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Great Yarmouth

Great Yarmouth, often called Yarmouth, is a seaside town which gives its name to the wider Borough of Great Yarmouth in Norfolk, England; it straddles the River Yare and is located 20 mi east of Norwich. Its fishing industry, mainly for herring, shrank after the mid-20th century and has all but ended. North Sea oil from the 1960s supplied an oil rig industry that services offshore natural gas rigs; more recently, offshore wind power and other renewable energy industries have ensued.

Yarmouth has been a resort since 1760 and a gateway from the Norfolk Broads to the North Sea. Holidaymaking rose when a railway opened in 1844, bringing easier, cheaper access and some new settlement. Wellington Pier opened in 1854 and Britannia Pier in 1858. Through the 20th century, Yarmouth boomed as a resort, with a promenade, pubs, trams, fish-and-chip shops, theatres, the Pleasure Beach, the Sea Life Centre, the Hippodrome Circus, the Time and Tide Museum and a Victorian seaside Winter Garden in cast iron and glass.

Geography and demography
Great Yarmouth is located on a 3.1 mi spit of land between the North Sea and River Yare. It features historic rows of houses in narrow streets and a main tourist sector on the seafront. It is linked to Gorleston, Cobholm and Southtown by Haven Bridge and to the A47 and A149 by Breydon Bridge. The urban area covers 8.3 sqmi and according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS) in 2002 had a population of 47,288. It is the main town in the Borough of Great Yarmouth.

The ONS identifies a Great Yarmouth urban area as having a population of 68,317, which includes the sub-areas of Caister-on-Sea (population 8,756) and Great Yarmouth (population 58,032). The wider Great Yarmouth borough had a population of around 92,500, which increased to 97,277 at the 2011 United Kingdom census. Ethnically, Great Yarmouth was 92.8 per cent White British, with the next biggest ethnic demographic being Other White at 3.5 per cent – Eastern Europeans in the main.

History
Great Yarmouth (Gernemwa, Yernemuth) lies near the site of the Roman fort camp of Gariannonum at the mouth of the River Yare. Its situation having attracted fishermen from the Cinque Ports, a permanent settlement was made, and the town numbered 70 burgesses before the Norman Conquest. Henry I placed it under the rule of a reeve.

In 1101 the Church of St Nicholas was founded by Herbert de Losinga, the first Bishop of Norwich, and consecrated in 1119. This was to be the first of several priories founded in what was a wealthy trading centre of considerable importance. In 1208, King John granted a charter to Great Yarmouth. The charter gave his burgesses of Yarmouth general liberties according to the customs of Oxford, a gild merchant and weekly hustings, amplified by several later charters asserting the rights of the borough against Little Yarmouth and Gorleston. The town is bound to send to the sheriffs of Norwich every year one hundred herrings, baked in twenty four pasties, which the sheriffs are to deliver to the lord of the manor of East Carlton who is then to convey them to the King.

A hospital was founded in Great Yarmouth during the reign of Edward I by Thomas Fastolfe, father of Thomas Fastolf, Bishop of St David's. In 1551, a grammar school founded and the great hall of the old hospital was appropriated for its use. The school was closed from 1757 to 1860 but re-established by charity trustees and settled in new buildings in 1872.

In 1552, Edward VI granted a charter of admiralty jurisdiction, later confirmed and extended by James I. Elizabeth I came to Great Yarmouth in July 1578. In 1668 a charter from Charles II extended the borough boundaries to also include Little Yarmouth (also known as Southtown), which lay on the opposite bank of the Yare in the parish of Gorleston in Suffolk. In 1703 a new charter from Queen Anne replaced the two bailiffs by a mayor. In 1673, during the Third Anglo-Dutch War, the Zealand Expedition was assembled in the town. In 1702 the Fishermen's Hospital was founded. In the early 18th century, Yarmouth, as a thriving herring port, was vividly and admiringly described several times in Daniel Defoe's travel journals, in part as follows: Yarmouth is an ancient town, much older than Norwich; and at present, tho' not standing on so much ground, yet better built; much more compleat; for number of inhabitants, not much inferior; and for wealth, trade, and advantage of its situation, infinitely superior to Norwich.

It is plac'd on a peninsula between the River Yare and the sea; the two last lying parallel to one another, and the town in the middle: The river lies on the west-side of the town, and being grown very large and deep, by a conflux of all the rivers on this side the county, forms the haven; and the town facing to the west also, and open to the river, makes the finest key in England, if not in Europe, not inferior even to that of Marseilles itself.

The ships ride here so close, and as it were, keeping up one another, with their head-fasts on shore, that for half a mile [800 m] together, they go cross the stream with their bolsprits over the land, their bowes, or heads, touching the very wharf; so that one may walk from ship to ship as on a floating bridge, all along by the shore-side: The key reaching from the drawbridge almost to the south-gate, is so spacious and wide, that in some places 'tis near one hundred yards from the houses to the wharf. In this pleasant and agreeable range of houses are some very magnificent buildings, and among the rest, the custom-house and town-hall, and some merchants houses, which look like little palaces, rather than the dwelling-houses of private men.

The greatest defect of this beautiful town, seems to be, that tho' it is very rich and encreasing in wealth and trade, and consequently in people, there is not room to enlarge the town by building; which would be certainly done much more than it is, but that the river on the land-side prescribes them, except at the north end without the gate....

In 1797, during the French Revolutionary Wars, the town was the main supply base for the North Sea Fleet. The fleet collected at the Yarmouth Roads, from whence it sailed to the decisive Battle of Camperdown against the Dutch fleet.

Again in 1807, during the Napoleonic Wars, the collected fleet sailed from the roadstead to the Battle of Copenhagen.

From 1808 to 1814, the Admiralty in London could communicate with its ships in Yarmouth by a shutter telegraph chain. Ships were routinely anchored offshore during the Napoleonic Wars and the town served as a supply base for the Royal Navy. Part of an Ordnance Yard survives from this period on Southtown Road, probably designed by James Wyatt: a pair of roadside lodges (which originally housed senior officers) frame the entrance to the site, which contains a sizeable armoury of 1806, a small barracks block and other ancillary buildings. Originally the depot extended down to a wharf on the River Yare and was flanked by a pair of storehouses, but these and other buildings were destroyed in The Blitz. A grander survival is the former Royal Naval Hospital designed by William Pilkington, begun in 1806 and opened in 1811. Consisting of four colonnaded blocks around a courtyard, it served as a naval psychiatric hospital, then as a barracks. The barrack-master was Captain George Manby, during his time in post he invented the Manby mortar. The premises was transferred to the NHS in 1958. After its closure in 1993, the buildings were turned into private residences.

The town was the site of a bridge disaster and drowning tragedy on 2 May 1845, when the Yarmouth suspension bridge crowded with children collapsed under the weight killing 79. They had gathered to watch a clown in a barrel being pulled by geese down the river. As he passed under the bridge the weight shifted, causing the chains on the south side to snap, tipping over the bridge deck.

Great Yarmouth had an electric tramway system from 1902 to 1933. From the 1880s until the First World War, the town was a regular destination for Bass Excursions, when fifteen trains would take 8,000–9,000 employees of Bass's Burton brewery on an annual trip to the seaside.

During World War I, Great Yarmouth suffered the first aerial bombardment in the UK, by Zeppelin L3 on 19 January 1915. That same year on 15 August, Ernest Martin Jehan became the first and only man to sink a steel submarine with a sail-rigged Q-ship, off the coast of Great Yarmouth. It was bombarded by the German Navy on 24 April 1916.

The town suffered from bombing raids by the German Luftwaffe during World War II, as the last significant place Germans could drop bombs before returning home, but much is left of the old town, including the original 2000 m protective medieval wall, of which two-thirds has survived, and eleven of the eigteen towers remain. On the South Quay is a 17th-century Merchant's House, as well as Tudor, Georgian and Victorian buildings. Behind South Quay is a maze of alleys and lanes known as "The Rows". Originally there were 145. Despite war damage, several have remained.

The town was badly affected by the North Sea flood of 1953. More recent flooding has also been a problem, with four floods in 2006, the worst being in September. Torrential rain caused drains to block and an Anglian Water pumping station to break down, which caused flash flooding in which 90 properties were flooded up to 5 ft.

On 1 April 1974, the civil parish of Great Yarmouth was abolished.

The southern section of the 2 mi A47 Great Yarmouth Western Bypass opened in May 1985, with the northern section opened in March 1986. The bypass was re-numbered as part of the A12, until it returned to being part of the A47 in February 2017.

In February 2023, there was an explosion on River Yare when disposal of unexploded ordnance from World War II resulted in accidental detonation.

Sightseeing and tourism
The Tollhouse with dungeons, dating from the late 13th century, is one of Britain's oldest former gaols and oldest civic buildings. It backs onto the central library. Major sections of the medieval town walls survive around the parish cemetery and in parts of the old town.

Great Yarmouth Minster (the Minster Church of St Nicholas, founded in the 12th century as an act of penance) stands in Church Plain, just off the market place. It is the third largest parish church in England, after Beverley Minster in the East Riding of Yorkshire and Christchurch Priory in Dorset. Neighbouring Church Plain has the 17th-century timber-framed house where Anna Sewell (1820–1878), author of Black Beauty, was born.

The market place, one of England's largest, has functioned since the 13th century. It is also home to the town's shopping sector and the famous Yarmouth chip stalls. The smaller area south of the market is used as a performance area for community events and for access to the town's shopping centre, Market Gates.

Great Yarmouth railway station is the terminus of the Wherry Lines from Norwich. Before the Beeching Axe, the town had a number of stations and a direct link to London down the east coast. The only remaining signs of these is a coach park, where Beach Station once was, and the A12 relief road, which follows the route of the railway down into the embankment from Breydon Bridge.

Yarmouth has two piers: Britannia Pier (Grade II listed) ) and Wellington Pier. The theatre building on the latter was demolished in 2005 and reopened in 2008 as a family entertainment centre, including a ten-pin bowling alley overlooking the beach. Britannia Pier holds the Britannia Theatre, which during the summer has featured acts such as Jim Davidson, Jethro, Basil Brush, Cannon and Ball, Chubby Brown, the Chuckle Brothers, and The Searchers. It is one of the few end-of-the pier theatres surviving in England.

The Scroby Sands Wind Farm of thirty generators is within sight of the seafront, with its giant wind generators. Also visible are grey seals during their breeding season. The country's only full-time circus, Hippodrome Circus, is just off the seafront.

The Grade II listed Winter Gardens building sits next to the Wellington Pier. The cast iron, framed glass structure was shipped by barge from Torquay in 1903, ostensibly without the loss of a single pane of glass. Over the years, it has been used as ballroom, roller skating rink and beer garden. In the 1990s it was converted into a nightclub by Jim Davidson and has since been used as a family leisure venue. It is currently closed. In the meantime it has been named by the Victorian Society as a heritage building at risk of disrepair.

Great Yarmouth's seafront, known as "The Golden Mile" attracts millions of visitors each year to its sandy beaches, indoor and outdoor attractions and amusement arcades. Great Yarmouth's Marine Parade has twelve Amusement Arcades within 2 sqmi, including: Atlantis, The Flamingo, Circus Circus, The Golden Nugget, The Mint, Leisureland, The Majestic, The Silver Slipper, The Showboat, Magic City, Quicksilver and The Gold Rush, opened in 2007. In addition to the two piers, tourist attractions on Marine Parade include Joyland, Pirates Cove Adventure Golf, Castaway Island Adventure Golf, the Marina Centre, the Sea Life Centre, Merrivale Model Village and the Pleasure Beach and Gardens.

In August 2019, the Venetian Waterways and gardens reopened. The waterways, running parallel to the main beach, were a feature constructed as a work-creation scheme in 1926–1928, consisting of canals and formal gardens, with rowing boats, pedalos and gondolas. These had been allowed to silt up, decay and become abandoned. With a grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund of £1.7m and the labour of volunteers, the flowerbeds have been restored with 20,000 plants, and the 1920s cafe has been restored. That and the boat hire are being run by a social enterprise.

The South Denes area is home to the Grade I listed Norfolk Naval Pillar, known locally as the Britannia Monument or Nelson's Monument. This tribute to Nelson was completed in 1819, 24 years before the completion of Nelson's Column in London. The monument, designed by William Wilkins, shows Britannia standing atop a globe holding an olive branch in her right hand and a trident in her left. There is a popular assumption in the town that the statue of Britannia was supposed to face out to sea but now faces inland due to a mistake during construction, although it is thought she is meant to face Nelson's birthplace at Burnham Thorpe. The monument was originally planned to mark Nelson's victory at the Battle of the Nile, but fundraising was not completed until after his death and it was instead dedicated to England's greatest naval hero. It is currently surrounded by an industrial estate but there are plans to improve the area. The Norfolk Nelson Museum on South Quay housed the Ben Burgess collection of Nelson memorabilia and was the only dedicated Nelson museum in England. Its several galleries looked at Nelson's life and personality, and at what life was like for men who sailed under him. It closed in 2019.

Charles Dickens used Yarmouth as a key location in his novel David Copperfield, and described the town as "the finest place in the universe". Dickens stayed at the Royal Hotel on the Marine Parade while writing the novel.

The Time and Tide Museum in Blackfriars Road, managed by Norfolk Museums Service, was nominated in the UK Museums Awards in 2005. It was built as part of a regeneration of the south of the town in 2003. Its location in an old herring smokery harks back to the town's status as a major fishing port. Sections of the historic town wall stand opposite the museum, next to the Great Yarmouth Potteries, part of which is housed in another former smoke house. The town wall is among the most complete medieval town walls in the country, with 11 of the 18 original turrets still standing. Other museums in the town include the National Trust's Elizabethan House, the Great Yarmouth Row Houses, managed by English Heritage, and the privately owned Blitz and Pieces, based on the Home Front during World War II.

The Maritime Heritage East partnership, based at the award-winning Time and Tide Museum aims to raise the profile of maritime heritage and museum collections.

In October 2021, street artist Banksy created a number of murals in the town as part of his set A Great British Spraycation.

Governance
There are two tiers of local government covering Great Yarmouth, at district and county level: Great Yarmouth Borough Council and Norfolk County Council, based in Norwich. The borough council meets at Great Yarmouth Town Hall in Hall Plain, which is a Grade II* listed building.

Great Yarmouth was an ancient borough. The original borough was entirely on the north side of the Yare, which formed the historic boundary between Norfolk and Suffolk. After the borough was enlarged to include Southtown in 1668 the borough straddled the two counties. The borough was reformed to become a municipal borough in 1836 under the Municipal Corporations Act 1835, at which point the boundaries were enlarged to include all of the parish of Gorleston. When elected county councils were created in 1889, Great Yarmouth was considered large enough to provide its own county-level services and so it became a county borough, independent from Norfolk County Council. For ceremonial and judicial purposes the borough continued to straddle Norfolk and Suffolk until 1 April 1891 when the county boundary was adjusted to place the whole borough in Norfolk.

The County Borough of Great Yarmouth was abolished in 1974 under the Local Government Act 1972. The area became part of the larger Borough of Great Yarmouth, a lower-tier non-metropolitan district, with Norfolk County Council providing county-level services to the town for the first time. No successor parish was created for the area of the former county borough, which therefore became an unparished area, directly administered by Great Yarmouth Borough Council.

Great Yarmouth is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Its current MP, starting 5 July 2024, is Rupert Lowe of the Reform UK.

Wildlife
The Yarmouth area provides habitats for a number of rare and unusual species. The area between the piers is home to one of the largest roosts of Mediterranean gulls in the UK. Breydon Water, just behind the town, is a major wader and waterfowl site, with winter roosts of over 100,000 birds. Grey seal and common seal are frequently seen offshore, as are seabirds such as gannet, little auk, common scoter, razorbill, Gull and guillemot.

This and the surrounding Halvergate Marshes are environmentally protected. Most of the area is now managed by conservation organisations, principally the RSPB. The North Denes area of the beach is an SSSI due to its dune plants, and supports many skylarks and meadow pipits, along with one of the largest little tern colonies in the UK each summer, and a small colony of grayling butterflies. Other butterflies found include small copper and common blue.

The nearby cemetery is a renowned temporary roost for spring and autumn migrants. Common redstart and pied flycatcher are often seen during their migration. It has also recorded the first sightings of a number of rare insects blown in from the continent.

Sport and leisure
The main local football club is Great Yarmouth Town, known as the Bloaters, which plays in the Eastern Counties League. Its ground is at Wellesley Recreation Ground, named after Sir Arthur Wellesley, later to become the Duke of Wellington. There is strong East Anglian rivalry with Gorleston. Local football clubs are served by the Great Yarmouth and District League.

Great Yarmouth has a horse racecourse that features a chute allowing races of one mile (1 mi) on the straight.

Speedway racing was staged before and after the Second World War. The meetings were held at the greyhound stadium in Caister Road. The post-war team was known as the Yarmouth Bloaters, after the smoked fish. Banger and Stock car racing are also staged there.

The main Marina leisure centre, built in 1981, has a large swimming pool and conference facilities; it holds live entertainment, such as summer pantomime variety shows produced by local entertainers Hanton & Dean. The centre is run by the Great Yarmouth Sport and Leisure Trust. The Trust was set up in April 2006 to run the building as a charitable non-profit-making organisation.

At the beginning of the 2008 summer season, a world's first Segway Grand Prix was opened at the Pleasure Beach gardens.

The English Pool Association (EPA), the governing body for 8-Ball Pool in England, holds its National Finals Competitions (including Inter-County and Inter-League, singles and team competitions, and England trials) over several weekends through the year at the Vauxhall Holiday Park on the outskirts of Great Yarmouth.

Local media
Local news and television programmes are provided by BBC East and ITV Anglia. Television signals is received from the Tacolneston transmitter or from one of the two local relay transmitters (Great Yarmouth and Gorleston on Sea).

The town’s local radio stations are BBC Radio Norfolk on 95.1 FM, Heart East on 102.4 FM, Greatest Hits Radio Norfolk & North Suffolk (formerly The Beach) on 103.4 FM, and Harbour Radio, a community radio station that broadcasts from the town on 107.4 FM.

The Great Yarmouth Mercury is the town's weekly local newspaper, alongside the county-wide newspaper Eastern Daily Press.

Railway
The Wherry Lines link Norwich and Great Yarmouth railway station, with an hourly service operated by Greater Anglia; most services travel via Acle, with the remainder via Reedham.

Before the Beeching cuts, there were three other railway lines that entered the town:
 * From the north: The Midland and Great Northern Joint Railway down the coast from Melton Constable to a terminus at Beach station;
 * From the south-west: The Yarmouth-Beccles line from London Liverpool Street, via Beccles, terminating at South Town station;
 * From the south: The Yarmouth-Lowestoft line from Lowestoft Central, via Hopton and Gorleston, terminating at South Town station.

The remaining Vauxhall station was renamed Great Yarmouth in 1989. It is the sole surviving station from a former total of seventeen within the borough limits.

Buses
The bus station in Great Yarmouth is the hub for local routes, located beneath Market Gates Shopping Centre. Services are operated predominantly by First Eastern Counties. The Excel X1 route, which links Norwich and Lowestoft, stops in the town. Other local bus services link the suburban areas of Martham, Hemsby, Gorleston, Bradwell and Belton.

Port and river

The River Yare cuts off Great Yarmouth from other areas of the borough such as Gorleston and Southtown; as a result, the town's bridges became major transport links. Originally Haven Bridge was the only link over the river but, in the late 1980s, Breydon Bridge was built to take the A12 over Breydon Water, replacing the old railway bridge of Breydon Viaduct. In January 2020 construction began on a third river crossing, the Herring Bridge, which opened to traffic on 1 February 2024. All three are lifting bridges, which can be raised to allow river traffic to pass through; this can result in traffic tailbacks. The phrase "the bridge was up" has become synonymous in the town with being late for appointments.

A ferry running between the southern tip of Great Yarmouth and Gorleston provided a much shorter link between the factories on South Denes and the mostly residential areas of Gorleston. However, increased running costs and the decline of industrial activity led to its closure in the early 1990s.

Since 2006, the restored pleasure steamer the Southern Belle has offered regular river excursions from the town's Haven Bridge. Built in 1925 for the Earl of Mount Edgcumbe, she is now owned by the Great Yarmouth and Gorleston Steam Packet Company Limited.

Construction work on the Great Yarmouth Outer Harbour, a deep-water harbour on the North Sea, began in June 2007 and was completed by 2009. Originally, there was to be a roll-on/roll-off ferry link with Ĳmuiden, which failed to materialise. An initiative by Seamax Ferries to connect Great Yarmouth and Ijmuiden by ferry was due to start in 2008. Nor did installation of two large cranes in 2009, since removed, save plans for a container terminal, which have also been scrapped.

Lifeboat station
There has been a lifeboat at Great Yarmouth since at least 1802. Early boats were privately operated, until the RNLI took over in 1857. It has a lifeboat station at Riverside Road, Gorleston from where the Trent-class lifeboat Samarbeta and B class (inshore) lifeboat Seahorse IV run.

Roadstead
The anchorage off Yarmouth, known as Yarmouth Roads, was seen as one of East Coast's best in the early 1800s. Their fleets gathered and set sail during the Napoleonic wars. Nowadays the roadstead is more likely to be referred to as an anchorage.

Roads
The town is served by the A47 and the terminating A143. Until 2017, the A12 from London terminated in Yarmouth; the route from Lowestoft was renumbered as the A47 by Highways England, as part of a wider road-improvement scheme, thereafter the A12 has terminated in Lowestoft instead of at Vauxhall roundabout. The relief road was built along the path of the old railway to carry the A12 onwards to Lowestoft and London. Roundabouts, junctions and bridges often become gridlocked at rush hour.

Third river crossing
Plans were advanced for a third river crossing in Great Yarmouth to link northern Gorleston with the South Denes and the Outer Harbour, avoiding the congested town centre. A public consultation took place in mid-2009 over four possible proposals but plans were stalled by lack of funding and closure of the container terminal. In 2016, additional funding of just over £1 million was pledged and a potential crossing proposal outlined for the crossing to link the A12 at Harfrey's Roundabout to South Denes. The bridge project was approved in 2020 construction of the bascule bridge, to be named "Herring Bridge" began in January 2021, and was set to end in May 2023. During construction works, an unexploded German bomb from the Second World War was discovered and exploded during defusing attempts. Opening for road traffic will take place in 2024.

Air
The North Denes Heliport, sited in the north of the town, is operated by CHC Helicopter. In 2011, the heliport's closure was announced, with operations moving to Norwich International Airport, but this has never occurred.

First Responder group
An East of England Ambulance Service First Responder group has been set up for the Great Yarmouth area. Made up of a group of volunteers within the community in which they live or work, they are trained to attend emergency 999 calls by the NHS Ambulance Service.

Enterprise zone
Great Yarmouth and Lowestoft Enterprise Zone was launched in April 2012. Its sites include Beacon Park and South Denes in Great Yarmouth.

Medieval

 * Joan Larke (c. 1490 – after 1529), mistress of Cardinal Thomas Wolsey and mother of his two illegitimate children

16th century

 * Sir John Clere (c. 1511–1557) politician and naval commander
 * William Harborne (c. 1542–1617) diplomat, merchant and Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire
 * Edward Owner (1576–1650) politician who sat in the House of Commons at times between 1621 and 1648
 * Sir John Potts, 1st Baronet (c. 1592–1673) politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1640 to 1648 and in 1660.

17th century

 * William Bridge (c. 1600–1670), prominent English independent minister
 * Thomas Goodwin (1600–1680) Puritan theologian and preacher, chaplain to Oliver Cromwell
 * Joseph Ames (1619–1695) naval commander under the Commonwealth of England
 * Rebecca Nurse (1621–1692), sister of Mary Eastey and a victim of the Salem witch trials, was born in Great Yarmouth.
 * Mary Eastey (1634–92), victim of the Salem witch trials, was born in Great Yarmouth.
 * John Clipperton (1676–1722) of Clipperton Island, privateer who fought against the Spanish
 * Sir William Gooch, 1st Baronet (1681–1751) Governor of Virginia from 1727 to 1749
 * Joseph Ames (1689–1759) bibliographer and antiquary

18th century

 * Henry Swinden (1716–1772), antiquary, schoolmaster and land surveyor
 * James Sayers (1748–1823), caricaturist
 * John Ives FRS (1751–1776), antiquary and officer of arms at the College of Arms in London
 * Dr Thomas Girdlestone (1758–1822), English physician and writer
 * Captain George William Manby FRS (1765–1854), barrack-master and inventor of marine life-saving equipment and the fire extinguisher
 * Mary Dawson Turner (1774–1850), artist and illustrator
 * Dawson Turner FRS (1775–1858), banker, botanist and antiquary
 * Captain John Black (1778–1802) son of a clergyman, ship's officer and privateer
 * William Fisher (1780–1852) officer of the Royal Navy and a novelist
 * Robert Miles Sloman (1783–1867), British-German shipbuilder
 * Robert Gooch MD (1784–1830), physician
 * William Hovell (1786–1875), explorer of Australia
 * James Beeching (1788–1858), local shipbuilder, whose firm survived into the 20th century
 * Sarah Martin (1791–1843), prison visitor and philanthropist
 * Sir George James Turner (1798–1867), barrister, politician and judge, Lord Justice of Appeal in Chancery
 * Henry Stebbing FRS (1799–1883), cleric, man of letters, poet, preacher and historian

19th century

 * Robert McCormick (1800–1890) Royal Navy ship's surgeon, explorer and naturalist.
 * Samuel Laman Blanchard (1804–1845) author and journalist
 * Charles John Palmer (1805–1888) lawyer and historian of Great Yarmouth
 * John Cantiloe Joy and William Joy (1805–1859 and 1803–1865) marine artists and members of the Norwich School of painters
 * James Allen Ransome (1806–1875) agricultural engineer and writer on agriculture
 * Sir Edmund Lacon (1807–1888) Conservative politician who sat in the House of Commons between 1852 and 1885
 * Sir George Edward Paget FRS (1809–1892) physician and academic
 * John Bell (1811–1895) sculptor
 * Sir James Paget (1814–1899), Victorian surgeon, after whom the James Paget University Hospital was named
 * Anna Sewell (1820–1878), author of Black Beauty, was born and spent the early part of her life in Great Yarmouth.
 * James Haylett (1825–1907) noted lifeboatman
 * Emma Maria Pearson (1828–1893) writer, one of the first British women nurses in the Red Cross
 * Willoughby Smith (1828–1891) electrical engineer, discovered the photoconductivity of the element selenium
 * Colonel Sir Robert William Edis KBE CB (1839–1927) architect
 * Charles Burton Barber (1845–1894) painter, notably of children and pets
 * Sir G. A. H. Branson PC (1871–1951), barrister and High Court judge, grandfather of Richard Branson.
 * General Sir Thomas Astley Cubitt KCB, CMG, DSO (1871–1939) Army officer and Governor of Bermuda
 * Oliver Fellows Tomkins (1873–1901) missionary, eaten by cannibals in Papua
 * Reginald Edwards (1881–1925), cricketer
 * Captain Cuthbert Orde (1888–1968) war artist, who portrayed many RAF fighter pilots
 * Bandsman Jack Blake (John Blake) (1890–1960) boxer, who became British middleweight champion in 1916
 * Joseph Henry Woodger (1894–1981) theoretical biologist and philosopher of biology

20th century

 * Naomi Lewis (1911–2009) poet, essayist, critic and children's story teller
 * Jack Cardiff (1914–2009), Oscar-winning cinematographer
 * Peter Cadbury (1918–2006) founder of Westward Television
 * Peter Shore (1924–2001), Labour MP and cabinet minister
 * Bob Grigg (1924–2002) aerospace engineer, chief designer of British Aerospace 146
 * Gerald Hawkins (1928–2003) astronomer and author working on archaeoastronomy
 * Sir Kenneth MacMillan (1929–1992), choreographer with the Royal Ballet, Covent Garden
 * Richard Larn OBE (born 1931) RN Chief Petty Officer, businessman and maritime historian
 * John McDonnell (born 1951, in Liverpool), Labour Party politician and MP, attended Great Yarmouth Grammar School, having moved to Great Yarmouth at a young age.
 * Tony Wright (born 1954) Labour Party politician and MP for Great Yarmouth 1997–2010
 * Keith Chapman (born 1959) children's television writer and producer, creator of Bob the Builder and PAW Patrol
 * Dale Vince OBE (born 1961) sustainable energy industrialist and New Age traveller
 * Jason Statham (born 1967) actor, lived in Great Yarmouth in childhood and attended the local grammar school.
 * Matthew Macfadyen (born 1974) actor born in Great Yarmouth
 * Travis Kerschen (born 1982) independent film actor
 * Myleene Klass (born 1978) British musician, singer, television presenter and model.

Twin towns
Great Yarmouth has been twinned with Rambouillet, France since 1956.

title: Great Yarmouth


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Burgenland

Burgenland (Őrvidék; Gradišće; Austro-Bavarian: Burgnland; Slovene: Gradiščanska; Hradsko) is the easternmost and least populous state of Austria. It consists of two statutory cities and seven rural districts, with a total of 171 municipalities. It is 166 km long from north to south but much narrower from west to east (5 km wide at Sieggraben). The region is part of the Centrope Project. The name of Burgenland was invented/coined in 1922, after its territories became part of Austria.

History
The territory of present-day Burgenland was successively part of the Roman Empire, the Hun Empire, the Kingdom of the Ostrogoths, the Italian Kingdom of Odoacer, the Kingdom of the Lombards, the Avar Khaganate, the Frankish Empire, Dominion Aba belonging to the Aba (family); Aba – Koszegi, the Kingdom of Hungary, the Habsburg monarchy, the Austrian Empire, Austria-Hungary, and lastly Austria.

Burgenland is the only Austrian province which has never been part of the Archduchy of Austria, Holy Roman Empire, German Confederation nor Austria-Hungary's Cisleithania.

Prehistory and antiquity
From the 4th century BC, the area was dominated by Celts and in the 1st century AD it became part of the Roman Empire. During Roman administration, it was part of the province of Pannonia, and later part of the provinces of Pannonia Superior (in the 2nd century) and Pannonia Prima (in the 3rd century). During the late Roman Empire, Pannonia Prima province was part of larger administrative units, such are Diocese of Pannonia, Praetorian prefecture of Illyricum and Praetorian prefecture of Italy.

Early Germanic states
The first Germanic people to settle in this region were the Ostrogoths, who came to Pannonia in AD 380. The Ostrogoths became allies of Rome and were allowed to settle in Pannonia, being tasked to defend the Roman borders. In the 5th century, the area was conquered by the Huns, but after their defeat, an independent Kingdom of the Ostrogoths in Pannonia was formed. The territory of present-day Burgenland became part of the Italian Kingdom of Odoacer, but at the end of the 5th century the Ostrogothic king Theodoric conquered this kingdom and restored Ostrogothic administration in western Pannonia.

In the 6th century, the territory was included in another Germanic state, the Kingdom of the Lombards. However, the Lombards subsequently left towards Italy and the area came under the control of the Avars. For a brief period in the 7th century, the area became part of the Slavic State of Samo, however it subsequently came back under Avar control. After the Avar defeat at the end of the 8th century, the area became part of the Frankish Empire. After the Battle of Lechfeld (or Augsburg) in 955, new Germanic settlers came to the area.

Medieval Kingdom of Hungary
In 1043, Henry III and King Samuel Aba of Hungary signed a peace treaty. On 20 September 1058, Agnes of Poitou and Andrew I of Hungary met to negotiate the border. The area of Burgenland remained the western frontier of the medieval Kingdom of Hungary until the 16th century.

The majority of the population was Germanic, except for the Hungarian border guards of the frontier March (Gyepű). Germanic immigration from neighbouring Austria was also continuous in the Middle Ages.

Habsburg administration
In 1440 the territory of present-day Burgenland was controlled by the Habsburgs of Austria, and in 1463 the northern part of it (with the town of Kőszeg) became a mortgage-territory according to the peace treaty of Wiener Neustadt. In 1477 King Matthias Corvinus of Hungary had retaken the area, but in 1491 it was mortgaged again by King Vladislaus II of Bohemia and Hungary to Emperor Maximilian I. In 1647 Emperor Ferdinand II returned it to the Kingdom of Hungary (which itself was a Habsburg possession in this time).

In the 16th century, the medieval Kingdom of Hungary lost its independence and its northwestern part that was not conquered by the Ottoman Empire was included in the Habsburg Empire. This Habsburg possession was known as Royal Hungary and it included territory of present-day Burgenland and western Hungary. Royal Hungary still had counties. What is today Burgenland was in those times the Moson, Sopron and Vas counties of Hungary.

In the 16th and 17th centuries German Protestant refugees arrived in Western Royal Hungary to shelter from the religious wars of the Holy Roman Empire, particularly from the suppression of the Reformation in Austrian territories, then ruled by the staunchly Roman Catholic Habsburgs. After the Habsburg military victory against the Ottomans at the end of the 17th century, the Habsburg Kingdom of Hungary was enlarged to include much of the territory of the former medieval Kingdom of Hungary. In the 17th and 18th centuries the region of Western Hungary was dominated by the wealthy Catholic landowning families, for example the Esterházys and Batthyánys. In 1867, the Habsburg Empire was transformed into the dual monarchy of Austria-Hungary.

Dissolution of Austria-Hungary
According to the 1910 census 291,800 people lived on the territory of present-day Burgenland. Among them 217,072 were German-speaking (74%), 43,633 Croatian-speaking (15%) and 26,225 (9%) Hungarian-speaking. Roma people were counted according to their native language.

In December 1918, the Republic of Heinzenland was declared by Austrian politician Hans Suchard with the goal of the territory being annexed by Austria. However, it was taken over within two days by Hungary.

From March to August 1919, Burgenland was part of the Hungarian Soviet Republic.

The area had also been discussed as the site of a Czech Corridor to Yugoslavia. The decision on "German West Hungary" (Deutsch-Westungarn) was fixed in the treaties of Saint Germain and Trianon. Despite diplomatic efforts by Hungary, the victorious parties of World War I set the date of Burgenland's official unification with Austria for 28 August 1921. However, on that day sharpshooters with the support of Hungary prevented the establishment of Austrian police control and customs. Lieutenant Colonel Pál Prónay and his men, the Rongyos Gárda, defended western Hungary from occupation by Austrian officials and forces of the Austrian Gendarmerie. Prónay had help from Hungarians and Croatians who did not want to live under Austrian rule, leading to the Uprising in West Hungary in 1921. Prónay occupied the whole area and created the state of Lajtabánság.

Ninth Austrian province
With the help of Italian diplomatic mediation in the Venice Protocol, the crisis was resolved in the autumn of 1921, when Hungary committed to disarm the sharpshooters by 6 November 1921. This was in exchange for a plebiscite on the unification of certain territories, including Ödenburg (Sopron), the designated capital of Burgenland, and eight surrounding villages. The vote took place from 14 to 16 December, and resulted in a clear (but doubted by Austria) vote of the people who inhabited the Sopron district to be part of Hungary. Consequently, the territory was incorporated into Austria, except for the Sopron district which was united with Hungary. In contrast to all the other present Austrian states, which had been part of Cisleithania, Burgenland did not constitute a specific Kronland, and when it was formed it did not have its own regional political and administrative institutions such as a Landtag (representative assembly) and Statthalter (imperial governor).

On 18 July 1922, the first elections for the parliament of Burgenland took place. Various interim arrangements were required due to the changeover from Hungarian to Austrian jurisdiction. The parliament decided in 1925 on Eisenstadt as the capital of Burgenland, and moved from the various provisional estates throughout the country to the newly built Landhaus in 1929.

The first Austrian census in 1923 registered 285,600 people in Burgenland. The ethnic composition of the province had changed slightly: the percentage of German speakers increased compared to 1910 (227,869 people, 80%) while the percentage of Hungarian speakers rapidly declined (14,931 people, 5%). This was due mainly to the emigration of the Hungarian civil servants and intellectuals after the territory was ceded to Austria.

In 1923, emigration to the United States of America, which started in the late 19th century, reached its climax; in some places up to a quarter of the population went overseas.

After the Nazi German Anschluss of Austria, the administrative unit of Burgenland was dissolved. Northern and central Burgenland joined the district of Niederdonau (Lower Danube) while southern Burgenland joined Styria. The Jews of Burgenland were forced to emigrate in the immediate aftermath of the Anschluss.

The policy of Germanization also affected other minorities, especially Burgenland Croats and Hungarians. Minority schools were closed and the use of their native language discouraged.

In 1944, the Nazis began to build the Südostwall (South-east wall) with the help of mostly Jewish forced labor and collaborating inhabitants. Soviet troops crossed the Hungarian–Austrian border during the Vienna offensive and were only somewhat delayed by the unfinished fortifications. In the last days of the Nazi regime many executions and death marches of Jewish forced laborers took place.

Occupation
As of 1 October 1945 Burgenland was reestablished with Soviet support and given to the Soviet forces in exchange for Styria, which was in turn occupied by the United Kingdom.

Under Soviet occupation, people in Burgenland had to endure a period of serious mistreatment and an extremely slow economic progress, the latter induced by the presence of Soviet troops which discouraged investment. The Soviet occupation ended with the signing of the Austrian Independence Treaty of Vienna in 1955 by the Occupying Forces.

The brutally crushed Hungarian Revolution on 23 October 1956 resulted in a wave of Hungarian refugees on the Hungarian-Austrian border, especially at the Andau Bridge (Brücke von Andau). They were received by the inhabitants of Burgenland with overwhelming hospitality.

In 1957, the construction of the "anti-Fascist Protective Barrier" resulted in a complete sealing off of the area under Soviet influence from the rest of the world, turning the Hungarian-Austrian border next to Burgenland into a deadly zone of minefields and barbed wire (on the Hungarian side of the border): part of the Iron Curtain. Even during the era of the Iron Curtain, local trains between the north and south of Burgenland operated as "corridor trains" (Korridorzüge) – they had their doors locked as they crossed through Hungarian territory.

Between 1965 and 1971, the minefields were cleared because people were often harmed by them, even on the Austrian side of the border.

Recent history
Despite Burgenland (especially the area around the Neusiedler See) always producing excellent wine, some vintners in Burgenland added illegal substances to their wine in the mid-1980s. When this was revealed, Austria's wine exports dwindled dramatically. After recovering from the scandal, vintners in Austria, and not only in Burgenland, started focusing on quality and mostly stopped producing low-quality wine.

On 27 July 1989, the foreign ministers of Austria and Hungary, Alois Mock and Gyula Horn, cut the Iron Curtain in the village of Klingenbach in a symbolic act with far-reaching consequences. At the same time, the border crossing at Nickelsdorf (Austria) / Hegyeshalom (Hungary) was opened by the Hungarian border patrol and this enabled the escape of East Germans. Directly behind the wires special medic troops of the Austrian Red Cross awaited them and provided first assistance. Thousands of East Germans fled to the West in this way. Again, the inhabitants of Burgenland received them with great hospitality. Later, this was often referred to as the beginning of German reunification.

After 1990 Burgenland regained its traditional role as a bridge between the western and eastern parts of Central Europe. In 2003 it joined an Interreg project Centrope. Cross-border links were further strengthened when Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic joined the European Union in 2004. All three countries became part of the Schengen zone in late 2007, and border controls ceased to exist in the region.

In 2021, Burgenland grew by about 6,000 m2. This was due to the change of flood protection measures along the river Lafnitz, which forms part of the border between Burgenland and Styria, in the late 1970s. As the course of the river changed somewhat along with the change of the flood protection measures, some areas belonging to Styria ended up to the east of the river and some areas belonging to Burgenland ended up to the west of the river. In 2010, it was decided by legislators together with the local councils that the areas to the west of the river would be part of Styria and the areas to the east of the river would be part of Burgenland, reflecting the perceptions and attitudes of the population. This decision was put into law in 2021.

Geography

Burgenland is the third-smallest of Austria's nine states at 3,962 km2. The province's highest point is exactly on the border with Hungary, on the Geschriebenstein, 884 m above sea level. The highest point entirely within Burgenland is 879 metres above sea level; the lowest point (which is also the lowest point of Austria) at 114 m, is in the municipal area of Apetlon.

Burgenland borders the Austrian states of Styria to the southwest and Lower Austria to the northwest. To the east it borders Hungary (Vas County and Győr-Moson-Sopron County). In the extreme north and south there are short borders with Slovakia (Bratislava Region) and Slovenia (Mura Statistical Region) respectively.

Burgenland and Hungary share the Neusiedler See (Hungarian: Fertő-tó), a lake known for its reeds and shallowness, as well as its mild climate throughout the year. The Neusiedler See is Austria's largest lake. It is a tourist attraction, bringing ornithologists, sailors, and wind and kite surfers into the region north of the lake.

Politics
Burgenland's provincial assembly (Landtag) has 36 seats. At the election held on 26 January 2020, the Social Democratic Party (SPÖ) won an absolute majority of 19 seats, the Austrian People's Party (ÖVP) won 11 seats, the Freedom Party (FPÖ) won 4 seats and the Green Party won 2 seats. The voting age for regional elections in Burgenland was reduced to 16 years in 2003.

Economy
The province's Gross domestic product (GDP) was 9 billion € in 2018, accounting for 2.3% of Austria's economic output. GDP per capita adjusted for purchasing power was €27,300 or 90% of the EU27 average in the same year. Burgenland is the province with the lowest GDP per capita in Austria.

Administrative divisions
Burgenland consists of nine districts, two statutory cities and seven rural districts. From north to south:

Statutory cities
These combine the attributes of district and city.
 * Eisenstadt
 * Rust

Rural districts

 * Neusiedl am See (administrative center Neusiedl am See)
 * Eisenstadt-Umgebung (Eisenstadt)
 * Mattersburg (Mattersburg)
 * Oberpullendorf (Oberpullendorf)
 * Oberwart (Oberwart)
 * Güssing (Güssing)
 * Jennersdorf (Jennersdorf)

Population development
The historical population is given in the following chart:

Minorities
Burgenland has notable Croatian (130,000) and Hungarian (5,000–15,000) populations.

Croats
The Croats arrived after the devastating Ottoman war in 1532, when the Ottoman army destroyed some settlements in their ethnic territory. The emigration in great haste of the remaining Catholic population of western Slavonia into Burgenland was – as far as possible – organized by estate owners. The archives of the Sabor (the Croatian parliament) from this period contain numerous references to such resettlements. As reported in the spring of 1538 by the Ban of Croatia, Petar Keglević, who himself owned large estates in western Slavonia, that the country's population at the Ottoman border was preparing to emigrate. Their resettlement by estate owners was finished only in 1584. They have preserved their strong Catholic faith and their language until today, and in the 19th century their national identity grew stronger because of the influence of the National Revival in Croatia. Between 1918 and 1921 Croats opposed the planned annexation of West-Hungary to Austria, and in 1923 seven Croatian villages voted for a return to Hungary. The Croatian Cultural Association of Burgenland was established in 1934. In the Nazi era (1938–45) the Croatian language was officially prohibited, and the state pursued an aggressive policy of Germanization. The Austrian State Treaty of 1955 guaranteed minority rights for every native ethnic minority in Austria but Croats had to fight for the use of their language in schools and offices even in the 1960s and 1970s. In 2000 51 new bilingual village name signs were erected in Burgenland (47 Croatian and 4 Hungarian).

The Burgenland Croatian language is a 16th-century dialect which is different from standard Croatian. In minority schools and media the local dialect is used, and it has had a written form since the 17th century (the Gospel was first translated to this dialect in 1711). Today the language is endangered by assimilation, according to the UNESCO's Red Book of Endangered Languages. The Croats of Burgenland belong to the same group as their relatives on the other side of the modern-day border with Hungary.

Hungarians
Hungarians live in the villages of Oberwart/Felsőőr, Unterwart/Alsóőr and Siget in der Wart/Őrisziget. The three villages together are called Upper Őrség (Hun: Felső-Őrség, German: Wart), and they have formed a language island since the 11th century. The other old Hungarian language island in Oberpullendorf/Felsőpulya has almost disappeared today. The Hungarians of Burgenland were "őrök", i.e. guards of the western frontier, and their special dialect is similar to the Székelys in Transylvania. Their cultural centre is Oberwart/Felsőőr. Another distinct Hungarian group were the indentured agricultural workers living on the huge estates north of Neusiedler See. They arrived mainly from the Rábaköz region. After the dissolution of the manors in the mid-20th century this group ceased to exist.

Roma and Jews
In addition to Germans, Croats and Hungarians, Burgenland used to have substantial Roma and Jewish populations, but these were wiped out by the Nazi regime. Before their deportation during 1938, the traditionally very religious Burgenland Jews were concentrated in the famous "Seven Communities" (Siebengemeinden/Sheva kehillot) in Eisenstadt, Mattersburg, Kittsee, Frauenkirchen, Kobersdorf, Lackenbach and Deutschkreutz, where they formed a substantial part of the population: e.g. in Lackenbach, 62% of the population was Jewish as of 1869. After the war, Jews from Burgenland founded the Jerusalem haredi neighbourhood of Kiryat Mattersdorf, reminding of the original name of Mattersburg, once a centre of a famous yeshiva.

Religion
According to 2021 figures of Statistics Austria, Burgenland's population is mostly Christian (80.3%), with the highest proportion of Protestants in Austria (11.4%). 65.5% of the population are Roman Catholic, and further 3.4% are adherents of other Christian denominations (mostly Orthodox Christians). Islam is practiced by 2.2%, while 0.7% profess another religion. 16.8% of Burgenland's inhabitants profess no affiliation with any religion or denomination.

Names
In Croatian, Burgenland is known as Gradišće; in Hungarian as Őrvidék, Felsőőrvidék or Várvidék; in Slovene as Gradiščanska; and in the Prekmurje dialect as Gradišče.

As the region was not a territorial entity before 1921, it never had an official name. Until the end of World War I the German-speaking western borderland of the Kingdom of Hungary was sometimes unofficially called Deutsch-Westungarn (German West Hungary). The historical region included the border city of Sopron in Hungary (known as Ödenburg in German).

The name Vierburgenland (Land of Four Castles) was created in 1919 by Odo Rötig, a Viennese resident of Sopron. It was derived from the four vármegye of the Kingdom of Hungary (in German Komitaten, 'counties') known in Hungarian as Pozsony, Moson, Sopron and Vas, or in German as Pressburg, Wieselburg, Ödenburg and Eisenburg. After the town of Pozsony/Pressburg (Bratislava) was assigned to Czechoslovakia, the number vier was to be changed to drei (=three), but after it became clear that none of the Burgen would be part of the Burgenland, the number was dropped completely but the name Burgenland was kept because it was deemed to be appropriate for a region with so many old frontier castles. The "Burgenland" name was adopted by the first provincial Landtag in 1922.

In Hungarian the German name is generally accepted but there are three modern alternatives used by minor groups. The Hungarian translation of the German name, "Várvidék", was invented by László Juhász, an expert of the region in the 1970s, and it is becoming increasingly popular especially in tourist publications. The other two names "Őrvidék" and "Felső-Őrvidék" are derived from the name of the most important old Magyar language island, the Felső-Őrség. This microregion is around the town Felsőőr/Oberwart, so these new names are a bit misleading; however they are sometimes used.

The Croatian and Slovenian names "Gradišće" and "Gradiščansko" are calques of the German name. The village of Jennersdorf is no more than 5 kilometers from the Slovenian and Hungarian borders (see the United Slovenia movement).

Alternatively, the Serbs, Czechs and Slovaks call the western shores of the Neusiedler See, the lake adjoining the town of Rust, Luzic or Lusic. However, the descendants of Luzic Serbs, Bosniaks, Croats, Czechs and Slovaks were eventually assimilated into the ethnic German or Hungarian cultures over four centuries.

The province has a long history of Slavic, as well Austrian-German and Hungarian-Magyar settlement. The province's easternmost portion (the shores of the Neusiedler See) carried its own topographical term Seewinkel in Austrian-German. This is the area least influenced by Austrian-German since the Hungarian and Slovak borders are less than 10 kilometers away.

Symbols
Heraldic description of the coat-of-arms of Burgenland:

 * Or, standing upon a rock sable, an eagle regardant, wings displayed gules, langued of the same, crowned and armed of the first, on his breast an escutcheon paly of four, of the third and white fur, fimbriated of the field, and in dexter and sinister cantons two crosslets paty sable.

The arms were introduced in 1922 after the new province was created. They were composed from the arms of the two most important medieval noble families of the region, the counts of Nagymarton and Fraknó (Mattersdorf-Forchtenstein, eagle on the rock) and the counts of Németújvár (Güssing, three bars of red and white fur).

The flag of the province shows two stripes of red and gold, the colours of the coat-of-arms. It was officially confirmed in 1971.

Culture
The cultural offerings are diverse and especially in the summer famous for the Seefestspiele Mörbisch and the Nova Rock Festival with numerous international rockbands.

The permanent exhibition at Forchtenstein Castle shows an impressive collection of the dukes of Esterházy, at whose court at Esterházy Palace worked the world-famous musician Joseph Haydn, who composed from the Burgenland Croatian folk-song "V jutro rano se ja stanem" ("In the morning I rise up early") the melody of "Gott erhalte Franz den Kaiser" ("God save Franz the Emperor"), which became the melody of today's national anthem of Germany. There are also cultural events organized by the minorities such as Croatian or Hungarian folk evenings.

The dialect spoken in Burgenland is called Hianzisch.

People from Burgenland tend to be the butt of a joke cycle by people from other regions of Austria, similar to the German East Frisian jokes. These jokes portray people from Burgenland as dumb or slow on the uptake.

Radio

 * Radio OP (2009)

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Burgenland


text:
The State (newspaper)

The State is an American newspaper published in Columbia, South Carolina. The newspaper is owned and distributed by The McClatchy Company in the Midlands region of the state. It is by circulation, the second-largest newspaper in South Carolina after The Post and Courier.

History
The newspaper, first published on February 18, 1891. was founded by two brothers, N.G. Gonzales and A.E. Gonzales. In 1903, N. G. Gonzales was fatally shot by lieutenant governor James H. Tillman, who was later acquitted of murder charges.

In 1945, The State bought its rival, the Columbia Record, with the parent company becoming The State-Record Company. The paper's owners diversified in 1971 by founding "State Telecasting Company". State Telecasting purchased two television stations in New Mexico and Texas, along with a station in South Carolina. KCBD in Lubbock, Texas, and its full-time satellite KSWS in Roswell, New Mexico, were acquired in 1971 for $6 million from the Joe Bryant estate. WUSN-TV in nearby Charleston, South Carolina, was acquired and the call letters changed to WCBD-TV to conform with those of KCBD. The paper remained in the hands of the Gonzales family until 1986, when Knight Ridder purchased the State-Record Company and six subsidiaries (including the Sun Herald and The Sun News) for $311 million. In 2006, Knight Ridder was purchased by McClatchy.

In 2020, McClatchy filed for bankruptcy and was purchased by hedge fund, Chatham Asset Management for $312 million.

On April 22, 2024 The State started printing Sunday, Wednesday and Friday only and delivering through the mail.

Background
Its news staff was a Pulitzer Prize finalist in general news reporting for its Hurricane Hugo coverage in 1989. Its cartoonist, Robert Ariail, was a Pulitzer finalist in 1995 and 2000. Reporter Gina Smith and current projects editor broke the Mark Sanford scandal story on June 24, 2009, when she interviewed Sanford at Atlanta Hartsfield Airport as he returned from Argentina.

According to the newspaper's Web site, it has 440 full-time employees and another 31 who work part-time, not including an on-premises "McClatchy Customer Care Center for subscriber assistance." The State has a 260000 sqft building completed in 1988, 3 mi south of downtown.

In 2017, the McClatchy Company listed the State's Columbia headquarters building for sale for $17,000,000.

title: The State (newspaper)


text:
Talk:The State (newspaper)

Wouldn't this title more appropriately be about the comedy group The State? The one existing link at gun control can be changed to "the State". --Brion 22:07 Oct 3, 2002 (UTC)

 * I second Brion's thoughts. The State comedy troupe/T.V. show is a continetnal phenomenon with a large cult following.  I imagine, especially with the sucess of Reno 911 and the cult following of Stella that there's infinitely more interest in the comedy group than a newspaper in South Carolina. Sonofabird 20:23, 5 November 2005 (UTC)

 * I agree. At the very least it shouldb be a disambiguation page with options. I thought I had typed in something wrong when this came up. (ImagoDei 23:00, 13 June 2006 (UTC))

Fair use rationale for Image:The State front page.jpg
Image:The State front page.jpg is being used on this article. I notice the image page specifies that the image is being used under fair use but there is no explanation or rationale as to why its use in this Wikipedia article constitutes fair use. In addition to the boilerplate fair use template, you must also write out on the image description page a specific explanation or rationale for why using this image in each article is consistent with fair use.

Please go to the image description page and edit it to include a fair use rationale. Using one of the templates at Fair use rationale guideline is an easy way to insure that your image is in compliance with Wikipedia policy, but remember that you must complete the template. Do not simply insert a blank template on an image page.

If there is other fair use media, consider checking that you have specified the fair use rationale on the other images used on this page. Note that any fair use images lacking such an explanation can be deleted one week after being tagged, as described on criteria for speedy deletion. If you have any questions please ask them at the Media copyright questions page. Thank you.

BetacommandBot (talk) 02:24, 12 February 2008 (UTC)

ownership
According to Hightower Lowdown Vol. 23 No. 5 (June 2021) McCarthy's 30 newspapers were acquired by hedge fund Chatham Asset Management in August 2020. I hope someone with the know how and interest in the sad state of print journalism will verify and update this in the article. Please don't send me advice on how to do it myself. I'm not that tech savvy and stick to hard copy editing. 207.144.137.130 (talk) 21:10, 1 July 2021 (UTC)

title: Talk:The State (newspaper)


text:
User talk:General Wesc

Welcomes
Welcome to Wikipedia! There is a wikipedia listserv where more discussion takes place, if you'd be interested in that. --KQ

G'day, General! In addition to the mailing list, there are two places within Wikipedia you might be interested in. If you have a specific question that you think others might be asking, simply add it to the bottom of the Wikipedia FAQ, and someone will answer it. There's also Wikipedia chat, for less structured general conversation. Welcome, and have fun! --Stephen Gilbert

Remember: Wikipedia is not Everything 2. Also, when linking to a whole web site, it's best to link to a Wikipedia page about the web site that in turn links externally to the site itself. This helps to put the web site into a more neutral context. --yerricde

Welcome! If you want to revert an article, click on "History" at the top of the page, select the version you want to revert to, edit it, and save. -- Zoe
 * Great, thanks. (Of course, I've already relinked that entire darn thing, but in the future I'll know better) -- LKBM

Markup Question
I have a question regarding your change of ... to ... in my article on the First Age. I know that the italics and bold tags have been deprecated, but they're endorsed by How to edit a page. I wanted to achieve specifically italics, because they're the convention for foreign-language phrases, rather than emphasis. You know what? I'm taking this to the talk:How to edit a page.
 * I really don't know what's best; I just blindly convert HTML to Wiktax, ignoring sementic diffences. There's been discussion of outlawing HTML on Wikipedia completely, but if we do that, I'd hope for a separate Wikicode for italics and emphasis. Taking it to How to edit a page is probably a good idea. I've been here over a year, but I'm still a newbie. -- General Wesc 18:20 30 May 2003 (UTC)

Sparkling Gem
A sparkling gem? Golly! Likewise, I'm sure! :) Uyanga 13:15, 10 Aug 2003 (UTC)

Henry Jackson
Hi. I undid your Henry Jackson redirect because it's Wiki policy to use the most common version of a person's name. Unless Henry M. Jackson was almost always called Henry Martin Jackson, it's not accepted to put the article at the latter version. RickK 21:43, 31 Aug 2003 (UTC)
 * I did absolutely nothing with the article. All I did was avoid the double redirect of Henry Jackson->Henry M. Jackson->Henry Milton Jackson. But thanks, it is better this way. General Wesc 21:52, 31 Aug 2003 (UTC)

List of Middle-earth articles
Your list of Middle-earth articles is good. -Itai 15:32, 22 Jan 2004 (UTC)

WikiProject Philosophy
Hi there General! I noticed that you have made a lot of terrific contributions to articles about philosophy, especially philosophical skepticism. I'm trying to organize those of us who are philosophically inclined over on WikiProject Philosophy, in the hopes of sprucing up the philosophy pages around here, and I'd like to invite you to join us. If you're interested, drop on in -- there's no obligation, I'm just trying to form a nexus and central meeting point for philosophically-minded 'pedians. Thanks, and good luck! — Adam Conover † 20:56, Apr 8, 2004 (UTC)

Privacy policy
Good evening. You recently weighed in with an opinion on the discussion at Wikipedia:Votes for deletion/User:Tim Starling/Password matches. On the basis of that discussion, I have proposed some changes to our privacy policy at Draft privacy policy. I would appreciate your thoughts if you have time. Rossami 22:19, 13 Jul 2004 (UTC)

Article Licensing
Hi, I've started a drive to get users to multi-license all of their contributions that they've made to either (1) all U.S. state, county, and city articles or (2) all articles, using the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike (CC-by-sa) v1.0 and v2.0 Licenses or into the public domain if they prefer. The CC-by-sa license is a true free documentation license that is similar to Wikipedia's license, the GFDL, but it allows other projects, such as WikiTravel, to use our articles. Since you are among the top 2000 Wikipedians by edits, I was wondering if you would be willing to multi-license all of your contributions or at minimum those on the geographic articles. Over 90% of people asked have agreed. For More Information:
 * Multi-Licensing FAQ - Lots of questions answered
 * Multi-Licensing Guide
 * Free the Rambot Articles Project

To allow us to track those users who muli-license their contributions, many users copy and paste the " " template into their user page, but there are other options at Template messages/User namespace. The following examples could also copied and pasted into your user page:

 * Option 1
 * I agree to multi-license all my contributions, with the exception of my user pages, as described below:

OR
 * Option 2
 * I agree to multi-license all my contributions to any U.S. state, county, or city article as described below:

Or if you wanted to place your work into the public domain, you could replace " " with "  ". If you only prefer using the GFDL, I would like to know that too. Please let me know what you think at my talk page. It's important to know either way so no one keeps asking. -- Ram-Man (comment| talk)

Middle-earth
Greetings from the real Middle-earth! You've not done much on that subject for a few months but your article list (which features on a "Shire (Middle-earth)" redirect page in "what links here") is impressive and I see you contributed lots in previous years. It's likely some of your work may be getting added to the LOTR Wikicity. Appropriately acknowledged, of course. You may like to help with the process! Robin Patterson 04:52, 30 July 2005 (UTC)

Castle of the Winds
Hi, I’m Seahen and you’re not. Neener neener!

On Talk:Castle of the Winds, you say you have the game’s source code. Can you read it? If so, can you tell us about the specifics of battle calculations and what goes into them?

 * Much sadly, my hard disk went kaput! and the source code was gone, just like that. Dreadfully sorry. -- General Wesc 02:24, 5 December 2005 (UTC)

Page for deletion
Revolution within the form is up for deletion. Can I ask for a vote to "Transwiki". Thanks.WHEELER 23:57, 2 March 2006 (UTC)

List of Middle-earth articles
Hi there. I have just come across your list of Middle-earth articles at User:General Wesc/List of Middle-earth articles. I hope you don't mind that I have taken the liberty of adding it to Category:WikiProject Middle-earth, and to the list (similar, but of a slightly different sort) that I have been building over at User:Carcharoth/Tolkien_categories. I have also been tidying up the Tolkien category system (top level: Category:Tolkien), and wondering what to do with List_of_Middle-earth_articles and List_of_Middle-earth_articles_by_category. Hopefully all this will be updated/merged at some point, and a more up-to-date list will emerge. I was also wondering if you know of any other such lists of articles? It was only by chance that I stumbled across your list! Carcharoth 20:53, 16 May 2006 (UTC)

 * When I first created my list, we didn't have the category or anything. I stpped worrying about it when I discovered that the more-complete List of Middle-earth articles appeared. I know of none beyond what you've listed. I actually didn't know about many of those. -- General Wesc 21:29, 16 May 2006 (UTC)

 * OK. Thanks. I do like some of the headings you used, so I might borrow those for some new categories! I particularly liked the lists of redirects and disambiguation pages - is there an easy way to find the redirects, apart from clicking "What links here"? Carcharoth 07:29, 17 May 2006 (UTC)

 * Try searching for site:en.wikipedia.org Middle-earth OR Tolkein "redirected from" on Google. I'm not sure how much use it will be for the harder-to-find redirects, though. -- General Wesc 15:07, 18 May 2006 (UTC)

Fish disease don't know other names
I'm at a disadvantage as my broadband is down due to huge storm and won't be back until Saturday at earliest. I tried looking in fish forums etc. but dialup is too slow. PalmCraft 20:13, 7 September 2006 (UTC)

Age category
Hello! If you are receiving this message, that means that your user page is in a specific year category. Per a recent user-category per deletion, all specific year categories are to be deleted. If you wish to continue using year categories, you have two options: If you wish, you may do both. Hopefully, this change in categorization will be quick and painless. Happy editing! --An automated message from MessedRobot 13:00, 9 March 2007 (UTC)
 * Using an age group category, such as Category:Wikipedians in their 30s
 * Using a decade category, such as Category:Wikipedians born in the 1970s.
 * Those both strike me as pretty bad options seeing as I was born in 1982 and I'm in my twenties. ;-) Thanks, though, I'll update momentarily.

Dominion War
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AfD nomination of Dominion War
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Removal of category from your userpage
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Your user page
I found your old user page while checking out some old edits. I have history merged it, so that all edits are in one place. Hope you don't mind. Graham 87 12:14, 11 August 2009 (UTC)

 * And I've also updated an some old links in your welcome messages. Graham 87 12:19, 11 August 2009 (UTC)

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ArbCom elections are now open!
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Invitation to join the Fifteen Year Society
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title: User talk:General Wesc


text:
Talk:Green anarchism

Early discussion
I changed this from a redirect to primitivism because they are not the same thing. See talk page -- Sam

Nice one- thanks Sam quercus robur

But I don't know a lot about green anarchism in particular, so elaborate away, friend. -- Sam

wasn't really on my 'to do' list, but, I'lll do me best :-) quercus robur

It doesn't reallly bother me either way, but I thought the wiki standard for 'see also' was ==See also==

Cheers quercus robur

Actually "see also" is very simple and doesn't need headings (in fact I change this each time I see it). Simply state;

See also: alpha, beta, foo

--mav

Green Anarchism is defined as "Green anarchists practise an underground resistance based... ". Is the "underground" requisite, or merely typical? If not requisite, then this should be reworded.

Thanks: Greenfyre (who is not logged in)

All anarchist movements exhibit a high range of diversity (as do most movements, I suppose). This article struck me as a little odd, because I can't imagine any self-respecting anarchist joining the Green Party. Perhaps this is a regional thing. I live in the US. I want to change the article some, but I don't want to remove what someone else feels is correct from their perspective.

manchineel

The reason for an anarchist joining a green party, as I have done myself, is clearly because many anarchists believe that electoral politics are a useful vehicle for futhering the green anarchist agenda. Keep in mind that Murray Bookchin, who more or less invented the idea of green anarchism, or at least the euphemism "Libertarian Municipalism", was a vocal member of the American Green Party for a good number of years.

Begebies

NPOV Dispute
It seems to me that this article has been written with the purported superiority of this particular political philosophy firmly in mind. Therefore, effort must be made to neutralise the point of view.

Statements such as "as opposed to obsolete isms such as socialism or liberalism" are particularily glaring, offensive and POV (not to mention that "ism" is a suffix, not a noun). Falcon 17:07, 30 Aug 2004 (UTC)

 * Actually, see ism. "The word ism was first used in 1680 and can be found in the works of such well-known writers as Thomas Carlyle, Julian Huxley and George Bernard Shaw." Livajo 14:42, 12 Sep 2004 (UTC)

 * That still doesn't change the fact that the statement was very POV and extremely offensive. Especialy to socialists and liberals.  And, it is not backed up correctly or encyclopædic in the least.  Falcon 01:03, 1 Nov 2004 (UTC)

 * I am beginning a complete rewrite of the article, in hopes to resolve this problem. I will not delete the NPOV flag.
 * My editting is now complete. Most of the information is from the original article, however it has been reworked into (what I hope is) NPOV phrasing.

some things wrong with article
I read this article and feel that there a few problems with it:

-Green anarchists are hold diverse views, and many are in fact anti-technology, however this article paints it as though all green anarchists are pro-green technology.

-For some (anarcho) primitivism and green anarchy are the same; for others, anarcho-primitivism is the part of green anarchy concerned with the origins of civlization.

-There is a strong rejection of the term ideology among anarchists, espeically green anarchists. Ideology is seen as a rigid framework of thought, usually external to the individual. Many anarchists hold very fluid and personal ideas connected by some common beliefs.

-There is no mention of the green anarchists who are also anti-civilization green anarchists, which is probably the major line of green anarchy in the world.

I don't know the rules for changing articles, but if someone wants to rewrite this, please see www.greenanarchy.org and their back to basics series.

this article needs to be cleaned up.
https://www.facebook.com/560701240692778/photos/a.561473853948850.1073741828.560701240692778/596496100446625/?type=1&theater Lockeownzj00 04:49, 6 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Anti-industrialism=Green Anarchism ?
It's mentioned above that Green Anarchism is fundamentally different from Primitivism, but this article basically presents the primitivist position. Would it not be more precise to say that Green Anarchism is equivalent to anarchist anti-industrialism? This would include most social ecologists, post left anarchists, and others who identify as green anarchists but not as primitivists

I think this article should resemble this: http://eng.anarchopedia.org/index.php/Green_anarchism

Green Anarchy is anti-civilization anarchy
The current momentum of the green anarchist movement is very similar to the anarcho-primitivist movement, sometimes indistinguishable except that AP's usually discuss theory more than praxis, but to many the words are interchangable. The article referenced is old, out of date, and just seems plain wrong as a description for the GA movement. Check out greenanarchy.info for clarifcation.

green anarchism is not anarcho-primitivism
I think that it is important to keep a clear distinction between green anarchism and anarcho-primitivism. It is not the same thing. anarcho-primitivism is a part of green anarchism. Not all green anarchists are against technology, while all primitivists are against technology.

References?
Please consider the following quote: "Before agriculture, humans often lived as autonomous bands of gatherer-hunters without any leadership, authority, division of labor, organized violence, environmental destruction, etc." Are we to take this as meaning that this is the view of proponents of green-anarchism or that this is an established fact. Either way, where are the footnotes supporting this?

Restructuring desperately needed
This article is in desperate need of a restructuring because, right now, it's little more than a list of article summaries, many of which have dubious connections to green anarchism. In its current state, this article provides nothing in the way of explaining what green anarchism actually is beyond scattered back-and-forth references to random, disconnected individuals and movements. Grnrchst (talk) 13:51, 8 December 2022 (UTC)

 * I mean this genuinely, but is that necessarily unreflective of green anarchism? AllenY99 (talk) 15:17, 24 February 2023 (UTC)

This statement is likely wrong, and certainly needs some support
The statement is almost certainly incorrect, and as it serves as a founding sentence to the background, needs to be addressed. "Before the Industrial Revolution, the only occurrences of ecological crisis were small-scale, localised to areas affected by natural disasters, overproduction or war." First, this is not referenced. Secondly, of the information that I am peripherally aware, it's factually wrong: (a) high lead levels have been found in Antarctic ice cores dating from the 16th century, and as early as 1200 AD, caused by mining activities in South America. (b)Large declines in megafaunal abundance (large land animals in this case) are best correlated with human range expansion rather than climate variability over the period between 38,000 and 72,000 years ago - with severe ecological ramifications

I'd like some additional consensus on wading into this particular argument, however, as I don't dispute that vast ecological changes, typically not improving ecological function, have occurred since, and as a direct result of, industrialization. Jed (talk) 14:47, 25 April 2024 (UTC)

 * @Jedgold: It is referenced, see Parson 2018, p. 220. As for factual correctness, you're definitely right that it's not entirely accurate. How would you recommend we reword this sentence? This section needs to communicate the great ecological changes that happened post-industrialisation, but we definitely shouldn't be implying that no great ecological damage has been done before then. --Grnrchst (talk) 15:28, 25 April 2024 (UTC)

title: Talk:Green anarchism


text:
Avon Products

Avon Products, Inc. or simply known as Avon, is an Anglo-American multinational company selling cosmetics, skin care, perfume, and personal care products. It is a multi-level marketing company based in London. In 2020, Avon had annual sales of $9.1 billion worldwide.

It is the fourteenth-largest beauty company and, with 6.4 million representatives, is the second largest multi-level marketing company in the world (after Amway). The company's CEO is Angela Cretu who was appointed to the position in January 2020.

In May 2019, the Brazilian multinational company Natura & Co announced its intent to acquire Avon; the deal closed in January 2020. Following the merger, existing Natura shareholders held 73% of the combined company, Natura Holding S.A., with former Avon shareholders owning 27%. At merger completion, Avon became a privately held company, common stock was removed from the NYSE trading.

History
Avon's founder, David H. McConnell, initially sold books as a door-to-door salesman to New York homes. In September 1886, he decided to sell perfumes rather than books. He started the new business in a small office at 126 Chambers Street, Manhattan, New York. McConnell changed the company name in 1892. His business partner suggested calling it the "California Perfume Company." His business partner was living in California at the time and suggested the name because of the abundance of flowers in California.

In May 1894, Alexander D. Henderson joined the company, became vice-president and treasurer, and helped shape its policies and assist in its growth. In 1897 they built a laboratory in Suffern, New York. On May 3, 1909, the California Perfume Company corporate office moved to 31 Park Place, New York. On June 16, 1909, McConnell and Henderson signed an agreement of Incorporation for the California Perfume Company in the state of New Jersey. On January 28, 1916, the California Perfume Company was incorporated in the state of New York. McConnell, Henderson, and William Scheele were listed as company officials. In 1939, the California Perfume Company changed its name to Avon.

International expansion
Avon sells products in over 100 countries. Brazil is the company's largest market, passing the United States in 2010. Avon entered the Chinese market in 1990. Direct selling was outlawed in China in 1998, which forced Avon to sell only through physical stores called Beauty Boutiques. The ban was lifted in 2001, and the company received a license for direct selling in 2006.

88% of Avon's 2013 revenue (around $10 billion) came from overseas markets.

Mergers and acquisitions
Avon purchased Silpada, a direct seller of silver jewelry, in 2010 for $650 million. In May 2012, perfume company Coty offered $24.75 a share for Avon, which was nearly 20 percent above Avon's stock price at the time. While Fox Business Network reported that Avon delayed the process and Coty withdrew its offer, earlier reports said that Avon rejected the bid, stating "At the time, the board concluded, and it still believes, that Coty's indication of interest is opportunistic and not in the best interest of Avon's shareholders."

In March 2016, Cerberus Capital Management paid $435 million in cash for preferred stock in Avon Products. This move was the conclusion of a deal initiated in December 2015, when Avon sold 80.1 percent of its North American Business to Cerberus for $170 million. The total value of the deal was $605 million. The investment resulted in Cerberus having an almost 17 percent stake in Avon Products.

In January 2020, Natura & Co closed the acquisition of Avon Products, Inc. The Natura & Co group also includes Natura, Aesop, and The Body Shop, and with the acquisition of Avon has created the world's fourth-largest pure-play beauty company.

Recent history
In 2014, Avon's global sales had fallen for five straight years, and its North American revenues fell 18% that year.

In 2016, Avon completed the separation of its United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico business as New Avon LLC, which also trades with the "Avon" name. As part of a three-year plan, the global Avon Products moved its headquarters to London in the United Kingdom.

In August 2019, New Avon LLC, the privately held North American company that split from Avon Products, Inc. (Avon Worldwide) in 2016 entered into a definitive agreement with South Korean consumer goods giant LG Household & Health Care, Ltd., which will purchase the direct-selling cosmetics business for $125 million in cash. In January 2021, New Avon Company announced its corporate name change to The Avon Company.

Jan Zijderveld was appointed the company's CEO in February 2018. The former CEO, Sherilyn S. McCoy, stayed on as an adviser to the Board and to Zijderveld through March 31, 2018.

In 2019, the Brazilian beauty company Natura agreed to buy Avon Products for more than $2bn via a share swap, creating the world's fourth-largest beauty company. Under the deal's terms, Natura will hold 76% of the combined business with over $10 billion in annual revenue.

In June 2020, a new logo of Avon was released.

In November 2023, Avon announced it would launch stores in the United Kingdom for the first time, adding to its existing network of 63 stores in Turkey.

Business model
Avon uses both door-to-door salespeople ("Avon ladies", as well as "Avon men") and brochures to advertise its products. Some Avon training centers have a small retail section with skin care products, such as creams, serums, makeup, and washes. Avon recruits sales representatives who sell beauty products, jewelry, accessories, and clothing.

Some of the brand-names used by the company include Avon Color (also known as Avon True Color), mark., Imari, Far Away, Sweet Honesty, Little Dress Scents, Avon Fashions, Anew, Avon True NutraEffects, Naturals, Avon Care, Feelin Fresh and Skin So Soft. According to the U.S. government, Avon has 5 million to 6 million sales representatives operating in over 100 countries as of 2014. Avon and its subsidiaries have 40,000 to 50,000 employees, 6,000 of which are in the United States.

Avon was an early member of the U.S. Direct Selling Association, which was founded in 1910. The company left the association in 2014, saying that the trade group was not paying enough attention to the industry as a whole.

American corruption charges
Beginning in 2008, the conduct of various employees and executives of Avon were investigated for possible violations of the law, including bribery and violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.

Avon began a probe of its China division after an internal whistleblower alleged bribery in June 2008. At least four executives, both in Asia and in the United States, were suspended in 2010, and later fired for their roles in the activities being investigated. According to The New York Times, Avon spent over $170 million on legal fees and costs related to the investigation: $59 million in 2009 and $95 million in 2010, and $22.5 million for the first quarter of 2011. The final tally was about $500 million.

The Times reported that Avon would report the findings to the United States Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and try to negotiate the penalties that those entities may impose. On February 24, 2011, Avon filed a report with the Securities and Exchange commission highlighting the investigation as a corporate risk factor that could cause investor loss.

In 2014, Avon settled the bribery charges for a total of $135 million; $68 million in criminal penalties, with the remainder in interest, disgorgement, and fines from a civil case brought by the SEC.

Animal testing
Avon vowed in 1989 that as a company located in the United States, it would no longer participate in animal testing. Avon has since claimed to be working globally to introduce safer methods of testing cosmetics that do not require animals. These methods include in vitro testing, computer simulations, and testing cosmetics on human volunteers.

Although Avon does not practice animal testing of its cosmetics that are sold in the United States, certain specialty products do require extensive testing in other countries. In China, specialty products that require degrees of animal testing include but are not limited to: sunscreen products, whitening/pigmentation products, and hair dye/perm or growth products. Despite laws that require animal testing in some countries, Avon chooses to distribute its products in those jurisdictions. Laws in various countries require companies to pay for animal testing through a commercial business in order to sell certain products in that country. Because Avon is not globally animal-testing free, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) has not included Avon on their cruelty-free list.

In 2019, Avon ended all regulatory-required animal testing, making it the first global beauty company selling in China to stop all animal testing of ingredients and products across all its brands by developing new ways to deliver products that do not require animal testing, such as reformulating products. PETA has since announced that it has added Avon Products Inc. to their list of companies "Working for Regulatory Change".

Withdrawal from major markets
In October 2013, Avon announced the closure of its branch in France at the end of that month. Its French employees accused it of keeping the workers in the dark for months and not acting in line with the company's publicly stated values of being a socially responsible company that upholds values of trust, respect and integrity and a culture of "open and candid communication." As of January 2014, Avon France was in receivership.

This was followed by an announcement via Facebook on February 15, 2018, that Avon Australia and New Zealand would close by the end of the year. This decision resulted in the loss of 220 jobs and 21,400 sales representatives. The company has attracted criticism for poor communication with its customers and employees.

Avon is still active in Russia and is recruiting more people and continuing to manufacture products as of January 2024.

title: Avon Products


text:
List of counties of Nova Scotia

The Canadian province of Nova Scotia has a historical system of 18 counties that originally had appointed court systems for local administration before the establishment of elected local governments in 1879. The historical counties continue as census divisions used by Statistics Canada in administering the Canadian census.

History
Before the establishment of rural municipalities in the form of county municipalities and district municipalities in 1879, local government in the historical counties was administered by appointed courts of sessions including justices appointed by the Crown with support from local proprietors selected to grand juries. These courts of sessions met "in the counties to hear cases, make regulations, authorize assessments, and appoint local officers." On April 17, 1879, the original non-elected courts of sessions were abolished in favour of elected councils when The County Incorporation Act came into force, which stated "The Inhabitants of every County and Sessional District in this Province ... shall be a body corporate under the name of the Municipality of the respective county or district, as the case may (be), ..." As a result, 12 county municipalities were established, while the remaining 6 counties, which were previously divided into districts for court sessional purposes, were established as district municipalities. Today, 9 of the original 12 remain incorporated as county municipalities, with 3 eventually becoming regional municipalities in 1995 and 1996, while Statistics Canada uses all 18 historical counties as census divisions for statistical purposes in the Canadian census. County municipalities and district municipalities provide local government to the residents of the historical counties living outside of incorporated towns and regional municipalities.

List
a county boundaries contiguous with those of the Cape Breton Regional Municipality. b county boundaries contiguous with those of the Halifax Regional Municipality. c county boundaries contiguous with those of the Region of Queens Municipality.

title: List of counties of Nova Scotia