Dawlish
Dawlish is an English seaside resort town and civil parish in Teignbridge on the south coast of Devon, from the county town of Exeter and the larger resort of Torquay. Its population was around 16,000 in 2018, and was expected to grow strongly in coming years, as several large housing estates were under construction, mainly in the north and east of the town. It had grown in the 18th century from a small fishing port into a well-known seaside resort, as had its near neighbour, Teignmouth, in the 19th century.
Description
Dawlish is located at the outlet of a small river, Dawlish Water, between Permian red sandstone cliffs, and is fronted by a sandy beach with the South Devon Railway sea wall and the Riviera Line railway above. Behind this is a central public park, The Lawn, through which Dawlish Water flows.Immediately to the south-west of Dawlish is a headland, Lea Mount, with Boat Cove at its foot and Coryton Cove, the furthest part of the beach accessible by the seawall path behind it. There is an Italian food kiosk there. To the north-east, via the beach or seawall, the coast can be followed for some 2 km to Langstone Rock and the resort of Dawlish Warren beyond.
Dawlish is also known for its black swans, introduced from Western Australia, which live with other exotic waterfowl in a small urban sanctuary on Dawlish Water. There are several attractions in and around the town, such as beaches, safari mini-golf, a waterfowl centre, a theatre, a leisure centre with a pool, a countryside park, and the Dawlish Museum.
Toponymy
The name Dawlish derives from a Welsh river name meaning black stream. There was also a Roman translation of Dolfisc, meaning 'Dark river' and 'The Devils Water'. It was first recorded in 1044 as Doflisc. By 1086 it was Dovles; in 1302, Dovelish; and by 1468 it had become the more recognisable Dawlisshe.History
Before Dawlish itself was settled, fishermen and salt makers came down from the higher ground where they lived, to take advantage of the natural resources available on the coast hereabouts. They built salterns to produce salt and stored it in sheds nearby. The unpredictable nature of the stream, Dawlish Water, during floods is likely to have led to nearby Teignmouth being the preferred site for salt-making, and the practice stopped at Dawlish during the Anglo-Saxon period.The earliest settlement at Dawlish grew up almost a mile away from the coast, around the area where the parish church is today. There is evidence of early settlements at Aller Farm, Smallacombe, Lidwell and at Higher and Lower Southwood, where the ground would have been fertile and not subject to flooding.
The land that includes present-day Dawlish was granted by Edward the Confessor to Leofric, later the first Bishop of Exeter, in 1044. After the Norman Conquest, Leofric gave the land to the Diocese of Exeter, which held it until it was sold, in 1802.
Little of note happened at Dawlish until the end of the 18th century, when seaside locations on the south coast started to become popular with the wealthy, mainly caused by George III making Weymouth in Dorset his summer holiday residence from 1789. In May 1795, the antiquarian and topographer John Swete spent some time in Dawlish and reported that although not long ago it had been no more than a fishing village, and the best lodging house would not cost more than half a guinea per week, it was now so fashionable that "in the height of the season, not a house of the least consequence is to be hired for less than two guineas a week, and many of them rise to so high a sum as four or five."
In the first decade of the 19th century the land between the original settlement and the sea was "landscaped"; the stream was straightened, small waterfalls were built into it, and it was flanked by a broad lawn and rows of new houses: The Strand on the north side and Brunswick Place on the south. The entire layout survives remarkably unchanged today, despite severe damage from a torrent of water coming down Dawlish Water from the Haldon Hills on the night of 10 November 1810.
Also worth noting are Manor House and Brook House and some of the cottages in Old Town Street surviving from the old village. Dawlish's transformation from a fishing settlement to a watering hole for Victorian celebrities is documented at the Dawlish Museum.
Brunel's railway
In 1830, Isambard Kingdom Brunel designed a railway, which operated on a pneumatic principle, using a 15-inch iron tube. One of the pumping stations was in this town. The line ran right along the seafront, but Brunel ensured that the line was carried across the mouth of the stream on a small granite viaduct, leaving access to the beach.The atmospheric railway opened on 30 May 1846 and ran between Exeter St Davids and Newton Abbot. The first passenger train ran in September 1847, but the project was besieged with problems mainly with the leather sealing valve, which after 12 months of use needed replacing at a cost of £25,000. South Devon Railway directors abandoned the project in favour of conventional trains.
Literary connections
After visiting Sidmouth in 1801, Jane Austen spent a long holiday at Dawlish in 1802, later complaining about its "particularly pitiful and wretched library". She mentioned the town several times in her 1811 novel Sense and Sensibility. In Charles Dickens' Nicholas Nickleby the protagonist inherits a small farm near Dawlish. The novelist and poet Margaret Holford died in Dawlish on 11 September 1852, aged 84. The Romantic poet John Keats wrote a poem titled "Dawlish fair".Transport
is in the town centre next to the beach. It offers trains to most stations in Devon and to London, Birmingham, Manchester and further afield. The line includes one of the memorable stretches of British track for its natural environment, but at high cost, as a constant battle with sea erosion makes it one of the dearest lines to maintain. A storm in 1974 washed away much of the station's down platform. In the UK storms of January–February 2014 waves brought down the sea wall and washed away a section of line, leaving the permanent way suspended.The 2014 storm raised questions about the vulnerability of the South Devon Railway sea wall to storm damage and proposals were made to route Plymouth-bound rail services further inland, by re-opening the disused railway line via Okehampton and Tavistock, re-opening the former Teign Valley Line, or reviving a 1930s GWR project to construct the Dawlish Avoiding Line. In May 2019, Network Rail started to improve the sea defences along the sea wall at Marine Parade, south of the station, promising a wider, more accessible walkway with seating and lighting, and greater protection from the sea.
The A379 road from Exeter to Torbay/Dartmouth/Plymouth runs through the town, parallel to the railway line.
Buses in the town are provided by Stagecoach_South_West. Services include Hop 2 from Exeter to Newton Abbot which runs every 30 minutes, an hourly 2B service to Exeter via Marsh Barton, and Hop 22 from Dawlish Warren to Torquay which runs every hour. In summer, the 222 open-top bus from Dawlish Warren to Teignmouth also runs every hour.
There is a local bus, the 186, which links the town centre, hospital and Sainsbury's to the main housing areas.
Climate
Dawlish has a mild, oceanic climate, bordering on a warm to cool Mediterranean climate according to the Köppen climate classification. This is due to decreased precipitation over the summer period and surplus rainfall in the winter. Often termed the "English Riviera" along with Teignmouth and the Torbay towns, Dawlish rarely has snow or frost, boasts outdoor subtropical plants such as palms, olives, bananas and lemons. Extremes of temperature are rare: temperatures over 30C or under 0C are infrequent. It is one of the sunniest places in the United Kingdom, with an average of nearly 1800 hrs per year. Despite having more favourable conditions than much of the rest of the UK particularly in summer, the wet season can bring copious amounts of rain, and when areas of low pressure move up the English Channel, easterly winds can generate large storm surges and waves that can lead to dramatic conditions along the seafront.Local produce
During the early and middle part of the 20th century, Dawlish became known for Devon Violets perfume, and hundreds of varieties were grown in market gardens surrounding the town. Violet escapees can be found growing wild across the area. Lately the town has become known for growing freesias, daffodils and strawberries.Retail and employment
Centered on The Strand, Queen street, Brunswick Place, and Park Road; Dawlish has a typical retail offering for a tourist town with numerous gift shops, cafes, bakeries, restaurants and pubs, a sports bar, and ice-cream shops; national chains such as Boots and Co-op, and many independent retailers. In recent years, a number of art, craft and antiques shops have opened. At the north-eastern end of the town there is a Sainsbury's supermarket with an Argos store and a petrol station. The largest employment sector in the town sector is health and social work, explained by the large number of care homes in the town, followed by accommodation and food services.Religion
The town has several places of worship:- Dawlish Baptist Church
- Dawlish Christian Fellowship
- Dawlish Methodist Church
- Dawlish Strand Church
- St Agatha's Church
- St Gregory's Church
Schools and education