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This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (July 2007) |
- Distinguish from Lynemouth in Northumberland.
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Lynmouth is a village in Devon, England, on the north edge of Exmoor.
The village straddles the confluence of the West Lyn and East Lyn rivers, in a gorge 700 feet (210 m) below Lynton, to which it is connected by the Lynton and Lynmouth Cliff Railway.
The two villages are governed at local level by Lynton and Lynmouth Town Council.
Lynmouth was described by Thomas Gainsborough, who honeymooned there with his bride Margaret Burr, as "the most delightful place for a landscape painter this country can boast".
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The Lynmouth lifeboat
At 7:52pm on 12 January 1899, a 1,900 ton three-masted ship Forrest Hall, carrying thirteen crew and five apprentices, was in trouble off Porlock Weir on the North Somerset coast to a severe gale which had been blowing all day. She had been under tow, but the tow rope had broken. She was dragging her anchor and had lost her steering gear. The ship's destruction was probable. The alarm was raised for the Louisa (the Lynmouth lifeboat) to be launched to assist. However, due to the terrible weather, the launch was impossible. Jack Crocombe, the coxswain of Louisa proposed to take the boat by road to Porlock's sheltered harbour — 13 miles (21 km) around the coast — and launch it from there.
The boat plus its carriage weighed about 10 tons, and transporting it would not be easy. 20 horses and 100 men started by hauling the boat up the 1 in 4 Countisbury Hill out of Lynmouth. Six of the men were sent ahead with picks and shovels to widen the road. The highest point is 1,423 feet (434 m) above sea level. After crossing the 15 miles (24 km) of wild Exmoor paths, the dangerous Porlock Hill had to be descended with horses and men pulling ropes to stall the descent; during this they had to demolish part of a garden wall and fell a large tree to make a way. The lifeboat reached Porlock Weir at 6:30 A.M. and was launched.
Although cold, wet, hungry and exhausted, the crew rowed for over an hour in heavy seas to reach the stricken Forest Hall and rescue the thirteen men and five apprentices with no casualties; but four of the horses used died of exhaustion. The Forrest Hall was towed into Barry, Wales.
A fuller account of this story can be found in John Travis' book An Illustrated History of Lynton and Lynmouth.
The event was re-enacted 100 years later, in daylight.
The Lynmouth disaster
On 15 and 16 August 1952, a storm of tropical intensity broke over south-west England, depositing 229 millimetres (9.0 in) of rain within 24 hours on an already waterlogged Exmoor. It is thought that a cold front scooped up a thunderstorm, and the orographic effect worsened the storm. Debris-laden floodwaters cascaded down the northern escarpment of the moor, converging upon the village of Lynmouth; in particular, in the upper West Lyn valley, a dam was formed by fallen trees, etc., which in due course gave way, sending a huge wave of water and debris down that river. A guest at the Lyndale Hotel described the night:
"From seven o'clock last night the waters rose rapidly and at nine o'clock it was just like an avalanche coming through our hotel, bringing down boulders from the hills and breaking down walls, doors and windows. Within half an hour the guests had evacuated the ground floor. In another ten minutes the second floor was covered, and then we made for the top floor where we spent the night."
The river Lyn through the town had been culverted to gain land for business premises; this culvert soon choked with flood debris, and the river flowed through the town. Much of the debris was boulders and trees.
Overnight, over 100 buildings were destroyed or seriously damaged along with 29 bridges, and 38 cars were washed out to sea. In total, 34 people died, with a further 420 made homeless.
At the same time, the River Bray at Filleigh also flooded, costing the lives of three Scouts from Manchester who had been camping alongside the river. [1]
Similar events had been recorded at Lynmouth in 1607 and 1796. After the 1952 disaster, the village was rebuilt, including diverting the river around the village.
In 2001, a BBC Radio 4 documentary suggested that the events of 1952 were connected to government cloud seeding experiments being conducted in southern England at the time. There does not presently seem to be any direct evidence to support such allegations, but conspiracy theories have been fuelled by rumours of missing or destroyed government documents relating to the experiments.[2]
On 16 August 2004 - exactly 52 years later, a similar event happened in Cornwall, when flash floods caused extensive damage to Boscastle, but without loss of life. The hydrological setting of these two villages is very much the same.[3]
Twinning
The town of Lynton and Lynmouth is twinned with:
Notes
- ^ Filleigh Village hall Memorial
- ^ "Rain-making link to killer floods". BBC News (30 August 2001). Retrieved on 2008-06-14.
- ^ "Where is the next Boscastle?". BBC News (7 October 2004). Retrieved on 2008-06-14.
See also
External links
- Lynton and Lynmouth at the Open Directory Project
- Article and poem on the Lynton Lifeboat
- The Lynmouth Flood of 1952 — Exmoor National Park Authority account
- Possible connections with cloud seeding (BBC News, 30 August 2001)
- On this day 16 August 1952 (BBC)
- Two Moors Way
- Lynton & Lynmouth Cliff Railway
- Seaflow Project Lynmouth-Seacore
- Lynton & Lynmouth Arts & Music Association
- Lynmouth Foreland Lighthouse
- Video about 1952 flood
This article is about the region of England. For the breed of cattle, see North Devon cattle.
 Shown within Devon |
|
| Geography | |
| Status | District |
|---|---|
| Admin. County | Devon |
| Area - Total |
Ranked 19th 1,085.90 km² |
| Region | South West England |
| Admin. HQ | Barnstaple |
| ONS code | 18UE |
| Demographics | |
| Population: - Total (2007 est.) - Density |
Ranked 251st 92,100 85 / km² |
| Ethnicity | 99.0% White |
| Politics | |
| North Devon District Council http://www.northdevon.gov.uk/ |
|
| Leadership | Leader and Cabinet |
| Executive | Conservative |
| MP | Nick Harvey |
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 April 1, 1974 as a merger of the Barnstaple municipal borough, the Ilfracombe and Lynton urban districts, and Barnstaple Rural District and South Molton Rural District.
Population
North Devon is popular with retired people, but not overwhelmingly so. The 2001 census showed 15 454 (18%) people aged 14 years and under, 54 413 (62%) aged 15-64 and 17 651 (20%) aged 65 and over. For comparison, the same age distributions across England are 19%, 65% and 16% respectively. People over 65 helped to live at home is below the national average. Life expectancy for men, at 76.9, is close to the national average, and increasing more slowly than throughout England. Female life expectancy is good at 82.1; and rising in line with England. There is a gap of 6 years in the life expectancy of people in the highest fifth of wards and the lowest fifth.
Transport
The area is well served by transport in relation to 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. The region is linked by a three A roads. The primary link is the A361 (known locally as the Link Road) which was constructed between 1986 and 1989. It heads north-west from the M5 motorway, past South Molton, to Barnstaple, with the classification continuing then northwards along older roads Ilfracombe. The modern Link Road continues westwards from Barnstaple as the A39 where is designated the Atlantic Highway. The eastern section of the A39 links Barnstaple to Lynton, then over the northern coastal hills of Exmoor into Somerset.
The other two A roads are the A399, a minor local route between Ilfracombe and South Molton (used as a de facto Barnstaple-bypass to Woolacombe), and the A377, which is the main road between Barnstaple and the county town of Devon, Exeter.
Due to significant peak time traffic delays in Barnstaple, coupled with severe congestion at both peak and non-peak times in the summer when tourist traffic is at its busiest, the Barnstaple Western Bypass has been opened.
Economy
Due to the historically agricultural nature of the economy, many areas of North Devon were 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, mainly through North Devon District Hospital in Barnstaple, and the Ministry of Defence, at Royal Marines Base Chivenor, Fremington Camp and Arromanches Camp, Instow.
Barnstaple
Barnstaple is on the River Taw estuary, and functions both as the main service centre and the administrative centre for North Devon District Council. The population of 34,000 excludes the exurbs of Bickington, Landkey, Ashford and Sherwell, suburban villages outside of the main urban area of Barnstaple itself but that are dependent on the main settlement for services and employment.
Ethnicity
The region is one of the most homogenous in England, with 99.0% of the population putting their race on the 2001 census as White. This means North Devon is ranked 318 out of 354 where rank 1 has the lowest percentage of white people and rank 354 has the highest percentage of white people.
See also
External links
- North Devon Gazette
- North Devon Health Profile
- http://www.indevon.org.uk/cms/images/stories/mosaic/NorthDevon.pdf
- North Devon District Council
- North Devon Enterprise Agency
- North Devon Arts
- North Devon AONB
- North Devon Festival
- North Devon Sinfonia
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