Wessex the ensuing Norman Conquest of England, and as the Norman kings soon did away with the great earldoms of the late Anglo-Saxon period, 1066 marks the extinction of Wessex as a political unit. From the second edition (1989) of the "Oxford English Dictionary": Wessex 1. The name of a kingdom in south-west England in Anglo-Saxon times, used by Thomas Hardy as the name of the county in which his stories are set (corresponding approximately to Dorset, Somerset, Hampshire, and Wiltshire) and since used as a name for south-west England or this part of it. Wessex is often symbolised by a
Westland Wessex the Royal Navy. For British production, it was re-engined with a single Napier Gazelle turboshaft engine, first flying in that configuration on 17 May 1957. The lighter (by 600 lb) Gazelle engine meant some redistribution of weight. The first Westland-built Wessex serial "XL727", designated a "Wessex HAS.1", first flew on 20 June 1958. The first production Wessex HAS1 were delivered to Royal Navy's Fleet Air Arm (FAA) in early 1960; the Wessex was the first helicopter operated by the FAA to be purpose-designed from scratch as an anti-submarine platform. In service, the Wessex was found to be a major improvement