Lynmouth
 |
 |
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".
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.[1] [2]
The event was re-enacted 100 years later, in daylight, on today's much better roads.
1952 Lynmouth flood
| Date | 1 night |
|---|---|
| Location | Lynmouth, Simonsbath, Filleigh, Middleham (never rebuilt) |
| Deaths | 34 |
| Property damage | Substantial |
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 28 of the 31 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 operation Project Cumulus involving 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][3]
The small group of houses on the bank of the East Lyn river called Middleham between Lynmouth and Watersmeet was destroyed and never rebuilt. Today, there stands a memorial garden.
On 16 August 2004, 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.[4]
Twinning
The town of Lynton and Lynmouth is twinned with Bénouville in France.
Notes
- ^ Filleigh Village hall Memorial
- ^ "Rain-making link to killer floods". BBC News. 30 August 2001. Retrieved 2008-06-14.
- ^ Vidal, John (30 August 2001). "RAF rainmakers 'caused 1952 flood'". London: The Guardian. Retrieved 2009-11-10.
- ^ "Where is the next Boscastle?". BBC News. 7 October 2004. Retrieved 2008-06-14.
See also
External links
- Lynton and Lynmouth at Curlie
- 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
- Seaflow Project Lynmouth-Seacore
- Lynton & Lynmouth Arts & Music Association
- Lynmouth Foreland Lighthouse
- Video about 1952 flood
- includes description of the flood and the lifeboat overland haul
