Amfreville, Calvados

Amfreville
The Square and Saint Martin church
Coat of arms
Amfreville
Location within Lower Normandy region Amfreville
Coordinates:
Country	France
Region	Normandy
Department	Calvados
Arrondissement	Caen
Canton	Cabourg
Intercommunality	Cabalor
Government
• Mayor (2008–2020)	Xavier Madelaine
Area1	6.06 km2 (2.34 sq mi)
Population (2009)2	1,188
• Density	200/km2 (510/sq mi)
INSEE/Postal code	14009 / 14860
Elevation	0–57 m (0–187 ft) (avg. 50 m or 160 ft)
1 French Land Register data, which excludes lakes, ponds, glaciers > 1 km² (0.386 sq mi or 247 acres) and river estuaries. 2 Population without double counting: residents of multiple communes (e.g., students and military personnel) only counted once.

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Amfreville is a French commune in the Calvados department in the Basse-Normandie region of north-western France.

The inhabitants of the commune are known as Amfrevillais or Amfrevillaises

Geography

Amfreville is located some 25 km north-west of Caen and 1 km south-east of Ouistreham mostly on the right bank of the Orne with a small portion on the left bank. It can be accessed by the D514 from Sallenelles in the north passing through the west of the commune then continuing south then west to Bénouville. Access to the village is by the D37B from Breville-les-Monts in the south-east and continuing though the village north to Sallenelles. There is also the D236 going east from the village to Bavent. There are several hamlets apart from the village: Hameau Oger and Hameau La Rue form a continuous urban area with the main village and the hamlets of La Basse Ecarde and La Haute Ecarde are to the west. The rest of the commune and the entire left bank of the Orne portion are farmland.

The Orne river separates the two parts of the commune with no direct access across the river - the nearest crossing is on the D514 to the south of the commune. A stream forms the northern border of the commune flowing into the Orne.

History

Commandos and 9th Battalion in Amfreville, June 1944

Amfreville is located close to Omaha Beach on the Normandy coast, where one of the beaches where the Allies executed their Normandy landings. It is also close to the important medieval naval city of Cherbourg, which figured in the Allied landings. Amfreville is considered to have been officially "liberated" from the German occupation of WWII on 6 June 1944.

Amfreville is understood to be the ancestral home of the Umfraville family of Anglo-Norman nobles who occupied England under William the Conqueror and his successors, and went on to become British nobility under the titles the Barons of Prudhoe and the Lords of Redesdale, and later also gained Scottish lands and the title Earl of Angus.

Images of these historical associations with the Norman Conquest of 1066 and the Normandy Landings of 1944 are incorporated in the town's heraldry.

Heraldry

Blazon: Party per pale, first Azure a soldier of Or suspended from a parachute argent all surmounted by a dove the same, in chief gules charged with two lions passant guardant one over the other; second of Vert with a garb of Or, in chief Azure with two fesse wavy in argent debruised by a barque contourned of Gules sailed the same.

Administration

The Town Hall

List of Successive Mayors

From	To	Name	Party	Position
1989	2020	Xavier Madelaine	PS	SNCF Officer

(Not all data is known)

Twinning

See also: List of twin towns and sister cities in France

Amfreville has twinning associations with:

• Hillerse (Germany) since 1999.
• Brunehaut (Belgium) since 2005.
• Dolton (United Kingdom) since 1981.

Demography

In 2009 the commune had 1,188 inhabitants. The evolution of the number of inhabitants is known through the population censuses conducted in the commune since 1793. From the 21st century, a census of communes with fewer than 10,000 inhabitants is held every five years, unlike larger towns that have a sample survey every year.

Population Change (See database)

1793	1800	1806	1821	1831	1836	1841	1846	1851
700	610	619	573	564	-	623	608	586

1856	1861	1866	1872	1876	1881	1886	1891	1896
548	575	533	482	460	412	410	387	387

1901	1906	1911	1921	1926	1931	1936	1946	1954
316	333	318	335	350	378	357	386	404

1962	1968	1975	1982	1990	1999	2006	2009	-
482	444	615	819	905	1,056	1,172	1,188	-

Sources : Ldh/EHESS/Cassini until 1962, INSEE database from 1968 (population without double counting and municipal population from 2006)

Population of Amfreville

Sites and monuments

The right bank of the Orne

• Le Plain is a place with a tree plantation, a church, and horses. It is registered as a site of ecological interest for flora and fauna.

See also

• Communes of the Calvados department

Bibliogrtaphy

• Amfréville en Baie de l’Orne, Gillonne and Rémi Desquesnes, 2001 (French)

External links

• Amfreville on Lion1906
• Amfreville on Google Maps
• Amfreville on Géoportail, National Geographic Institute (IGN) website (French)
• Amfreville on the 1750 Cassini Map
• Amfreville on the INSEE website (French)
• INSEE (French)