Portal:England
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England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It shares a land border with Scotland to the north and another land border with 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 extensive 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 amongst 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 London metropolitan area 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...)
Oldham /ˈoʊldəm/ is a town in Greater Manchester, England. It lies amongst the Pennines on elevated ground between the rivers Irk and Medlock, 5 miles (8 km) southeast of Rochdale, and 7 miles (11 km) northeast of Manchester. It is the administrative centre of the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham, which had a population of 242,003 in 2021.
Within the boundaries of the historic county of Lancashire, and with little early history to speak of, Oldham rose to prominence in the 19th century as an international centre of textile manufacture. 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 and Germany combined. Oldham's textile industry fell into decline in the mid-20th century; the town's last mill closed in 1998. (Full article...)
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Michael Patrick Smith (born 19 January 1942), known professionally as Michael Crawford, is an English actor, comedian and singer.
Crawford is best known for playing the hapless Frank Spencer in the sitcom Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em, Cornelius Hackl in the musical film Hello, Dolly!, and the titular character in the stage musical The Phantom of the Opera. His acclaimed performance in the latter earned him both the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role in a Musical and Tony Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role in a Musical. He has received international critical acclaim and won numerous awards during his acting career, which has included many film and television performances as well as stage work on both London's West End and on New York's Broadway. (Full article...)
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The Pipe rolls, sometimes called the Great rolls or the Great Rolls of the Pipe, are a collection of financial records maintained by the English Exchequer, or Treasury, and its successors, as well as the Exchequer of Ireland. The earliest date from the 12th century, and the series extends, mostly complete, from then until 1833. They form the oldest continuous series of records concerning English governance kept by the English, British, Irish and United Kingdom governments, covering a span of about 700 years. The early medieval ones are especially useful for historical study, as they are some of the earliest financial records available from the Middle Ages. A similar set of records was developed for Normandy, which was ruled by the English kings from 1066 to 1205, but the Norman Pipe rolls have not survived in a continuous series like the English.
They were the records of the yearly audits performed by the Exchequer of the accounts and payments presented to the Treasury by the sheriffs and other royal officials; and owed their name to the shape they took, as the various sheets were affixed to each other and then rolled into a tight roll, resembling a pipe, for storage. They record not only payments made to the government, but debts owed to the crown and disbursements made by royal officials. Although they recorded much of the royal income, they did not record all types of income, nor did they record all expenditures, so they are not strictly speaking a budget. The Pipe Roll Society, formed in 1883, has published the Pipe rolls for the period up to 1224. (Full article...)
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?
In the news

- 20 June 2025 –
- The United Kingdom parliament votes to approve a bill allowing terminally ill adults to voluntarily end their lives, moving towards legalizing assisted suicide in England and Wales. (DW) (BBC News)
- 10 June 2025 – Fossil fuel phase-out
- The British government announces it will invest £14.2 billion (US$19 billion) to construct the new Sizewell C nuclear power station in Suffolk, England, to reduce the country's reliance on fossil fuels. (AP) (Reuters)
- 26 May 2025 – 2025 Liverpool parade incident
- A vehicle ploughs into crowds of Liverpool F.C. fans celebrating their Premier League title win in the city centre of Liverpool, England. 109 people are injured, and a suspect is detained by Merseyside Police. (BBC News)
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“ | I have seen much to hate here, much to forgive. But in a world where England is finished and dead, I do not wish to live. | ” |
Related WikiProjects
England • Bedfordshire • Brighton • Cheshire • Cornwall • Derbyshire • Dorset • Greater Manchester • Hampshire • Lincolnshire • London • Merseyside • Northamptonshire • North East England • Sheffield • Surrey. Warwickshire • West Midlands • Worcestershire • Yorkshire
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- Please visit the English Wikipedians' notice board and help to write new England-related articles, and expand and improve existing ones.
- Visit Wikipedia:WikiProject England/Assessment, and help out by assessing unrated English articles.
- Add the Project Banner to English articles around Wikipedia.
- Check for announcements and open tasks for ways to improve English related articles.
- Help nominate and select new content for the England portal.
- Requested articles: Charterhouse Lane • Renewable energy in England • Ealing Village
- Expand: Dorothy Boyd • David Troughton
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East Midlands | London | North East | North West | South East | South West | West Midlands | Yorkshire and the Humber |
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Ireland | Northern Ireland | Scotland | United Kingdom | Wales |
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