Aumale

Aumale, formerly known as Albemarle, is a commune in the Seine-Maritime department in the Haute-Normandie region in north-western France. It lies on the Bresle.

History

The town's Latin name was Alba Maria. It was raised by William the Bastard into a county, which was held by the houses of Castile, Dammartin, Harcourt, and Lorraine. In 1547, it was raised to the status of a duchy for Francis of Lorraine. It passed to the house of Savoy, from whom Louis XIV purchased the title in 1675 in order to bestow it upon one of his bastards as an apanage. In 1769, it passed to the house of Orleans. The British earls of Albemarle, meanwhile, also derive their name from the area.

Geography

A village of farming and associated light industry, situated in the valley of the Bresle River of the Norman Pays de Bray in Normandy on the border with Picardie. It is around 34 miles (55 km) southeast of Dieppe at the junction of the D 916, D 920, D 929 and D 49 roads. The A29 autoroute (Saint-Quentin-Beuzeville) passes through the commune’s northern sector. SNCF, the French railway has a TER station here, on the Beauvais – Le Tréport-Mers line.

Aumale (département)

Aumale is a former French département in Algeria. It existed from 17 March 1958 to 7 November 1959.

Considered as a French province, Algeria was departmentalised on 9 December 1848, and thereby was administratively structured in the same way as metropolitan France. Three civil zones (départements) replaced the three beyliks into which the Ottoman former rulers had divided the territory. The middle of the three original Algerian departments was called Alger. In May 1957 the sub-prefecture of Médéa, hitherto part of the department of Alger, was split off and became a separate département, directly to the south of the now much diminished département of Alger. This administrative reorganisation was undertaken in response to the rapid population increase experienced across the territory, especially during the preceding decade.

One of the sub-prefectures of the new département of Médéa, Aumale (or Sūr-al-Ghuzlān), found itself promoted to the status of a separate department in May 1958. The département of Aumale contained three sub-prefectures: Bou Saâda, Ouled Djellal and Tablata.