Portal:England

2008/9 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Countries; Geography of Great Britain; Portals


The England Portal

Flag of England.
Coat of Arms of England.
Location of England within the United Kingdom.

England (pronounced IPA: /ˈɪŋglənd/) is a country in the north west of Europe and constituent country of the United Kingdom. England has an estimated population of 50,714,000, thus making it the most densely populated constituent country, accounting for more than 83% of the total UK population. It occupies most of the southern two-thirds of the island of Great Britain and shares land borders with Scotland to the north and with Wales to the west. During the 10th century, England became a unified state, taking its name from the Angles, one of several Germanic peoples who settled in the territory.

England ranks among one of the world's most far-reaching and influential centres of cultural development across the world. Since the Act of Union in 1707, England has not had a government or constitution. It was under this act, that the Kingdom of England and the Kingdom of Scotland became united, and formed the Kingdom of Great Britain, commonly referred to today as The United Kingdom.

The establishment of the Church of England occurred during the English Reformation in the 16th Century, when the authority of the Roman Catholic Church was abolished and replaced by Royal Supremacy. The English reformation differed significantly from the other countries of Europe, as England's was political, rather than theological like other European countries. The flag of England is the cross of St. George, who is also England's patron saint and St George's Day, which falls on England's national day.


Selected article

The Manchester skyline

Manchester ( pronunciation ; pronounced /ˈmæntʃɛstə/) is a city and metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. Manchester was granted city status in 1853. It has a population of 452,000, and lies at the centre of the wider Greater Manchester Urban Area, which has a population of 2,240,230, the United Kingdom's third largest conurbation. Manchester has the second largest urban zone in the UK and the fourteenth most populated in Europe.

Forming part of the English Core Cities Group, often described as the second city of the UK, and the "Capital of the North", Manchester today is a centre of the arts, the media, higher education and commerce. In a poll of British business leaders published in 2006, Manchester was regarded as the best place in the UK to locate a business. A report commissioned by Manchester Partnership, published in 2007, showed Manchester to be the "fastest-growing city" economically. It is the third most visited city in the United Kingdom by foreign visitors. Manchester was the host of the 2002 Commonwealth Games, and among its other sporting connections are its two Premier League football teams, Manchester United and Manchester City.

Selected picture

New Forest ponies

Photo credit: Michael Rowe Ponies owned by Commoners running free in the New Forest in southern England.


Selected biography

Bobby Robson Cropped

Sir Robert William Robson Kt CBE (born 18 February 1933), commonly known as Sir Bobby Robson (IPA: /ˈbɒbi ˈrɒbsən/), is a former international football player and former manager of several European clubs and the England national football team.

His professional playing career as an inside-forward spanned nearly 20 years, during which he played for just three clubs – Fulham, West Bromwich Albion and briefly for the defunct Vancouver Royals. He also made 20 appearances for England, scoring four goals.

He is now better known for his success as both a club and international manager, having won league championships in both the Netherlands and Portugal, earning trophies in England and Spain, and taking England to the semi-final of the 1990 World Cup. He was most recently a mentor to the manager of the Irish national football team.

Robson was created a Knight Bachelor in 2002, is a member of the English Football Hall of Fame and is the honorary president of Ipswich Town. He has, since 1991, had recurrent medical problems with cancer, and in August 2008, he admitted defeat to lung cancer. He stated "My condition is described as static and has not altered since my last bout of chemotherapy...I am going to die sooner rather than later. But then everyone has to go sometime and I have enjoyed every minute".

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Did you know?

  • ... that the Corpus Clock (pictured), a large sculptural clock at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge featuring the world's largest grasshopper escapement, is entirely accurate only once every five minutes?
  • ... that The Mock Tempest was a 1674 parody of Dryden and Davenant's adaptation of Shakespeare's Tempest?
  • ... that the Swaminarayan Temple in the London suburb of Willesden is in a converted church?
  • ... that Sir Michael Sachs was the first English solicitor to become a High Court judge, appointed in 1993?
  • ... that although William Hogarth painted his March of the Guards to Finchley as a gift for George II, the King took great offence at the artwork and refused to keep it?


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Selected Quotes

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.
Alice Duer Miller
An Englishman, even if he is alone, forms an orderly queue of one.
George Mikes
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