A farming village in the Pays de Caux, situated on the cliff-lined coast of the English Channel some 5 miles (8.0 km) northeast of Dieppe, at the junction of the D54 and D113 roads.
History
On the morning of 19 August 1942, the beach at Berneval was one of the landing locations of the Anglo-Canadian raid on Dieppe. No. 3 Commando landed on "Yellow 1", the beach of Petit Berneval, but got stuck at the top of the cliffs, unable to fulfil their mission. Most were killed or captured, only one managed to escape by swimming back to the boats. Those who landed on "Yellow 2", at the Fond de Belleville, crossed the fields and attacked the gun emplacements, preventing the German gunners aiming at the beaches of Dieppe where the bulk of the landings took place. They all were able to escape by the same route and return to Newhaven.
Heraldry
Arms of Berneval-le-Grand
The arms of Berneval-le-Grand are blazoned : Azure, a pale lozengy argent and gules, between, in bend 2 garbs of wheat Or, and in bend sinister 2 ships argent.
Population
Historical population of Berneval-le-Grand
Year
1962
1968
1975
1982
1990
1999
2006
2011
2013
Population
641
666
760
893
998
1047
1166
1385
1422
From the year 1962 on: No double counting—residents of multiple communes (e.g. students and military personnel) are counted only once.
Places of interest
The church of Notre-Dame, rebuilt, as was most of the village, after the Second World War. The original church, dating back to the 13th century, was destroyed on 3 June 1944 by Allied bombers.
Notable people linked to the commune
After his release from Reading Prison, Oscar Wilde stayed in Berneval in June 1897. He was accompanied by his friend and future literary executor, the Canadian journalist, art critic and art dealer Robert Ross. Most of his former friends abandoned him, but André Gide came to meet him at the Hôtel de la Plage (destroyed during the Second World War). He found Wilde a broken man, still a prisoner in his soul despite his freedom. In Berneval, Wilde wrote The Ballad of Reading Gaol.
Edward Vincent Loustalot, regarded as the first American soldier killed by the Germans in the Second World War, died here on 19 August 1942.
During the 1970s, a large part of Walerian Borowczyk's film, Les Contes immoraux (Eng: Immoral Tales), was made in Berneval in the Grand Hôtel, Avenue du Capitaine-Porthéous.
