Étaples

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Coordinates: 50°31′07″N 1°38′29″E / 50.5186111111, 1.64138888889

Commune of Étaples-sur-Mer
Moorings at the mouth of the Canche River in Étaples
Location
Étaples (France)
Étaples
Administration
Country France
Region Nord-Pas-de-Calais
Department Pas-de-Calais
Arrondissement Montreuil
Canton Étaples
Intercommunality Communauté de communes Mer et Terres d'Opale
Mayor Jean-Claude Baheux
(2008 -)
Statistics
Elevation 2 m–78 m
(avg. 10 m)
Land area¹ 12.95 km²
Population²
(1999)		 11,177
 - Density 863/km² (1999)
Miscellaneous
INSEE/Postal code 62318/ 62630
1 French Land Register data, which excludes lakes, ponds, glaciers > 1 km² (0.386 sq mi or 247 acres) and river estuaries.
2 Population sans doubles comptes: residents of multiple communes (e.g. students and military personnel) only counted once.
France

Étaples or Étaples-sur-Mer (Dutch: Stapel) is a commune and the chief town of a canton, in the arrondissement of Montreuil, in the Pas-de-Calais département of northern France. It is a fishing and leisure port on the Canche river.

Contents

[edit] History

It takes its name from having been a medieval staple port. As a port it was part of the administrative and economic complex centred on Montreuil after access from the sea to that town was restricted by silting. In turn, both words, staple and Étaples derive from the French étape, stage. The concept was originally one of a staging post.

The site of modern Étaples lies on the ridge of dunes which once lay to seaward of a marsh formed off-shore from the chalk plateau of Artois. From the Canche northwards, the dunes tend to extend inland, all the way to the old chalk cliff.[1] It lay just outside the southern edge of the medieval Boulonnais and some eighteen kilometres south of the geological region of that name.

The dunes were established as the sea level rose during the Quaternary and show signs of habitation during the Palaeolithic. They had therefore stabilized at something like their present form by 2,000 BC. The dunes to the north-west of the town have revealed Iron Age, Gaulish material.

Étaples was one of a number of sites identified as Quentovicus from which, as from Boulogne-sur-Mer Roman ships prepared for the passage to Britannia. However, excavations coordinated by Dr David Hill of Manchester University between 1984 and 1991 uncovered the remains of a substantial settlement at Visemarest near the hamlet of La Calotterie. This site is located to the east of Étaples, further up the Canche valley near the town of Montreuil-sur-Mer.[2] This is now accepted as the site of Quentovic, although the finds from the excavations are to be found in the Musée de Quentovic in Étaples (the museum predating the discovery of the site itself by a number of years).

During the 9th century, this coast like eastern England was subject to raids and settlement by Scandinavians. From their point of view, this off-shore site, protected by mud flats and marsh, was ideal as a base from which to conduct raids elsewhere, assemble the booty and perhaps ship it off home.

In 1172, Matthew of Alsace, Count of Boulogne, built a fortress on the old Roman site. In 1193, Philippe Auguste made it the main port of his northern fleet. This is the stage at which this southern end of the County of Boulogne (The Boulonnais) came into the hands of the kings of France. It formed the only direct access to this coast from royal lands in the hinterland, without a need for negotiations with the Count of Boulogne, the Count of Poitou and their like.

It seems that Edward III of England, a man with strong French family connections, passed this way after the Battle of Crécy some 35 km away. He was descended from Geoffrey Plantagenet, Count of Anjou and his mother was Isabella, daughter of Philippe IV of France. He was the nephew of three kings of France and thought that he should be one too. His uncle, Charles IV of France was the last of his family line (the Capetians) to rule in France so as Philippe VI of France (the first of the Valois kings) had taken over; Edward burnt this port belonging to Philippe or in Edward’s view, to Edward.

It was again pillaged in 1355, when John of Gaunt, son of Edward and Philippa of Hainault, took much the same view. There were sieges in 1351, 1378 and 1435. It was burnt in 1455 and 1546.

In the mean time, on 3 November 1492, the castle was the scene of the signing of the Treaty of Etaples between Charles VIII of France and Henry VII of England. Henry wanted to remove French support from Perkin Warbeck the pretender to the English throne which Henry had taken by conquest with French and Breton support. It would also reduce his need to worry about intrigues between France and Scotland. Charles wanted to undermine the treaty between England and Brittany a duchy which France was working towards annexing. The treaty would also clear the way for his Italian wars.

At the time of the Field of the Cloth of Gold, the diplomatic meeting near Calais, between François I of France and Henry VIII of England, François stayed in the castle of Étaples. The meeting took place at Balinghem from 7 to 24 June 1520 and François slept at the castle on the 27th. Louis XIV was received there on 26 May 1637 and it was dismantled around 1641. In the meantime, in 1596, the town had its severe outbreak of the plague.[3]

Between 1803 and 1805, Napoleon gathered a large army in places along this coast, principally at Boulogne, so as to threaten an invasion of England. As part of this, for two years the Sixth Army Corps of Marshal Ney was stationed in and near to Étaples. The Emperor came several times to the town to review his troops.[4] The Battle of Trafalgar ended any hope he had of providing naval cover for an invasion so the troops moved on.

The railway between Amiens and Boulogne passes along the coast here and was opened in 1848. This permitted the development of the town’s economy, particularly in the direction of entertaining holiday visitors. Among them were the artists of the Étaples School which flourished between 1880 and 1914. The two banks of the Canche were linked by a road bridge in 1860.

Part of the 6 hectare Etaples Military Cemetery, resting place of 11,658 British and related soldiers of 1914 to 1918.
Part of the 6 hectare Etaples Military Cemetery, resting place of 11,658 British and related soldiers of 1914 to 1918.

The railway was much expanded, temporarily, during the period of The Great War. Étaples was the principal depôt and transit camp for the British Expeditionary Force, the British army in France. In 1917 it was the scene of the Étaples Mutiny. In 1918, it was from a British viewpoint, at the centre of the influenza pandemic.

As recognition of the difficulty of accommodating up to 80,000 men at a time over four years and the damage done by the enemy bombing which their presence attracted, Étaples was awarded the Croix de guerre in 1920.[5]

Like the rest of France, Étaples underwent occupation during the Second World War. Again, this made it the target of bombing which caused seventy civilian casualties and destroyed or damaged a third of the houses. In 1949, the Minister of Defence came and presented a palme (bar) for the Croix de guerre.[6]

While most of the above was going on, the town quietly got on with making a living from fishing and its associated trades such as rope making. The railway sped the marketing of the fish to places like Paris but it had been carried out by the Chasse marées since the 13th century.

[edit] Administration

Since the election of March 2001, the mayor has been Marcel Guerville

[edit] Demography

Demographic changes
1962 1968 1975 1982 1990 1999
8628 9095 10559 11292 11305 11177
Population without double counting
  • Population density 863 people/km² (1999)

[edit] Twin town

The old rope walk (rope-making works).
The old rope walk (rope-making works).

[edit] Sites and monuments

The Rope Walk houses the tourist information office, the Museum of the Miniature (models etc.), the Maréis (all aspects of sea fishing).

[edit] There is also

  • Étaples Museum of Seafaring: mainly the history of étapleois fishing. In the former fish market.
  • The Quentovic archaeological museum.
  • The Canche Bay nature reserve: 505 hectares, mainly of natural dunes.[7]

Historic buildings

  • Hôtel Souquet-Marteau noted for its façade and roof on the main square. It was occupied in 1803-5 by Marshal Ney. Napoleon paid two visits.
  • The Delaporte Brewery was built in 1754 but largely destroyed by shelling in 1918. It was reconstructed in 1924 and is now out of use.

Information gathered from: Ministry of Culture database

[edit] Personalities linked with the commune

[edit] See also

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Carte Géologique
  2. ^ Hill, D. et al (1990)
  3. ^ Baudelicque
  4. ^ Baudelicque
  5. ^ Baudelicque
  6. ^ Baudelicque
  7. ^ Town web site

[edit] References

The pictures and much of the structure of the article come from French Wikipédia.

  • anon Carte Géologique de la France à l'échelle du millionième 6th edn. BRGM (2003)
  • Hill, D. et al (1990). 'Quentovic defined', Antiquity, 64, no. 242.
  • Baudelicque, P. L'Histoire de la Cité des Pêcheurs. Étaples Tourism web site.
  • Bellew, G. Britain’s Kings and Queens 63 Reigns in 1100 Years. Pitkin Pictorials 1966.
  • Volkmann, J-C. Bien Connaître les Généqlogies des Rois de France. Editions Jean-Paul Gisserot . (1997)

[edit] External links

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