop of Rouen at that time. Later that year at the Council of Reims he was accused of simony, in other words, of having purchased his bishopric.François Neveux, ''The Normans; The Conquests that Changed the Face of Europe'', trans. How ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

William The Conqueror
William I; ang, WillelmI (Bates ''William the Conqueror'' p. 33– 9 September 1087), usually known as William the Conqueror and sometimes William the Bastard, was the first House of Normandy, Norman List of English monarchs#House of Normandy, king of England, reigning from 1066 until his death in 1087. A descendant of Rollo, he was Duke of Normandy from 1035 onward. By 1060, following a long struggle to establish his throne, his hold on Normandy was secure. In 1066, following the death of Edward the Confessor, William invaded England, leading an army of Normans to victory over the Anglo-Saxons, Anglo-Saxon forces of Harold Godwinson at the Battle of Hastings, and suppressed subsequent English revolts in what has become known as the Norman Conquest. The rest of his life was marked by struggles to consolidate his hold over England and his continental lands, and by difficulties with his eldest son, Robert Curthose. William was the son of the unmarried Duke Robert I of Normandy ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Barnstaple Castle
Barnstaple Castle stood near what is now the centre of the town of Barnstaple, Devon (). When it was built, it was on the western side of the fortified town and commanded a good view of both the town and its important river crossings. The castle was built on top of an early medieval cemetery. History Barnstaple Castle was founded in the 11th or 12th century; it was first mentioned in a 12th-century document. It is uncertain who founded the castle: if it was early it could have been built on the instruction of William the Conqueror as he subdued south-west England or if it was a later construction it could have been built for Juhel (Joel) of Totnes, who held the castle in the early 12th century. Juhel also established Barnstaple Priory around 1107. King Stephen granted the castle to Henry de Tracy, one of his supporters. In the 12th century, stone buildings were erected on top of the motte, possibly during Henry de Tracy's tenure. The castle descended through his family to anoth ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Feudal Barony Of Barnstaple
From AD 1066, the feudal barony of Barnstaple was a large English feudal barony, feudal barony with its Caput baroniae, caput at the town of Barnstaple in north Devon, England. It was one of eight feudal baronies in Devonshire which existed in the Middle Ages. In 1236 it comprised 56 knight's fees or individual member Manorialism, manors. The Feudal land tenure, feudal service owed for half the barony in 1274 was the provision to the royal army of two knights or four sergeants for forty days per annum, later commuted to scutage. Descent de Mowbray The barony was first granted by William the Conqueror (1066–1087) to Geoffrey de Montbray, Geoffrey de Mowbray (died 1093), Bishop of Coutances, who is recorded as its holder in the ''Domesday Book'' (1086). His heir was his nephew Robert de Mowbray (died 1125), Earl of Northumbria, Earl of Northumberland, son of Geoffrey's brother Robert de Mowbray. In 1095 Robert II rebelled against King William II of England, William II (1087†...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Mint (coin)
A mint is an industrial facility which manufactures coins that can be used as currency. The history of mints correlates closely with the history of coins. In the beginning, hammered coinage or cast coinage were the chief means of coin minting, with resulting production runs numbering as little as the hundreds or thousands. In modern mints, coin dies are manufactured in large numbers and planchets are made into milled coins by the billions. With the mass production of currency, the production cost is weighed when minting coins. For example, it costs the United States Mint much less than 25 cents to make a quarter (a 25 cent coin), and the difference in production cost and face value (called seigniorage) helps fund the minting body. Conversely, a U.S. penny ($0.01) cost $0.015 to make in 2016. History The first minted coins The earliest metallic money did not consist of coins, but of unminted metal in the form of rings and other ornaments or of weapons, which were used for th ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Alfred The Great
Alfred the Great (alt. Ælfred 848/849 – 26 October 899) was King of the West Saxons from 871 to 886, and King of the Anglo-Saxons from 886 until his death in 899. He was the youngest son of King Æthelwulf and his first wife Osburh, who both died when Alfred was young. Three of Alfred's brothers, Æthelbald, Æthelberht and Æthelred, reigned in turn before him. Under Alfred's rule, considerable administrative and military reforms were introduced, prompting lasting change in England. After ascending the throne, Alfred spent several years fighting Viking invasions. He won a decisive victory in the Battle of Edington in 878 and made an agreement with the Vikings, dividing England between Anglo-Saxon territory and the Viking-ruled Danelaw, composed of northern England, the north-east Midlands and East Anglia. Alfred also oversaw the conversion of Viking leader Guthrum to Christianity. He defended his kingdom against the Viking attempt at conquest, becoming the dominant ruler ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Burh
A burh () or burg was an Old English fortification or fortified settlement. In the 9th century, raids and invasions by Vikings prompted Alfred the Great to develop a network of burhs and roads to use against such attackers. Some were new constructions; others were situated at the site of Iron Age hillforts or Roman forts and employed materials from the original fortifications. As at Lundenburh (medieval London), many were also situated on rivers: this facilitated internal lines of supply while aiming to restrict access to the interior of the kingdom for attackers in shallow- draught vessels such as longships. Burhs also had a secondary role as commercial and sometimes administrative centres. Their fortifications were used to protect England's various royal mints. Name and were Old English developments of the Proto-Germanic word reconstructed as , cognate with the verb ''Oxford English Dictionary'', 1st ed. "borough, ''n.'' Oxford University Press (Oxford), 1887. (" ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]