May 28 2020

At approximately 4pm with a low tide, close to RNLI.The kids located a grass snake 2 feet long swimming towards the shore. From there it slithered up the beach. Rescued & taken to the Maer dunes.   Andy Beake

April 24 2020

Thousands of school bass at Sowden End, Lympstone around high tide. According to a local fisherman they come there for shelter.

April 13 2020

Estuary playground closed. Tinkling and gurgling of life in the seabed, birds and bees in full glory Covid 19 halts our playtime for now

May 6 2020

First swim of the year (for me). Past Orcombe point. Sea state: wavy. 11 degrees. Wetsuit family near by keeping distant. No wetsuit for me! 

Nov 23rd 2019

I was walking my dog down by Orcombe point early one morning. As I came onto the beach I could see there was lots of water run off from the recent storm but I could not believe my eyes as I turned the corner and saw what seemed to be Niagara Falls in Exmouth.
I had to film it!

May 9th 2020

At the end of Camperdown Creek, a white large bird( larger than a seagull) with grey/black long legs & beak sitting on a wheel tyre.

March 20 2020

line fishers at exmouth harbour catching wrasse, and earlier in the day someone had caught a mackerel. Early for mackerel? Fishing boat landing cuttlefish, squid, sole and cod.

October 16 2017

Lots Portuguese man o’ war (Physalia physalis) washed up on Exmouth Beach and Esplanade after Storm Ophelia. Simon Pardoe

July 9th 2020

I placed the hull of a model boat in the River Exe to commemorate the leaving of the artist Bas Jan Ader from Cape Cod, to cross the Atlantic in a tiny sailing boat in 1975.       Graham Rich

Nov 5th 2020

Lots of froth around the Marina and Pirate’s Cove this morning (Thursday 5th November 2020). I wonder what causes it and if it’s just natural? Simon Pardoe

Mar 8th 2021

We set off in the canoe up river and arrived at the site of ‘Hut’ where Graham had discussed the homeless man’s home in 2006 – it was the first time we had been there since learning that it had once been an Iron Age Dock. The river is 26 feet deep there – A Scandinavian artist had identified it – she was mapping seeds that had arrived with cargoes over centuries – I looked at the shore from the canoe and suddenly realised that the rocks had been put there – Assembled by Iron Age people. We moved to this house by The River on April 3rd 1975 – it was very cold there was snow. I got up one morning and looked down at the river – there were two very large very beautiful brightly carved boats anchored below – they had great prows were they Greek fishing boats or even Indian? They were fairground colours – who has arrived in them? Was I dreaming? It turned out that they belonged to the Maritime Museum in Exeter and had been anchored for some reason – such an exotic and evocative vision.
Lesley Kerman

Good Friday

The Whirlpool – At the bottom of our garden is the River – just to the right of our back gate is a whirlpool. It is very fast –
The children made a ritual for Good Friday – I would make hot cross buns- they would sit in a canoe or dinghy and go round and round in the whirlpool – I think there was a song that went with it.
Lesley Kerman

1985?

Archaic Perhaps it was 1985 – A boat arrived and anchored just beyond the large island. It was a small cruiser. We thought it was a summer visitor – but it didn’t move on it just stayed there for a year. We were both working in education and had very busy lives. Shutting the curtains at night we would see the oil lamp on ‘Archaic’ – They were seen walking on the towpath with haversacks. An elderly man and woman – Their parallel life intrigued us. We were envious of them. On New Year’s Eve we decided to first foot them – A piece of coal was found. Graham and Nick – my brother in law – put on wet suits to cross the mud – Suddenly, their light went out. So we abandoned the idea and never met them.
Lesley Kerman

The Past

Treasure Opposite our house behind the large island is a creek – it was the original entrance to the canal – There is a kingfisher up there. We took the grandchildren , Nell and Mack, up there in a dinghy – It’s quite steep with enormous reeds – They discovered a small tin trunk under the water there – It contained a few pieces of jewellery and many strange coins. It was an exciting discovery. Grown up… Nell got a first class degree in Archaeology at Edinburgh University. She was 20 years old when she realised that her grandfather had planted the tin chest for them to discover.
Lesley Kerman

No date

Stuart Line Cruises We are quite high up here, so when the Stuart Line boats come by at high tide, on their evening cruises we are at eye level with revellers on the top deck.
Often the boats are throbbing with music and dancing and party lights flashing as they pass the house. When we see them coming we put on all our lights and dance. So our party looks as good as theirs. The boats turn up river – so we do it twice and any visitors join in. Once the boat pulled us off the mud so we honour their captain. One hot early evening the boat came by packed with so many people; all of them completely naked! By the time they returned Graham reciprocated. Our neighbour was amazed. She said ‘I was glad to see the back of you!’
Lesley Kerman

No date

The Shit Ship Another passing vessel of great beauty was the Shit Ship. Beyond the River along the canal it would make its stately way down to Turf and out to sea. It was lit up like a Christmas tree and, in spite of its function, had a magical methodical processional presence and is much missed drawing that poetic line in space.
Lesley Kerman

Aug 1977

The Roman Coin Someone who helped to build our house told us that along here a Roman Mosaic pavement was discarded. They had to ‘cover it with concrete by lunchtime’ so that no-one would find out. Our house is on a bit of a hill so you can see right down the river from it. Our daughter dreamt of a Roman soldier climbing a staircase through her bedroom.
My brother-in-law found the Roman coin in the mud at the bottom of the slipway. It was clearly Roman because you could make out the wolf feeding Romulus and Remus and on one side and a head in a helmet on the other side. It went to the British Museum to be identified. It was found in August 1977. The coin was dated 330AD. The BM said that it was a ‘Votive Offering’. Someone had thrown them in the River for luck! Were they setting out on a voyage? Returning to Italy perhaps.
Lesley Kerman

8.10am August 6th 2005

The Plastic Clock We were invited to participate in a commemorative event – a world-wide artists’ project to mark the 50th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima which was on August 6th 1945 at 8.15am. I think the invitation came through Tom Clark and Roger Ackling.
Unsure of how to deal with such a momentous event we went down to the River at 8.10am August 6th 2005 and there on the bank was this clock washed up on the tide. It was a very strange peach plastic clock that had been in the River for some time. The clock had stopped at two minutes to 8 – just before the bomb had dropped.
Lesley Kerman

24 Feb 2021 about 1.15pm

the wind blows
A visit to the Camperdown Terrace , the duck pond on 24 Feb 2021 about 1.15pm. The tide is very low.
Catherine Cartwright

24 February 2021

the wind is blowing

cockle shells
mussel shells
ripples
sand
foot prints
dog prints
bird prints
vast openness
openness
Right over to the other side of the estuary
and beyond
a huge area ENORMOUS!! the wind is blowing

Terraced housing
nestling along the edge
by the harbour

The boats with their double keel upright
in the sand.

The yellow buoys,
Fluorescent pinky buoys,
Bright red buoys,
Blue bottomed boats the wind is blowing

And the hills extending out towards Powderham.

A few dots of people on the low tide sand walking freely.

There’s so much space around us you can get right up close to buoys.

Black writing on them. I’m not going to try and pick this one up.

The clouds lay heavy overtop

But because it’s so expansive here, they are not oppressive

They’re big! A big, heavy blanket….. the wind is blowing

Catherine Cartwright

Aug 2018

Libby and Jack  Libby remembers swinging for ages on the swing boats and Jack on the roundabout fair ride next to the sea, Exe July/Aug 2017. Both on the swings Aug 2018.
Sally Hammond

Oct 2018

All the Hammonds  Cycling along the River Exe to Dart’s Farm and back again. We loved watching the trains, the views, stopping for a play and a drink. Great stops were Lympstone and Exton.
Sally Hammond

May 2010

Ian and Sally getting the water taxi to The Anchor, Starcross from Exmouth and back again after amazing local mussels.  A lot of the wedding party joined us – lovely, enjoyable evening.  Spotted ‘Sammy’ the seal!
Sally Hammond

July 2018

The Hammonds and family. Paddle boarding on the Exe and having breakfast on the beach, down Orcombe Point end.
Sally Hammond

Christmas Day 2014

Christmas morning walk on the beach with all the family and our dog! Followed by the Christmas morning swim with friends. Great morning – dry and fresh!
Sally Hammond

crabs boats Bikes Shells, glass, pottery Kayak Turnstone Redshanks 

Curlow Egret Canada Geese  S.U.P

Tree in a cliff field

Cliffs

Martha Green

We moved to Lympstone in 2008 just before we got married. We can see the river from 2 floors of our house. It is the first thing we see when we open the blinds in the morning and the last thing we see when we close them at night.

Vicky Fitzgibbon

2020/21 lockdowns

During the 2020/21 lockdowns our daily walks through the village and along the foreshore gave our days a wonderful rhythm.
The tide would determine where we could walk and the treasure we might find.
We have found jars full of sea pottery and we all delight in finding different colours, designs and patterns.

Vicky Fitzgibbon

Alice aged 6.
She has loved the river since she could walk.
At preschool they would do beach school sessions by the river.
Last Summer she took her paints to record a day we spent at Lympstone harbour.
She painted her brother on his favourite place – Darling’s Rock.

Vicky Fitzgibbon

Fred aged 10.
During the Summer of 2020 my favourite place to go with my family was down to the river and jump off Darling Rock.

Vicky Fitzgibbon

As a family we usually walk down to the village or towards Exmouth but one day 3 of us chose to walk towards Exton instead. 
As the tide was very low we found a football, 2 tennis balls and some metal and an enormous piece of wood, more like a tree trunk.
We visited an abandoned boat that we hadn’t seen before.
It took longer to walk home laden with our finds. 

Vicky Fitzgibbon

I love it when I see the swans that visit the village, usually at high tide.
We also spot avocets and egrets and love watching & listening to them. 
We loved seeing the kingfishers on one of our bigger adventures. 

Vicky Fitzgibbon

Mon 7th Jan 2021

Swam this morning by lifeboat station at 8.00am. Air temperature about 5oC. Water temp ~9oC (?).  1 hour off full tide – water calm; swam to second buoy.

Jimmy Joy

Sun 10th Feb 2021

Air temperature 2oC; water a little colder – tide fully out at 8.00am. Calm water, beautiful sunrise.

Jimmy Joy

Have been swimming here most days since November 2020. Usually at 8.00am in morning. Love the changing landscape of sky, water and beach. No day is the same, always changing, always different. Love the community of fellow swimmers all socially distanced but encouraging of one another. 

Love the walks up the estuary from Exmouth to Lympstone on the cycle trail or along the shoreline. Love the views across the river to Starcross from Half Moon island. 

When the tide is out, love the wading birds, their business as they forage for food and their cries carried in the wind. Love the phenomenon of all this water in the estuary filling up and emptying twice per day and the life this brings. Feels like a wonder of the world.

Jimmy Joy

I walk along the path above the estuary most days when going into town. I often see a kingfisher at low tide usually sitting in exactly the same spot. How wonderful to be able to get so close to it. It never seems to be bothered by people walking above it.
On other days I walk along the cycle path to Lympstone and back along the shore-line (never the other way round for some reason). Two different views of the estuary. The walk back can be slippery but there’s always different patterns and surprises at ground level.
On a windy day, I love the view from Imperial Park where you can often see kite surfers, windsurfers, canoists having fun.
As the Summer comes along, the sight of dinghy sailing and the unmistakeable noise of the wind blowing through the rigging of yachts means that warm days are ahead.
In the Winter I am always astonished to see fishermen spending hours digging for worms on even the coldest of days. What dedication to fishing.
I am so lucky to have a view of this ever-changing landscape from the house, with a backdrop of the rolling Devon countryside. What a privilege!

Jimmy Joy

Childhood memories  

Most of my life has been spent close to the estuary – its sight & smells, its special light, its moods and its wildlife. 

I grew up in the old boatyard manager’s house at Odams (sic) Wharf, next door to Bidefords Boatyard, where the old clinker boats were still being built. 

We played along the river bank and around the railway bridge at Topsham. There was a pathway along the bank of the river, left by the narrow gauge railway that was once used to transport guano, I believe. 

We used to turn stones over and watch the crabs run away and we lost many a wellington boot in the thick mud. Sometimes, the men from the boatyard would swim in the river. (a sport that had finished by the 60s). 

There was an inlet with tenders and we children inherited one from friends and would row out under the bridge to the estuary at Topsham, or up the Clyst towards the Bridge Inn and its weir. Later we had double canoes and my sister and I would paddle one while our neighbours paddled another. 

Huge shoals of mullet used to explore the Clyst at high tide – one local man used to fire into the shoal with a shotgun and then paddle a boat out to pick them up out of the water. An unusual technique!

Occasionally the family would take the ferry from Topsham over to Double Locks (it ran from the same place as it does now), and walk down to Turf along the path between the estuary and the canal. 

In the early 60s our house was flooded after a big storm – I came downstairs in my bare feet and found the bottom 2 steps sodden. In the front room the carpet had been rolled up and balanced on top of the piano.

Mary Turner

I moved back to the estuary as an adult with 2 children, into a house on the post-war housing estate in Lympstone. 

The children would climb Darling Rock in the harbour, with its teetering slab of rock (now eroded away) on the top. My son learned to sail, igniting a lifelong passion. 

The estuary is home to me in a way that no house could ever be. I can see the mood of the estuary and the state of the tide from my distant view. Living so close to the estuary means that skeins of Canada geese sometimes fly over my garden at dusk, and that iconically seaside sound of gulls is ever present. 

I love to watch the waders feeding in the outgoing tide – oyster-catchers used to be prolific, but are more scarce now. The sound of the curlew – at once mournful and nostalgic – is one of my greatest pleasures. 

The train journey between Exmouth and Exeter is a bird-spotter’s delight, and sometimes I would take the train to work, relishing the journey, often made at dawn and dusk.

Mary Turner

Since March 2020

Lympstone in Covid times

Since March 2020 I have walked around Lympstone almost every day, and my walk inevitably incorporates the estuary – walking the foreshore when the tides permit. 

I have felt very fortunate to live in a place which offers me so much, with its country lanes and footpaths, its open spaces and its beautiful foreshore. With its iconic harbour, where the old fishing net lines are now hung with laundry drying in the breeze. 

I carry my camera with me, and have photographed many of the birds I have seen, and tried to capture the estuary in its many moods and lights.

Mary Turner

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