Selby
| Selby | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Coordinates | 53 ° 47 ′ N , 1 ° 4 ′ W | ||
|
|||
| Residents | 15,360 (as of 2016) | ||
| administration | |||
| Post town | SELBY | ||
| ZIP code section | YO8 | ||
| prefix | 01757 | ||
| Part of the country | England | ||
| region | Yorkshire and the Humber | ||
| Shire county | North Yorkshire | ||
| District | Selby | ||
| British Parliament | Selby and Ainsty | ||
| Website: selbytowncouncil.gov.uk | |||
Selby is a small town in the English county of North Yorkshire and the seat of the Selby district of the same name . Selby had 13,012 inhabitants at the 2001 census, making it the largest city in the district.
geography
Selby is in the very south of the county on the River Ouse , about 20 km south of York , 30 km east of Leeds , 30 km north of Doncaster and 40 km west of Kingston upon Hull .
history
Legend has it that Selby was founded in the 10th century by Danish Vikings who are said to have reached what is now the city by water across the River Ouse.
The river Ouse also plays a role in a second legend about the city. In the middle of the 11th century, a monk named Benedikt von Auxerre had the vision of building an abbey in a certain place. In 1069, while he was traveling the river in a boat, three swans pointed out the place specified in his vision - the place Selby.
There is evidence that Benedict von Auxerre founded an abbey in Selby in 1069. Their construction should take over a century. The interior of Selby Abbey is based on Durham Cathedral, which was built in 1093 . A stained glass in the abbey dating from the 14th century contains the coat of arms of the Washington family into which George Washington was to be born in 1723. Today Selby Abbey is one of the few fully preserved and at the same time largest British churches from the Middle Ages.
The abbey was closed in the course of the dissolution of the English monasteries under Henry VIII. In 1539, however, unlike the majority of the church buildings in North Yorkshire, it was saved from demolition. In 1618 the abbey was declared the parish church of Selby.
In 1644, during the English Civil War, the important Battle of Selby took place .
With the opening of the Hull – York railway line , Selby was connected to the railway network in 1840 . In 1841 a railway line from Selby to Leeds followed.
politics
Selby has a City Council (Selby Council) consisting of 18 MPs. Elections take place every four years. In addition, the Selby District Council meets in Selby.
Selby is in the Selby constituency. The constituency itself is part of the Yorkshire and the Humber constituency of the European Parliament at European level.
Town twinning
Selby has twinned cities with
Economy and Infrastructure
Coal mining
Coal mining took place in the area around the town of Selby over a period of around 20 years . The development of the coal fields there as part of the so-called "Selby complex" began in the 1970s. It was the last coal field development in Great Britain and one of the largest underground mining projects in the world. According to the original plan, ten million tons of hard coal should be mined here annually over a period of 40 years and burned in nearby power stations such as the Drax power station .
After several years of planning, the first drilling began on October 29, 1976 in Wistow, a neighboring village of Selby. In 1978 work began on the future Riccall and Stillingfleet mines and the Gascoigne Wood mine, in 1979 with the North Selby mine and 1980 with the Whitemoor mine. In June 1983 coal mining started in the Wistow colliery, in January 1988 in Riccall, Stillingfleet and Whitemoor and in January 1991 finally in North Selby. The total cost of developing the coal field was around £ 1.4 billion .
All mines were connected underground and extended over an area of around 285 km² during the day. From November 1985, the extracted hard coal was not brought to the surface at the mines, but via the inclined shafts in Gascoigne Wood that were opened at that time. At peak times, the mines of the "Selby complex" produced over ten million tons of hard coal every year. The highest production was achieved in the 1993/94 financial year with 12.091,000 tons. At that time the "Selby complex" employed around 4,000 workers.
In the mid-1990s, mining had to be restricted to seven to eight million tons per year for geological reasons. To concentrate mining on geologically safer areas, the Whitemoor mine was merged with the Riccall mine in July 1996, and the North Selby mine with the Stillingfleet mine a year later. Falling coal prices and rising production costs at the same time meant that the once profitable mines of the "Selby Complex" made losses in the late 1990s - from 1999 to 2002 a total of around 93 million pounds sterling. In July 2002, the operator of the "Selby complex", UK Coal, announced that it would gradually close the mines. The British Department of Trade and Industry had also recommended the abandonment of mining around Selby in an opinion. The Wistow mine closed in May 2004, Stillingfleet in July 2004. On October 26, 2004, coal mining in the "Selby complex" was ended with the closure of the Riccall mine and the Gascoigne Wood mine.
Shipbuilding
Selby was also known for its shipbuilding tradition. The city used to have an important port on the Selby Canal , which connects the Ouse with Leeds, where it flows into the Aire . Among other things, the ship Rainbow Warrior , which was formerly operated by Greenpeace , was built in Selby .
traffic
From 2001 to 2004 a bypass road was built south and east of Selby, which noticeably reduced the volume of traffic in the city. Until then, a swing bridge over the Ouse represented an enormous bottleneck for through traffic. In north-south direction Selby is affected by the A19 ( Newcastle - Doncaster ) today , in east-west direction the A63 (Hull - Leeds ) leads the city over. There are connections to the M62 and A1 (M) motorways to the south and west .
Selby is a rail hub. There are direct connections to London ( King's Cross station ), Leeds, Manchester ( Piccadilly station ), York and other destinations. Arriva operates a network of bus routes around Selby, including bus routes to York, Leeds, Goole , Doncaster, Pontefract and Wakefield .
The Ouse in Selby is navigable. In the past, the river was an important transport route for industry in Yorkshire, but today it is mostly used for tourism.
The nearest major airports are Leeds / Bradford and Doncaster / Sheffield , both around 50 km from Selby. The smaller Leeds East Airport is about ten kilometers northwest of Selby.
Personalities
- Robert Aske (1500–1537), lawyer
- Henry I (1068–1135), King of England
- Arthur Hinsley (1865–1943), Archbishop of Westminster
- Jonathan Hutchinson (1828-1913), surgeon, dermatologist and pathologist
- John Sherwood (* 1945), hurdler
- James Stephenson (1889–1941), actor
- Smithson Tennant (1761-1815), chemist
Individual evidence
- ^ UK Government: Population details for Selby Parish . In: Office for National Statistics . Retrieved August 22, 2007.
- ^ Abbey History - One of England's Best Churches . www.selbyabbey.org.uk. Retrieved June 12, 2009.
- ↑ BBC - North Yorkshire - History - Selby's past revealed . www.bbc.co.uk. Retrieved June 22, 2009.
- ^ The 11th of April 1644 AD, Battle of Selby, famous dates in History . www.information-britain.co.uk. Retrieved June 12, 2009.
- ↑ SELBY TOWN COUNCIL - The Council . www.selbytowncouncil.gov.uk. Archived from the original on October 3, 2011. Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved June 21, 2009.
- ^ Selby District Council - Your 'Excellent' Council . www.selby.gov.uk. Archived from the original on May 23, 2009. Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved June 21, 2009.
- ↑ Expert opinion on the future of the "Selby complex" prepared on behalf of the Department of Trade and Industry, June 2000 ( Memento of the original from February 15, 2006 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF, English; 666 kB)
- ^ The Rainbow Warrior . Greenpeace . Archived from the original on March 31, 2008. Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved April 15, 2008.
- ↑ York
- ↑ Leeds
- ↑ Goole
- ↑ Doncaster
- ^ Pontefract / Wakefield
Web links
- The City website (English)