Wissant

Located at the eastern end of a lagoon formed by a storm-breach of the coastal dunes, probably in the mid-10th century,Philip Grierson, "The Relations between England and Flanders before the Norman Conquest" Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, Fourth Series, 23 [1941:71-112] p. 80f) said that "Wissant was situated in the parish of Sombres, and in the Itinerary of Archbishop Sigeric (990) the landing-place was still known by the name of the parent village (Sumeran) and not by that of the recently formed harbour; Wissant itself does not appear by name in a contemporary document till the second half of the eleventh century." Wissant has been a fishing village for a millennium: along with Audresselles it is the last fishing village in France to use a traditional method of fishing using a wooden boat called a flobart and was in the Middle Ages a major port for embarkation for England:For two centuries, it was under English rule, as was all of the county of Calais; it has formerly been a candidate rivalling Boulogne for Portus Itius, used by Caesar for his campaign in Britannia. In a mid-11th century Life of St. Vulganius, Wissant was specified, probably anachronistically, as the natural disembarkation point for the early eighth-century Celtic saint in his evangelizing travels.The saint appulit ad portum Witsant appelatum: qui videlicet locus ex albentis sabuli interpretatione tale sortitur vocabulum (quoted in Grierson 1941:80). Wissant was the embarkation port of Robert de Beaumont, 3rd Earl of Leicester, for his ill-fated invasion of England in 1173, with an army of 3000 Flemings.In the 1173-1174 War; the contemporary source, Ralph de Diceto specifies Wissant. Henry III of England was stranded at Wissant for lack of cash.Close rolls of the Reign of henry III, 1259-1261 (HMSO, 1934), noted in review by Eileen Power in The Economic History Review 5.2 (April 1935:134). According to Matthew Paris (mid-13th century) its naucleri habitually interfered with English fishing fleets.

From the 7th to the 14th century, the local language was the West Franconian dialect called Old Dutch and the village was called Witsant and reckoned part of Flanders.

File:PSwissant-6143.jpg

Shifting coastal sands silted up the harbour, at the same time that Calais was rising in importance as a port towards the end of the 12th century. At the end of the 19th century, the coastal dunes of Wissant began to be covered with seaside villas. During the 20th century, an entrepreneur, M. Létendart from Calais, extracted sand and gravel from the dunes to the west of Wissant, in the bed of the ancient lagoon. The huge excavations now form lakes and a nature reserve. At the time of the exploitation of these gravel pits, the bones of a complete mammoth with its tusks were discovered by four workers.

In July 1909 Wissant stood at the centre of worldwide focus. Three contenders for the £1,000 Northcliffe prize offered by the Daily Mail for the first heavier-than-air craft to cross the English Channel were camped along the coast between Calais and Wissant. The Franco-Russian Comte Charles de Lambert who had two Wright Flyers (Nos. 2 and 18) and was camped at Wissant.{{r|Flight 1909 07 24 p442}}. While practising over the dunes he crashed heavily and cancelled his plans. Louis Blériot won the prize and worldwide fame, from his camp at Calais.{{r|Elliot, pp.109-37}}

Today, because of the frequent and usually favourable winds and the proximity of the TGV railway station and the Eurostar trains to Fréthun, Parisians call Wissant the "Mecca” of surfing.

The inhabitants are called Wissantais.

{{Historical populations

|source = INSEE[https://www.insee.fr/fr/statistiques/4515315?geo=COM-62899#ancre-POP_T1 Population en historique depuis 1968], INSEE

|percentages = pagr

|align = none

|1968 |1058

|1975 |1140

|1982 |1247

|1990 |1303

|1999 |1186

|2007 |1046

|2012 |1033

|2017 |939

}}

• Le Typhonium, a villa built in Egyptian style for the artist Adrien Demont and his wife Virginie Demont-Breton,.{{Base Mérimée|PA00108453|Villa Le Typhonium}}
• {{SMS|UC-61|sub=y}}, the wreck of a German WWI submarine.

• Communes of the Pas-de-Calais department

{{Reflist|refs=

Elliot, Brian A. Blériot, Herald of an Age, pp.109-37

[http://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1909/1909%20-%200440.html Flight Magazine, July 24, 1909 p.442]

}}

{{Commons category|Wissant}}

• [http://www.ville-wissant.fr Official Wissant website] {{in lang|fr}}
• [http://www.wissant.com/php/home.php A Wissant website] {{in lang|fr}}
• [https://histopale.net/les-communes/wissant/ The history of Wissant] {{in lang|fr}}
• [http://www.cwgc.org/find-a-cemetery/cemetery/2027555 The CWGC cemetery]

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File:Panorama Wissant.jpg

{{Pas-de-Calais communes}}

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Category:Communes of Pas-de-Calais

Category:Seaside resorts in France

Category:Morini