Lynmouth
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Lynmouth is a village in Devon, England. It is on the north edge of Exmoor, at the confluence of the West Lyn and East Lyn rivers.
The village is located across a gorge from Lynton, to which it is connected by the Lynton and Lynmouth Cliff Railway.
Lynmouth was described by Thomas Gainsborough, who honeymooned there with his 16 year old bride Harriet Westbrook, as "the most delightful place for a landscape painter this country can boast".
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[edit] The Lynmouth Lifeboat
At 7:52pm on 12th January 1899, a 1,900 ton 3-masted ship Forrest Hall, carrying 13 crew and 5 apprentices, was in trouble off Porlock Wier on the North Somerset coast due 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 a distinct probability. The alarm was raised for "The Louisa" (the Lynmouth lifeboat) to be launched to assist. However, due to the terrible weather, it was impossible for the lifeboat to be launched. Jack Crocombe, the coxswain of Louisa proposed to take the boat by road to Porlock's sheltered harbour — 13 miles 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. 6 of the men were sent ahead with picks and shovels to widen the road. The highest point is 1423 feet above sea level. After crossing the 15 miles of wild Exmoor paths, the dangerous Porlock Hill had to be descended with horses and men pulling ropes to stall the descent. The lifeboat eventually reached Porlock Weir at 6:30 am and was finally launched.
Although cold, soaking wet, hungry and exhausted, the crew rowed for over an hour in treacherous seas to reach the stricken Forest Hall and rescue the 13 men and 5 apprentices with no casualties; but 4 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, but in daytime.
[edit] The Lynmouth Disaster
On 15 and 16 August 1952, a storm of tropical intensity broke over south-west England, depositing 229 mm (9 inches) 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 made the result worse. Debris-laden floodwaters cascaded down the northern escarpment of the moor, converging upon the village of Lynmouth. 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.
Similar events had previously been recorded at Lynmouth in 1607 and 1796. After the 1952 disaster, the village was rebuilt, with major efforts made to ensure that the catastrophe would not be repeated. These included diverting the river around the village.
In 2001, a BBC Radio 4 documentary featured suggestions 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.
[edit] See also
[edit] Twinning
Lynton is twined with:
[edit] External links
- Lynmouth (DMOZ.org)
- Article and poem on the Lynton Lifeboat
- The Lynmouth Flood of 1952 — extensively referenced 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
- South West Coast Path
- Lynton & Lynmouth Cliff Railway
- Seaflow Project Lynmouth-Seacore
- Lynton & Lynmouth Arts & Music Association
- Lynmouth Foreland Lighthouse
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