Porlock Weir

	Email		Print
	Bookmark		Link

Porlock Weir

Porlock Weir lies about 1.5 miles west of Porlock

Porlock

Porlock is a coastal village in Somerset, England, situated in a deep hollow below Exmoor, west of Minehead. The village has a population of 1,377 ....
, Somerset

Somerset

Somerset is a Counties of England in South West England. The county town is Taunton, which is in the south of the county. The Ceremonial counties of England of Somerset borders the counties of Bristol and Gloucestershire to the north, Wiltshire to the east, Dorset to the south-east, and Devon to the south-west....
, England

England

native_name =|conventional_long_name = England|common_name = England|image_flag = Flag of England.svg|image_coat = England COA.svg|symbol_type = Royal Coat of Arms...
and is a small settlement which has grown up around the harbour. It is a popular visitor attraction.

Many cottages around the area are very old including the Gibraltar Cottages which date from the 17th century and have been designated by English Heritage

English Heritage

English Heritage is a non-departmental public body of the United Kingdom government with a broad remit of managing the historic built environment of England....
as a grade II listed building

Listed building

A listed building in the United Kingdom is a building or other structure officially designated as being of special architectural, historical or cultural significance....
.

Like most ports in West Somerset, the small harbour is tidal but has a small home-based flotilla of yachts and is visited by many more in spring and summer.

Discussion

Ask a question about 'Porlock Weir'

Start a new discussion about 'Porlock Weir'

Answer questions from other users

Full Discussion Forum

Encyclopedia

Porlock Weir lies about 1.5 miles west of Porlock

Porlock

Porlock is a coastal village in Somerset, England, situated in a deep hollow below Exmoor, west of Minehead. The village has a population of 1,377 ....
, Somerset

Somerset

England

English Heritage

English Heritage is a non-departmental public body of the United Kingdom government with a broad remit of managing the historic built environment of England....
as a grade II listed building

Listed building

Anglo-Saxon Chronicle

The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle is a collection of annals in Old English language chronicling the history of the Anglo-Saxons. The annals were created late in the 9th century, probably in Wessex, during the reign of Alfred the Great....
reports that in 1052 Harold Godwinsson came from Ireland with nine ships and plundered the area and even before that in 86 AD it was visited by Danes. In the 18th and 19th centuries coal from south Wales

Wales

native_name = Cymru|conventional_long_name = Wales|common_name = Wales|image_flag = Flag of Wales 2.svg|national_motto = ...
was the main cargo and in World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a Participants in World War II, including all of the great powers, organised into two opposing military alliances: the Allies of World War II and the Axis powers....
pit props cut in local forests were exported the other way.

On 12 January 1899, during a storm, the Lynmouth

Lynmouth

Lynmouth is a village in Devon, England, on the north edge of Exmoor.The village straddles the confluence of the West Lyn River and East Lyn River rivers, in a gorge below Lynton, to which it is connected by the Lynton and Lynmouth Cliff Railway....
lifeboat was launched but because of the ferocity of the storm could not put out to sea, and was hauled by men and horses over Countisbury and Porlock hills to Porlock Weir where the water in the bay was less rough.

It is a good spot for walking with the South West Coast Path

South West Coast Path

The South West Coast Path is Britain's longest waymarked Long-distance footpaths in the UK and a National Trails . It stretches for , running from Minehead in Somerset, along the coasts of Devon and Cornwall, to Poole Harbour in Dorset....
and other trails linking through to Porlock Ridge and Saltmarsh

Porlock Ridge and Saltmarsh

Porlock Ridge and Saltmarsh is a 186.3 hectare biological Site of Special Scientific Interest on Porlock Bay in Somerset, SSSI notification in 1990....
(good for birding) and Culbone

Culbone

Culbone is a small village, consisting of little more than the parish church and a few houses, in the parish of Oare, Somerset in the Exmoor National Park, Somerset, England....
- the smallest complete parish church in England.

Submerged forest

From the end of the last glacial period, about 10,000 years ago, the melting of ice caps has caused the sea level in the Bristol Channel

Bristol Channel

The Bristol Channel is a major inlet in the island of Great Britain, separating South Wales from Devon and Somerset in South West England, and extending from the lower Severn Estuary of the River Severn to that part of the North Atlantic Ocean known as the Celtic Sea ....
to rise about . It has been at roughly its present level for the last 2,000 years but is still rising very slowly.

Between 7,000 and 8,000 years ago the area that is now Porlock Beach was more than five miles inland. It was a flat, low lying area and the climate was warm and wet. The area was thickly wooded and Mesolithic

Mesolithic

The Mesolithic or Middle Stone Age was a period in the development of human technology in between the Paleolithic or Old Stone Age and the Neolithic or New Stone Age....
people lived by hunting and fishing. They probably hunted wild cattle, the bones of which have been found here. The stumps of trees were preserved in the marshy conditions in which they grew and have today been revealed as the sea has risen to erode them. At low tide can be seen tree trunks, a thin layer of peaty soil and a large amount of grey clay soil which is now inhabited by sea shells known as piddocks.

Porlock Weir

Submerged forest

External links