The island hosts many festivals throughout the year, offering something for everyone. A recurring yearly event in May is the Jersey MG Owners Club Spring Rally. Every year more owners show off their gleaming cars, surrounded by a whole host of motoring activities. Also in May the Liberation Festival takes place when islanders celebrate the liberation from occupying forces during World War II. Several activities and events take place – among other things heritage trails and access to WWII bunkers not normally open to the public. ‘Liberation Day’ is on 9 May when there is a commemorative service and islanders will celebrate freedom, reconciliation and prosperity with an afternoon tea dance and food fair.
Jersey history is influenced by its strategic location between the northern coast of France and the southern coast of England; the island's recorded history extends over a thousand years.
Evidence of bronze-age and early iron-age settlements can be found in many locations around the island. While archaeological evidence of Roman influence has been found, in particular the coastal headland site at Le Pinacle, Les Landes, where remains of a primitive structure are attributed to Roman temple worship.
Formerly under the control of Brittany and named Angia, Jersey became subject to Viking influence in the ninth century, one of the "Norman Islands". The name for Jersey itself is sourced from a Viking heritage: the Norse suffix -ey for island can be found in many places around the northern European coasts. The island was eventually annexed to the Duchy of Normandy by William Longsword, Duke of Normandy in 933; his descendant, William the Conqueror, conquered England in 1066, which led to the Duchy of Normandy and the kingdom of England being governed under one monarch. The Dukes of Normandy owned considerable estates on the island, and Norman families living on their estates founded many of the historical Norman-French Jersey family names. Trade laid the foundations of prosperity, aided by neutrality between England and France. The Jersey way of life involved agriculture, fishing, shipbuilding, and production of woollen goods until nineteenth-century improvements in transport links brought tourism to the island.
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