ABBEVILLE, a town of northern France, the capital of an arrondissement, department of Somme, on the Somme, from the English channel, and 28m. N.W. of Amiens on the Northern railway. Pop. (1931) 18,84o. It is built partly on an island and partly on both sides of the river, which is canalized from this point to the estuary. The tradition of settlement extends from the Palaeolithic through the late Bronze Age (when the area was very important).
Abbeville, chief town of Ponthieu, belonged in the 9th century to the abbey of St. Riquier, and afterwards to the counts of Ponthieu. It passed to the Alencon and other French families, and afterwards to the house of Castille, from whom by marriage it went to Edward I. of England. French and English ruled it by turns till 1435 when it was ceded to the duke of Burgundy. In 1477 it was annexed by Louis XI., and held by branches of the family until it was reunited to the Crown in 1696. The streets are narrow and present an almost mediaeval appearance. The church of St. Vulfran, erected in the 15th, 16th and 17th centuries, was not entirely completed. The facade is a magnificent specimen of flamboyant Gothic flanked by two Gothic towers. Abbeville has other old churches and an hotel de ville, with a belfry of the 13th century. Among the old houses, the Maison de Francois I. dates from the i6th century. Situated on one of the main entries into France it became a great British base during the World War. Abbeville is an industrial centre ; in addition to its old-established manufacture of cloth, hemp-spinning, sugar-making, shipbuilding and locksmiths' work are carried on ; there is active commerce in grain, but the port has little trade. It has a tribunal of commerce and a board of trade-arbitrators.