Portal:England

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Location of England within the United Kingdom.

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers approximately 62%, and over 100 smaller adjacent islands. It has land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west, and is otherwise surrounded by the North Sea to the east, the English Channel to the south, the Celtic Sea to the south-west, and the Irish Sea to the west. Continental Europe lies to the south-east, and Ireland to the west. At the 2021 census, the population was 56,490,048. London is both the largest city and the capital.

The area now called England was first inhabited by modern humans during the Upper Paleolithic. It takes its name from the Angles, a Germanic tribe who settled during the 5th and 6th centuries. England became a unified state in the 10th century and has had a significant cultural and legal impact on the wider world since the Age of Discovery, which began during the 15th century. The Kingdom of England, which included Wales after 1535, ceased to be a separate sovereign state on 1 May 1707, when the Acts of Union brought into effect a political union with the Kingdom of Scotland that created the Kingdom of Great Britain.

England is the origin of the English language, the English legal system (which served as the basis for the common law systems of many other countries), association football, and the Anglican branch of Christianity; its parliamentary system of government has been widely adopted by other nations. The Industrial Revolution began in 18th-century England, transforming its society into the world's first industrialised nation. England is home to the two oldest universities in the English-speaking world: the University of Oxford, founded in 1096, and the University of Cambridge, founded in 1209. Both universities are ranked among the most prestigious in the world.

England's terrain chiefly consists of low hills and plains, especially in the centre and south. Upland and mountainous terrain is mostly found in the north and west, including Dartmoor, the Lake District, the Pennines, and the Shropshire Hills. The country's capital is London, the metropolitan area of which has a population of 14.2 million as of 2021, representing the United Kingdom's largest metropolitan area. England's population of 56.3 million comprises 84% of the population of the United Kingdom, largely concentrated around London, the South East, and conurbations in the Midlands, the North West, the North East, and Yorkshire, which each developed as major industrial regions during the 19th century. (Full article...)

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The canal at Bathampton, near Bath

The Kennet and Avon Canal is a waterway in southern England with an overall length of 87 miles (140 km), made up of two lengths of navigable river linked by a canal. The name is used to refer to the entire length of the navigation rather than solely to the central canal section. From Bristol to Bath the waterway follows the natural course of the River Avon before the canal links it to the River Kennet at Newbury, and from there to Reading on the River Thames. In all, the waterway incorporates 105 locks.

The two river stretches were made navigable in the early 18th century, and the 57-mile (92 km) canal section was constructed between 1794 and 1810. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the canal gradually fell into disuse after the opening of the Great Western Railway. In the latter half of the 20th century the canal was restored in stages, largely by volunteers. After decades of dereliction and much restoration work, it was fully reopened in 1990. The Kennet and Avon Canal has been developed as a popular heritage tourism destination for boating, canoeing, fishing, walking and cycling, and is also important for wildlife conservation. (Full article...)
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The Quayside, with the Tyne Bridge to the left and the Millennium Bridge to the centre right

Newcastle upon Tyne, or simply Newcastle (/njˈkæsəl/ new-KASS-əl, RP: /ˈnjkɑːsəl/ NEW-kah-səl), is a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England. It is England's northernmost metropolitan borough, located on the River Tyne's northern bank opposite Gateshead to the south. It is the most populous settlement in the Tyneside conurbation and North East England.

Newcastle developed around a Roman settlement called Pons Aelius. The settlement became known as Monkchester before taking on the name of a castle built in 1080 by William the Conqueror's eldest son, Robert Curthose. It was one of the world's largest ship building and repair centres during the Industrial Revolution. Newcastle was historically part of the county of Northumberland, but governed as a county corporate after 1400. In 1974, Newcastle became part of Tyne and Wear. The local authority is Newcastle City Council, which is a constituent member of the North East Mayoral Combined Authority. (Full article...)
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William Hogarth's A Rake's Progress, depicting the world's oldest psychiatric hospital, Bethlem Hospital

Insanity in English law is a defence to criminal charges based on the idea that the defendant was unable to understand what he was doing, or, that he was unable to understand that what he was doing was wrong.

The defence comes in two forms; where the defendant claims he was insane at the time of the crime, and where the defendant asserts he is insane at the time of trial. In the first situation, the defendant must show that he was either suffering from a disease which damaged the functioning of the mind and led to a defect of reason that prevented him from understanding what he was doing, or that he could not tell that what he was doing was wrong. In the second situation, the test is whether or not the defendant can differentiate between "guilty" and "not guilty" verdicts, instruct counsel and recognise the charges he is facing. If successful, he is likely to be detained under the Criminal Procedure (Insanity) Act 1964, although judges have a wide discretion as to what to do. (Full article...)
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Did you know?

  • ...that the HMS Queen (1902) was fitted with Babcock and Wilcox cylindrical boilers due to service problems with the water service boilers?
  • ...that the Charter Roll is the administrative record created by the medieval office of the chancery that recorded all the charters issued by the chancery?
  • ...that Canterbury in eastern Kent was abandoned at the end of the Roman period, but was resettled by the Saxons?
  • ...that English singer-songwriter Robbie Williams has sold more albums in the United Kingdom than any other British solo artist in history?

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5 August 2024 – 2024 United Kingdom far-right riots
Rioting takes place in Plymouth and Birmingham, England, while police are attacked with molotov cocktails in Belfast, Northern Ireland, as the number of people arrested rises to 400. (BBC News)
2 August 2024 – 2024 United Kingdom riots
Rioting occurs in Sunderland, England, United Kingdom, as hundreds of far-right protesters attempt to march on a mosque and clash with riot police in the city centre. A police station is set on fire by rioters. (BBC News)
30 July 2024 –
British Islamic preacher Anjem Choudary is sentenced to life in prison with a minimum sentence of 28 years for directing the al-Muhajiroun militant network. (ABC News)
29 July 2024 – 2024 Southport stabbing
Three children are killed and ten other people are injured in a mass stabbing at a dance school in Southport, Merseyside, England. A teenager is subsequently arrested. (BBC News)
21 July 2024 –
Six people, including two children, are killed in a multiple-vehicle collision in West Yorkshire, England, United Kingdom. (Sky News)
18 July 2024 –
The Southwark Crown Court sentences five Just Stop Oil activists, including co-founder Roger Hallam, to prison terms ranging from four to five years for organizing protests that blocked the M25 motorway in London, England, United Kingdom, in 2022. (CNN)

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Governance: Kingdom of EnglandPrime Minister of the United KingdomParliament of the United KingdomHome SecretaryLocal Government Boundary Commission for EnglandAdministrative divisions of EnglandEnglish law

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