The history of Åland can be traced back to roughly 4000 BCE, when humans first reached the archipelago in the Neolithic period. Several Bronze Age villages have been found on Åland. During the Viking Age, six hillforts were built. Sweden controlled the Åland Islands from the 1200s until 1809, during which, Kastelholm Castle was the focal point of many battles. In 1809, the Russian empire took Åland and Finland. In 1854, British and French forces attacked Bomarsund. The Åland Islands were then demilitarised until 1906. In 1918, Swedish and German forces occupied the Åland Islands. After the Finnish Civil War, Åland joined Finland following the Åland Convention of 1921.
Stakeford is a large village in south east Northumberland, England.
The Battle of Bomarsund, in August 1854, took place during the Åland War, which was part of the Crimean War, when an Anglo-French expeditionary force attacked a Russian fortress. It was the only major action of the war to take place at Bomarsund in the Baltic Sea.
Rear Admiral Charles Davis Lucas was an Irish-born Royal Navy officer whose gallantry in 1854 was the earliest action that led to the award of the Victoria Cross, the highest British award, which is for gallantry in the face of the enemy. He reached the rank of rear admiral during his time in the navy.
Admiral Sir Astley Cooper Key, was a Royal Navy officer. As a junior officer he saw action at the Battle of Vuelta de Obligado in November 1845 during the Anglo-French blockade of the Río de la Plata and took part at the Battle of Bomarsund in August 1854 and the Bombardment of Sveaborg in August 1855 during the Crimean War. He also went ashore with the naval brigade to take part in the Battle of Canton in December 1857 during the Second Opium War. He later commanded a specially-formed Baltic Fleet created in February 1878 to intimidate Russia from entering Constantinople during the closing stages of the Russo-Turkish War. He became First Naval Lord in August 1879 in which role he was primarily interested in administration and technology rather than strategy: he kept the cost of running the Navy within budgets, sanctioned the construction of six Admiral-class battleships and ensured the Navy was properly prepared for the Panjdeh Incident in 1885 when Russian forces seized Afghan territory at Panjdeh.
Choppington is a large village and civil parish in Northumberland, England. It is situated 5 miles to the south-east of Morpeth, and north of Bedlington. It was at one time part of the three big mid-Northumberland collieries. In 2011 the parish had a population of 9787.
North Blyth Brewery was a small brewery which was located in Blyth, in Northumberland, England. It produced cask ale. It operated between 1996 and 2021.
The Northumberland Gazette is a weekly newspaper published in Alnwick, Northumberland, England. It serves Alnwick, Amble, Seahouses, Rothbury, Wooler and outlying districts.
Northumberland County Cricket Club is one of twenty minor county clubs within the domestic cricket structure of England, and Wales. It represents the historic county of Northumberland.
The Baltic Medal was a campaign medal approved on 6 June 1856, for issue to officers and men of the Royal Navy, Royal Marines, and Royal Sappers and Miners who served between March 1854 and August 1855 in the Baltic Sea operations against Russia in the Baltic theatre of the Crimean War, or Åland War. The medal primarily covered naval actions but was also awarded to 106 men of the Royal Sappers and Miners who were landed to place demolition charges against Russian fortifications at Bomarsund and Sveaborg.
Events from the year 1854 in the United Kingdom.
HMS Edinburgh was a 74-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 26 November 1811 at Rotherhithe.
HMS Cumberland was a 70-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 21 October 1842 at Chatham Dockyard. She carried a crew of 620 men.
Rear Admiral Frederick Thomas Pelham, was a Royal Navy officer who went on to be Second Naval Lord.
Alexandre Ferdinand Parseval-Deschenes was a French admiral and senator.
Events from the year 1854 in Russia
Prästö is an island in the municipality of Sund in Åland, Finland. It is connected to the Åland Mainland by the Bomarsund Bridge crossing the narrow Bomarsund Strait. Prästö is located next to the ruins of the Bomarsund Fortress, the place of the 1856 Crimean War Battle of Bomarsund. The island is known of its rich military history, especially of the six Russian military cemeteries established in the 19th century. Because of the graveyards, Prästö was once known as the ″Island of the Dead″.
The Åland War was the operations of a Anglo-French naval force against military and civilian facilities on the coast of the Grand Duchy of Finland in 1854–1856, during the Crimean War between the Russian Empire and the allied France and Britain. The war is named after the Battle of Bomarsund in Åland. Although the name of the war refers to Åland, skirmishes were also fought in other coastal towns of Finland in the Gulf of Bothnia and the Gulf of Finland.
