Lymington

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Lymington
Lymington, Hampshire, England-2Oct2011.jpg
From the air: yachts in the yacht basin can be seen on the left and the two other marinas; the New Forest fills most of the background.
Hampshire UK location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Lymington
Location within Hampshire
Population15,726 (2015 Projection) [1]
OS grid reference SZ3295
Civil parish
District
Shire county
Region
Country England
Sovereign state United Kingdom
Post town LYMINGTON
Postcode district SO41
Dialling code 01590
Police Hampshire and Isle of Wight
Fire Hampshire and Isle of Wight
Ambulance South Central
UK Parliament
List of places
UK
England
Hampshire
50°45′N1°33′W / 50.75°N 1.55°W / 50.75; -1.55 Coordinates: 50°45′N1°33′W / 50.75°N 1.55°W / 50.75; -1.55

Lymington /ˈlɪmɪŋtən/ is a port town on the west bank of the Lymington River on the Solent, in the New Forest district of Hampshire, England. It faces Yarmouth, Isle of Wight, to which there is a car ferry service operated by Wightlink. It is within the civil parish of Lymington and Pennington. The town has a large tourist industry, based on proximity to the New Forest and its harbour. It is a major yachting centre with three marinas. As of 2015, the parish of Lymington and Pennington had a population of 15,726. [1]

Contents

History

Cobbled streets in Lymington town centre Quay Street, Lymington, Hampshire, England.jpg
Cobbled streets in Lymington town centre
The town quay Town Quay, Lymington, Hampshire, England.jpg
The town quay

The earliest settlement in the Lymington area was around the Iron Age hill fort known today as Buckland Rings. The hill and ditches of the fort survive, and archaeological excavation of part of the walls was carried out in 1935. The fort has been dated to around the 6th century BC. There is another supposed Iron Age site at nearby Ampress Hole. However, evidence of later settlement there (as opposed to occupation) is sparse before Domesday book (1086).

Lymington itself began as an Anglo-Saxon village. [2] The Jutes arrived in the area from the Isle of Wight in the 6th century and founded a settlement called Limentun.[ citation needed ] The Old English word tun means a farm or hamlet whilst limen is derived from the Ancient British word *lemanos meaning an elm tree. [3]

The town is recorded in Domesday as "Lentune". About 1200, the lord of the manor, William de Redvers created the borough of New Lymington around the present quay and High Street, while Old Lymington comprised the rest of the parish. He gave the town its first charter and the right to hold a market. [4] The town became a parliamentary borough in 1585, returning two MPs until 1832, when its electoral base was expanded. Its representation was reduced to one member under the Second Reform Act of 1867, and it was subsumed into the New Forest Division under the Redistribution of Seats Act 1885.

Lymington was famous for salt-making from the Middle Ages up to the 19th century. There was an almost continuous belt of salt workings along the coast toward Hurst Spit.

In the 18th and early 19th centuries, Lymington possessed a military depot that included a number of foreign troops – mostly artillery but also several militia regiments. At the time of the Napoleonic Wars, the King's German Legion-Artillery was based near Portchester Castle and sent sick soldiers to Lymington or Eling Hospital. [5] As well as Germans and Dutch, there were French émigrés and French regiments. [6] They were raised to take part in the ill-fated Quiberon Invasion of France, from which few returned (contrast the Battle of Quiberon Bay, or Bataille des Cardinaux, a 1759 victory).

From the early 19th century, Lymington had a thriving shipbuilding industry, particularly associated with Thomas Inman, builder of the schooner Alarm, which famously raced the American yacht America in 1851. [7] Much of the town centre is Victorian and Georgian, with narrow cobbled streets in the area of the quay. In 1859 the roman catholic church of Our Lady of Mercy and Saint Joseph was built to a design by Joseph Hansom. [8]

Lymington particularly promotes stories about its smuggling. There are unproven stories of smugglers' tunnels running from the old inns and under the High Street to the town quay.

Lymington was among the boroughs reformed by the Municipal Corporations Act 1835. In 1932 it was extended to include Milton (previously an urban district), the parishes of Milford on Sea and Pennington, and parts of Lymington Rural District, so extending it along the coast to the edge of Christchurch. [9]

The borough of Lymington was abolished on 1 April 1974 under the terms of the Local Government Act 1972, becoming an unparished area in the district of New Forest, with Charter Trustees. The area was subsequently divided into the four parishes of New Milton, Lymington and Pennington, Milford-on-Sea and Hordle. A new library was added in 2002. [8]

Lymington today

Looking down Quay Hill Quay Hill, Lymington, Hampshire, England.jpg
Looking down Quay Hill

Due to changes in planning legislation, many older areas of the town have been redeveloped. Houses have been demolished and replaced with blocks of flats and retirement homes. In a Channel 5 programme, Lymington received the accolade of "best town on the coast" in the UK for living (ahead of Sandbanks), for scenery, transport links and low crime levels.[ citation needed ]

Lymington New Forest Hospital opened in 2007, replacing the earlier Lymington Hospital. This has a minor injuries unit but no accident and emergency facility. The nearest are at Southampton General Hospital, 16 miles (26 km) away, and the Royal Bournemouth Hospital, 14.5 miles (23.3 km) away.

The main Anglican parish church is St Thomas's in the High Street. [10]

Neighbourhoods

The northern neighbourhoods of the town are Buckland and Lower Buckland, the latter adjoining the Lymington River. However, due to confusion with Buckland, Portsmouth, also in Hampshire, many people refer to themselves and their businesses here solely as Lymington. The poet Caroline Anne Bowles (1786–1854) was born at Buckland Manor and died at Buckland Cottage. [11]

Pennington is a village near to Lymington, but is separated from the town by several schools with playing fields. Upper Pennington is a northern residential offshoot of Pennington, more rural in character, almost entirely surrounded by heath and farmland.

Lymington yacht basin and mudflats make up the former docks area known as Waterford.

All Saints Church All Saints' Parish Church, All Saints Road, Lymington, Hants - geograph.org.uk - 78454.jpg
All Saints Church

Woodside consists of a small southern triangle of residential roads, gardens and a cricket ground, which includes a manor house, [12] church community hall, and All Saints, Lymington. The church was built in 1909 by W. H. Romaine-Walker, architect of Danesfield House, Moreton Hall, Warwickshire and the Tate Gallery extension, and a student of the High Victorian architect George Edmund Street. [13]

Normandy is a coastal hamlet by a very small dock, salterns and estuary. It includes the buildings Normandy Garth, Little Normandy and Normandy Farm. The last backs onto De La Warr House, an early 19th-century listed building. [14]

Shopping

High Street High Street, Lymington, Hampshire, England.jpg
High Street
St Thomas Street and St Thomas's Church Lymington5.JPG
St Thomas Street and St Thomas's Church

The high street has seen rapid change over the last few years, with an increasing presence of chain stores and coffee-shop franchises. There is a local market, one of the New Forest producers' markets, held at the Masonic hall once a month in the game season. There are several marine outfitters in the cobbled street leading down to the quay.

Lymington has a wide range of shops and a large street market in the High Street, as well as three supermarkets: Waitrose, a small Tesco in the High Street, and a Marks and Spencer Food Hall. Local campaigns resulted in the rejection of proposals for the opening of branches of the Argos retail outlet, and in 2010 of the J D Wetherspoon pub chain. [15] However, a second proposal by Wetherspoons in 2012 was successful and a pub named The Six Bells opened in 2013.

Climate

Lymington, like the rest of the South of England, has a maritime climate of warm summers and mild winters. The nearest official Met office weather station for which online records are available is Everton, about 2 miles (3.2 km) to the west of the town centre. Thanks to its coastal position, sunshine levels are high relative to the rest of Britain, and severe frost unusual. The coldest recorded temperature in 43 years of records was −11.1 °C (12.0 °F) in January 1963. [16] The highest locally recorded temperature was 33.5 °C (92.3 °F) in June 1976. [17]

Climate data for Everton 16m asl, 1971–2000, extremes 1960–2003 (Weather station 2 miles (3 km) to the West of Lymington)
MonthJanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDecYear
Record high °C (°F)13.5
(56.3)		14.5
(58.1)		19.1
(66.4)		23.3
(73.9)		26.6
(79.9)		33.5
(92.3)		32.6
(90.7)		32.9
(91.2)		26.3
(79.3)		23.3
(73.9)		17.5
(63.5)		15.3
(59.5)		33.5
(92.3)
Average high °C (°F)7.9
(46.2)		7.9
(46.2)		10.1
(50.2)		12.4
(54.3)		15.9
(60.6)		18.4
(65.1)		20.8
(69.4)		20.8
(69.4)		18.3
(64.9)		14.9
(58.8)		11.1
(52.0)		9.0
(48.2)		14.0
(57.2)
Average low °C (°F)2.6
(36.7)		2.3
(36.1)		3.6
(38.5)		4.7
(40.5)		7.7
(45.9)		10.4
(50.7)		12.5
(54.5)		12.6
(54.7)		10.7
(51.3)		8.2
(46.8)		5.0
(41.0)		3.6
(38.5)		7.0
(44.6)
Record low °C (°F)−11.1
(12.0)		−8.7
(16.3)		−8.3
(17.1)		−4.5
(23.9)		−2.8
(27.0)		1.7
(35.1)		4.4
(39.9)		4.4
(39.9)		1.7
(35.1)		−2.3
(27.9)		−6.5
(20.3)		−8.9
(16.0)		−11.1
(12.0)
Average precipitation mm (inches)81.0
(3.19)		58.7
(2.31)		60.3
(2.37)		48.4
(1.91)		45.9
(1.81)		51.9
(2.04)		37.7
(1.48)		49.5
(1.95)		67.1
(2.64)		88.0
(3.46)		84.2
(3.31)		91.2
(3.59)		763.7
(30.07)
Mean monthly sunshine hours 61.781.1121.8181.5223.2212.4231.6223.2160.2120.080.753.31,750.7
Source 1: Met Office [18]

date=November 2011

Source 2: Royal Dutch Meteorological Institute/KNMI [19]

date=November 2011

Sports and leisure

The town's leisure amenities include several parks, a nine-hole golf course, a rowing club, a community centre, a library, St Barbe Museum and Art Gallery, two swimming pools (one the Lymington Open Air Sea Water Baths built in 1833), a sports centre, a small cinema/theatre, a Skatepark (for skateboards), several tennis courts, and some youth football pitches. There is also a pétanque terrain near St Thomas's church. Lymington Cricket Club was established in 1807 and plays in the Southern Premier and Hampshire Cricket leagues.

The proximity of the New Forest makes Lymington a popular base for walking, cycling and riding.

Sailing

Lymington is famous for its sailing history, and in recent years has been home to the world-famous regattas such as the Royal Lymington Cup, Etchells Worlds, Macnamara's Bowl, and Source Regatta. The strong tides make it a challenging race track, and together with the shallow depth of the river has resulted in Lymington losing several regattas to the Central Solent, principally run from Cowes. Nevertheless, Thursday Evening Racing takes place with up to 100 boats registered to race every Thursday night during the summer, hosted by the Royal Lymington Yacht Club. Started in the 1990s, this has become increasingly popular.

There are two active sailing clubs in the town. The Royal Lymington Yacht Club, founded in the 1920s as Lymington River Sailing Club, has over 3,000 members and runs major keelboat and dinghy events. [20] The Lymington Town Sailing Club, founded in 1946, hosts a popular Lymington Winter Series known as the Solent Circuit. [21]

Football

Lymington has a non-League football club, Lymington Town F.C., which plays at the sports ground. The children's football club, Lymington Sprites, is based in nearby Pennington.

Cricket

Lymington Cricket Club is an amateur cricket club that plays at the Sports Ground. The Third and Fourth XI play their home matches at Woodside Park. The club's first team compete in the Southern Premier Cricket League, which is the highest level of club cricket in Hampshire.[ citation needed ]

Rugby union

Lymington has a rugby union club, Lymington Mariners RFC, whose two teams play at Woodside Park. It meets every Thursday evening for practice and most Saturday afternoons for tournament games in the Hampshire region, and friendlies around the South of England.

Transport

Lymington Town railway station Lymington Town Station.jpg
Lymington Town railway station

Buses

Lymington bus station is owned by Wilts & Dorset, who also owns a bus depot in the town. Numerous local services operate, as do routes to Bournemouth and Southampton. In the summer, the New Forest Tour serves the town with open-top buses.

Rail

Lymington's two railway stations – Lymington Pier (the terminus), on the east side of the river near the ferry terminal, and Lymington Town – are connected to the national rail network by a branch line to Brockenhurst. Services twice an hour are operated by South Western Railway.

Roads

The A337 road links Lymington to Lyndhurst and the M27 motorway to the north, and to New Milton and the South East Dorset conurbation to the west.

Ferries

Wightlink's Wight Sun ferry berthed at Lymington Wightlink Wight Sun.JPG
Wightlink's Wight Sun ferry berthed at Lymington

Ferries have run between Lymington and Yarmouth, Isle of Wight, since the 19th century. Since 1990 they have been operated by Wightlink, succeeding the nationalised Sealink on the route. [22] The current fleet comprises three car ferries, which entered service in 2009: Wight Light , Wight Sky and Wight Sun . The service runs about once an hour from a dock south-east of the old town on the far side of the Lymington River.

In fiction and on screen

Lymington features in The Children of the New Forest by Captain Marryat, in the historical novels of the local writer Warwick Collins (The Rationalist and The Marriage of Souls), and in The Forest by Edward Rutherfurd.

In Tom Clancy's Patriot Games , a Wightlink ferry heading from the Lymington ferry terminal is intercepted and a prisoner extracted in heavy seas. Several men on board the ferry are murdered. [23]

The 1980 Christmas special of the ITV children's show Worzel Gummidge was filmed in the town during the summer of that year. During filming a sudden wind blew the titanium dioxide that was being used as a replica of snow into homes, shops and businesses, causing damage and a large compensation bill for the producers, Southern Television.[ citation needed ]

Lymington was occasionally featured in the 1980s BBC series Howards' Way . [24]

Notable people

Twin towns

An active programme of exchange visits is coordinated by the local Twinning Association. [25]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hampshire</span> County of England

Hampshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in western South East England on the coast of the English Channel. Home to approximately 1.9 million people, Hampshire is the 5th-most populous county in England. Its largest settlements are the cities of Southampton and Portsmouth. The county town is Winchester. It is bordered by Berkshire to the north, Surrey to the north-east, Wiltshire to the north-west, West Sussex to the south-east, and Dorset to the south-west. The county contains two national parks: the New Forest and part of the South Downs, which together cover 45 per cent of Hampshire.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yarmouth, Isle of Wight</span> Human settlement in England

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brockenhurst</span> Human settlement in England

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hythe, Hampshire</span> Town in England

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wightlink</span> Ferry company operating routes between Hampshire and the Isle of Wight

Wightlink is a ferry company operating routes across The Solent between Hampshire and the Isle of Wight in the south of England. It operates car ferries between Lymington and Yarmouth, and Portsmouth and Fishbourne and a fast passenger-only catamaran between Portsmouth Harbour and Ryde Pier. The company is jointly owned by Basalt Infrastructure Partners based in the United Kingdom and Fiera Infrastructure based in Canada.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lymington branch line</span>

The Lymington branch line is a railway that runs from Brockenhurst to Lymington in the New Forest, England. The line is around 9 km (5.6 mi) long, and is single track throughout its length. It diverges from the South West Main Line at Lymington Junction. At Lymington Pier, trains connect with Wightlink ferry services to Yarmouth, Isle of Wight. The Lymington branch line is electrified using the 750 V DC third-rail system.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Solent Way</span> Long-distance footpath in Hampshire, England

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Lymington and Pennington is an administrative area formed in 1974 in the New Forest district of Hampshire, England. It covers the historical settlements of Pennington village and Lymington Town, as well as smaller hamlets, and newer residential areas.

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Pennington is a ward in the New Forest district of Hampshire, England, which is defined based on the boundaries of the earlier manor. Pennington Village is at the centre of the ward, with Upper Pennington to the north and Lower Pennington to the south. The population taken at the 2011 census was 6,060. It is in the southernmost part of the New Forest on the Solent coastline near to the town of Lymington, with which it shares the civil parish of Lymington and Pennington.

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MV <i>Wight Light</i> Isle of Wight passenger and vehicle ferry

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Keyhaven, Pennington, Oxey and Normandy Marshes</span>

Keyhaven, Pennington, Oxey and Normandy Marshes, also known as the North Solent Marshes, are three areas of saltmarsh in Hampshire, England. The haven outpost of Milford-on-Sea, Keyhaven sits to the west, the village of Pennington to the north, and the town of Lymington to the northeast. The marshes lie behind Hurst Spit and fall within the Hurst Castle And Lymington River Estuary Site of Special Scientific Interest.

MV <i>Lymington</i> Former Isle of Wight and Western Ferries car and passenger ferry

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Boldre Foreshore</span>

Boldre Foreshore is a 193.3-hectare (478-acre) Local Nature Reserve east of Lymington in Hampshire. It is owned by New Forest District Council and managed by the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust. It is part of Solent and Southampton Water Ramsar site and Special Protection Area, Solent Maritime Special Area of Conservation, Hurst Castle and Lymington River Estuary Site of Special Scientific Interest and Lymington and Keyhaven Marshes, a nature reserve managed by the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust.

Norton is a hamlet on the outskirts of Yarmouth in the Isle of Wight, England. Its population is included in the count of the town of Yarmouth. It is situated in the West of the island and has a coast on the Solent. It is located 3.5 miles (5.6 km) southeast of Lymington, Hampshire.

References

  1. 1 2 "Population and Census Data". New Forest District Council. 2015. Archived from the original on 11 December 2020. Retrieved 11 December 2020.
  2. ↑ King, Edward (1990). A Walk through Lymington (2nd ed.). Southampton: Ensign. ISBN   185455056X.
  3. ↑ Coates, Richard (1993). The Place-Names of Hampshire. Southampton: Ensign. ISBN   0713456256.
  4. ↑ Bearman, R., ed. (1994). Charters of the de Redvers Family and the Earldom of Devon, 1090–1217. Exeter: Devonshire Records Society.
  5. ↑ Eilert-Ebke, Gabriele; Ebke, Hans (2014). Journal der KGL-Artillerie 1804–1808. ISBN   978-3864686658.
  6. ↑ Huchet, Patrick (1995). 1795 – Quiberon, ou le destin de la France. Rennes: Ouest-France. ISBN   2737317452.
  7. ↑ Mackinnon, L. B. (1852). Atlantic and Transatlantic: Sketches Afloat and Ashore. doi:10.5962/bhl.title.34074.
  8. 1 2 O’Brien, Charles; Bailey, Bruce; Pevsner, Nikolaus; Lloyd, David W. (2018). The Buildings of England Hampshire: South. Yale University Press. p. 365. ISBN   9780300225037.
  9. ↑ "Lymington MB". A vision of Britain Through Time. Archived from the original on 24 December 2012. Retrieved 11 December 2020.
  10. ↑ O’Brien, Charles; Bailey, Bruce; Pevsner, Nikolaus; Lloyd, David W. (2018). The Buildings of England Hampshire: South. Yale University Press. p. 364. ISBN   9780300225037.
  11. ↑ "Southey, Caroline Anne Bowles". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/26054.(Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  12. ↑ Historic England. "Manor House (Grade II) (1274531)". National Heritage List for England . Retrieved 11 December 2020.
  13. ↑ Historic England. "All Saints Church Hall (1277406)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 11 December 2020.
  14. ↑ Historic England. "De la Warr House (1231907)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 11 December 2020.
  15. ↑ Barkham, Patrick (13 September 2010). "Is Lymington the snootiest town in Britain?". The Guardian. Retrieved 11 December 2020.
  16. ↑ "1963 temperature". KNMI.
  17. ↑ "1976 temperature". KNMI.
  18. ↑ "Everton 1971–2000 averages". Met Office. Archived from the original on 19 October 2011. Retrieved 9 November 2011.
  19. ↑ "Everton Weather extremes". KNMI . Retrieved 9 November 2011.
  20. ↑ Royal Lymington Retrieved 29 June 2016.
  21. ↑ "About Us". Lymington Town Sailing Club. Retrieved 11 December 2020.
  22. ↑ "History". Wightlink. Archived from the original on 22 March 2009. Retrieved 24 June 2013.
  23. ↑ Clancy, Tom (1 July 1988). Patriot Games. Penguin. ISBN   1101002395 – via Google Books.
  24. ↑ "Howards' Way locations". BBC. n.d. Retrieved 11 December 2020.
  25. ↑ "Lymington Twinning". Lymington Twinning. Retrieved 11 December 2020.
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