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Wantsum Channel

2025-08-06T17:37:43Z

2A00:23C7:C8BC:C501:5820:A30F:C3ED:5C7C: /* History */Enlarged image

{{Short description|Strait in Kent, England}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
The '''Wantsum Channel''' was a [[strait]] separating the [[Isle of Thanet]] from the north-eastern extremity of the English county of [[Kent]] and connecting the [[English Channel]] and the [[Thames Estuary]]. It was a major shipping route when Britain was part of the [[Roman Empire]], and continued in use until it was closed by [[Siltation|silting]] in the late [[Middle Ages]]. Its course is now represented by the [[River Stour, Kent|River Stour]] and the [[River Wantsum]], which is little more than a drainage ditch lying between [[Reculver]] and [[St Nicholas-at-Wade]] and joins the Stour about {{convert|1.7|mi|km|1}} south-east of [[Sarre, Kent|Sarre]].

==Toponymy==
[[Eilert Ekwall]], a 20th-century authority on English place-names, wrote that the name "Wantsum" derives from an [[Old English]] word "wandsum", meaning "winding".{{sfn|Ekwall|1960|p=496}}{{refn|A variant spelling of the Old English word "wandsum" is "wendsum".{{sfn|Ekwall|1960|p=496}} A variant, modern spelling of Wantsum as "Wansum" is also found.|group=Fn}} [[Bede]], writing in or before 731, mentioned the Wantsum (''Vantsumu'') in describing the [[Isle of Thanet]], but he also recorded an alternative name: he described the [[St Mary's Church, Reculver|church at Reculver]] as being ''juxta ostium aquilonale fluminis Genladae'', or "by the north mouth of the river Genlade".{{sfn|Stevenson|1838|pp=53, 348}} Ekwall compared this to the name of Yantlet Creek, which separates the [[Isle of Grain]] from mainland Kent. He suggested an origin in the Old English word ''gegnlad'' meaning "'backwater' or the like, [and] very likely the source of the word ''inlet'' [for] 'arm of the sea, [or] creek'."{{sfn|Ekwall|1960|p=542}}{{refn|W. Scott Robertson, quoting [[William Lambarde]] and [[Walter William Skeat|W.W. Skeat]], offered a similar interpretation with an emphasis on discharge.{{sfn|Scott Robertson|1878|pp=336–7}}|group=Fn}}

==History==
[[Image:OldMapKent.jpg|thumb|upright=1.3|A general map showing late Roman Kent. The Wantsum Channel lay between the Isle of Thanet and the British mainland, in the north eastern corner of Kent]]
From prehistory until the [[Middle Ages]], the Wantsum Channel was joined by the [[River Stour, Kent|River Stour]], which entered it at [[Stourmouth]] close to its midpoint; it was a two-mile-wide (3 km) strait. The southern end of the channel met the sea at [[Richborough]] (''[[Rutupiae]]''), downstream of [[Sandwich, Kent|Sandwich]], while the northern end met the [[Thames Estuary]] at [[Reculver]] (''[[Regulbium]]''). That the Romans chose both sites for forts indicates the significance of the route, which their shipping commonly used to travel between Britain and continental [[Europe]]. [[Vikings]] raided [[Canterbury]] via the Wantsum in 839.

Deposition of shingle at Stonar, at the southern end of the Channel, gradually caused it to silt up; and shipping heading for Canterbury, formerly using the northern entrance, brought [[Fordwich]] into prominence as its outport. The silting continued, particularly during the 12th and 13th centuries, when [[Augustinians|Augustinian]] monks entered into land reclamation; eventually, by the 16th century, the Wantsum Channel had dried up, apart from the large drainage ditch down the centre of the former channel, and associated feeder ditches.

Efforts made by the monks of [[Minster-in-Thanet]] to manage the Wantsum in the Middle Ages are reflected in two names for parts of the Channel and Stour, "Abbot's Wall" and "Monk's Wall". During the 18th century, silting threatened the rich port of Sandwich and efforts were made to create sluices and channels to control the waters. These ultimately failed, and as a result Sandwich is now some distance from the sea. Regarding the northern end of the Channel, it has been estimated that the Roman fort at Reculver was originally about 1 mile (1.6 km) from the sea to the north, but by 1540, when [[John Leland (antiquary)|John Leland]] recorded a visit there, the coastline to the north had receded to within little more than a quarter of a mile (400 m).{{sfn|Jessup|1936|pp=186–8}}{{sfn|Hearne|1711|p=137}} It may be that sediment from this erosion contributed to the blocking of the north mouth of the Wantsum.{{sfn|Jessup|1966|p=72}} The southern section of the Wantsum Channel is represented by the River Stour, which empties into the [[Strait of Dover]] at [[Pegwell Bay]].

The [[North Sea flood of 1953]] led to the flooding of the land where the Wantsum Channel formerly ran, and briefly made the Isle of Thanet an island again.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/kent/content/articles/2006/05/15/thanet_history_feature.shtml|title=Isle of Thanet|publisher=BBC|date=24 September 2014|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20141013051343/http://www.bbc.co.uk/kent/content/articles/2006/05/15/thanet_history_feature.shtml|archivedate=13 October 2014|url-status=live}}</ref>

The Wantsum Channel area features in four recreational walking routes, these being the [[Saxon Shore Way]], the [[Stour Valley Walk]], the Wantsum Walk and the Way of St Augustine.

==References==

===Footnotes===
{{reflist|group=Fn}}

===Notes===
{{reflist}}

===Bibliography===
*{{citation|last=Ekwall|first=E.|authorlink=Eilert Ekwall|title=The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Place-Names|publisher = Oxford University Press| edition = 4th | year = 1960|isbn=978-0-19-869103-7}}
*{{citation|last=Hearne|first=T.|authorlink=Thomas Hearne (antiquarian)|title=The Itinerary of John Leland the Antiquary|volume=6|year=1711|url=http://www.kentarchaeology.ac/TopographicalTradition/1712-leland.pdf |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20120415042857/http://www.kentarchaeology.ac/TopographicalTradition/1712-leland.pdf |archivedate=15 April 2012 |url-status=live |accessdate=23 May 2014 |oclc=642395517}}
*{{citation|last=Jessup|first=F.|title=Kent History Illustrated|publisher=Kent Education Committee|year=1966|oclc=12600389}}
*{{citation|last=Jessup|first=R.F.|journal=Antiquity|title=Reculver|volume=10|issue=38|year=1936|pages=179–94|doi=10.1017/S0003598X0001156X| s2cid=246044669 |issn=0003-598X}}
*{{citation|last=Scott Robertson|first=W.|title=Thanet's insulation|journal=Archaeologia Cantiana|volume=12|pages=336–43|year=1878|issn=0066-5894|url=http://www.kentarchaeology.org.uk/Research/Pub/ArchCant/Vol.012%20-%201878/012-21.pdf|access-date=29 October 2015|archive-date=13 September 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150913172952/http://www.kentarchaeology.org.uk/Research/Pub/ArchCant/Vol.012%20-%201878/012-21.pdf|url-status=dead}}
*{{citation|last=Stevenson|first=J.|title=Venerabilis Bedæ Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum|publisher=English Historical Society|year=1838|oclc=5144946|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BFBRAAAAcAAJ}}
{{River Stour}}

{{coord|51|23|N|1|14|E|display=title|region:GB_type:river_source:GNS-enwiki}}

[[Category:History of Kent]]

Mark Byford

2025-08-06T14:20:25Z

2A00:23C7:C8BC:C501:5820:A30F:C3ED:5C7C: /* Career with the BBC */

{{Short description|British media executive}}
{{BLP sources|date=June 2025}}
{{Use British English|date=April 2015}}
{{Infobox Officeholder
| honorific-prefix =
| name = Mark Byford
| image =
| honorific-suffix =
| office1 = [[Director-General of the BBC]]
| termlabel1 = Acting
| term_start1 = January 2004
| term_end1 = June 2004
| predecessor1 = [[Greg Dyke]]
| successor1 = [[Mark Thompson (media executive)|Mark Thompson]]
| office2 = Deputy Director-General of the BBC
| term_start2 = 1 January 2004
| term_end2 = 31 March 2011
| predecessor2 =
| successor2 = [[Anne Bulford]]
| birth_date = {{birth date and age|df=y|1958|06|13}}
| birth_place = [[Castleford]], [[West Riding of Yorkshire]], England
| death_date =
| death_place =
| alma_mater = [[University of Leeds]]
| father = [[Lawrence Byford]]
| spouse = Hilary Bleiker
| children = 5
}}

'''Mark Julian Byford''' (born 13 June 1958) was Deputy Director-General of the [[BBC]] and head of BBC journalism from 2004 to 2011. He chaired the BBC Journalism Board and was a member of the BBC Executive Board for thirteen years.

His responsibilities also included [[BBC Sport]], the nations and regions (BBC Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and English regions) and editorial policy. He led the BBC-wide coverage of the general elections in [[2005 United Kingdom general election|2005]] and [[2010 United Kingdom general election|2010]]; the [[2008 Summer Olympics|Beijing Olympic Games in 2008]]; and the BBC coverage of the [[Death and funeral of Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother|Queen Mother's Funeral in 2002]] and the [[Wedding of Prince William and Catherine Middleton|Royal Wedding in 2011]].

Byford established and chaired the BBC's Editorial Standards Board, which was responsible for promoting the BBC's standards in ethics and programme-making across the corporation. He also established and chaired the Complaints Management Board, which oversaw the handling of complaints across the BBC. In addition, he was the chair of the BBC Academy Board co-ordinating all its training and development. He was in overall charge of the BBC's planning for the [[London 2012 Olympic Games]] as chair of the London 2012 Steering Group.

==Early life==
Mark Julian Byford was born on 13 June 1958<ref name=":0">{{Citation |title=Byford, Mark Julian, (born 13 June 1958), author; Deputy Director-General, BBC, and Head of BBC Journalism, 2004–11 |date=2007-12-01 |work=[[Who's Who (UK)|Who's Who]] |url=https://www.ukwhoswho.com/view/10.1093/ww/9780199540884.001.0001/ww-9780199540884-e-9759 |access-date=2025-06-23 |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |doi=10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.u9759|isbn=978-0-19-954088-4 |url-access=subscription }}</ref> in {{Cn span|text=[[Castleford]], [[Yorkshire]]|date=June 2025}}. {{Cn span|text=He spent his early years living around the [[West Riding of Yorkshire]],|date=June 2025}} where his father, [[Lawrence Byford|Sir Lawrence Byford]],<ref name=":0" /> {{Cn span|text=served as a policeman. Sir Lawrence went on to become [[Chief Constable of Lincolnshire]], and later, Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Constabulary.|date=June 2025}} Mark was educated at Lincoln School, which later became [[Lincoln Christ's Hospital School|Lincoln Christ's Hospital Comprehensive School]].<ref name="christs-hospital.lincs/alumni">{{cite web |title=Alumni & Alumnae |url=https://www.christs-hospital.lincs.sch.uk/alumni/alumni.htm |website=[[Lincoln Christ's Hospital School]] |access-date=23 October 2022}}</ref>

{{Cn span|text=He returned to West Yorkshire in 1976,|date=June 2025}} studying law at the [[University of Leeds]],<ref name=":0" /> {{Cn-span|text=where he was president of Devonshire Hall.|date=June 2025}} He graduated in 1979,<ref name=":0" /> aged 20, {{Cn span|text=and joined the BBC as a "temporary holiday relief assistant" working as a researcher over the summer holiday in his local (''[[BBC Look North (Yorkshire and North Midlands)|Look North]]'') television newsroom in [[Leeds]]. After three months' vacation work, he joined the BBC full-time.|date=June 2025}}

==Career with the BBC==
{{Cn span|In 1981, aged 22, he produced the [[Royal Television Society]]'s Regional News Programme of the Year – a ''[[BBC Look North (Yorkshire and North Midlands)|BBC Look North]]'' special on unemployment in the [[North of England]]. The following year, in 1982, he produced the award-winning edition again – this time with ''[[South Today]]'' in [[Southampton]]. In 1987 he became head of news at [[BBC Bristol]] before becoming home editor BBC News and current affairs, responsible for all television network newsgathering coverage across the UK. There he led the BBC's coverage of the [[Clapham rail crash]], the [[Kegworth air disaster|Kegworth M1 air crash]], the [[Lockerbie bombing]], the [[Hillsborough disaster|Hillsborough football tragedy]], and the [[Marchioness disaster|''Marchioness'' riverboat disaster]]. In 1990 he returned to Leeds as head of centre. In 1991 he became controller of regional broadcasting. He joined the BBC's board of management in 1996 as Director, Regional Broadcasting, responsible for the BBC's activities in the UK outside London. In 1997–98, he drew up the BBC's response to devolution and helped to devise and implement the policy to increase the level of network programming production outside London. In 1998 he became director of the [[BBC World Service]] and then head of the BBC's multi-media global news division in 2002. In January 2004 he became Deputy Director-General of the BBC but within three weeks of his appointment, [[Greg Dyke]] resigned as [[Director-General of the BBC|Director-General]], following the publication of the [[Hutton Report]]. Byford was appointed by the Board of Governors as Acting Director-General, a role that he undertook for five months. During this period, Byford had a lead role in producing ''Building Public Value'', the BBC's [[BBC Charter|Charter]] renewal manifesto. When [[Mark Thompson (media executive)|Mark Thompson]] was appointed Director-General of the BBC in June 2004, Byford's role was enlarged to take responsibility for all the BBC's journalism at UK, international and local levels – the first time such a post had been established. In July 2006 he also became responsible for [[BBC Sport]].|date=June 2025}}

In June 2008 the BBC's governing body, the [[BBC Trust]], in a direct criticism of [[BBC News]], instructed Byford and his editors to "improve the range, clarity and precision of its network coverage of the different UK nations and regions". The Trust said the BBC was "falling short of its own high standards" and, in part, failing to meet its core purpose of helping inform democracy.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7447985.stm |title=Entertainment | BBC told to improve UK coverage |publisher=BBC News |date=2008-06-11 |access-date=2017-03-14}}</ref> {{Cn span|Three years later, Professor Anthony King, the author of the original report for the Trust, said there "had been enormous change in how the BBC reported the devolved nations. They make many fewer mistakes than they used to." As chair of the BBC's Editorial Standards Board, Byford led the executive response to the faked competitions scandals that engulfed the BBC in 2007, including designing the special training programme Safeguarding Trust which more than 17,000 members of staff had to attend. In November 2008, he led the investigation into the [[The Russell Brand Show prank calls row|Brand/Ross affair]] and produced the special report that was published subsequently by the BBC Trust.|date=June 2025}}

He is a fellow of the [[Radio Academy]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.radioacademy.org/about/fellows |title=Fellows | the Radio Academy |access-date=2013-01-08 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130116115029/http://www.radioacademy.org/about/fellows/ |archive-date=16 January 2013 }}</ref> He was a first board member of the joint industry radio research body, [[RAJAR]], in the early 1990s and was also a board member of [[BARB]], the television audience research body. He was a trustee of the ''[[Children in Need]]'' charity from 1992 to 1996. In 1999, he established the [[BBC World Service Trust]], the BBC's international development charity, which used media and communications to reduce poverty and promote education and human rights around the world.

In July 2010, it was revealed that Byford had flown on business to the [[2010 FIFA World Cup|World Cup in South Africa]], business class at a cost of £4,878.<ref>{{cite news|author=Mark Sweney |url=https://www.theguardian.com/media/2010/jul/15/bbc-expenses-world-cup-final |title=BBC expenses: Mark Byford claims £5,000 for World Cup final flights | Media |newspaper=[[The Guardian]] |access-date=2017-03-14}}</ref> This came against a background of further cuts in BBC News, for which Byford was responsible. On 12 October 2010 it was announced Byford was leaving the corporation after thirty-two years and the Deputy Director-General post closed as part of the BBC's cutbacks in senior management costs. He had accepted voluntary redundancy. He stood down from the Executive Board in March 2011 and left the corporation in June 2011.<ref name="Midgley">Neil Midgley [https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/bbc/8057696/BBCs-Mark-Byford-made-redundant.html "BBC's Mark Byford made redundant"], ''The Daily Telegraph'', 11 October 2010</ref> Byford left the Executive Board of the BBC at the end of March 2011, and his BBC employment ended in the early summer after he led the Royal Wedding coverage, reportedly with a redundancy/notice package of between £800,000 and £900,000.<ref name="Midgley"/>

On his retirement ''[[The Guardian]]'' commented: "If he has a public profile at all it is because Byford came to symbolise the apparent excesses of top executive pay at the corporation. There he was, grey man with a job for life, half a million pounds in salary and, because he had been at the BBC so long without ever leaving, an uncapped two-thirds final salary pension entitlement and no obvious market rate comparator to justify such riches. It was very easy to put the question, as even many lower ranking BBC staff did – who else would pay Mark Byford £500,000 and for what? – knowing there was no very good answer." However, the remainder of that article, written by media commentator [[Steve Hewlett (journalist)|Steve Hewlett]], suggested that his presence might be missed greatly at the BBC. "He made things happen and by common consent brought a firm moral sense to everything he did, rising above his own particular interests." It went on to highlight how he was a stabilising influence on Director-General Mark Thompson. That opinion appeared highly prophetic in the light of the two major ''[[Newsnight]]'' scandals – concerning [[Jimmy Savile]] and [[Lord McAlpine]] respectively – which engulfed the BBC within 18 months of Byford's departure. Both of those incidents led to widespread adverse criticism of high level management of journalism within the BBC and were surrounded by suggestions that the Director-General of the day was not sufficiently informed about issues highly significant for the BBC's reputation.<ref>[https://www.theguardian.com/media/organgrindedd1/may/30/bbc-director-general-mark-byford]{{dead link|date=March 2017}}</ref>

{{Cn span|The subsequent Pollard Review highlighted that several witnesses had said "they believe the [[Jimmy Savile sexual abuse scandal|Savile affair]] and, in particular, the BBC's poor handling of it after the investigation was halted, would not have happened if the role of Deputy Director-General occupied by Mark Byford had still been in existence." Media commentators agreed with that view. Professor Stewart Purvis said: "He watched the DG's back and he watched the BBC's back. [[Margaret Thatcher]] once declared: "Every Prime Minister needs a Willie ([[William Whitelaw, 1st Viscount Whitelaw|Whitelaw]]). Now the chorus is growing that every DG needs a Mark B." [[Peter Preston]] described him as: "a news aware Deputy, a safety net, a mopper up of perilous trifles."|date=June 2025}}

==Later career==
{{Cn span|After leaving the BBC, Byford became a writer of non-fiction. His first book, ''A Name On A Wall: Two Men, Two Wars, Two Destinies'' was published by Mainstream in 2013. It tells the contrasting stories of an American soldier, Larry Byford, killed in the [[Vietnam War]] in 1967 and his own father, Lawry Byford, who served alongside the Americans in the [[Second World War]]. Jan C. Scruggs, the President and Founder of the [[Vietnam Veterans Memorial]], described it as "an amazing journey that unfolded as a mission. An extraordinary experience like nothing ever done before in America. It's important. It matters." [[Julian Pettifer]] wrote "This tale should be compulsory reading for MPs and military leaders and anyone else who might lead us into armed conflict. An absorbing and meticulously researched work." His second book, ''The Annunciation: A Pilgrim's Quest'', was published by [[Winchester University Press]] in April 2018. Inspired by an [[Annunciation]] painting by [[François Lemoyne]] in the [[National Gallery]], on loan from [[Winchester College]], he searches for the spiritual meaning of the biblical story through conversations with senior clerics, theologians and art historians, as well as looking at Annunciation images.|date=June 2025}}

He was a [[lay canon]] and member of chapter at [[Winchester Cathedral]] from 2017 to 2024 (resigning 20 June 2024<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.winchester-cathedral.org.uk/news/statement-on-bishop-mounstephens-review/ | title=Winchester Cathedral | Winchester Cathedral Chapter Statement on Bishop Mounstephen's Review }}</ref>). {{Cn span|He has been a governor of the University of Winchester since 2014; a trustee of the Winchester Hospice Fundraising Charity since 2018; and a trustee of Play to the Crowd, the charity that runs Winchester Theatre Royal and the Hat Fair, since 2018. He was made a vice president of the [[RNLI]] in 2019 in recognition of his outstanding contribution as a trustee from 2012 to 2019.|date=June 2025}}

==Personal life==
He is married to Hilary Bleiker, {{Cn span|text=whom he met whilst at Leeds University where she studied English,|date=June 2025}} and they have five {{Cn span|text=adult|date=June 2025}} children: two sons and three daughters.<ref name=":0" /> {{Cn span|He was awarded an honorary [[Juris Doctor|Doctor of Law]] degree by the University of Leeds in 2008. He and his family live in [[Winchester]]. In 2006 he was awarded an honorary doctorate by the [[University of Winchester]], and in 2010 an honorary doctorate by the [[University of Lincoln]], the city where he spent his teenage years.|date=June 2025}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
{{Portal|BBC}}
* [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/tv_and_radio/3441511.stm Becomes Acting Director-General]
* [https://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/us/features/seventy Video message celebrating seventy years of the World Service]
* [https://archive.today/20070814030543/http://alumni.leeds.ac.uk/NetCommunity/Page.aspx?&pid=628&srcid=556 University of Leeds Alumni]
* [https://www.new.ox.ac.uk/honorary-fellows Honorary Fellows | New College]
{{S-start}}
{{s-media}}
{{succession box
| title = Director, [[BBC World Service]]
| years = 1998–2004
| before = [[Sam Younger]]
| after = [[Nigel Chapman (broadcaster)|Nigel Chapman]]
}}
{{Succession box
| title = Acting [[Director-General of the BBC]]
| years = 2004
| before = [[Greg Dyke]]
| after = [[Mark Thompson (media executive)|Mark Thompson]]
}}
{{S-end}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2015}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Byford, Mark}}
[[Category:1958 births]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:Alumni of the University of Leeds]]
[[Category:BBC executives]]
[[Category:Directors-general of the BBC]]
[[Category:English editors]]
[[Category:English male journalists]]
[[Category:Fellows of New College, Oxford]]
[[Category:People educated at Lincoln Grammar School]]
[[Category:People from Castleford]]