Exmouth and River Exe (including Topsham and Exeter Canal)

The town is defined by the sea and river frontages (each about a mile long), and stretching around 2.5 miles (4 km) inland, along a north-easterly axis. The docks lie at the western corner of this rectangle, where the river passes through a relatively narrow passage into the sea, the mouth of the estuary being nearly closed by Dawlish Warren on the opposite shore of the river. Dawlish Warren is one of the few natural sand spits in the world and is home to a wide range of rare and exciting wildlife and plants. The sea frontage forms a fine, golden sand, 2-mile long beach; at its eastern end, the town is limited by the cliffs of the High Land of Orcombe, a National Trust-owned open space which rises to a peak at Orcombe Point.

Geologically, the low hill known as "The Beacon", in the centre of the present town, is formed of breccias that are an outcrop of a similar formation on the west side of the Exe estuary. The rising land on which the town has grown is formed of New Red Sandstone. This solid land is surrounded by mudflats and sandspits, some of which have been stabilised and now form part of the land on which the town is built, and some of which remain as tidal features in the estuary and off the coast; the outflow from the river flows eastwards, parallel to the beach, for some distance, limited by sandbanks that are exposed at low tide.

Administratively Exmouth lies within the East Devon district, along with neighbouring coastal towns east of the Exe. It has its own town council, presided over by a mayor.

History
Although Roman coins have been found around Exmouth, there is no evidence of Roman settlement in the area. From the 11th century there is evidence of a ferry port in the area of the present docks, which have only recently (2001-2002) been converted into a marina. For some centuries, however, commercial trade through the port was limited by the power of Exeter, which owned the dock and controlled estuary traffic. The dock served primarily as a base for fishing, and a small amount of commercial fishing is undertaken to this day.

The name Exmouth seems to be relatively recent; in Saxon times and the Middle Ages the present town consisted of two parishes, Littleham and Withycombe (these names are still used for districts of the town), while in the 13th century there are references to the dock area as "Pratteshuthe". By the end of the 17th century, however, the town was developing something of its modern form, and becoming known as a seaside resort. Exmouth's Georgian terraces and sandy beach attracted people including Horatio Nelson, whose wife, Lady Nelson lies buried in the nearby Littleham Churchyard, and Lord Byron. Mass tourism developed rapidly after the arrival of the railway in 1861.

Landmarks

The Strand gardens in Exmouth town centre, looking towards the war memorial. Image taken in summer 2006Exmouth has a wide and varied range of architecture, ranging from small cob cottages in parts of the town that were once villages and are now incorporated into it, such as Withycombe, to the many Georgian, Victorian and Edwardian town houses. The seafront has a traditional promenade.

The RNLI has a lifeboat station at Exmouth with a Trent Class All Weather Lifeboat (ALB) named Forward Birmingham and "D" Class Inshore Lifeboat (ILB).

The majority of buildings in Exmouth were constructed during the Victorian era with the arrival of the railway. The area to the west of Exeter Road is land that was reclaimed by the railway, Exeter Road originally being part of the seafront. The houses in the colony were mainly constructed for the workers of the railway.

There have been 3 railway stations at Exmouth. The line first reached Exmouth from Exeter in 1861. In the first five days 10,000 people travelled on the line and property prices increased overnight. By the 1880s commuter traffic to Exeter was considerable. In 1903 a link to Budleigh Salterton was opened the line going eastward over a viaduct which went from Exeter Road to Park Road where it entered a cutting continuing onto Littleham Cross where there was also a station (now a private residence), and from there to Budleigh Salterton, there turning north to rejoin the main London and South Western Railway line. Exmouth Station was rebuilt in 1926. When the line to Budleigh was lifted the viaduct was left in place for many years and as it slowly decayed arches here and there were removed, with its final destruction in the late 1980s. A plethora of cheaply built houses mark its position now. The route of the line continued behind Phear Park, which was once the grounds of a large house belonging to the Phear family, used during the Second World War to station U.S. soldiers. Shortly after the war the house was burnt down and left derelict; eventually it too was demolished, and its grounds were given to the town by the Phear family to become a park. The old railway line behind Phear Park was just left as a bare trackbed for many years. At its far end there was a short tunnel through to Littleham, which was filled in when the line was closed. The trackbed has now been tarmacked and now forms an off-road cycle way from Exmouth to Budleigh Salteron.

The odd little house called A La Ronde, now in the ownership of the National Trust, lies on the northern outskirts of the town. Exmouth also has one of the county's longest surviving nightclubs: Samanthas. This was originally a cinema before being converted into a ten pin bowling alley. While it was a bowling alley, in the late sixties and early seventies, a small dance club called Deneys was set up in a small part of the building. It proved so successful that in 1973 it was converted to a nightclub and has remained so ever since. The club has seen many national and international artists as well as many well known radio DJs. The club is also the resident venue of Mr Sams himself - Alan Clarke - who has worked as DJ and subsequently as Manager at the venue since 1978 and is still there in 2007. Sadly, the nightclub has recently anounced its closure (October 2008).

Demographics and Economics
In addition to its substantial summer tourist trade, Exmouth serves as a regional centre for leisure industries, particularly water sports such as sailing and wind-surfing, and outdoor activities such as bird-watching and walking. The Exe Estuary is a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) and is noted in particular for its wading and migrating birds. A large part of the estuary lies within a nature reserve. Exmouth marks the western end of the Jurassic Coast World Heritage Site, which stretches eastwards along the coast to Poole, in Dorset; the South West Coast Path allows for walking along this coast. The town is also at the western end of the East Devon Way path that leads to Lyme Regis.

Exmouth serves as a commuter town for Exeter, to which it has good public transport links by train and bus. Commuters by car mainly using the very crowded A376 to get to Exeter from the Northern part of the town - the village of Brixington - represented on East Devon District Council and Exmouth Town Council by Trevor Cope.

Present day
Transport
Exmouth railway station is the terminus of the Avocet Line to Exeter St Davids station. The Exmouth to Starcross Ferry is a passenger ferry that operates during the summer months across the Exe Estuary to Starcross, where the pumping station for Brunel's Atmospheric Railway can be seen.

Topsham

Topsham is a small town in Devon, England, on the east side of the River Exe estuary between Exeter and Exmouth. It is served by Topsham railway station.

The native Celtic settlement of Topsham became the port of the Roman city of Isca Dumnoniorum (Exeter) in the first century AD, and continued to serve it until the Roman occupation southern Britain ceased about the year 400. In the 7th century the Saxon rule in East Devon saw the settlement grow into a considerable village.

Although village-sized, with a current population of around 5,023, it was designated a town by a 1300 royal charter. It is now officially a suburb of Exeter. Topsham's position, offering a sheltered harbour to seagoing trade has enabled it to thrive as a port, a centre for fishing and shipbuilding, and notably was the scene of a Parliamentarian naval assault during the civil war.

Formerly a major seaport, it is of current interest for its architecture, scenery and proximity to the nature reserves for wading and migrating birds on the Exe estuary, a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI).

There are a large number of Dutch style houses in Topsham dating from the time when Topsham was an important cotton port. Many of Topsham's houses are built using Dutch bricks, which were brought over as ballast from Holland - to where the wool and cotton from South-West England had been exported.

Topsham Museum is located in one of a set of 17th century buildings looking out over the Exe Estuary. The lovely furnished period rooms of the house, themselves can be explored, together with displays of the local history of the town and memorabilia of Vivien Leigh, the film star. The museum is open from April to October, 2 p.m.-5 p.m. on Mondays, Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays.

St Margaret's Church in Topsham, part of the Church of England, dates back to the 10th Century. Although reconstructed several times through the years, it remains in its original location as granted in 937 by King Athelstan, who gave "a parcel of land, i.e. a manse, which the vulgar called Toppesham, to the monastery Church of St Mary and St Peter in Exeter, for the cure of his soul, to have in eternal freedom so long as the Christian Church shall endure."

Topsham enjoys cult status with students of nearby Exeter University and Rolle College as the home of the "Topsham Ten", a pubcrawl of ten pubs in a little over a mile.

The Exeter Canal

The Exeter Canal, downstream of Exeter, Devon, England was built in 1563 which means it pre-dates the "canal mania" period and is one of the oldest artificial waterways in the UK.

History
At the start of Exeter's history, the River Exe was tidal and navigable up to the city walls enabling it to be a busy port. In the 1270s or 80s, the Countess of Devon, Isabella de Fortibus, built a weir across the river to power her mills (this weir is remembered in the name of the nearby suburb Countess Wear). This had the effect of cutting off Exeter's port from the sea and damaging its salmon fisheries. In 1290, trade with Exeter's port was restored, only to be blocked by a new weir built in 1317 by Hugh de Courtenay, 9th Earl of Devon (Isabella's cousin), who also built a quay at Topsham. Because of the blockages on the river, boats were forced to unload at Topsham and the earls were able to exact large tolls to transport goods to Exeter. For the next 250 years the city petitioned the King to have the waterway reopened, to no avail, until 1550 when Edward VI finally granted permission. However it was by then too late because the river channel had silted up.

In 1563, Exeter traders employed John Trew of Glamorgan to build a canal to bypass the weirs and rejoin the River Exe in the centre of the city where a quay would be built. Work began in February 1564, and was completed in 1567. The canal had three locks with vertical gates – the first pound locks to be built in Britain. They accommodated boats up to 16 tonnes. The original cut was 3 feet (0.91 m) deep and 16 feet (4.9 m) wide (0.9 m by 5 m). It ran one and three quarter miles (2.8 km) from just below the Countess Weir to the centre of Exeter. This navigation was not very effective; it could not be entered at all states of the tide, and the double transfer of cargo over such a short distance made it uncompetitive with road transport. The weir that maintains the water level in the quay is still named "Trew's Weir" after the canal's builder.

In 1677 the canal was extended and the entrance was moved downstream to Topsham. In 1701 the canal was deepened and widened to allow the passage of ocean-going ships. At the same time the number of locks on the canal was reduced to one. Floodgates were also fitted to the canal entrance. These improvements lead to the canal being highly successful until demand for access declined with the end of the wool trade in the early nineteenth century and later with the rise of the railways.

There were many notable failures to connect Exeter and the South West to the national canal and rail networks: The Grand Western Canal linking Exeter to Bristol (1796) was never completed; The Bristol & Exeter Railway link to the canal basin was postponed in 1832 and 1844; The South Devon Railway ran services to the canal from 1867, but by this time the canal was too small to attract the sizeable ocean-going vessels and the canal was taken over by its creditors for sixteen years. Use of the canal has declined gradually ever since.

20th century
The last commercial use of the canal was in 1972 when the Esso Jersey left the canal basin, carrying oil to its terminal, although the government owned water board ran a sludge tanker, the Countess Weir, until 1997 by which time it was privately owned.

The fall of commercial traffic in the 1960s coincided with the rise of leisure use of the canal. After some recent difficulties the future of the canal looks good with the city basin being included in part of a £24 million redevelopment. The quay area has been subject to redevelopment over recent years and is continuing to be converted to wider recreational use. The canal basin itself is popular for a range of water sports.

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