Lynmouth, Devon - harbour, Rhenish Tower - postcard c.1905

Postcard
• Picture / Image:  'At Lynmouth Harbour' - shows houses & Rhenish Tower
• Publisher:  Valentines
• Postally used:  yes
• Stamp:  removed
• Postmark(s):  illeg.
• Sent to:  Miss Opie, Hillside, Snowdon Road, Bournemouth West
• Notes / condition: 

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Text from the free encyclopedia WIKIPEDIA may appear below to give a little background information (internal links may not  work) :

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Lynmouth is a village in Devon, England, on the northern 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 a civil parish governed by Lynton and Lynmouth Town Council. The parish boundaries extend southwards from the coast and includes hamlets such as Barbrook and small moorland settlements such as East Ilkerton, West Ilkerton and Shallowford.

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"".

A lifeboat station was established in Lynmouth on 20 January 1869, five months after the nearby wreck of the sailing vessel Home. The lifeboat was kept in a shed on the beach until a purpose-built boat house was built at the harbour. This was rebuilt in 1898 and enlarged in 1906-07. It was closed at the end of 1944 as other stations in the area could provide cover with their newer motor lifeboats. The boat house was then used as a club but was washed away in the flood of 15 August 1952. It has since been rebuilt and includes a public shelter.^[1]

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 immortalised in C Walter Hodges' 1969 children's historical novel, ""The Overland Launch"" and re-enacted 100 years later, in daylight, on today's much better roads.

type=printed postcards

theme=topographical: british

sub-theme=england

county/ country=devon

number of items=single

period=pre - 1914

postage condition=posted