Sidmouth
Sidmouth | ||
---|---|---|
Shire county | ||
Region | ||
Country | England | |
Sovereign state | United Kingdom | |
Post town | Sidmouth | |
Postcode district | EX10 | |
Dialling code | 01395 | |
Police | Devon and Cornwall | |
Fire | Devon and Somerset | |
Ambulance | South Western | |
UK Parliament | ||
Website | visitdevon.co.uk/sidmouth | |
Sidmouth (
History
The origins of Sidmouth pre-date recorded history. The
Sidmouth appears in the Domesday Book of 1086 as Sedemuda, meaning "mouth of the Sid".[4] Like many such settlements, it was originally a fishing village.
By the 1200s, Sidmouth had expanded to become a
During the 14th century, Sidmouth enjoyed a degree of prosperity from the wine trade and, as part of the manor of Otterton, was transferred by King Henry V from Mont-Saint-Michel to Syon Abbey. King Henry VIII confiscated it again during the dissolution of the monasteries and sold it off, whereafter it changed hands several times before being acquired by the Mainwaring baronets, whose family provided two of the vicars of Sidmouth parish.[3]
Although attempts have been made to construct a harbour, none has succeeded. A lack of shelter in the bay prevented the town's growth as a port. Despite this, a part of the town is known as 'Port Royal' which is likely due to the town's having provided two ships and 67 men to
According to one of the
Another of the Blue Plaques of the
Sidmouth remained a village until the fashion for coastal resorts grew in the Georgian and Victorian periods of the 18th and 19th centuries. A number of
In 2008, Canadian millionaire Keith Owen, who had been on holiday in the town and planned to retire there, bequeathed about £2.3 million to the community's civic society, the
Demographics
At the
Geography
Sidmouth lies at the mouth of the
Erosion of the cliffs to the east of the river mouth threatens homes and the coastal footpath, and is a serious concern.[17][18]
The wide esplanade has been a prominent feature since
Sidmouth has a number of conservation projects, notably the arboretum which in 2012 designated all land owned by Sidmouth Town Council as 'civic arboretum', the first town in the United Kingdom to do so.[20][21]
Climate
The highest temperature recorded since 1990 in Sidmouth is 28 °C (82 °F) in July 2018, and the coldest is -5 °C (23 °F) in February 1991 and March 2018.
Climate data for Sidmouth 1 m amsl (1981–2010) (extremes 1990–present) | |||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
Record high °C (°F) | 13 (55) |
13 (55) |
16 (61) |
22 (72) |
23 (73) |
26 (79) |
28 (82) |
26 (79) |
22 (72) |
20 (68) |
17 (63) |
14 (57) |
28 (82) |
Mean daily maximum °C (°F) | 8.9 (48.0) |
8.8 (47.8) |
10.8 (51.4) |
12.8 (55.0) |
15.9 (60.6) |
18.5 (65.3) |
20.5 (68.9) |
20.5 (68.9) |
18.5 (65.3) |
15.2 (59.4) |
11.9 (53.4) |
9.4 (48.9) |
14.3 (57.7) |
Mean daily minimum °C (°F) | 3.3 (37.9) |
2.9 (37.2) |
4.3 (39.7) |
5.3 (41.5) |
8.5 (47.3) |
11.1 (52.0) |
13.2 (55.8) |
13.1 (55.6) |
11.1 (52.0) |
8.8 (47.8) |
5.8 (42.4) |
3.7 (38.7) |
7.6 (45.7) |
Record low °C (°F) | −2 (28) |
−5 (23) |
−5 (23) |
0 (32) |
3 (37) |
8 (46) |
11 (52) |
8 (46) |
6 (43) |
5 (41) |
1 (34) |
0 (32) |
−5 (23) |
Average rainfall mm (inches) | 81.8 (3.22) |
62.8 (2.47) |
66.9 (2.63) |
59.6 (2.35) |
55.2 (2.17) |
50.4 (1.98) |
51.1 (2.01) |
58.2 (2.29) |
62.5 (2.46) |
89.0 (3.50) |
84.8 (3.34) |
91.7 (3.61) |
814 (32.03) |
Average rainy days (≥ 1.0 mm) | 13.1 | 10.4 | 11.4 | 10.2 | 9.6 | 7.9 | 7.7 | 8.7 | 8.6 | 12.6 | 12.7 | 13.1 | 126 |
Mean monthly sunshine hours | 67.7 | 84.6 | 119.1 | 168.6 | 191.0 | 197.4 | 213.7 | 198.1 | 145.2 | 110.2 | 81.9 | 60.1 | 1,637.6 |
Source 1: Met Office[22] | |||||||||||||
Source 2: MSN[23] |
Transport
Sidmouth's main road access is via the A3052 coast road. This provides access to Exeter and the M5 motorway 12 miles (19 km) away.
Irregular bus services connect to Exeter up to every half-hour by Stagecoach South West and to Honiton or Seaton. Sidmouth is also served by AVMT Buses' service 899, which runs from Seaton to Sidmouth via Beer and Branscombe .
Since the closure of the Sidmouth Railway in 1967, the nearest railway stations are Feniton, Honiton or Whimple, all on the West of England line. Feniton is the nearest of these stations, being 8 miles (13 km) away.[24]
Government
Sidmouth has its own town council, presided over by a chair elected from councillors. There are eight wards, with 19 councillors in all. The town clerk is the senior paid officer, with a team of full-time and part-time staff. The town is responsible for many of the locally run services, including the information centre. Sidmouth lies within the areas of East Devon District Council and Devon County Council. The electorate of the Sidmouth ward at the 2011 census was 13,737.[25]
Sidmouth was in the Honiton parliamentary constituency from its recreation in 1885 until its abolition in 1997, since when it has been in the East Devon constituency.
Culture
Churches and museums
The parish church is dedicated to St Giles and St Nicholas. It was rebuilt in 1860; the architect was William White. Of the medieval structure, only the 15th-century tower has been retained. Oddments of Norman and later stonework were included in the rebuilding. Features of interest include the Duke of Kent Memorial Window, which Queen Victoria gave in 1867, and the reredos by Samuel Sanders Teulon. Parts of the original fabric, such as the windows, were reused by the historian Peter Orlando Hutchinson in building a folly adjoining his house. He was also responsible for saving the stained glass in the vestry.[26][27] The folly is the Old Chancel in Coburg Terrace which was started by Hutchinson in 1859, in protest over the destruction of the original church fabric during rebuilding.
The museum, next to the church, has local memorabilia, historical artefacts, and geological samples.[28]
The church of All Saints, also Anglican (Taylor, architect, 1837), is in the Early English style with lancet windows and "oddly clumsy" pinnacles.[29] There were also Unitarian, Wesleyan (later Methodist) and Congregational chapels; the Unitarian chapel was founded in the 17th century by Presbyterians and the Wesleyan and Congregational ones in 1837 and 1846 respectively.[30]
After the
Sidmouth is home to the Norman Lockyer Observatory and Planetarium, located on Salcombe Hill. The facility, completed in 1912, fell into disuse but was saved from demolition by the appeals of enthusiasts to East Devon District Council. The observatory now operates as a science education project and is open to the public.[32]
Music
Folk Week
Sidmouth Town Band
During the summer, Sidmouth Town Band, a brass band, play a series of concerts in the Connaught Gardens each Sunday at 8pm from late May until early September. The earliest record of the band is from a photograph of 1862.[33][34]
In 2010, during competition, it was crowned West of England Champion in the third section. It went on to win third prize at the national finals of Great Britain.[35] In 2011, it retained its West of England Champion title, becoming one of only a handful of bands to win back-to-back titles, and was promoted to the second section from 2012.[36] From 2017 the band was promoted to the First Section.
Literary associations
Sidmouth has featured in various literary works, e.g. as "Stymouth" in
It was a favourite spot for Sir
Sidmouth has been the setting for television dramas, such as a 1987 adaptation of
Miscellaneous
The Sidmouth Herald is the local newspaper.
Manor Pavilion houses an arts centre and a theatre that hosts both amateur and professional productions.[42] There is also the Radway Cinema.[43]
Sidmouth has been a frequent winner of Britain in Bloom awards. Most recently it won the Small Town category in 2001 and the Coastal Resort category in 2005.
The Sid Vale Association, the first civic society in Britain, was founded in 1846 and is based in Sidmouth.
In 2016, a worldwide architectural competition was held in the town to provide ideas for the future redevelopment of Sidmouth's eastern town and seafront. The competition was initiated by Sidmouth Architect Henry Beech Mole.[44][45]
In October 2018, it was discovered that an unusually large 64-metre (210 ft) fatberg was constricting the sewers. A team of scientists from the University of Exeter studied it and attributed it to the ageing population and its food habits. It was removed and turned into energy at a local power plant.[46][47][48]
Twin towns
Sidmouth is
Features
The Esplanade is the
Jacob's Ladder is a series of wooden steps leading up to Connaught Gardens from Jacob's Ladder Beach and its red cliffs.
Connaught Gardens date from around 1820. They were named after the Duke of Connaught, the third son of Queen Victoria, who officially opened the gardens in 1934. The bandstand there is used by bands in many weeks of the summer season.
This grassy slope up and along
Economy
The principal revenue is from tourism, with a wide range of hotels and guest houses, as well as self catering accommodation in the local area.[49] Sidmouth is a retirement location, so pensioner spending is another source of income.
The largest employer is East Devon District Council, the headquarters of which are at the former Knowle Hotel. The headquarters were transferred to Honiton in 2019. There is a large independent department store, Fields of Sidmouth, which has been on the same site for over 200 years.[50] There are pubs, restaurants, coffee houses and tea rooms; also an indoor swimming pool, a sports hall at the leisure centre, and a golf course.
Education
Sidmouth College is a comprehensive school which takes children aged between 11 and 18 from as far afield as Exmouth and Exeter.[51] In February 2012, with 852 pupils on the roll, the college was deemed 'Good' by Ofsted.[52] The judgment of improvement in the college's provision followed the previous inspection (May 2009) when it was deemed 'satisfactory'.[53] In the 2005 Ofsted report, when there were 869 students on the roll, it was also deemed 'satisfactory'.[54]
Sidmouth College is situated in the Sid Valley. It admits students from East Devon.
There is one state
Sidmouth International School is an English language school for foreign pupils.
Notable people
- Stuart Hughes (politician)
- Edmund Leach (1910–1989), social anthropologist
- Adolph Friedrich Lindemann (1836–1931), engineer, lived at Sidholme mansion
- R. W. Sampson
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- ^ Pevsner, N. (1952) South Devon. Harmondsworth: Penguin; p. 262
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- ^ Pevsner, N. (1952) South Devon. Harmondsworth: Penguin; p. 263
- ^ White's Devonshire Directory of 1850; Sidmouth Archived 23 May 2012 at the Wayback Machine in Genuki; retrieved 24 August 2012
- ^ "The Church Of The Most Precious Blood Sidmouth". The Church Of The Most Precious Blood Sidmouth. Archived from the original on 15 September 2019. Retrieved 11 February 2021.
- ^ "Welcome to the Norman Lockyer Observatory". www.projects.ex.ac.uk. Archived from the original on 31 May 2008. Retrieved 4 April 2018.
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- ^ "Scott Cinemas". www.scottcinemas.co.uk. Archived from the original on 10 February 2012. Retrieved 4 April 2018.
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- ^ Sumner, Stephen (30 June 2016). "'Blue-sky thinking' in Sidmouth architecture competition". sidmouthherald.co.uk. Archived from the original on 19 August 2016. Retrieved 4 April 2018.
- ^ Minchin, Rod (4 October 2019). "Giant fatberg longer than Leaning Tower of Pisa blamed on cooking fats and hygiene products". The Independent. Archived from the original on 5 October 2019. Retrieved 10 October 2019.
fat and non-flushable products such as wipes are the main culprits, and that fatbergs are a consequence of the individual and collective impact that our behaviour has on our environment. . That's not just applicable to Sidmouth, but across our region
- ^ "Autopsy reveals Sidmouth fatberg's dirty secrets". www.exeter.ac.uk. University of Exeter. 4 October 2019. Archived from the original on 10 October 2019. Retrieved 10 October 2019.
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{{cite web}}
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- ^ Ofsted Communications Team (6 October 2020). "Find an inspection report and registered childcare". reports.ofsted.gov.uk. Archived from the original on 13 September 2018. Retrieved 11 February 2021.
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- ^ IES Magazine 2007 – News Archived 22 December 2007 at the Wayback Machine (pdf)
External links
- Official Sidmouth Tourism and Town Website
- Sidmouth Town Council
- Sidmouth at Curlie
- Rock fall at Pennington Point near Sidmouth February 2009 British Geological Survey