50°23′44″N4°12′28″W / 50.39556°N 4.20778°W
Hamoaze | |
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Physical characteristics | |
Mouth | Plymouth Sound |
• coordinates | 50°23′44″N4°12′28″W / 50.39556°N 4.20778°W |
Basin features | |
Tributaries | |
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Inland ports | HMNB Devonport |
The Hamoaze ( /hæmˈoʊz/ ; Cornish pronunciation: [ˈhɒmøz] ) is an estuarine stretch of the English tidal River Tamar, between its confluence with the River Lynher and Plymouth Sound.
The name first appears as ryver of Hamose in 1588. The first element is thought to refer to specifically to Ham in the parish of Weston Peverel, now a suburb of Plymouth (whose name in turn came from the Old English word hamm, meaning "water-meadow, land in the bend of a river"). The second element is thought to derive from Old English wāse meaning "mud" (as in "ooze"). Thus the name once meant "mud-banks at Ham". The name originally probably applied only to a creek running past Ham, which perhaps consisted of mud-banks at low tide, north of the present-day Devonport Dockyard. The name later came to be used for the main channel of the estuary into which the creek drained. [1]
The Hamoaze flows past Devonport Dockyard, which is one of three major bases of the Royal Navy today. The presence of large numbers of small watercraft is a challenge and hazard to the warships using the naval base and dockyard. Navigation on the waterway is controlled by the King's Harbour Master for Plymouth. [2] [3]
Settlements on the banks of the Hamoaze are Saltash, Wilcove, Torpoint and Cremyll in Cornwall, as well as Devonport and Plymouth in Devon.
Two regular ferry services crossing the Hamoaze exist: the Torpoint Ferry (a chain ferry that takes vehicles) and the Cremyll Ferry (passengers and cyclists only).
A street in Torpoint bears the name Hamoaze Avenue, named after the stretch of river.
Plymouth is a port city and unitary authority in South West England. It is located on the south coast of Devon, approximately 36 miles (58 km) south-west of Exeter and 193 miles (311 km) south-west of London. It is bordered by Cornwall to the west and south-west.
Plymouth Sound, or locally just The Sound, is a deep inlet or sound in the English Channel near Plymouth in England.
The Torpoint Ferry is a car and pedestrian chain ferry connecting the A374 which crosses the Hamoaze, a stretch of water at the mouth of the River Tamar, between Devonport in Plymouth and Torpoint in Cornwall. The service was established in 1791 and chain ferry operations were introduced by James Meadows Rendel in 1832.
The Tamar Bridge is a suspension bridge over the River Tamar between Saltash, Cornwall and Plymouth, Devon in southwest England. It is 335 metres (1,099 ft) long, running adjacent the Royal Albert Bridge, and part of the A38, a main road between the two counties.
East Stonehouse was one of three towns that were amalgamated into modern-day Plymouth. West Stonehouse was a village that is within the current Mount Edgcumbe Country Park in Cornwall. It was destroyed by the French in 1350. The terminology used in this article refers to the settlement of East Stonehouse which is on the Devon side of the mouth of the Tamar estuary, and will be referred to as Stonehouse.
The Tamar is a river in south west England that forms most of the border between Devon and Cornwall. A part of the Tamar Valley is a World Heritage Site due to its historic mining activities.
Devonport, formerly named Plymouth Dock or just Dock, is a district of Plymouth in the English county of Devon, although it was, at one time, the more important settlement. It became a county borough in 1889. Devonport was originally one of the "Three Towns" ; these merged in 1914 to form what would become in 1928 the City of Plymouth. It is represented in the Parliament of the United Kingdom as part of the Plymouth Sutton and Devonport constituency. Its elected Member of Parliament (MP) is Luke Pollard, who is a member of the Labour Party. The population of the ward at the 2011 census was 14,788.
Torpoint is a town and civil parish on the Rame Peninsula in southeast Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It is situated opposite the city of Plymouth across the Hamoaze which is the tidal estuary of the River Tamar. Torpoint had a population of 8,457 at the 2001 census, decreasing to 8,364 at the 2011 census. Two electoral wards also exist. Their combined populations at the same census were 7,717.
The Tavy is a river on Dartmoor, Devon, England. The name derives from the Brythonic root "Tam", once thought to mean 'dark' but now generally understood to mean 'to flow'. It has given its name to the town of Tavistock and the villages of Mary Tavy and Peter Tavy. It is a tributary of the River Tamar and has as its own tributaries:
The Rame Peninsula is a peninsula in south-east Cornwall. The peninsula is surrounded by the English Channel to the south, Plymouth Sound to the east, the Hamoaze to the northeast and the estuary of the River Lynher to the northwest. On a clear day, the Atlantic Ocean can be seen from advantageous points from Rame Head. The largest settlement is Torpoint, which is on the eastern coast, facing Devonport in Plymouth, Devon.
Cremyll is a small coastal village in south-east Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. Cremyll is on the Rame Peninsula facing Plymouth Sound. The village is about 9 miles by road or 0.5 miles by boat from Plymouth. It is in the civil parish of Maker-with-Rame.
The Forgotten Corner of Cornwall is a geographical area of South East Cornwall, Great Britain. It includes the Rame Peninsula and the town of Torpoint, as well as villages like Antony, Downderry, Polbathic, Portwrinkle and Widegates.
The evolution of transport in Cornwall has been shaped by the county's strong maritime, mining and industrial traditions and much of the transport infrastructure reflects this heritage.
The History of Plymouth in Devon, England, extends back to the Bronze Age, when the first settlement began at Mount Batten a peninsula in Plymouth Sound facing onto the English Channel. It continued as both a fishing and continental tin trading port through the late Iron Age into the Early Medieval period, until the more prosperous Saxon settlement of Sutton, later renamed Plymouth, surpassed it. With its natural harbour and open access to the Atlantic, the town found wealth and a national strategic importance during the establishment of British naval dominance in the colonisation of the New World. In 1620 the Pilgrim Fathers departed from Plymouth to establish the second English colony in America. During the English Civil War the town was besieged between 1642 and 1646 by the Royalists, but after the Restoration a Dockyard was established in the nearby town of Devonport. Throughout the Industrial Revolution Plymouth grew as a major mercantile shipping industry, including imports and passengers from the US, whilst Devonport grew as a naval base and ship construction town, building battleships for the Royal Navy – which later led to its partial destruction during World War II in a series of air-raids known as the Plymouth Blitz. After the war was over, the city centre was completely rebuilt to a new plan.
The A374 is a main road in the United Kingdom, one of six A-roads making the border crossing between Devon and Cornwall. It is the most southerly of the A37x group of roads, starting and ending its journey with the A38 trunk road, from the outskirts of Plymouth in Devon to the Trerulefoot roundabout in Cornwall.
The Cremyll ferry is a foot passenger ferry across the Hamoaze from Admirals Hard in Stonehouse, Plymouth, Devon to Cremyll in Cornwall. It is operated by Plymouth Boat Trips, and runs approximately every 30 minutes, with a 8-minute crossing time.
The fortifications of Plymouth in Devon are extensive due to its natural harbour, its commanding position on the Western Approaches and its role as the United Kingdom's largest naval base. The first medieval defences were built to defend Sutton Harbour on the eastern side of Plymouth Sound at the mouth of the River Plym, but by the 18th century, naval activity had begun to shift westward to Devonport at the mouth of the River Tamar. During the Victorian era, advances in military technology led to a huge programme of fortification encompassing the whole of Plymouth Sound together with the overland approaches. Many of these works remained in military use well into the 20th century.