Longwood | |
|---|---|
 Longwood House in Longwood in June 1970 | |
 Longwood in Saint Helena | |
| Sovereign state |  United Kingdom |
| British overseas territory | Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha |
| Island | Saint Helena |
| Status | District |
| Area | |
• Total | 33.4 km2 (12.9 sq mi) |
| Population (2021) | |
• Total | 765 (district) |
| • Density | 21.4/km2 (55/sq mi) |
| Time zone | UTC+0 (GMT) |
Longwood is a settlement and a district of the British island of Saint Helena in the South Atlantic Ocean.
Longwood had a population of 765 in 2021, a decrease of 195 residents when compared with the population of 960 recorded in 1998. [1] The area of the district is 33.4 square kilometres (12.9 sq mi). [2] The district is second only in size to Blue Hill, and includes the settlement of Hutt's Gate, with its St Matthew's church. The district also contains the island's only golf course.
The district contains Prosperous Bay Plain, which is where Saint Helena Airport and the Millennium Forest is located.
There is a weather recording station in the Longwood district. Readings of temperature, air pressure and visibility are automatically taken and communicated every three hours. [3]
On leaving the University of Oxford, in 1676, Edmond Halley visited Saint Helena and set up an observatory with a 24-foot-long (7.3 m) aerial telescope with the intention of studying stars from the Southern Hemisphere. [4] The site of this telescope is near St Matthew's church in the district. The 2,230-foot-high (680 m) hill there is named for him and is called Halley's Mount.
Halley's Observatory was in use from 1677–1678. Having returned to England in 1678, Halley published Catalogus Stellarum Australium in 1679, which included details of 341 southern stars. These additions to present-day star maps earned him comparison to Tycho Brahe. Halley was subsequently awarded his Master's from Oxford and Fellowship of the Royal Society.
In 1686, Halley published the second part of the results from his Helenian expedition, being a paper and chart on trade winds and monsoons. In this, he identified solar heating as the cause of atmospheric motions. He also established the relationship between barometric pressure and height above sea level. His charts were an important contribution to the emerging field of information visualisation.
Future Astronomer Nevil Maskelyne visited Saint Helena in 1761 to observe a transit of Venus and built an observatory near the site of Halley's from the previous century. [5] In the 19th/early 20th centuries, an observatory (in use 1840–1849) was situated in Longwood village and two further observatories were erected in the Hutt's Gate area: one in use from 1892–1924 and the second in use from 1925–1975.
Longwood was the location of Napoleon's second exile, from 1815 until his death on 5 May 1821. The French Government, via the Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs owns Briars Pavilion, Napoleon's initial exile residence, Longwood House and its properties, where he lived during most of his time on the island, and his original grave, but the United Kingdom retains sovereignty over these properties.
Napoleon's main physician, Barry O'Meara, wrote letters describing the issues of Napoleon and his entourage while in captivity, and sent them clandestinely to a friend at the Admiralty in London. [6]
As opposed to the hot and arid Jamestown being near sea level, Longwood is located about 500 metres (1,600 ft) above sea level. [7] Being one of the island's highest settlements, Longwood experiences a cooler variation of the warm-summer mediterranean climate (Köppen climate classification: Csb), bordering on a subtropical highland climate (Köppen climate classification: Cfb) due to its persistent mild temperatures and consistent precipitation levels. Due to its elevated geography, the town has abundant vegetation.[ citation needed ]
| Climate data for Saint Helena (Longwood) (elevation 436 m (1,430 ft), 2002–2023) | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
| Record high °C (°F) | 32.2 (90.0) | 28.9 (84.0) | 30.6 (87.1) | 32.2 (90.0) | 29.4 (84.9) | 28.3 (82.9) | 26.7 (80.1) | 26.7 (80.1) | 26.7 (80.1) | 25.0 (77.0) | 27.2 (81.0) | 28.3 (82.9) | 32.2 (90.0) |
| Mean daily maximum °C (°F) | 22.8 (73.0) | 23.8 (74.8) | 23.9 (75.0) | 23.0 (73.4) | 21.8 (71.2) | 20.1 (68.2) | 18.9 (66.0) | 18.0 (64.4) | 18.0 (64.4) | 18.5 (65.3) | 19.6 (67.3) | 21.2 (70.2) | 20.8 (69.4) |
| Daily mean °C (°F) | 20.4 (68.7) | 21.4 (70.5) | 21.6 (70.9) | 20.9 (69.6) | 19.7 (67.5) | 18.0 (64.4) | 17.0 (62.6) | 16.2 (61.2) | 16.2 (61.2) | 16.6 (61.9) | 17.5 (63.5) | 18.9 (66.0) | 18.7 (65.7) |
| Mean daily minimum °C (°F) | 17.9 (64.2) | 19.0 (66.2) | 19.3 (66.7) | 18.7 (65.7) | 17.6 (63.7) | 16.0 (60.8) | 15.1 (59.2) | 14.4 (57.9) | 14.4 (57.9) | 14.7 (58.5) | 15.4 (59.7) | 16.5 (61.7) | 16.6 (61.9) |
| Record low °C (°F) | 15.0 (59.0) | 15.6 (60.1) | 15.6 (60.1) | 16.1 (61.0) | 13.9 (57.0) | 12.2 (54.0) | 11.7 (53.1) | 11.1 (52.0) | 11.7 (53.1) | 11.1 (52.0) | 12.2 (54.0) | 13.9 (57.0) | 11.1 (52.0) |
| Average precipitation mm (inches) | 42.8 (1.69) | 44.1 (1.74) | 65.7 (2.59) | 48.6 (1.91) | 41.2 (1.62) | 56.3 (2.22) | 53.2 (2.09) | 56.2 (2.21) | 40.5 (1.59) | 28.0 (1.10) | 19.5 (0.77) | 24.8 (0.98) | 520.9 (20.51) |
| Average precipitation days | 10.1 | 9.1 | 12.0 | 10.4 | 8.3 | 12.9 | 12.0 | 14.4 | 11.1 | 8.7 | 6.0 | 6.7 | 121.7 |
| Average relative humidity (%) | 85 | 86 | 85 | 84 | 82 | 82 | 83 | 83 | 84 | 84 | 84 | 84 | 84 |
| Mean monthly sunshine hours | 151.9 | 178.0 | 176.7 | 150.0 | 161.2 | 123.0 | 108.5 | 93.0 | 57.0 | 68.2 | 72.0 | 120.9 | 1,460.4 |
| Mean daily sunshine hours | 4.9 | 6.3 | 5.7 | 5.0 | 5.2 | 4.1 | 3.5 | 3.0 | 1.9 | 2.2 | 2.4 | 3.9 | 4.0 |
| Percent possible sunshine | 38 | 51 | 47 | 43 | 46 | 37 | 31 | 26 | 16 | 18 | 19 | 30 | 33 |
| Source 1: Meteomanz [8] | |||||||||||||
| Source 2: Deutscher Wetterdienst (sunshine 1982-1990, humidity 1977-1994) [9] | |||||||||||||
Saint Helena is one of the three constituent parts of Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha, a remote British overseas territory.
Saint Helena has a known history of over 500 years since its recorded discovery by the Portuguese in 1502. Claiming to be Britain's second oldest colony, after Bermuda, this is one of the most remote settlements in the world and was for several centuries of vital strategic importance to ships sailing to Europe from Asia and South Africa. Since the early 19th century, the British occasionally used the island as a place of exile, most notably for Napoleon Bonaparte, Dinuzulu kaCetshwayo and over 5,000 Boer prisoners.
Saint Helena is an island in the South Atlantic Ocean, about midway between South America and Africa. St Helena has a land area of 122 square kilometres and is part of the territory of Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha which includes Ascension Island and the island group of Tristan da Cunha.
Gaspard, Baron Gourgaud, also known simply as Gaspard Gourgaud, was a French soldier, prominent in the Napoleonic wars.
Sir Hudson Lowe, was a British Army officer and colonial administrator who served as the governor of Saint Helena from 1816 to 1821. Seeing service during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, he is best known for serving as the de facto jailor of Napoleon when he was in exile on Saint Helena.
Jamestown is the capital city of the British Overseas Territory of Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha, located on the island of Saint Helena in the South Atlantic Ocean. It is also the historic main settlement of the island and is on its north-western coast. Before the development of the port at Rupert's Bay, it was the island's only port and the centre of the island's road and communications network. It was founded when colonists from the English East India Company settled on the island in 1659 and was briefly occupied by the Dutch East India Company in 1673 before being recaptured. Many of the buildings built by the East India Company in the 18th century survive and give the town its distinctive Georgian flavour.
Barry Edward O'Meara was an Irish surgeon and founding member of the Reform Club who accompanied Napoleon to Saint Helena and became his physician, having been surgeon on board HMS Bellerophon when the emperor surrendered himself. He was a medical graduate of Trinity College Dublin.
Edinburgh of the Seven Seas is the only settlement on the island of Tristan da Cunha, a part of the British Overseas Territory of Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha in the South Atlantic Ocean. Locally, it is referred to as The Settlement or The Village.
David Sears II was a prominent 19th-century Boston philanthropist, merchant, real estate developer, and landowner.
Longwood House is a mansion on the British overseas territory island of St. Helena. It was the final residence of Napoleon Bonaparte, the former Emperor of the French, during his exile on the island of Saint Helena, from 10 December 1815 until his death on 5 May 1821.
Briars is the small pavilion in which Napoleon Bonaparte stayed for the first few weeks of his exile on Saint Helena in late 1815 before being moved to Longwood House.
Diana's Peak is the highest point, at 818 metres (2,684 ft), on the island of Saint Helena, a British overseas territory in the South Atlantic Ocean. It is of volcanic origin. The mountain and its surroundings with a total area of 81 ha were proclaimed a national park in March 1996, the first on the island. It is a preserve of several endangered endemic species, including tree fern, he cabbage and black cabbage trees, and whitewood. The park contains walking paths connecting the peaks - Mt. Actaeon (814m), Diana's Peak and Cuckold's Point (815m). The two shorter peaks are topped by large Norfolk pines. On the northern slopes there is a nursery for endemic species.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to Saint Helena:
Alarm Forest is the newest of the eight districts of the island of Saint Helena, part of the British Overseas Territory of Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha in the South Atlantic Ocean. It is located southeast of Jamestown, in the interior of the island, and is the only district to lack a coastline.
Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha is a British Overseas Territory located in the South Atlantic and consisting of the island of Saint Helena, Ascension Island, and the archipelago of Tristan da Cunha. Its name was Saint Helena and Dependencies until 1 September 2009, when a new constitution came into force, giving the three islands equal status as three territories, with a grouping under the Crown.
Saint Matthew is a church on the island of Saint Helena in the South Atlantic Ocean, and is part of the Diocese of St Helena. It is situated in Hutt's Gate in the Longwood district. The church opened in 1862. It is designated as a Grade II listed building.
Lucia Elizabeth Balcombe Abell was a friend of Napoleon Bonaparte during his exile at Saint Helena. She was also an author and a landowner in New South Wales, Australia.
The French domains of Saint Helena is an estate of 14 ha, in three separate parts, on the island of Saint Helena within the British Overseas Territory of Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha.
War. The Exile and the Rock Limpet is an oil painting of 1842 by the English Romantic painter J. M. W. Turner (1775–1851). Intended to be a companion piece to Turner's Peace - Burial at Sea, War is a painting that depicts a moment from Napoleon Bonaparte's exile at Saint Helena. In December 1815, the former Emperor was taken by the British government to the Longwood House, despite its state of disrepair, to live in captivity; during his final years of isolation, Napoleon had fallen into despair. Turner's decision to pair the painting with Peace was heavily criticized when it was first exhibited but it is also seen as predecessor to his more famous piece Rain, Steam and Speed – The Great Western Railway (1844).
The Valley of the Tomb is the site of Napoleon's tomb, on the British Overseas Territory of Saint Helena in the south Atlantic Ocean, where he was buried following his death in exile on 5 May 1821. The valley had been called the Sane Valley, but Napoleon had taken walks there and referred to it as the Valley of the Geraniums.
