1.
River Axe (Bristol Channel)
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The River Axe is a river in South West England. The river is formed by water entering swallets in the limestone and rises from the ground at Wookey Hole Caves in the Mendip Hills in Somerset, and runs through a V-shaped valley. The geology of the area is limestone and the water reaches Wookey Hole in a series of channels that have eroded through the soluble limestone. The river mouth is in Weston Bay on the Bristol Channel, the river was navigable from the middle ages until 1915, and used for international trade. It is the second largest resurgence on Mendip, with a catchment area of 46.2 square kilometres. Some of the water is allogenic in origin i. e and it then passes through major cave systems such as Swildons Hole, Eastwater Cavern and St Cuthberts Swallet, around Priddy, but 95% is water that has percolated directly into the limestone. From Wookey Hole village the river flows through a ravine and then west through the village of Wookey, the Lower River Axe then runs north along the west most edge of Knowle Moor whilst the River Axe continues west through the same moor. The two channels meet again on the boundary between Knowle and Panborough Moors, the river continues northwest past Wedmore Moor and through Oxmoor, Stoke Moor and Monk Moor. The river passes through the settlement of Lower Weare and on to the south of Loxton, from this point until it passes between Uphill Cliff and Brean Down, then reaches the coast at Weston Bay, the river forms the northern boundary of the county. Tributaries of the Axe include three rivers called Yeo, the Cheddar Yeo, the Mark Yeo and the Lox Yeo. The name derives from a Common Brittonic word meaning abounding in fish, the name is cognate with pysg, the Welsh word for fish. The lower reaches of the Axe have a history of navigation from the harbour at Uphill through to the settlement of Weare, the current tidal limit of the Axe is the sluice gates at Bleadon and Brean Cross. In the Middle Ages overseas trade was carried out from the port of Rackley, Rackley is now a farm below Crook Peak and west of Axbridge, which also had wharves. In the 14th century a French ship sailed up the river and by 1388 Thomas Tanner from Wells used Rackley to export cloth and corn to Portugal, and received iron and salt in exchange. Bleadon had been a port, sometimes known as Lympsham Wharf, for many years. It was last used by the ketch Democrat in 1942, a series of 11 watermills were powered by the river but the only one which remains is at Burcott
2.
Dorset
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Dorset /ˈdɔːrsᵻt/ is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. The ceremonial county comprises the county, which is governed by Dorset County Council. Covering an area of 2,653 square kilometres, Dorset borders Devon to the west, Somerset to the north-west, Wiltshire to the north-east, the county town is Dorchester which is in the south. After the reorganisation of government in 1974 the countys border was extended eastward to incorporate the Hampshire towns of Bournemouth. Around half of the lives in the South East Dorset conurbation. The county has a history of human settlement stretching back to the Neolithic era. The Romans conquered Dorsets indigenous Celtic tribe, and during the early Middle Ages, the first recorded Viking raid on the British Isles occurred in Dorset during the eighth century, and the Black Death entered England at Melcombe Regis in 1348. During the Second World War, Dorset was heavily involved in the preparations for the invasion of Normandy, the former was the sailing venue in the 2012 Summer Olympics, and both have clubs or hire venues for sailing, Cornish pilot gig rowing, sea kayaking and powerboating. Dorset has a varied landscape featuring broad elevated chalk downs, steep limestone ridges, over half the county is designated as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. Three-quarters of its coastline is part of the Jurassic Coast Natural World Heritage Site due to its geological and it features notable landforms such as Lulworth Cove, the Isle of Portland, Chesil Beach and Durdle Door. Agriculture was traditionally the major industry of Dorset but is now in decline, there are no motorways in Dorset but a network of A roads cross the county and two railway main lines connect to London. Dorset has ports at Poole, Weymouth and Portland, and an international airport, the county has a variety of museums, theatres and festivals, and is host to one of Europes largest outdoor shows. It is the birthplace of Thomas Hardy, who used the county as the setting of his novels. Dorset derives its name from the county town of Dorchester, the Romans established the settlement in the 1st century and named it Durnovaria which was a Latinised version of a Common Brittonic word possibly meaning place with fist-sized pebbles. It is first mentioned in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle in AD845 and in the 10th century the countys archaic name, the first human visitors to Dorset were Mesolithic hunters, from around 8000 BC. The first permanent Neolithic settlers appeared around 3000 BC and were responsible for the creation of the Dorset Cursus, from 2800 BC onwards Bronze Age farmers cleared Dorsets woodlands for agricultural use and Dorsets high chalk hills provided a location for numerous round barrows. During the Iron Age, the British tribe known as the Durotriges established a series of forts across the county—most notably Maiden Castle which is one of the largest in Europe. The Romans arrived in Dorset during their conquest of Britain in AD43, Maiden Castle was captured by a Roman legion under the command of Vespasian, and the Roman settlement of Durnovaria was established nearby
3.
Somerset
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Somerset is a county in South West England which borders Gloucestershire and Bristol to the north, Wiltshire to the east, Dorset to the south-east and Devon to the south-west. It is bounded to the north and west by the Severn Estuary and its traditional border with Gloucestershire is the River Avon. Somerset is a county of rolling hills such as the Blackdown Hills, Mendip Hills, Quantock Hills and Exmoor National Park. There is evidence of occupation from Paleolithic times, and of subsequent settlement in the Roman. The county played a significant part in the consolidation of power and rise of King Alfred the Great, and later in the English Civil War, the city of Bath is famous for its substantial Georgian architecture and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Somersets name derives from Old English Sumorsǣte, short for Sumortūnsǣte, an alternative suggestion is the name derives from Seo-mere-saetan meaning settlers by the sea lakes. The Old English name is used in the motto of the county, Sumorsǣte ealle, adopted as the motto in 1911, the phrase is taken from the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. Somerset settlement names are mostly Anglo-Saxon in origin, but some hill names include Brittonic Celtic elements, for example, an Anglo-Saxon charter of 682 refers to Creechborough Hill as the hill the British call Cructan and we call Crychbeorh. Some modern names are Brythonic in origin, such as Tarnock, the caves of the Mendip Hills were settled during the Palaeolithic period, and contain extensive archaeological sites such as those at Cheddar Gorge. Bones from Goughs Cave have been dated to 12,000 BC, examples of cave art have been found in Avelines Hole. Some caves continued to be occupied until modern times, including Wookey Hole, the Somerset Levels—specifically dry points at Glastonbury and Brent Knoll— also have a long history of settlement, and are known to have been settled by Mesolithic hunters. Travel in the area was facilitated by the construction of one of the worlds oldest known engineered roadways, the Sweet Track, the exact age of the henge monument at Stanton Drew stone circles is unknown, but it is believed to be Neolithic. There are numerous Iron Age hill forts, some of which, like Cadbury Castle, on the authority of the future emperor Vespasian, as part of the ongoing expansion of the Roman presence in Britain, the Second Legion Augusta invaded Somerset from the south-east in AD47. The county remained part of the Roman Empire until around AD409, a variety of Roman remains have been found, including Pagans Hill Roman temple in Chew Stoke, Low Ham Roman Villa and the Roman Baths that gave their name to the city of Bath. After the Romans left, Britain was invaded by Anglo-Saxon peoples, by AD600 they had established control over much of what is now England, but Somerset was still in native British hands. The Saxon royal palace in Cheddar was used several times in the 10th century to host the Witenagemot. After the Norman Conquest, the county was divided into 700 fiefs, Somerset contains HM Prison Shepton Mallet, which was Englands oldest prison still in use prior to its closure in 2013, having opened in 1610. In the English Civil War Somerset was largely Parliamentarian, with key engagements being the Sieges of Taunton, in 1685 the Monmouth Rebellion was played out in Somerset and neighbouring Dorset
4.
Devon
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Devon, also known as Devonshire, which was formerly its common and official name, is a county of England, reaching from the Bristol Channel in the north to the English Channel in the south. It is part of South West England, bounded by Cornwall to the west, Somerset to the northeast, combined as a ceremonial county, Devons area is 6,707 km2 and its population is about 1.1 million. Devon derives its name from Dumnonia, which, during the British Iron Age, Roman Britain, the Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain resulted in the partial assimilation of Dumnonia into the Kingdom of Wessex during the eighth and ninth centuries. The western boundary with Cornwall was set at the River Tamar by King Æthelstan in 936, Devon was constituted as a shire of the Kingdom of England thereafter. The north and south coasts of Devon each have both cliffs and sandy shores, and the bays contain seaside resorts, fishing towns. The inland terrain is rural, generally hilly, and has a low density in comparison to many other parts of England. Dartmoor is the largest open space in southern England at 954 km2, to the north of Dartmoor are the Culm Measures and Exmoor. In the valleys and lowlands of south and east Devon the soil is fertile, drained by rivers including the Exe, the Culm, the Teign, the Dart. As well as agriculture, much of the economy of Devon is linked with tourism, in the Brittonic, Devon is known as Welsh, Dyfnaint, Breton, Devnent and Cornish, Dewnens, each meaning deep valleys. One erroneous theory is that the suffix is due to a mistake in the making of the original letters patent for the Duke of Devonshire. However, there are references to Defenascire in Anglo-Saxon texts from before 1000 AD, the term Devonshire may have originated around the 8th century, when it changed from Dumnonia to Defenascir. Kents Cavern in Torquay had produced human remains from 30–40,000 years ago, Dartmoor is thought to have been occupied by Mesolithic hunter-gatherer peoples from about 6000 BC. The Romans held the area under occupation for around 350 years. Devon became a frontier between Brittonic and Anglo-Saxon Wessex, and it was absorbed into Wessex by the mid 9th century. This suggests the Anglo-Saxon migration into Devon was limited rather than a movement of people. The border with Cornwall was set by King Æthelstan on the east bank of the River Tamar in 936 AD, the arrival of William of Orange to launch the Glorious Revolution of 1688 took place at Brixham. Devon has produced tin, copper and other metals from ancient times, Devons tin miners enjoyed a substantial degree of independence through Devons Stannary Parliament, which dates back to the 12th century. The last recorded sitting was in 1748, agriculture has been an important industry in Devon since the 19th century
5.
Beaminster
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It is sited in a bowl-shaped valley near the source of the small River Brit. The 2013 mid-year estimate of the population of Beaminster parish is 3,100, in its history Beaminster has been a centre of manufacture of linen and woollens, the raw materials for which were produced in the surrounding countryside. The town experienced three fires in the 17th and 18th centuries, the first of these, during the English Civil War. Beaminster parish church is notable for its architecture, particularly its handsome tower, in the Domesday Book of 1086 the manor of Beaminster was recorded as being owned by the See of Salisbury. Bishop Osmund gave it as a supplement to two of the Cathedral prebends in 1091, in the English Civil War the town declared for Parliament and was sacked by Royalist forces in 1644. Prince Maurice stayed in the town on Palm Sunday, though his stay was brief because a fire, caused by a musket being discharged into a thatched roof, the town suffered further accidental fires in 1684 and 1781. Previously Beaminster was a centre for the production of linen and woollens, no railway line came through Beaminster and as a result the town declined relative to other local towns such as Bridport and Dorchester. Horn Park, about 1.5 miles north-west of Beaminster, is a country house of five bays and two-storeys designed by architect T. Lawrence Dale. Inside the house the central corridor is barrel vaulted and leads to a room whose groin vault is reminiscent of the work of Sir John Soane. The drawing room includes Jacobean features re-used from a 16th-century country house at nearby Parnham, Horn Park is Listed Grade II. Its gardens are open to the public as part of the National Gardens Scheme. Beaminster is sited between 50 to 80 metres above sea level in a valley, surrounded by hills which rise to 244 metres at Beaminster Down to the northeast. The River Brit and many small streams emerge from springs on the slopes above the town, the confluences of several of these streams are within the towns boundaries. Beaminsters growth has historically been along the course of these streams, Beaminster is situated approximately 45 miles south of Bristol,38 miles west of Bournemouth,35 miles east of Exeter and 15 miles northwest of the county town Dorchester. Beaminster is sited mostly on Middle Jurassic Fullers earth clay, with some Inferior Oolite in the south of the town and Bridport and Yeovil Sands north of the town centre. The hills north and east of the town are Cretaceous chalk with a face of Upper Greensand, while those to the south and west are of Bridport. There are several faults running westnorthwest to eastsoutheast through the town, Horn Park Quarry SSSI produced building stone from the Inferior Oolite and some quality fossil specimens before becoming a light industrial estate on the road to Broadwindsor. Apart from the ammonites, the site displays a remarkable flat erosion surface, dorset County Councils 2013 mid-year estimate of the population of Beaminster parish is 3,100
6.
Axminster
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Axminster is a market town and civil parish on the eastern border of the county of Devon in England, some 28 miles from the county town of Exeter. The town is built on a hill overlooking the River Axe which heads towards the English Channel at Axmouth, at the 2001 census, it had a population of 5,626, increasing to 5,761 at the 2011 census. The town contains two wards the total sum of both wards being a population of 7,110. The market is held every Thursday. Axminster gave its name to a type of carpet, an Axminster-type power loom is capable of weaving high quality carpets with many varying colours and patterns. While Axminster carpets are made in the town by Axminster Carpets Ltd, the town dates back to the Celtic times of around 300 BC. It lies on two major Roman roads, the Fosse Way from Lincoln to Seaton, and the Dorchester to Exeter road, there was a Roman fort on the crossroads at Woodbury Farm, just south of the present town. Axminster appears on the Peutinger Map, one of only 15 British towns on that Roman era map, Axminster was recorded in the late 9th century as Ascanmynster and in the Domesday Book of 1086 as Aixeministra. The name means monastery or large church by the River Axe and is a mixture of languages, the history of the town is very much linked to the carpet industry, started by Thomas Whitty at Court House near the church in 1755. The completion of the early hand tufted carpets was marked by a peal of bells from the church as it took a great amount of time. In 1210, a charter was granted to the town included the right to hold a weekly cattle market which took place in the market square until it was moved to Trinity Square in 1834. It then moved in October 1912 to a site off South Street where it was held for 94 years and it finally closed in 2006 in the aftermath of the 2001 United Kingdom foot-and-mouth outbreak. A building on the site continued to be used for a general auction until all the buildings were demolished and replaced by a housing development. The town was on the route from London to Exeter. In 1760 a coaching inn named The George Hotel was opened on the corner of Lyme Street, over 16 coaches a day would stop at the hotel in its heyday for refreshments and to change horses, the building still stands but it is currently unoccupied. Part of the parish of Axminster had historically been an exclave of Dorset until the Counties Act 1844, Axminster railway station was opened on 19 July 1860, with the London and South Western Railway offering direct services between Central Station in Exeter and Yeovil. The station building was designed by the LSWRs architect Sir William Tite in mock gothic style, in 1903, the branch line from Axminster to Lyme Regis was opened. This branch line was closed with the Beeching cuts, in the 1960s, one engine has been preserved on the Bluebell Line, in Sussex, while the station was dismantled and reconstructed at New Alresford, on the Watercress Line, in Hampshire
7.
English Channel
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The English Channel, also called simply the Channel, is the body of water that separates southern England from northern France, and links the southern part of the North Sea to the Atlantic Ocean. It is about 560 km long and varies in width from 240 km at its widest to 33.3 km in the Strait of Dover and it is the smallest of the shallow seas around the continental shelf of Europe, covering an area of some 75,000 km2. The International Hydrographic Organization defines the limits of the English Channel as follows, a line joining Isle Vierge to Lands End. The southwestern limit of the North Sea, the IHO defines the southwestern limit of the North Sea as a line joining the Walde Lighthouse and Leathercoat Point. The Walde Lighthouse is 6 km east of Calais, and Leathercoat Point is at the end of St Margarets Bay. The Strait of Dover, at the Channels eastern end, is its narrowest point and it is relatively shallow, with an average depth of about 120 m at its widest part, reducing to a depth of about 45 m between Dover and Calais. Eastwards from there the adjoining North Sea reduces to about 26 m in the Broad Fourteens where it lies over the watershed of the land bridge between East Anglia and the Low Countries. It reaches a depth of 180 m in the submerged valley of Hurds Deep,48 km west-northwest of Guernsey. The eastern region along the French coast between Cherbourg and the mouth of the Seine river at Le Havre is frequently referred to as the Bay of the Seine. There are several islands in the Channel, the most notable being the Isle of Wight off the English coast. The coastline, particularly on the French shore, is indented, several small islands close to the coastline, including Chausey. The Cotentin Peninsula in France juts out into the Channel, whilst on the English side there is a parallel channel known as the Solent between the Isle of Wight and the mainland. The Celtic Sea is to the west of the Channel, the time difference of about six hours between high water at the eastern and western limits of the Channel is indicative of the tidal range being amplified further by resonance. It was never defined as a border and the names were more or less descriptive. It was not considered as the property of a nation, strangely, before the development of the modern nations, British scholars very often referred to it as Gaulish and the French one as British or English. The name English Channel has been used since the early 18th century. In modern Dutch, however, it is known as Het Kanaal, later, it has also been known as the British Channel or the British Sea having been called the Oceanus Britannicus by the 2nd-century geographer Ptolemy. The same name is used on an Italian map of about 1450, the Anglo-Saxon texts often call it Sūð-sǣ as opposed to Norð-sǣ
8.
Axmouth
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Axmouth is a village, civil parish and former manor in the East Devon district of Devon, England, near the mouth of the River Axe. The village itself is about 1 km inland, although the parish extends to the sea, the village is near Seaton and Beer which are on the other side of the Axe estuary. According to the 2001 census the parish had a population of 493, in the will of King Alfred the Great, a copy of which is in the British Library, Axmouth was left to his youngest son Aethelweard. According to Historic England, Axmouth was ranked as a port by the mid-14th century. The remains of a medieval fishing boat can be seen at low tide in the River Axe. Erle purchased the manor of Axmouth following the Dissolution of Syon Monastery of which it had been a possession, the village includes some thatched cottages, the church has a fifteenth-century tower and a carved Norman doorway and pillars. The Tudor period Bindon House is nearby and the remains of a hillfort can be seen on Hawkesdown Hill above the village, an early concrete bridge crosses the mouth of the river close to the harbour which is home to a yacht club. Media related to Axmouth at Wikimedia Commons Devon Local Studies - Axmouth community page Axmouth in the Domesday Book
9.
Seaton, Devon
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Seaton is a small seaside town in East Devon on the south coast of England. It faces onto Lyme Bay, to the west of the mouth of the River Axe with red cliffs to one side, a sea wall provides access to the mostly shingle beach stretching for about a mile, and a small harbour. Seaton sits on the 96-mile long Dorset and East Devon Coast World Heritage Site, from here it is possible to visit rock strata dating from three geological periods in a 185 million-year ‘geological walk through time’. Seaton has an population of 7,385, proven to be 8,413 at the 2011 Census, whilst the Seaton. The Seaton electoral ward had a population of 7,096 at the above census, a farming community existed here 4,000 years before the Romans arrived and there were Iron Age forts in the vicinity at Seaton Down, Hawkesdown Hill, Blackbury Camp and Berry Camp. During Roman times this was an important port although the towns Roman remains have been reburied to preserve them, in Saxon times Seaton was known as Fluta or Fleet, the Saxon word for creek. The town of Fleet was founded by Saxon Charter in 1005 AD, the first mention of Seaton was in a papal bull by Pope Eugenius in 1146. Seaton was an important port for centuries, supplying ships and sailors for Edward Is wars against Scotland. In the 14th century heavy storms caused a landslip which blocked the estuary. In 1868 the arrival of the reduced the use of the harbour. In November 2013 builder Laurence Egerton, a metal detector enthusiast, the hoard, of about 22,000 Roman coins, is believed to be one of the largest and best-preserved 4th-century collections ever found in Britain. A team of archaeologists carefully removed and cleaned the coins over the next 10 months, Seaton was served by a branch line, opened in 1886, from Seaton Junction on the Salisbury to Exeter main line. The railway was successful and considerably assisted in the development of Seaton as a holiday destination, Seaton and Beer became the two most popular holiday destinations in East Devon. A Warners holiday camp opened in 1935 close to the station, with the increase in car ownership in the 1960s, usage of the line declined, and with many other Devon branch lines, it closed in 1966. The nearest railway station now is at Axminster, seven miles away, part of the trackbed has been used to construct the Seaton Tramway to Colyton, a tourist attraction. In the 19th century Seaton developed as a resort, which it remains to this day. Seaton lost its largest holiday camp at the beginning of 2009 when the site was purchased by Tesco who opened a supermarket on the site in late 2011. However, Seaton still has many accommodation providers including guest houses, hotels, a camping site, the church on the edge of town was built in the 14th century, with a squat tower dating from the 15th century
10.
Lyme Bay
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Lyme Bay is an area of the English Channel situated in the southwest of England between Start Bay in the west and Portland in the east. The counties of Devon and Dorset front onto the bay, the area around Lyme Bay is part of a World Heritage Site, the Jurassic Coast, named for its Jurassic geology. Many of the earliest discoveries of dinosaur and other prehistoric remains were in the area surrounding Lyme Regis. Notable among these were the discoveries made by self-educated palaeontologist and fossil collector Mary Anning, the weather in the bay is temperate by English standards, and far more temperate than many other places at a similar latitude. The reason for this is the action of the Gulf Stream. The area along the coast of Lyme Bay is thus a popular holiday destination, on 22 March 1993, four schoolchildren died in what is known as the Lyme Bay kayaking tragedy. Lyme Bay was the site of Exercise Tiger, a run for the D-Day invasion of France in 1944. The operation went horribly wrong when German E-boats appeared on the scene and attacked the landing craft, killing 749 American Army, a ship commissioned in 2007 for the Royal Fleet Auxiliary carries the name of the area, RFA Lyme Bay. Tank wrecks from the D-Day practice provide a venue for diving, marine life includes the Devon cup coral and rare pink sea fan. The reefs have been under threat from scallop dredging which, if unregulated, Devon Wildlife Trust has been campaigning to protect the reefs, calling for an end to the dredging and trawling within a 60-square-mile zone to help the reefs recover. About 20% of this area is now protected by an agreement made between the DEFRA and the fishermen of the South West Inshore Fishermens Association. Virtle Rock is an islet in Pokers Pool, Lyme Bay and it is the farthest islet from the coast of Pokers Pool. List of places on the Jurassic Coast Devon Wildlife Trusts page about the Lyme Bay coral reefs Save Lyme Bay Reefs
11.
Bristol Channel
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The Bristol Channel is a major inlet in the island of Great Britain, separating South Wales from Devon and Somerset in South West England. It extends from the estuary of the River Severn to the North Atlantic Ocean. It takes its name from the English city of Bristol, and is over 30 miles across at its widest point. Until Tudor times the Bristol Channel was known as the Severn Sea, the International Hydrographic Organisation defines the western limit of the Bristol Channel as a line joining Hartland Point in Devon to St. Govans Head in Pembrokeshire. The upper limit of the Channel is between Sand Point, Somerset and Lavernock Point, East of this line is the Severn Estuary. The Severn Estuary and most of the embayments around the channel are less than 10 m in depth. Within the channel, however, there is an E-W trending valley 20 to 30 m in depth that is considered to have formed by fluvial run-off during Pleistocene phases of lower sea level. The Bristol Channel is an important area for wildlife, in particular waders, at low tide large parts of the channel become mud flats due to the tidal range of 43 feet, second only to the Bay of Fundy in Eastern Canada. Development schemes have been proposed along the channel, including an airport and a barrier for electricity generation. The largest islands in the Bristol Channel are Lundy, Steep Holm, the islands and headlands provide some shelter for the upper reaches of the channel from storms. These islands are uninhabited and protected as nature reserves, and are home to some unique wild flower species. In 1971 a proposal was made by the Lundy Field Society to establish a marine reserve, on the Gower Peninsula, at its western extremity is the Worms Head, a headland of carboniferous limestone which is approachable on foot at low tide only. The beaches of Gower and North Devon, such as Croyde and Woolacombe, win awards for their quality and setting. In 2004, The Times Travel magazine selected Barafundle Bay in Pembrokeshire as one of the twelve best beaches in the world, in 2007, Oxwich Bay made the same magazines Top 12 best beaches in the world list, and was also selected as Britains best beach for 2007. The city of Swansea is the largest settlement on the Welsh coast of the Bristol Channel, other major built-up areas include Barry, Port Talbot and Llanelli. Smaller resort towns include Porthcawl, Mumbles, Saundersfoot and Tenby, the cities of Cardiff and Newport adjoin the Severn estuary, but lie upstream of the Bristol Channel itself. On the English side, the towns of Weston-super-Mare, Burnham-on-Sea, Watchet, Minehead. Barnstaple and Bideford are sited on estuaries opening onto Bideford Bay and it gives its name to the Channel, which forms its seaward approach
12.
River Exe
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It flows for 60 miles and reaches the sea at a substantial ria, the Exe Estuary, on the south coast of Devon. Historically, its lowest bridging point was at Exeter, though there is now a viaduct for the M5 motorway about 3 kilometres south of the city centre. The rivers name is an anglicisation of the Latin isca, itself a form of a Brittonic root meaning water or, more exactly. It seems to be a cognate of pysg, the Welsh word for fish. The river gave the name of Exeter and many settlements along its course, including Exford, Up Exe, Nether Exe, Exwick, Exton, Exminster, and Exebridge. The seaside town of Exmouth is at the east side of the estuary mouth, the river fuelled Exeters growth and relative importance in medieval times, and the citys first industrial area was developed at Exe Island, created by a series of leats to the west of the city. The island was home to numerous watermills producing paper and textiles, tides on the river are limited at Countess Wear, the site of a weir commissioned by the Countess of Devon in the 13th century. The Exeter Canal bypasses this weir to enable ships to reach Exeter Quay, at high tide, the estuary forms a large body of water that is heavily used for water sports especially sailing, windsurfing and water skiing. Railways run along both sides of the estuary, the Avocet Line from Exeter to Exmouth on the eastern side, and the South Devon main line on the western. The latter is on a causeway, the South Devon Railway sea wall from Powderham to Dawlish Warren, at low tide, extensive mud flats are exposed, and these are an important feeding source for wading birds. Along with other rias in South West England, the Exe estuary is an important site for wintering waders, Dawlish Warren is a favoured site for birdwatching. The river has a low pH but does not suffer from an acid rain problem. It is populated with wild brown trout, and in the lower reaches coarse fish including dace, chub, perch, roach, pike and bream and some grayling, there is a run of Atlantic salmon and a sparse run of sea trout. Just 150 metres below the union of the River Barle is Black Pool, which is one of the best, the smaller fish species present include stone loach and there are good reasons to assume others are present. In 2008 the Environment Agency embarked on a project to clean the river from vegetation forming, in order to do so the water level decreased to its lowest level – less water remained than the droughts the city has suffered. Rivers of the United Kingdom Lawrence, Rod, the Exe, A River for Wildlife. RSPB reserves, Exminster & Powderham Marshes Dawlish Warren Nature Reserve
13.
River Esk, North Yorkshire
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The River Esk is a river in North Yorkshire, England that empties into the North Sea at Whitby after a course of around 28 miles through the valley of Eskdale, named after the river itself. Due to its nature, the river is clean and healthy. Salmon spawn right up through Eskdale, and a number of leaps are provided to them to travel through weirs on the course. There are clearly visible examples at Ruswarp, where the stretch through to Whitby begins. Around Whitby the Esk has a population of sea trout. The Esk is also the major river in Yorkshire to drain directly into the North Sea. Partway down the river at Danby Bridge, there is a ford in which vehicles can get trapped, between the junction of Fryup Dale and Lealholm the river passes through a narrow, steep-sided and wooded valley known as Crunkly Ghyll. Here the river drops 100 feet from the valley above to reach the village, Crunkly Ghyll was formed during the last great ice age as a huge wall of ice moved across the landscape carving out what is now the Esk Valley as far as Lealholm. At its head it formed a dam blocking the flow of water from above. As the ice melted, the river forced its way out carving the ravine we see today, in Victorian times, the Ghyll was home to a large rockery garden, open to the public, but long since washed away by flooding of the river. The small villages along the river were at one time of importance to the north-east, with coal mined in the valleys. Today, all that remains are the mine shafts, though potash is mined, near Boulby, with tunnels running six miles beneath the sea. Since 1987 a bylaw has been in place to protect dwindling populations of salmon. The River Esk Tideway Bylaw 1987, prevents fishing for salmon, the Environment Agency enforces the byelaw under s210 and Schedule 25 of the Water Resources Act 1991. The bylaw was renewed in 1997 for 5 years, then again in 2002 for 10 years, after a peak of 924 rod-caught salmon per year in 1965, the number dropped to just 11 in 1989. This was due mainly to illegal poaching of stocks from this stretch under the guise of angling, since the bylaw was introduced and enforced, the numbers of rod-caught salmon per year, further upstream, has increased each year. From source Westerdale Castleton Ainthorpe Danby Lealholm Glaisdale Egton Bridge Grosmont Sleights Aislaby Briggswath Ruswarp Whitby The Esk Valley Walk runs along part of the length of the river
14.
River Usk
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The River Usk rises on the northern slopes of the Black Mountain, Wales, in the westernmost part of the Brecon Beacons National Park. The Monmouthshire and Brecon Canal follows the Usk for most of the length of the canal. The name of the river derives from a Common Brittonic word meaning abounding in fish, the name is cognate with pysg, the Welsh word for fish. The name of the river appears as Wÿsk on the Cambriae Typus map of 1573, the whole river has been designated a Site of Special Scientific Interest. It contains estuary with mudflats and salt marsh, lagoons, bog and marsh, dippers can be seen upriver along with red kites. The Usk has long been a noted salmon and trout fishing river, salmon of over 30 pounds can still be caught. The river has the highest estimated salmon egg deposition of any river south of Cumbria and the Scottish rivers, the river has recently been rated as the best fly fishing water in Wales for salmon and inside the UK Top Ten. The normal tidal limit of the river is just below the bridge at Newbridge-on-Usk, the River Usk has played an important role in the history of Wales and features in some local folk-tales. Evidence of the Usks long-standing use in transport and trade came in the form of the remains of the Newport Ship that were discovered in 2002. This ship, dated to around 1465, was most likely a trading vessel and its presence in the Usk has confirmed what an important trading route the Usk must have been to the many towns and villages along its course. The Usk has also played a role in local legends. Geoffrey of Monmouth writes of Caerleon in the mid 12th century, For it was located in a spot in Glamorgan, on the River Usk. Abounding in wealth more than cities, it was suited for such a ceremony. For the noble river I have named flows along it on one side, upon which the kings, the Newport Transporter Bridge, the lowest crossing point on the river, has the greatest length of any surviving transporter bridge in the world. List of rivers of Wales Usk Valley Walk List of bridges in Wales The Usk Valley Walk - photos A trophy salmon from the Usk in October 1917 Canoe Wales website information on canoe touring the Usk
15.
Site of Special Scientific Interest
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The acronym SSSI is often pronounced triple-S I. Sites notified for their biological interest are known as Biological SSSI/ASSIs, SSSI/ASSIs may be divided into management units, with some areas including units that are noted for both biological and geological interest. Biological SSSI/ASSIs may be selected for reasons, which for Great Britain is governed by published SSSI Selection Guidelines. Within each area, a series of the best examples of each significant natural habitat may be notified. Sites of particular significance for various groups may be selected —each of these groups has its own set of selection guidelines. In Scotland, the authority is Scottish Natural Heritage, the role in Wales is performed by Natural Resources Wales. In the Isle of Man the role is performed by the Department of Environment, Food, Geological SSSI/ASSIs are selected by a different mechanism to biological ones, with a minimalistic system selecting one site for each geological feature in Great Britain. Each of these sites is described, with most published in the Geological Conservation Review series, almost all GCR sites are subsequently notified as geological SSSIs, except some that coincide with designated biological SSSI management units. If the exposure becomes obscured, the feature could in principle be re-exposed elsewhere, Conservation of these sites usually concentrates on maintenance of access for future study. These are features which are limited in extent or physically delicate—for example, they include small lenses of sediment, mine tailings, caves, if such features become damaged they cannot be recreated, and conservation usually involves protecting the feature from erosion or other damage. Following devolution, legal arrangements for SSSIs and ASSIs differ between the countries of the UK, the Isle of Man ASSI system is a separate entity. Scottish Natural Heritage publishes a summary of the SSSI arrangements for SSSI owners and occupiers which can be downloaded from the SNH website, legal documents for all SSSIs in Scotland are available on the SSSI Register, hosted by The Registers of Scotland. Further information about SSSIs in Scotland is available on the SNH website, SSSIs are also covered under the Water Resources Act 1991 and related legislation. An SSSI may be made on any area of land which is considered to be of special interest by virtue of its fauna, flora, SSSI notification can cover any land within the area of the relevant nature conservation body, including dry land, land covered by freshwater. The extent to which an SSSI/ASSI may extend seawards differs between countries, in England, Natural England may notify an SSSI over estuarial waters and further adjacent waters in certain circumstances. Access on to SSSIs is the same as for the rest of the countryside of the relevant country, most SSSIs/ASSIs are in private ownership and form parts of working farms, forests and estates. In Scotland, people may use their rights of access to visit SSSIs. When creating a new SSSI/ASSI the designation hs legal effect from the date of notification. g, in Scotland, Scottish Natural Heritage must also notify the relevant community councils and community group having registered an interest in the land. )
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Geomorphology
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Geomorphology is the scientific study of the origin and evolution of topographic and bathymetric features created by physical, chemical or biological processes operating at or near the Earths surface. Geomorphologists work within disciplines such as geography, geology, geodesy, engineering geology, archaeology. This broad base of interests contributes to many styles and interests within the field. Earths surface is modified by a combination of processes that sculpt landscapes, and geologic processes that cause tectonic uplift and subsidence. Many of these factors are strongly mediated by climate, the broad-scale topographies of the Earth illustrate this intersection of surface and subsurface action. Mountain belts are uplifted due to geologic processes, denudation of these high uplifted regions produces sediment that is transported and deposited elsewhere within the landscape or off the coast. On progressively smaller scales, similar ideas apply, where individual landforms evolve in response to the balance of additive processes, often, these processes directly affect each other, ice sheets, water, and sediment are all loads that change topography through flexural isostasy. Topography can modify the climate, for example through orographic precipitation. Many geomorphologists are particularly interested in the potential for feedbacks between climate and tectonics, mediated by geomorphic processes, in addition to these broad-scale questions, geomorphologists address issues that are more specific and/or more local. Fluvial geomorphologists focus on rivers, how they transport sediment, migrate across the landscape, cut into bedrock, respond to environmental and tectonic changes, and interact with humans. Soils geomorphologists investigate soil profiles and chemistry to learn about the history of a landscape and understand how climate, biota. Other geomorphologists study how hillslopes form and change, still others investigate the relationships between ecology and geomorphology. Because geomorphology is defined to comprise everything related to the surface of the Earth and its modification, geomorphologists use a wide range of techniques in their work. These may include fieldwork and field data collection, the interpretation of remotely sensed data, geochemical analyses, geomorphologists may rely on geochronology, using dating methods to measure the rate of changes to the surface. Practical applications of geomorphology include hazard assessment, river control and stream restoration, planetary geomorphology studies landforms on other terrestrial planets such as Mars. Indications of effects of wind, fluvial, glacial, mass wasting, meteor impact, tectonics and this effort not only helps better understand the geologic and atmospheric history of those planets but also extends geomorphological study of the Earth. Planetary geomorphologists often use Earth analogues to aid in their study of surfaces of other planets, other than some notable exceptions in antiquity, geomorphology is a relatively young science, growing along with interest in other aspects of the earth sciences in the mid-19th century. This section provides a brief outline of some of the major figures
17.
Geology of Dorset
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Dorset /ˈdɔːrsᵻt/ is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. Covering an area of 2,653 square kilometres, it borders Devon to the west, Somerset to the north-west, Wiltshire to the north-east, and Hampshire to the east. The great variation in its landscape owes much to the geology which includes an almost unbroken sequence of rocks from 200 Ma to 40 Ma. In general the oldest rocks appear in the far west of the county, throughout Dorset there are a number of limestone ridges. Between the bands of limestone and chalk are wide clay vales with flood plains, south-east Dorset, around Poole, Bournemouth and the New Forest, lies on younger and less resistant beds, Eocene clays, sands and gravels. These rocks produce thin soils that historically have supported a heathland habitat, the chalk and limestone hills of the Purbecks lie atop Britains largest onshore oil field. The field, operated from Wytch Farm, produces a high-quality oil and has the worlds oldest continuously pumping well at Kimmeridge, the source of this oil is the organic-rich shales found in the lower lias. Landslides along the coast have been known to ignite these shales causing cliff fires, when these continents collided to form the single super-continent of Pangaea, the sediments on the ocean floor were pushed up and over while the molten rock below the surface was forced out. Today, these intrusions and the red sandstones, visible in the neighbouring county of Devon. Around 204 Ma Dorset, now 30 degrees north, was under water, formed somewhere between 185 Ma and 204 Ma, in what was then a shallow marine environment, the Lower Lias Lias is composed of Blue Lias, Black Ven Marls and Green Ammonite Beds. The sides of the vale are mainly made from the clays and sands of the upper and lower Lias while younger strata from the Cretaceous Period, crown the higher points. The Blue Lias is the lowest of the Liassic stratum and where it is visible on the coast near Lyme Regis is layered with hard limestone, the iron pyrites in the clay can heat up when exposed to the air and occasionally ignite the shales. Around Lyme Regis, during the 18th and 19th centuries, the collecting, landslides and the excavation of the clays, used in cement production, exposed not only an abundance of ammonites of varying size, but much larger specimens such as ichthyosaurs and plesiosaurs. Although these rocks were formed underwater, the discovery of wood, land-dwelling animals. These sands are thought to have come from the islands now form part of Cornwall. Again, inland exposure is poor, although the middle Lias is visible along the line of the hills that surround the Marshwood Vale. The cliffs either side of Eype and the stretch between Thorncombe and Watton Cliff provide the best view. The base of the middle Lias is composed of three layers of calcareous sandstone beds separated by marls
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Alluvium
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Alluvium is loose, unconsolidated soil or sediments, which has been eroded, reshaped by water in some form, and redeposited in a non-marine setting. Alluvium is typically made up of a variety of materials, including fine particles of silt and clay and larger particles of sand, when this loose alluvial material is deposited or cemented into a lithological unit, or lithified, it is called an alluvial deposit. The term alluvium is not typically used in situations where the formation of the sediment can clearly be attributed to another process that is well described. This includes, lake sediments, river sediments, or glacially-derived sediments, sediments that are formed or deposited in a perennial stream or river are typically not referred to as alluvial. Most alluvium is very young, and is often referred to as cover because these sediments obscure the underlying bedrock. Most sedimentary material that fills a basin that is not lithified is typically lumped together as alluvial, alluvium of Pliocene age occurs, for example, in parts of Idaho. Alluvium of late Miocene age occurs, for example, in the valley of the San Joaquin River, alluvium can contain valuable ores such as gold and platinum and a wide variety of gemstones. Such a concentration of ores is termed a placer deposit
19.
Salmon
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Salmon /ˈsæmən/ is the common name for several species of ray-finned fish in the family Salmonidae. Other fish in the family include trout, char, grayling. Salmon are native to tributaries of the North Atlantic and Pacific Ocean, many species of salmon have been introduced into non-native environments such as the Great Lakes of North America and Patagonia in South America. Salmon are intensively farmed in parts of the world. Typically, salmon are anadromous, they are born in water, migrate to the ocean. However, populations of species are restricted to fresh water through their lives. Various species of salmon display anadromous life strategies while others display freshwater resident life strategies, folklore has it that the fish return to the exact spot where they were born to spawn, tracking studies have shown this to be mostly true. A portion of a salmon run may stray and spawn in different freshwater systems. The percent of straying depends on the species of salmon, homing behavior has been shown to depend on olfactory memory. The term salmon comes from the Latin salmo, which in turn may have originated from salire, the nine commercially important species of salmon occur in two genera. The genus Salmo contains the Atlantic salmon, found in the north Atlantic, the genus Oncorhynchus contains eight species which occur naturally only in the North Pacific. As a group, these are known as Pacific salmon, Chinook salmon have been introduced in New Zealand and Patagonia. Coho, freshwater sockeye, and Atlantic salmon have established in Patagonia. † Both the Salmo and Oncorhynchus genera also contain a number of species referred to as trout, within Salmo, additional minor taxa have been called salmon in English, i. e. the Adriatic salmon and Black Sea salmon. The steelhead anadromous form of the rainbow trout migrates to sea, also a number of other species have common names which refer to them as being salmon. The British Columbia salmon fossil provides evidence that the divergence between Pacific and Atlantic salmon had not yet occurred 40 million years ago, Both the fossil record and analysis of mitochondrial DNA suggest the divergence occurred by 10 to 20 million years ago. This independent evidence from DNA analysis and the fossil record rejects the theory of salmon divergence. Atlantic salmon reproduce in northern rivers on both coasts of the Atlantic Ocean, landlocked salmon live in a number of lakes in eastern North America and in Northern Europe, for instance in lakes Sebago, Onega, Ladoga, Saimaa, Vänern, and Winnipesaukee
20.
Otter
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Otters are carnivorous mammals in the subfamily Lutrinae. The 13 extant otter species are all semiaquatic, aquatic or marine, with diets based on fish, Lutrinae is a branch of the weasel family Mustelidae, which also includes badgers, honey badgers, martens, minks, polecats, and wolverines. The word otter derives from the Old English word otor or oter and this, and cognate words in other Indo-European languages, ultimately stem from the Proto-Indo-European language root *wódr̥, which also gave rise to the English word water. An otters den is called a holt or couch, male otters are called dogs or boars, females are called bitches or sows, and their offspring are called pups. The collective nouns for otters are bevy, family, lodge, romp or, the feces of otters are typically identified by their distinctive aroma, the smell of which has been described as ranging from freshly mown hay to putrefied fish, these are known as spraints. The gestation period in otters is about 60 to 86 days, the newborn pup is cared for by the bitch, dog and older offspring. Bitch otters reach sexual maturity at two years of age and males at approximately three years. The holt is built under tree roots or a rocky cairn and it is lined with moss and grass. After one month, the pup can leave the holt and after two months, it is able to swim, the pup lives with its family for approximately one year. Otters live up to 16 years, they are by nature playful and its usual source of food is fish, and further downriver, eels, but it may sample frogs and birds. Otters have long, slim bodies and relatively short limbs and their most striking anatomical features are the powerful webbed feet used to swim, and their seal-like abilities holding breath underwater. Most have sharp claws on their feet and all except the sea otter have long, the 13 species range in adult size from 0.6 to 1.8 m in length and 1 to 45 kg in weight. The Oriental small-clawed otter is the smallest otter species and the giant otter and they have very soft, insulated underfur, which is protected by an outer layer of long guard hairs. This traps a layer of air which keeps them dry, warm, several otter species live in cold waters and have high metabolic rates to help keep them warm. European otters must eat 15% of their weight each day. In water as warm as 10 °C, an otter needs to catch 100 g of fish per hour to survive, most species hunt for three to five hours each day and nursing mothers up to eight hours each day. For most otters, fish is the staple of their diet and this is often supplemented by frogs, crayfish and crabs. Some otters are expert at opening shellfish, and others feed on available small mammals or birds
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Hirudo medicinalis
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Hirudo medicinalis, the European medicinal leech, is one of several species of leeches used as medicinal leeches. Other species of Hirudo sometimes also used as medicinal leeches include H. orientalis, H. troctina, the Mexican medical leech is Hirudinaria manillensis, and the North American medical leech is Macrobdella decora. The general morphology of medicinal leeches follows that of most other leeches, fully mature adults can be up to 20 cm in length, and are green, brown, or greenish-brown with a darker tone on the dorsal side and a lighter ventral side. The dorsal side also has a red stripe. These organisms have two suckers, one at end, called the anterior and posterior suckers. The posterior is used mainly for leverage, whereas the anterior sucker, consisting of the jaw, medicinal leeches have three jaws that look like little saws, and on them are about 100 sharp teeth used to incise the host. The incision leaves a mark that is an inverted Y inside of a circle, after piercing the skin, they suck out blood whilst injecting anticoagulants and anaesthetics. Large adults can consume up to ten times their weight in a single meal. These leeches can live for up to a year between feeding, medicinal leeches are hermaphrodites that reproduce by sexual mating, laying eggs in clutches of up to 50 near water, and in shaded, humid places. Their range extends over almost the whole of Europe and into Asia as far as Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, the preferred habitat for this species is muddy freshwater pools and ditches with plentiful weed growth in temperate climates. Over-exploitation by leech collectors in the 19th century has left only scattered populations, another factor has been the replacement of horses in farming and provision of artificial water supplies for cattle. As a result, this species is now considered threatened by the IUCN. They are particularly sparsely distributed in France and Belgium, and in the UK there may be as few as 20 remaining isolated populations, the largest is estimated to contain several thousand individuals,12 of these areas have been designated Sites of Special Scientific Interest. There are small, transplanted populations in countries outside their natural range. Medicinal leeches have been found to secrete saliva containing about 60 different proteins and these achieve a wide variety of goals useful to the leech as it feeds, helping to keep the blood in liquid form and increasing blood flow in the affected area. Several of these proteins serve as anticoagulants, platelet aggregation inhibitors, vasodilators. It is also thought that the contains a anesthetic, as leech bites are generally not painful. The first description of leech therapy, classified as blood letting, was found in the text of Sushruta Samhita and he described 12 types of leeches
22.
Kingfisher
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Kingfishers are a group of small to medium-sized, brightly colored birds in the order Coraciiformes. They have a distribution, with most species found outside of the Americas. The group is treated either as a family, the Alcedinidae. Roughly 90 species of kingfishers are described, all have large heads, long, sharp, pointed bills, short legs, and stubby tails. Most species have bright plumage with few differences between the sexes, most species are tropical in distribution, and a slight majority are found only in forests. They consume a range of prey, as well as fish. While kingfishers are usually thought to live near rivers and eat fish, most species live away from water, like other members of their order, they nest in cavities, usually tunnels dug into the natural or artificial banks in the ground. A quarter of all kingfishers nest in abandoned termite nests, a few species, principally insular forms, are threatened with extinction. In Britain, the word normally refers to the common kingfisher. The family Alcedinidae was introduced by the French polymath Constantine Samuel Rafinesque in 1815, the taxonomy of the three families is complex and rather controversial. Although commonly assigned to the order Coraciiformes, from this level down confusion sets in and that move was supported by chromosome and DNA–DNA hybridisation studies, but challenged on the grounds that all three groups are monophyletic with respect to the other Coraciiformes. This leads to them being grouped as the suborder Alcedines, the tree kingfishers have been previously given the familial name Dacelonidae, but Halcyonidae has priority. The centre of diversity is the Australasian region, but the group is not thought to have originated there. Instead, they evolved in the Northern Hemisphere and invaded the Australasian region a number of times, fossil kingfishers have been described from Lower Eocene rocks in Wyoming and Middle Eocene rocks in Germany, around 30–40 million years ago. More recent fossil kingfishers have been described in the Miocene rocks of Australia, amongst the three families, the Alcedinidae are basal to the other two families. The few species found in the Americas, all from the family Cerylidae, the family is a comparatively recent split from the Halcyonidae, diversifying in the Old World as recently as the Miocene or Pliocene. The smallest species of kingfisher is the African dwarf kingfisher, which averages 10.4 g in weight and 10 cm in length, the largest overall is the giant kingfisher, at an average of 355 g and 45 cm. However, the familiar Australian kingfisher known as the laughing kookaburra may be the heaviest species, the plumage of most kingfishers is bright, with green and blue being the most common colours
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Ceremonial counties of England
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The ceremonial counties, also referred to as the lieutenancy areas of England, are areas of England to which a Lord Lieutenant is appointed. The Local Government Act 1888 established county councils to assume the functions of Quarter Sessions in the counties. It created new entities called administrative counties, the Act further stipulated that areas that were part of an administrative county would be part of the county for all purposes. The greatest change was the creation of the County of London, which was both an administrative county and a county, it included parts of the historic counties of Middlesex, Kent. Other differences were small and resulted from the constraint that urban sanitary districts were not permitted to straddle county boundaries, apart from Yorkshire, counties that were subdivided nevertheless continued to exist as ceremonial counties. In 1974, administrative counties and county boroughs were abolished, at this time, Lieutenancy was redefined to use the new metropolitan and non-metropolitan counties directly. Following a further rearrangement in 1996, Avon, Cleveland, Hereford and Worcester, Cleveland was partitioned between North Yorkshire and Durham. Hereford and Worcester was divided into the counties of Herefordshire and Worcestershire. Humberside was split between Lincolnshire and a new county of East Riding of Yorkshire. Rutland was restored as a ceremonial county, many county boroughs were re-established as unitary authorities, this involved establishing the area as an administrative county, but usually not as a ceremonial county. Most ceremonial counties are therefore entities comprising local authority areas, as they were from 1889 to 1974, the Association of British Counties, a traditional counties lobbying organisation, has suggested that ceremonial counties be restored to their ancient boundaries, as nearly as practicable. In present-day England, the ceremonial counties correspond to the shrieval counties, the Lieutenancies Act 1997 defines counties for the purposes of lieutenancies in terms of metropolitan and non-metropolitan counties as well as Greater London and the Isles of Scilly. Although the term is not used in the Act, these counties are known as ceremonial counties. gov. uk
24.
Plymouth
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Plymouths early history extends to the Bronze Age, when a first settlement emerged at Mount Batten. This settlement continued as a trading post for the Roman Empire, until it was surpassed by the prosperous village of Sutton founded in the ninth century. In 1620, the Pilgrim Fathers departed Plymouth for the New World, during the English Civil War the town was held by the Parliamentarians and was besieged between 1642 and 1646. The combined town took the name of Plymouth which, in 1928, the citys naval importance later led to its targeting and partial destruction during World War II, an act known as the Plymouth Blitz. After the war the city centre was rebuilt and subsequent expansion led to the incorporation of Plympton. The city is home to 262,700 people, making it the 30th most populous area in the United Kingdom. It is governed locally by Plymouth City Council and is represented nationally by three MPs, Plymouths economy remains strongly influenced by shipbuilding and seafaring including ferry links to Brittany and Spain, but has tended toward a service-based economy since the 1990s. It has the largest operational base in Western Europe – HMNB Devonport and is home to Plymouth University. An unidentified settlement named TAMARI OSTIA is listed in Ptolemys Geographia and is presumed to be located in the area of the modern city, at the time this village was called Sutton, meaning south town in Old English. The name Plym Mouth, meaning mouth of the River Plym was first mentioned in a Pipe Roll of 1211, the name Plymouth first officially replaced Sutton in a charter of King Henry VI in 1440. See Plympton for the derivation of the name Plym, during the Hundred Years War a French attack burned a manor house and took some prisoners, but failed to get into the town. In 1403 the town was burned by Breton raiders, on 12 November,1439, the English Parliament made Plymouth the first town incorporated. The castle served to protect Sutton Pool, which is where the fleet was based in Plymouth prior to the establishment of Plymouth Dockyard. In 1512 an Act of Parliament was passed for further fortifying Plymouth, defences on St Nicholas Island also date from this time, and a string of six artillery blockhouses were built, including one on Fishers Nose at the south-eastern corner of the Hoe. This location was further strengthened by the building of a fort in 1596, during the 16th century locally produced wool was the major export commodity. According to legend, Drake insisted on completing his game of bowls on the Hoe before engaging the Spanish Armada in 1588. In 1620 the Pilgrim Fathers set sail for the New World from Plymouth, during the English Civil War Plymouth sided with the Parliamentarians and was besieged for almost four years by the Royalists. The last major attack by the Royalist was by Sir Richard Grenville leading thousands of soldiers towards Plymouth, the civil war ended as a Parliamentary win, but monarchy was restored by King Charles II in 1660, who imprisoned many of the Parliamentary heroes on Drakes Island
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Torbay
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Torbay /tɔːrˈbeɪ/ is a borough in Devon, England, administered by the unitary authority of Torbay Council. It consists of 62.87 square kilometres of land, spanning the towns of Torquay, Paignton and Brixham, Torbay is roughly equidistant from the cities of Exeter and Plymouth. That the Torbay area has been inhabited since Paleolithic times is shown by human bones, a maxilla fragment known as Kents Cavern 4 may be the oldest example of a modern human in Europe, dating back to 37, 000–40,000 years ago. Roman soldiers are known to have visited Torquay during the period when Britain was a part of the Roman Empire, leaving offerings at a rock formation in Kents Cavern. Both Brixham and Paignton appear in the Domesday Book of 1086 and Paignton was given the status of a borough having a market, the first major building in Torquay was Torre Abbey, a Premonstratensian monastery founded in 1196. William Prince of Orange landed in Brixham on 5 November 1688, during the Glorious Revolution, the historic part of Paignton is inland, the low-lying coastal fringe was originally salt marsh. Paignton remained a fishing village until the early 19th century. The second phase in the expansion of the area began when Torre railway station was opened in December 1848. The railway was extended to Torquay Seafront station in 1858, Paignton in 1859, as a result of its expansion, Torquay was granted borough status in 1872, and 1902 saw its first marketing campaign to summer tourists. Torbay Golf & Country Club opened in 1933, the club and course closed in the mid 1950s. Tor Bay hosted the events for the 1948 Summer Olympics in London. The County Borough became the Borough of Torbay under local government reorganisation in 1974 and it was made a unitary authority on 1 April 1998 making it responsible for its own affairs. The area is represented nationally at the House of Commons by two MPs, Brixham and part of Paignton fall within the Totnes constituency, with Conservative Sarah Wollaston elected. Torbay is in the South West England constituency of the European Parliament, together with the rest of South West England, until May 2011, Torbay Council had been headed by the first directly elected mayor in the South West region. Conservative candidate Nicholas Bye who won in October 2005, under a system which was later described as a total failure with Bye receiving votes from fewer than 7% of the electorate. However, running as an independent he was defeated in the May 2011 election by Gordon Oliver who stood as a Conservative, for local elections the district is divided into 15 wards. The Council elects 36 councillors in elections every four years. Since the Torbay Council election,2015, the council has a Conservative majority, the composition as of 9 May 2015, There are three main towns around the marine inlet of Tor Bay, Torquay in the north, Paignton in the centre, and Brixham in the south
26.
Exeter
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Exeter is a cathedral city in Devon, England with a population of 127,300. It lies within the county of Devon, of which it is the county town as well as the home of Devon County Council, currently, the administrative area has the status of a non-metropolitan district and is therefore under the administration of the County Council. The city is on the River Exe about 37 miles northeast of Plymouth and 70 miles southwest of Bristol, Exeter was the most south-westerly Roman fortified settlement in Britain, although there is evidence a Cornish tribe existed in Exeter before the Roman invasion. Exeter became a centre during the Middle Ages and into the Tudor times, Exeter Cathedral, founded in the mid 11th century. During the late 19th century, Exeter became an affluent centre for the wool trade, after the Second World War, much of the city centre was rebuilt and is now considered to be a centre for modern business and tourism in Devon and Cornwall. The name Exe is a development of the Brittonic name—meaning water or, more exactly, full of fish —that also appears in the English Axe and Esk, the Welsh Usk. Exeter began as settlements on a dry ridge ending in a spur overlooking a navigable river teeming with fish, although there have been no major prehistoric finds, these advantages suggest the site was occupied early. Coins have been discovered from the Hellenistic kingdoms, suggesting the existence of a settlement trading with the Mediterranean as early as 250 BC. Such early towns had been a feature of pre-Roman Gaul as described by Julius Caesar in his Commentaries, the Romans established a 42-acre playing-card shaped fort named Isca around AD55. To distinguish the two, the Romans also referred to Exeter as Isca Dumnoniorum, Watertown of the Dumnonii, a small fort was also maintained at Topsham, a supply depot on the route between the two was excavated at St Loyes on Topsham Road in 2010. The presence of the built up an unplanned civilian community of natives. This area was excavated in the 1970s, but could not be maintained for public view owing to its proximity to the present-day cathedral, in January 2015, it was announced that Exeter Cathedral had launched a bid to restore the baths and open an underground centre for visitors. In the late 2nd century, the ditch and rampart defences around the old fortress were replaced by a bank and wall enclosing a much larger area, although most of the visible structure is older, the course of the Roman wall was used for Exeters subsequent city walls. Thus about 70% of the Roman wall remains, and most of its route can be traced on foot, the dating of the coins so far discovered, however, suggests a rapid decline, virtually none have been discovered dated after the year 380. By that time, the city was held by the Saxons, Exeter was known to the Saxons as Escanceaster. In 876, it was attacked and briefly captured by Danish Vikings, alfred the Great drove them out the next summer. Over the next few years, he elevated Exeter to one of the four burhs in Devon and these permitted the city to fend off another attack and siege by the Danes in 893. King Athelstan again strengthened the walls around 928, and at the time drove out the remaining Britons from the city
27.
East Devon
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East Devon is a local government district in Devon, England. Its council is based in Sidmouth, and the largest town is Exmouth, East Devon is covered by two Parliamentary constituencies, East Devon and Tiverton and Honiton. Both were retained in the 2010 general election by the Conservative Party, in the 2001 census it was found that a third of East Devons population were over 60. The average for England was 24%, East Devon also had a higher number of people living in Medical and Care Establishments at 1. 6% compared to the England average of 0. 9%. A large amount of East Devon is made up of two Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty, East Devon AONB and the Blackdown Hills. AONBs have the level of protection as National parks of England and Wales which restricts new developments. A small stretch of the M5 passes through the district, the head office of Flybe is in the Jack Walker House on the grounds of Exeter Airport. Grade I listed buildings in East Devon Grade II* listed buildings in East Devon List of Sites of Special Scientific Interest in Devon East Devon Otter Valley Weather
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Mid Devon
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Mid Devon is a local government district in Devon, England. Its council is based in Tiverton and it was originally called Tiverton District, but was renamed in 1978 by resolution of the district council. Mid Devon shares borders with several other Devon districts as well as the county of Somerset, neighbouring districts include Exeter, East Devon, North Devon, Teignbridge, West Devon and Torridge. The Exe, the Culm, the Yeo, the Dalch, the Little Dart, the Taw, the Dart, the Brockley, the Creedy, Raddon Top is the highest point of the Raddon Hills. Excavations at the summit in 1994 uncovered traces of Early Iron Age settlement, the Grand Western Canal stretches from Canal Hill in Tiverton to just outside Greenham in Somerset. It no longer operates for trade purposes, but is a popular tourist location, visitors are able to walk along its banks or take a trip down the canal in a horse drawn barge. A static barge at the Canal Hill end of the canal offers refreshments, the site is one of two tourism spots owned by Devon County Council. Exmoor National Park is a park situated in Mid Devon. The park covers 267 square miles of open moorland. Exmoor is one of the first British National Parks, designated in 1954, and is named after its main river, several areas of the moor have been declared a Site of Special Scientific Interest. The Devon Railway Centre is located at Bickleigh in Mid Devon, the Centre operates a 2 ft gauge passenger railway and has a large collection of narrow gauge rolling stock, a miniature railway and a collection of model railways. Coldharbour Mill is a Grade II* listed Georgian mill complex in Uffculme, the mill has the largest working waterwheel in the south west, and steams up its stationary steam engines most Bank Holidays. It has a number of collections, such as dolls houses, a large tapestry showing five local parishes. The major town of the district is Tiverton, other towns include Cullompton and Crediton, Grade I listed buildings in Mid Devon Grade II* listed buildings in Mid Devon
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North Devon
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North Devon is a local government district in Devon, England. Its council is based in Barnstaple, other towns and villages in the North Devon District include Braunton, Fremington, Ilfracombe, Instow, South Molton, Lynton and Lynmouth. The district was formed on 1 April 1974 as a merger of the Barnstaple municipal borough, the Ilfracombe and Lynton urban districts, the wider geographic area of North Devon is divided between North Devon District and the district of Torridge, based in Bideford. North Devon is popular with retired people, the 2011 census showed that 18% of residents were aged 15 years and under, 60% were aged 16–64 and 23% were aged 65 and over. This compares to the 20% of the population who were aged 65, for comparison, the same age distributions across England were 19%, 64% and 17% respectively. Life expectancy for men, at 77.7, is close to the English average, female life expectancy is good at 83.1, around 1 year above the English average. There is a gap of 6 years in the life expectancy of men in the least deprived fifth of wards, the region has one of the most ethnically homogenous populations in England, with 97. 9% reporting their ethnicity as white in the 2011 census of the population. However, this is a decrease on the 99. 0% of the population who declared themselves to be White on the 2001 census, North Devon District Council is elected every four years, with currently 43 councillors being elected at each election. From the first election to the council in 1973 to 1987 the council was controlled by independents and this was followed by a period under Liberal Democrat control until the Conservative Party took control at the 2007 election. The political composition of the borough has been as follows, Along with its neighbours to the east and west, Torridge and West Somerset, the rump of the post-Beeching railway network has left a branch line to Exeter as the areas sole railway service. Despite being served only by one line, the borough is served by 5 railway stations. The region is served by three A roads, the primary link is the A361 which was constructed between 1986 and 1989. It heads north-west from the M5 motorway, past South Molton, to Barnstaple, the modern Link Road continues westwards from Barnstaple as the A39 where it is designated the Atlantic Highway, and runs via Bideford into Cornwall. The eastern section of the A39 links Barnstaple to Lynton, then traverses the coastal hills of Exmoor into Somerset. Due to the agricultural nature of the economy, many areas of North Devon are considered deprived. The average income for the district is 73% of the average for the United Kingdom as a whole, the largest employers in the area are the National Health Service, the Ministry of Defence and North Devon Council. Barnstaple is on the River Taw estuary, and functions both as the service centre and the administrative centre for North Devon Council. The parish of Barnstaple has a population of 23,710 but the population of the area of the town taking in Sticklepath, Roundswell
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Torridge
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Torridge is a local government district in North Devon, England. Its council is based in Bideford, other towns and villages in the district include Holsworthy, Great Torrington, Hartland and Westward Ho. The island of Lundy is administratively part of the district, to the south of the district bordering Cornwall, near Welcombe, the rugged coastline has a wild untouched beauty, due to its inaccessibility, but the South West Coast Path is well defined. The district is named after the River Torridge, Torridge District Council is elected every four years, with currently 36 councillors being elected at each election. In 2007, Torridge registered the number of opposed candidates in the country. Independents have had a presence on the council for much of its history. TorridgeCVS is an organisation providing vulnerable people across the Torridge district with day-to-day living assistance. It provides advice, befriending schemes, support for carers, help to people and help with charitable fund-raising, liaising with voluntary. It offers placements for individuals who want to get involved in their local communities and relies on local volunteers. It has been in operation since 1988 and is a member of NAVCA, annery kiln North Devon Coast - AONB Grade I listed buildings in Torridge Grade II* listed buildings in Torridge
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West Devon
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West Devon is a local government district and borough in Devon, England. Towns in the district include Chagford, Okehampton, Princetown, and Tavistock, the district was formed on 1 April 1974, under the Local Government Act 1972, as a merger of the previous municipal borough of Okehampton, Okehampton Rural District, and Tavistock Rural District. West Devon contains most of Dartmoor, elections to the borough council are held every four years with 31 councillors representing 22 wards. Since 2011, the Conservative Party has controlled the council and since 2015 have been the only registered party with seats on the council, in the EU referendum of 2016, the majority of voters in West Devon voted to leave the European Union. Grade I listed buildings in West Devon Grade II* listed buildings in West Devon
32.
South Hams
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South Hams is a local government district on the south coast of Devon, England. It is administered partly by South Hams District Council, which has its headquarters in the town of Totnes, the area also contains the towns of Dartmouth, Kingsbridge, Ivybridge, Salcombe — the largest of which is Ivybridge with a population of 11,851. To the north it includes part of Dartmoor National Park, to the east borders Torbay and it contains some of the most unspoilt coastline on the south coast, including the promontories of Start Point, and Bolt Head. The entire coastline, along with the lower Avon and Dart valleys, the South Hams, along with nearby Broadsands in Paignton, is the last British refuge of the cirl bunting. The South Hams were originally part of the Brythonic Kingdom of Dumnonia later reduced to the boundary at the River Tamar as Cornwall presumably during the tenth-century reign of Æthelstan. There is some evidence that Cornish was spoken and understood in the area until the late Middle Ages, in 1917, the village of Hallsands was abandoned after much of it was lost to the sea. This happened because the shingle bank protecting the shore was removed to help build Devonport dockyard, in 1944 several villages were evacuated so that training for D-Day could be carried out in secret. The area was chosen because of the resemblance of its beaches to those of Normandy, preparations were disrupted, and secrecy nearly compromised, by a devastating E-boat attack during Exercise Tiger. In 1967, the towns of Plympton and Plymstock were amalgamated with the City of Plymouth. South Hams widespread tourism multiplied on the dualling of the A38 and time-cutting construction of the M5, in the north, there is. the wildscape—. Bypass. cut through some of the most beautiful country in Britain, tungsten mine in the Shaugh Prior — Sparkwell area will be amongst the largest in the world and probably the largest in Europe. The second band is the belt of lush, fertile farmland which produces some of the finest milk. Within that belt are the towns of Modbury and Totnes and small hamlets and villages such as. Holbeton, Marldon and Berry Pomeroy. There are fruit farms and vineyards and the land flows with milk and that area is filled with rivers such as the Erme, the Plym, the Avon and the Dart. an island in the shape of Burgh Island. There are rolling hills, deep wooded valleys, estuaries full of fish, the climate is warm and mellow. Some regard it as a garden of Eden and we even have a naturist beach and hotel. forgive me if I wax lyrical about this beautiful, delightful area. Tourism is an important livelihood. the other is farming. for many
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Teignbridge
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Teignbridge is a local government district in Devon, England. Its council is based in Newton Abbot, other towns in the district include Ashburton, Dawlish and Teignmouth. It is named for the old Teignbridge hundred, elections to the borough council are held every four years, with all of the 46 seats on the council being elected at each election. The council had been no overall control since the 1983. The political composition of the borough has been as follows, Teignbridge contains the towns and villages
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Ashburton, Devon
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Ashburton is a small town on the south-southeastern edge of Dartmoor in Devon, adjacent to the A38. It was formerly important as a town, and remains the largest town within the National Park, with a population of around 3,800. Ashburton has five pubs within the centre of town, and two restaurants, the town is also part of the electoral ward named Ashburton and Buckfastleigh, the population of which at the 2011 census was 7,718. The name is recorded in the Domesday Book as Essebretone, Ashburton was then the main town of the Parish of Ashburton, in Teignbridge Hundred. During the English Civil War, Ashburton was a refuge for Royalist troops fleeing after their defeat by General Fairfax at nearby Bovey Tracey. The town was the terminus of the Buckfastleigh, Totnes and South Devon Railway that opened on 1 May 1872, Ashburton railway station closed to passengers in November 1958 although goods traffic on the line continued until 7 September 1962. Ashburton used to be famous for a known as Ashburton Pop, possibly a type of champagne. Ashburton Carnival is one of the oldest, possibly the oldest, written records date it back to 1891, but it is believed to have been started in the mid-1880s to raise funds for a new hospital. Ashburton Golf Club was founded in 1910, the club continued into the 1920s. Ashmoor Hockey Club was formed in 2003 and plays at South Dartmoor Community College, Ashburton was the first place to elect a candidate of the Official Monster Raving Loony Party to public office. The candidate was Alan Hope, a publican, who was elected unopposed to Ashburton Town Council in 1989. He subsequently became Deputy Mayor and later Mayor of Ashburton, the town is one of a few to still annually appoint a Portreeve or port warden. Others are Laugharne, Beccles, Callington, Cheevel, and Yeovil, the parish church of St Andrew is a fine building of the 15th century with a tall tower and two aisles. The 15th-century church tower includes sculptures by Herbert Read, who carved the oak reredos. One window has stained glass designed by C. E. Kempe, St Lawrence Chapel is a Grade ll* Listed Building in St Lawrence Lane in the centre of the town. Originally a chantry chapel and then a school for over 600 years, St Lawrence Chapel is now an important heritage, cultural and community centre. Saint Gudula Well and Cross in Old Totnes Road is probably named after St Gulval, the Rippon Tor Rifle Range lies within five miles of Ashburton. Creedy, Sandford Official town website Ashburton, Devon at DMOZ Devon Local Studies - Ashburton community page Ashburton in the Domesday Book official Chapel website
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Bampton, Devon
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For the village in Oxfordshire see Bampton, Oxfordshire Bampton is a small town and parish in Devon, England on the River Batherm, a tributary of the River Exe. It is about 6 miles north of Tiverton and the parish borders Somerset on its north-east and north-west sides, Bampton is a major part of the electoral ward of Clare and Shuttern. The ward population at the 2011 Census was 3,412, the history of Bampton is thought to have started with a Roman fort, but later Saxon remains are most easily seen. Some hedges conform to the Saxon furrow measure of 625 feet, the circular churchyard is also Saxon in origin. The 11th-century Norman Bampton Castle was built in about 1067 by Walter Douai or his son, originally it probably had a timber tower on top of the Motte. To the east of the mound was a bailey, defended to the south by the steep slope down to the River Batherm. Following a dispute with King Stephen about the ownership of lands around Uffculme, Stephen then besieged the castle which eventually surrendered. Robert’s fled into exile and his lands were granted to Henry de Tracy, the English Civil War reached Bampton in 1645, when Royalists from Tiverton Castle burnt the town, so that few buildings earlier than the 17th century survive. Bampton now has over 70 listed buildings including the Grade I listed church, dedicated to Saint Michael & All Angels and it was rebuilt and enlarged in the fifteenth century and restored in 1872. In the hamlet of Petton which is in the parish, is the church of Saint Petrock. Parts of the former vicarage date from the middle of the 15th century, the annual Bampton Fair was established by Royal Charter in 1258 and is held every year on the last Thursday in October. Although a fair was mentioned in 1212 and is even older. The first surviving charter for a fair to be held at the church of Saint Luke is from 1258 and was granted by Henry III to the rector of the church, later fairholders included the Coggan, Fitz Warine, Courtney and Bourchier families. It was known as Saint Lukes fair for years as it was held on the feast day of Saint Luke. Traders selling goods at the fair were required to pay tolls which were paid at a toll booth at the entrance of the fair. In 1790 the booth moved to the Market or Manor Rooms in Newtown Square, until 1883 there was also a three day fair at Whitsun which was held at the manor. This was granted in 1267 to John Cogan, who was then the Lord of the Manor, by 1302 John Cogan held the rights to the Saint Lukes fair as well. As well as trade, the fair has always offered entertainments of various kinds
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Barnstaple
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Barnstaple /ˈbɑːrnstəbəl/ or /ˈbɑːrnstəpəl/ is the main town of North Devon, England, and possibly the oldest borough in the United Kingdom. It is a former river-port, located at the lowest crossing-point of the River Taw, from the 14th century, it was licensed to export wool, since the merchants claimed that the town had been declared a free borough in Saxon times. This brought great wealth to Barnstaple, whose town centre still preserves a medieval layout, later the town became an importer of Irish wool, but its harbour silted up, and it developed other industries, such as shipbuilding, foundries and sawmills. Its Victorian market survives, with its glass and timber roof on iron columns. Barnstaple railway station is the terminus of a line from Exeter. Since 1974, Barnstaple has been a civil parish governed by town council, the parish itself had a population of 24,033 and including the satellite settlements known as the Barnstaple Town Area, it is 53,514. The old spelling Barnstable is now obsolete, but is retained by an American county, Barnstaple was formerly referred to as Barum, from a contraction of the Latin form of the name in Latin documents such as the episcopal registers of the Diocese of Exeter. Barum was mentioned by Shakespeare, and the name was revived and popularised in Victorian times, the name Barum is retained in the names of a football team, brewery, and of several local businesses. The former Brannam Pottery works which was sited in Litchdon Street was known for its trademark Barum etched on the base of its products, the earliest settlement in the area was probably at Pilton on the bank of the River Yeo, now a northern suburb of the present town. Barnstaple had its own mint before the Norman Conquest, the large feudal barony of Barnstaple had its caput at Barnstaple Castle. It was granted by William the Conqueror to Geoffrey de Montbray, the barony escheated to the crown in 1095 after Montbray had rebelled against King William II. William re-granted the barony to Juhel de Totnes, formerly feudal baron of Totnes, in about 1107, Juhel, who had already founded Totnes Priory, founded Barnstaple Priory, of the Cluniac order, dedicated to St Mary Magdalene. After Juhels son died without children, the barony was split into two, passing through the de Braose and Tracy families, before being reunited under Henry de Tracy. It then passed through other families, before ending up in the ownership of Margaret Beaufort. See Feudal barony of Barnstaple for full details, in the 1340s the merchants of the town claimed that the rights of a free borough had been granted to them by King Athelstan in a lost charter. Although this was challenged from time to time by subsequent lords of the manor, the towns wealth in the Middle Ages was founded on its being a staple port licensed to export wool. It had a merchant guild, known as the Guild of St. Nicholas. In the early 14th century it was the third richest town in Devon, behind Exeter and Plymouth and its wool trade was further aided by the towns port, from which in 1588 five ships were contributed to the force sent to fight the Spanish Armada
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Bideford
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Bideford /ˈbɪdᵻfərd/ is a historic port town on the estuary of the River Torridge in north Devon, south-west England. It is the town of the Torridge local government district. In ancient records Bideford is recorded as Bedeford, Byddyfrod, Bedyford, Bydeford, Bytheford and Biddeford, the Welsh bydd y ffordd means this is the way or this is the road. Hubba the Dane was said to have attacked Devon in the area around Bideford near Northam or near Kenwith Castle, There were then 30 villagers,8 smallholders and 14 slaves in Bideford. According to the account by the Continuator of Wace and others, in his youth Brictric declined the advances of Matilda. The Exon Domesday notes that Bideford and nearby Littleham were held at fee farm from the king by Gotshelm, gotshelms 28 manors descended to the Honour of Gloucester, as did most of Brictrics. Thus Brictrics fiefdom became the barony of Gloucester. The Grenville family held Bideford for many centuries under the overlordship of the barons of Gloucester, which barony was soon absorbed into the Crown. He obtained from FitzHamon the lordship of Neath, Glamorgan, in which he built Neath Castle, Richard de Grenville was one of three known sons of Hamo Dapifer Sheriff of Kent, an Anglo-Norman royal official under both King William the Conqueror and his son King William Rufus. He is by tradition the founder and ancestor of the prominent Westcountry Grenville family of Stowe in the parish of Kilkhampton in Cornwall and of Bideford in Devon. However, according to Round no proof exists that Richard I de Grenville ever held the manor of Bideford and it was however certainly one of the constituent manors of the Honour of Gloucester granted by King William Rufus to Robert FitzHamon. Roberts familial relationship, if any, to Richard is unknown, a charter was granted in 1272 to Richard V de Grenville by King Henry III, which created the towns first council. In ancient records Bideford was recorded as a borough but has returned members to Parliament during the reigns of Edward I. The Grenville family were for many centuries lords of the manor of Bideford, the monument with an effigy of Sir Thomas Grenville exists in St Marys Church. His great-great-grandson Sir Richard Grenville, the captain of the Revenge, was born in the manor house in Bideford. He built himself a new mansion on the quayside in 1585, the family had another seat at Stow House, Kilkhampton, near Bude in Cornwall. In 1575 he created the Port of Bideford, Grenville brought a Native American Wynganditoian from Roanoke Island with him after returning from a voyage to America in 1586. Grenville named this Native American tribesman, Raleigh after his cousin Sir Walter Raleigh, Raleigh converted to Christianity and was baptised at Saint Mary the Virgins Church on 27 March 1588, but died from influenza during his residence in Grenvilles house on 2 April 1589
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Bovey Tracey
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Bovey Tracey is a small town and civil parish in Devon, England, on the edge of Dartmoor, its proximity to which gives rise to the slogan used on the towns boundary signs, The Gateway to the Moor. It is often known locally as Bovey and it is about 10 miles south-west of Exeter and lies on the A382 road, about halfway between Newton Abbot and Moretonhampstead. The village is at the centre of the ward of Bovey. At the 2011 census the population of this ward was 7,721, Bovey Tracey was an established Saxon community and takes its name from the River Bovey. The name first appears in Domesday Book as Bovi and possibly earlier as Buui, the town gained its second name from the de Tracey family who were lords of the manor after the Norman Conquest, and was first documented as Bovitracy in 1309. One member of the family, William de Tracy, was implicated in the murder of Archbishop Thomas Becket in Canterbury Cathedral in 1170 and it is thought that he rebuilt the parish church of St Peter, St Paul and St Thomas of Canterbury as penance for the murder. In the early 13th century Henry de Tracey created a borough here and in 1259 was granted the right to hold a weekly market, many of Wentworths Royalist troops escaped, but Cromwell did capture about 400 horse. If local legend is to be believed, the Royalists escaped by throwing coins from the windows in order to distract the poorly paid Roundhead troops, the next day a battle was fought on nearby Bovey Heath ending in victory for Cromwells army. The name of Cromwell lives on in the today in both the public house The Cromwell Arms and the remains of a nearby stone arch, known locally as Cromwells Arch. The arch is actually what is left of a priory that stood previously on the site of the nearby Baptist Church, Bovey railway station was opened on 26 June 1866 with the new Moretonhampstead and South Devon Railway on a site to the west of the town. It closed to passengers on 28 February 1959, but goods continued to operate until 6 July 1970. The town is twinned with Le Molay-Littry in Normandy, Bovey Tracey lies in the valley of the River Bovey at the junction of the A382 road and the B3387 road. The town has over a hundred listed buildings, the parish church, at the top of the town, is grade I listed. It has a tower dating from the 14th century, many 15th-century carvings including three misericords, and a screen described by Arthur Mee as one of the finest in this county of fine screens, the church has an unbroken list of vicars from 1258. On Hind Street, the East Dartmoor Baptist Church was built in 1824 and is now grade II listed, original support for the church came mainly from workers in the Bovey Potteries. Since 1986, the Devon Guild of Craftsmen contemporary crafts gallery has occupied a building known as Riverside Mill, the building, dating from 1854, has an undershot waterwheel that was used to pump water up to a tank in its tower. The stored water was used as the supply for a house owned by John Divett and to water its stable yard. Nearby, the Bovey Tracey Heritage Centre in the old Bovey railway station is run by volunteers and is open in the summer months
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Bradninch
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Bradninch is a small town and former manor in Devon, England, lying about three miles south of Cullompton. Much of the surrounding farmland belongs to the Duchy of Cornwall, there is an electoral ward with the same name. At the 2011 Census the ward population was 2,041, the town is twinned with Landunvez in Brittany. The place-name Bradninch is first attested in the Domesday Book of 1086, where it appears as Bradenese, seventy-nine different spellings of the name of the town have been recorded. Bradninch dates back to before the 7th century and at some time there was almost certainly a Norman or Saxon fortress on Castle Hill. There are no remains, and no known primary documentary references. It would have been unusual for Bradninch not to have had a castle given its status in the medieval period. Bradninch was the caput of the barony of Bradninch granted by William the Conqueror to William Capra. The barony escheated to the crown and King Henry I granted it to his illegitimate son William I de Tracy. He married Hawise de Born and had a son William III de Tracy, one of the four knights who assassinated Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, the sum paid was £19,517 11s 10 1/4d. The manor was returned to the Crown at the time of the Restoration in 1660, Bradninch lost its borough status in 1886 under the provisions of the Municipal Corporations Act. The town was destroyed in a fire in 1666. Notable buildings in the town include Bradninch Guildhall, The Castle Hotel, the house, Earlsland House, Comfort House. The 15th-century church is dedicated to St Disen, a dedication in the British Isles. The church possesses a finely decorated screen, in the panels at the base are nearly 50 paintings of saints. Another screen in the church is simpler, with panels of various saints, in the 2010 UK General Election, the new constituency of Central Devon, which includes Bradninch, returned a Conservative Member of Parliament, Mel Stride. Bradninch lies within the Cullompton Rural ward of Devon County Council, the 2012 population estimate for the town was 2,222. The 2013 population estimate for the town was 2,366, according to the Office for National Statistics Bradninch Ward had a population of 1,775 in April 2001
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Brixham
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Brixham /ˈbrɪksəm/ is a small fishing town and civil parish in the district of Torbay in the county of Devon, in the south-west of England. Brixham is at the end of Torbay, across the bay from Torquay. At the time of the 2011 census it had a population of 16,693 and it is thought that the name Brixham came from Briocs village. Brioc was an old English or Brythonic personal name and -ham is an ancient term for home derived from Old English, the town is hilly and built around the harbour which remains in use as a dock for fishing trawlers. It has a focal tourist attraction in the replica of Sir Francis Drakes ship Golden Hind that is moored there. In summer the Cowtown carnival is held, a reminder of when Brixham was two communities with only a marshy lane to connect them. Cowtown was the area on top of the hill where the farmers lived, while a mile away in the harbour was Fishtown where the seamen lived. Cowtown, the St Marys Square area, is on the road leaving Brixham to the south west, in the direction of Kingswear, the town holds a yearly pirate event which competes for the title of most pirates in one place and this draws visitors from far and wide. Although there is evidence of Ice age inhabitants here, and probable trading in the Bronze Age and it is possible that Saxon settlement originated by sea from Hampshire in the 6th century, or overland around the year 800. Brixham was called Briseham in the Domesday Book, Brixham was part of the former Haytor Hundred. The population was 3,671 in 1801 and 8,092 in 1901, in 1334, the towns value was assessed at one pound, twelve shillings and eightpence, by 1524, the valuation had risen to £24 and sixteen shillings. It is recorded as a borough from 1536, and a market is recorded from 1822, William de Whithurst, a distinguished Crown official and judge in Ireland, became parish priest of Brixham in 1350. Many local people still have Dutch surnames, being descendants of soldiers in that army. A road leading from the harbour up a hill, to where the Dutch made their camp, is still called Overgang. The coffin house reflects Brixham humour, it is coffin-shaped and when a father was asked for the hand in marriage of his daughter, he said he would see her in a coffin, amazed by this, the father gave his blessing. The street names reflect the towns history, pump Street is where the village pump stood. Monksbridge was a built by the monks of Totnes Priory. Lichfield Drive was the route that the dead were taken for burial at St Mary’s churchyard, salutation Mews, near the church, dates from when England was Catholic, and the salutation was to the Virgin Mary
41.
Buckfastleigh
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Buckfastleigh is a small market town and civil parish in Devon, England situated beside the Devon Expressway at the edge of the Dartmoor National Park. It is part of Teignbridge and, for ecclesiastical purposes, lies within the Totnes Deanery and it has a population of 3,661. It is a centre of tourism and is home to Buckfast Abbey, the South Devon Railway, the Buckfastleigh Butterfly Farm and Otter Sanctuary, the Tomb of Squire Richard Cabell and The Valiant Soldier. With 13 letters, Buckfastleigh is the longest place name in England with no repeated letters, tied with Buslingthorpe, Leeds and Buslingthorpe, geographically, Buckfastleigh straddles the confluence of two small streams from Dartmoor which feed into the River Dart just to the east of the town. About one mile to the north lies Buckfast, home of Buckfast Abbey, to the northwest lie Holne and Scorriton on the southern breastwork of the Dartmoor upland. Pridhamsleigh Cavern is nearby and is neighboured by Ashburton and Lower Dean, Buckfastleigh is medieval in origin, as is still evident in the original layout of the town. By the seventeenth century, most of the properties had been rebuilt, the name Buckfast means stronghold – traditionally a place where deer and buck were held, and Leigh would have been the pasture belonging to Buckfast – hence the meaning deer held in a pasture. Buckfast probably existed before Buckfastleigh as it is mentioned in the Domesday Book, census data shows that in 1801 the population was 1,525, and 2,781 in 1901. The most prominent benefactors of the town were the Hamlyn family, who were the original owners of the woollen mills up until 1920 and together with other philanthropists in the town, new cottages were erected. In 1887 they were instrumental in the building of a new Town Hall, land was also made available at this time for further public facilities which included Victoria Park, the tennis courts and the swimming pool. The new primary school was built in 1875 and the line from Buckfastleigh. Pennywell Farm is a farm and tourist attraction just outside the town. To the west of the town is the house of Brook. He was the subject of a legend which relates that on the night of his death, black hounds breathing fire and smoke raced over Dartmoor and surrounded Brook House. Cabbells unusual tomb was designed to keep his restless spirit from roaming Dartmoor. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle based his Sherlock Holmes novel The Hound of the Baskervilles on this legend, the storys description of Baskerville Hall, however, is based on Cromer Hall in Norfolk. The South Devon Railway Trust is an organisation that operates a heritage railway from Totnes to Buckfastleigh in Devon. The line was built by the Buckfastleigh, Totnes and South Devon Railway, originally the line connected Totnes with Ashburton but in recent years the passing between Buckfastleigh and Ashburton was demolished to make way for the A38 expressway
42.
Budleigh Salterton
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Budleigh Salterton is a small town on the coast in East Devon, England,15 miles south-east of Exeter. It is situated within the East Devon Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and it is a major part of the electoral ward of Budleigh. The ward population at the 2011 census was 5,967 and it has a designated area for naturists. Budleigh Salterton lies on the South West Coast Path, with clifftop routes eastwards to Sidmouth, the pebble beach and cliffs are part of the Jurassic Coast World Heritage site. Fairlynch Museum is housed in a listed, thatched marine cottage orné dating from 1811 and it covers the history and geology of the region, and opened in 1967, offering exhibitions and a local archive. It possesses a collection of period costumes. The town has a choir, which performs for charity. Budleigh Salterton lies on the B3178 and the B3179 ends on the edge of the town. It is served by three bus routes, The Coasthopper 157 to towns Exmouth and Sidmouth, the 357, the 58 every two hours to Exeter and the 57C to Exeter and Bicton College. Budleigh Salterton is home to the scenic East Devon Golf Club, the first team of the Budleigh Salterton Association Football Club plays in the South West Peninsula League Division One East. The club also has a team, a ladies team. In addition, there is a club, a rifle club. Budleigh Salterton Anglicans were originally served by a chapel of ease that came under the parish of All Saints, as the population grew, this was replaced in the 1890s by what became the parish church of St Peter in 1901. The church was damaged by enemy aircraft bombing on 17 April 1942. Today the Raleigh Mission Community at St Peter’s, Budleigh Salterton, the Roman Catholic Church is also dedicated to St Peter. The Temple Methodist Church was completed in 1904, to replace an earlier, smaller chapel dating from 1812, built by the bookseller James Lackington, there is a Baptist church in the town, whose congregation dates back to 1843. Writer Dame Hilary Mantel, author of Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies and it is also the home of BBC Radio 4 comic character Giles Wemmbley-Hogg. Charles Warrell, creator of the I-Spy series of childrens books, in 2003, Budleigh Salterton featured in episode 3 of series 3 of Top Gear as the destination for a road test by Jeremy Clarkson of a Bentley Continental GT
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Chagford
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Chagford is a market town and civil parish on the north-east edge of Dartmoor, in Devon, England, close to the River Teign. It is located off the A382, about 4 miles west of Moretonhampstead, the name Chagford is derived from the word chag, meaning gorse or broom, and the ford suffix indicates its importance as a crossing place on the River Teign. At the 2001 Census it had a population of 1,470 which decreased at the 2011 census to 1,449, archaeological remains confirm that a community has existed here for at least 4000 years. In historical times, Chagford grew due to the wool trade, a weekly market was held here from before 1220, and a livestock market in the town survived until the 1980s. In 1305 it was made a town where tin was traded. Among the most prominent tin-mining families in the 16th century were the Endecotts, Knapmans, Whiddons, in a Civil War skirmish Sydney Godolphin, the poet and Royalist MP for Helston, was shot and killed in the porch of the Three Crowns. In 1987, the New Scientist reported that Chagford contained the most radioactive loo in the world, the parish of Chagford comprises historic estates including, Whiddon, seat of the Whiddon family. Two large hardware stores side-by-side in the square were run by the same two families for over a century, but one of these closed in 2017. There are several tea rooms and whole food cafés, one Bangladeshi restaurant, there are numerous guest houses and hotels in the surrounding countryside. These provide accommodation for the influx of visitors during the year. The early 20th century Edwin Lutyens house Castle Drogo lies nearby in Drewsteignton parish, the town has a Parish Council. In 1976 Chagford was twinned with Bretteville-sur-Laize, France, regular twinning activity was sustained for over 20 years, but lapsed. Chagford retains its Bretteville Close, and Bretteville its Rue de Chagford and this building was possibly built as a church house, and has certainly been in community use for many years, including use as a village school. It now serves as a meeting hall, one of the social centres of Chagford is the village hall, the Jubilee Hall, in the south-east corner of the town next to the public car park. Built in 1936 by public subscription, it houses the library. It provides a venue for the regular Friday morning flea markets as well as activities such as badminton, table tennis, parties, discos, comedy nights, kung fu, Pilates. The town is beginning to outgrow this Hall, and it is being extended during 2016 and 2017. The Three Crowns Hotel dates to the 13th century and is haunted by the ghost of the cavalier poet, Sidney Godolphin
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Chudleigh
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Chudleigh is a small town in Central Devon, England between Newton Abbot and Exeter. The electoral ward with the name had a population of 6,125 at the 2011 census. Chudleigh is very close to the edge of Dartmoor and in the Teign Valley, nearby Castle Dyke is an Iron Age Hill Fort which demonstrates far earlier settlement in the area. It is also near Haldon Forest, a Forestry Commission property, the town has been bypassed by the A38 road since 1972. It has expanded a good deal in recent years as commuter houses have built around its edges. Local amenities include a swimming pool, cricket field, football pitches, allotments. There is a school located in the town. Nearby the Rock is a beauty spot and attracts rock climbers who scale the range of routes on the crag. Chudleigh is bypassed by the A38, the original A38 still runs from a point near to Chudleigh railway station, through the centre of the town as far as Harcombe Cross. The current northbound A38 follows the old route to the top of Haldon Hill, chudleighs proximity to the A38 makes it a viable commuter town for residents working in Newton Abbot, Plymouth and Exeter. The A38 meets the M56 miles to the north at Exminster, also nearby is the A380 which provides a connection to Newton Abbot and Torbay. Chudleigh railway station, on the Teign Valley Line, opened in 1882, the nearest station is now 7 miles away at Newton Abbott. The nearest airport is Exeter International Airport which is 14.5 miles away, the earliest written record of a Carnival in Chudleigh in the Council Minutes is an entry of 7 November 1910, asking for free use of the town hall but offering to pay for gas used. Monies raised were to go to local hospitals, however, in The South Devon Weekly Express of 8 September 1950, Arthur Holcombe states the First Carnival was held in 1908 on Thursday 16 November. There is uncertainty of exactly when it was moved to the Summer, twenty tableaux entered and the length of the procession extended for 400 yards. The Tiverton town band and the Chudleigh Brass Band marched and played in the parade, no carnival was held during the First or Second World Wars. At that time the A38 ran through Chudleigh town centre and holiday traffic was estimated to tail back 25 miles to Honiton when stopped for the procession, the carnival was suspended as a result of this. The bypass was built 1972 and the committee reconvened for celebrations on the opening of the bypass
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Chulmleigh
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Chulmleigh is a small Saxon hilltop market town and civil parish located in North Devon in the heart of the English county of Devon. It is located 20 miles north west of Exeter, just north of the Mid Devon boundary, linked by the A377 and B3096 roads. The parish is surrounded, clockwise from the north by the parishes of Kings Nympton, Romansleigh, Meshaw, East Worlington, Chawleigh, Wembworthy, Ashreigney, Burrington, and Chittlehamholt. In 2001 the population of the parish was 1,308, an electoral ward with the same name also exists whose total population at the same census was 2,081. Chulmleigh has some old architecture with many cob and thatched buildings. It is located close to the Tarka Railway Line, Kings Nympton Railway Station is within the parish, although it is around 2 miles from the town, and Eggesford station is closer to the town. Chulmleigh has a fire station which is part of Devon and Somerset Fire. The secondary school is the Chulmleigh Community College has been amongst Devons highest GCSE league tables, the towns pub is the Old Court House. The parish church is St Mary Magdalene, local businesses and organisations include Chulmleigh Cricket Club, Chulmleigh Hardware, Winston Pincombe and Chulmleigh Golf Course. Colleton, Chulmleigh Chulmleigh Homepage Chulmleigh at DMOZ Historic Chulmleigh Cottage, built for the workers of Eggesford House
