Unearthing Lymington’s Best-Kept Secrets – Stunning 4K Walking Tour

Unearthing Lymington’s Best-Kept Secrets – Stunning 4K Walking Tour

Lymington is a port town on the west bank of the Lymington River on the Solent, in the New Forest district of Hampshire, England. The town faces Yarmouth, Isle of Wight, to which there is a car ferry service that operates daily It is within the civil parish of Lymington and Pennington.

The town has a large tourist industry, based on its 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.

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 is unusual. The coldest recorded temperature in 43 years of records was −11.1 °C (12.0 °F) in January 1963. The highest locally recorded temperature was 33.5 °C (92.3 °F) in June 1976.

In terms of history, 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 the Domesday book (1086). Lymington itself began as an Anglo-Saxon village.

The Jutes arrived in the area from the Isle of Wight in the 6th century and founded a settlement called Limentun. The Old English word tun means a farm or hamlet whilst limen is derived from the Ancient British word lemanos meaning an elm tree. 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.

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.

Information from Rotary: From this river on the 3rd of June 1944 sailed the 2nd Battalion of the Essex regiment The Pompadours to take part in Operation Overlord. They landed in Normandy on the 6th of June “D-Day”, Liberating Bayeanx on the 7th of June. Lest we forget.

This is the Lymington Quay, the famous cobbled street that lies within this city for a long time Today, it is one of the main photographic places in Lymington and a place where unique local shops can be found.

We have now arrived at the Lymington High Street which is the main shopping street of the town. 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 during 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.

However, a second proposal by Wetherspoons in 2012 was successful and a pub named The Six Bells opened in 2013. 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 several 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.

As well as Germans and Dutch, there were French émigrés and French regiments. They were raised to take part in the ill-fated Quiberon Invasion of France, from which few returned 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. 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 Lymington was among the boroughs reformed by the Municipal Corporations Act 1835. In 1932 it was extended to include Milton, 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. 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. This is St Barbe Museum which is an important local museum and art gallery in Lymington

Enclosed in the building is a small cafe called ‘The Old School Cafe’, a gift shop, a multi-use room named ‘The Mac Carthy Room’ a museum showcasing artefacts and historical information about the Lymington and the New Forest, and a medium-sized gallery, used for art and historical exhibitions.

Since it opened fully in 1999 the museum has developed a reputation for the quality of its displays and its excellent exhibition programme. This achievement has been recognised by full registered status, loans from national museums, including the Tate Gallery and the V&A, inclusion in the National Maritime Museum pilot touring exhibition scheme

And, most recently, by the award of a major Heritage Lottery Fund grant to develop the museum’s lifelong learning services. The St. Barbe Museum + Art Gallery project first began to take shape in 1988 with the formation of the Friends of Lymington Museum who began to campaign for a museum for the town.

The following year the Friends began collecting objects which now form part of a varied collection numbering several thousand objects. In 1992 the Lymington Museum Trust was set up and began the serious business of developing a museum for Lymington and the district.

The major breakthrough came when New Forest District Council provided an old school building on New Street and Hampshire County Council Museum Service assisted with the employment of a full-time curator. The Museum in a Room, the museum shop and a Visitor Information Centre opened in 1995.

With the aid of a Heritage Lottery Fund grant, work began on creating the present museum displays and art galleries. The latter opened in 1997 and a continuous exhibition programme has been running since April 1998. The museum displays opened in March 1999 and received 2,000 visitors on the first day.

The museum is now concentrating on developing its educational resources and services and the employment of an Education & Access Officer will be a vital part of a project to encourage schools, and adult and informal learners to use the museum.

The museum is also playing an increasingly important role in the wider New Forest museum and arts community. The building in front of us is the Church of St Thomas the Apostle It is the main Anglican Church of England parish church for the town.

There has been a church on the site for 800 years and the original foundations are believed to date to the reign of Henry III but were largely rebuilt in the 17th and 18th centuries. The church was originally built as a Chapel of Christchurch Priory and has been expanded over the centuries.

The tower was added around 1670 and in 1953, the church was designated Grade II listed. The tower, with its distinctive cupola, holds a peal of 8 bells, the Tenor (the biggest bell) weighs 3lbs and strikes the note Eb.

Three of the bells date from 1901 and were cast by John Taylor & Co in Loughborough. The other five bells were cast by Robert II Wells in 1785. Information from Rotary: The foundation of this wall, which extended southwards down church land, is of considerable antiquity

And indicate the western boundary of the ancient borough, founded 1200AD by William De Redvers 5th Earl of Devon. Lymington town is divided into several 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.

Pennington is a village near 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.

Lower Pennington and Woodside lie adjacent to Woodside Park, 20ha public park bequeathed to the people of Lymington in 1925 by Colonel Henry Douglas Rooke. The park includes formal gardens and sports fields including a cricket ground. The neighbourhood consists of a small southern triangle of residential and rural lanes,

Which include a manor house, 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.

Normandy is a coastal hamlet with a tiny dock, salterns and estuary. It includes the buildings Normandy Garth, Little Normandy and Normandy Farm. The last is back onto De La Warr House, an early 19th-century listed building. 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. In this wild tale of smuggling in Lymington, there’s a story about a ship moored here, where sad news spread that the captain had kicked the bucket at sea.

A doctor showed up, confirmed the captain’s demise, and called in the undertakers. Next thing he knew, a gloomy crew, along with local customs guys, paraded up the main street, probably drowning their sorrows.

They swung by ‘The Angel Inn’ (originally ‘The George Inn’), the oldest joint in Lymington, where the King’s men got top-notch treatment. The whole march continued, a bit less dignified, but once they had a clear path, the hearse zoomed off, making sure they were miles away from the funeral.

The coffin, loaded with contraband, vanished to a safer spot – a win for the undertakers, doc, and all the mourners. Even if the customs folks weren’t a bit tipsy, this trick probably would’ve worked. The vicar was apparently in cahoots with the smugglers, letting St Thomas’ church tower be a stash spot.

Now, let’s talk about Lymington’s rockstar smuggler, Tom Johnstone. Born here in 1772, he grew up as a fisherman under his smuggling dad. By 12, he was already a sea whiz, knowing the south coast well enough to be a pilot anywhere. At 15, he was already pulling off smuggling gigs.

Fast forward to 21, and he got nabbed by the French, briefly chilling in a French slammer. He negotiated his way out by agreeing to deliver messages on a smuggling cutter to a spy in England. But his joy was short-lived, as the cutter got intercepted by a naval ship.

Despite handing over the letters, he got grabbed by a press gang once the ship docked at Southampton. But Tom fought free, escaped, and then volunteered as a navy pilot in the campaign against the French in Holland.

His navigating skills scored him a hefty £1000, a free pass, and a personal thanks from the boss. With these perks, Tom set up a swanky pad in London, living large and racking up £11,000 in debts. In 1802, his creditors caught up, throwing him into the Fleet prison.

But no prison could hold him for long. There’s this crazy story in the newspapers about how Johnstone busted out of a strongroom with double doors. He forced out panels, crawled through, and reached the gallery, then the high prison wall.

A rope ladder from friends awaited, and he hightailed it to the coast, where a lugger took him to Calais on his way to flushing. Despite a nasty thigh wound during the escape, he recovered in France. During that time, he started smuggling gold to pay Napoleon’s armies.

Surprisingly, Johnstone didn’t see it as unpatriotic, even with England and France at each other’s throats. In the final chapter of his wild life, he captained the revenue cutter HMS Fox, chasing down his old smuggling friend. He finally hung up his hat at 44, retiring with a Navy pension.

And after such a lively ride, Tom Johnstone passed away peacefully at 67. [Information Board]: Running & Walking the Bird Migration Trail: By following the way-marked migration trail, you will not only improve your fitness and well-being,

But learning about the amazing migratory journeys undertaken by some of the birds you can see on the reserve. The fabulous coastal landscape is managed by Hampshire County Council’s Country Side Service. It provides a crucial stop-off for birds migrating north and south,

As well as a home for thousands of water birds escaping the harsh arctic winter. We have now arrived at the Lymington and Keyhaven Marshes Local Nature Reserve Lymington and Keyhaven Marshes Local Nature Reserve is an area of coastal grazing marsh. It lies between the town of Lymington and the coastal village of Keyhaven.

Hampshire County Council began purchasing the area in 1974 when it bought Normandy Farm. Pennington Marshes were bought in 1979 followed in 1984 by Keyhaven Marshes. This far-sighted policy was a response to the rapid rate of development and loss of habitat in previous decades.

Bringing this area into public ownership was the only way to protect it for future generations to enjoy. By 2006 the reserve extended from the mouth of the Lymington River almost to the village of Keyhaven and covered over 500 acres.

The Hampshire & Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust’s involvement in the Lymington area started in 1961, its first year of existence. It entered into an agreement with the Ministry of Public Buildings and Works, to warden an area at the end of Hurst Spit.

In the same year, 20 acres of salterns at Lymington became a private nature reserve. The Wildlife Trust’s reserve started to expand in 1980 and now encompasses over 700 ha. Today the combined area of the two reserves covers well over 1200 hectares.

It incorporates mudflats, salt marshes, shingle banks, coastal grazing marshes, and saline lagoons. The reserve supports important populations of birds and rare and specialist plants and invertebrates. Since the construction of the new seawall in the early 1990s the number of visitors to the reserves has increased.

Despite this, the reserves continue to offer people a great opportunity to enjoy this unique area and its wildlife. The saline lagoons are bodies of salt or brackish water that are partially connected to the sea through narrow openings or permeable barriers. On the Lymington-Keyhaven marshes, the lagoons lie just inside the seawall.

They are connected to the sea by sluices. Salt water also percolates through the sands and gravel below. The lagoons vary in size from less than 2m to over 200m in width. For most of their length, the lagoons are relatively narrow ditches about 50 cm deep with muddy bottoms.

As well as sea water the lagoons receive freshwater as rainwater, runoff from adjacent land and from nearby streams. The amount of freshwater dilutes the sea water reducing the salinity. In hot weather, salinity levels can rise as evaporation removes freshwater.

Lagoons show a great fluctuation in salinity and temperature making them a hostile environment for most marine species. Some highly specialised organisms have evolved to take advantage of these conditions. These lagoonal specialists have restricted distributions and are rare.

Some species that occur on the reserve are the lagoon shrimp, starlet anemone, lagoon cockle and foxtail stonewort. More obvious residents of the lagoons are birds which use them throughout the year. Species including little egrets, teal and little tern feed in the lagoons.

Waders such as curlew, sandpiper, dunlin and little stint stop off on their long migratory journeys. Much of the reserve consists of rough grazing marsh. These areas are often flooded and become dominated by rush. They are important for wintering birds and also support populations of breeding waders in the summer months.

On higher ground scrub has developed. This habitat supports many specialist breeding birds including Linnet and Dartford warbler. There is a small area of vegetated shingle at Iley Point which supports a diverse flora. The land here was a former shingle spit connected to the seawall to form Keyhaven Lagoon.

There are several small areas of reed beds on the reserve which have developed where the water is not too saline. These support populations of reed warbler and reed bunting. Just inside the seawall lie a series of shallow, brackish lagoons connected to the sea through a system of sluices and tidal flaps.

The salinity in these lagoons varies widely but is generally lower than seawater. This specialised habitat supports its own distinctive plants and animals, some of which are only found in this type of environment. The lagoons are some of the most important in Britain with populations of rare species

including Foxtail Stonewort, Lagoon Shrimp and Starlet Seaanemone. In winter the flooded lagoons are home to wildfowl such as Mallard, Shoveler and Teal. Spring and autumn brings migrant wading birds This includes Whimbrel, Curlew Sandpiper and Little Stint.

The islands within Normandy Lagoon enable Little Tern, Ringed Plover and Oystercatcher to breed in relative safety The mosaic of ponds, ditches, and lagoons on the reserve supports a large number of wetland plants and animals.

In winter wading birds including Black-tailed Godwit, Curlew and Lapwing feed in the flooded pastures alongside Wigeon and Brent Geese. Spring sees the arrival of migrants from the south. Wheatears appear on the shingle at Iley Point and Whitethroats sing from clumps of bramble along the Ancient Highway.

In early summer look out for Linnets and Stonechats perched on Gorse bushes around the reserve. Plants flowering on the seawall include Sea Pink, Rock Samphire and Sea Campion. In late summer the ditches are full of the purple-flowered Sea Aster, These often attract Wall Brown and Painted Lady butterflies.

Several species of dragonfly patrol the waterways catching insects or searching for a mate. Mammals too make a home on the reserve, Roe Deer and Hares are frequently seen around Normandy Marsh while numerous mice and voles provide food for hunting Barn Owls.

Archaeological finds show that a sea salt industry has operated in the Solent for at least 2000 years. The industry flourished and by medieval times was firmly established at Lymington. Salt was obtained by impounding sea water in shallow lagoons known as salterns, and allowing evaporation during the summer months to remove the water.

This activity was undertaken on land that had been reclaimed from the sea through the construction of a series of sea walls. The first reference to a medieval salt industry in the Lymington area comes from the Domesday Book of 1086. Salt remained the principal economic asset of the area throughout the Middle Ages.

By the 17th century records show a flourishing economy in the area. The industry reached its peak early in the 18th century when 163 saltpans were in use at Lymington. Many people were employed during the short late summer/autumn salt-making period.

The smoke and steam from the boiling houses must have given the marshes the appearance of an industrial landscape. During this period sea salt from Lymington was exported as far as Norway, Newfoundland and the USA. The 19th century saw the decline of the industry.

New rail links to the salt mines of Cheshire meant it was cheaper to dig salt from the ground and transport it around the country then extract it from sea water. The final Lymington saltern closed in 1865. Today the reserve features the best preserved example of medieval and later salt workings in southern England

This includes Moses, Maiden and Pennington ‘salt docks’. These docks were used for the importation of coal for boiling houses and the export of salt on barges. Following the demise of the salt industry landowners looked for other sources of income. Most drained their holdings to produce the grazing marshes that exist today.

The marshes have been grazed ever since. Parts have had other uses including a short-lived golf course, a rubbish tip and a rifle range. We have now arrived at the Lymington Yacht Haven, one of the historical yacht hubs in the UK

Derived from the Dutch word “yacht haven” with the same meaning in English “a harbour for yachts” their first marina, Lymington Yacht Haven opened for business in May 1972. Twelve years after plans were first conceived by a group of local yachtsmen,

Including Dutch dredging contractor Hems Kalis, with one shared vision: to build a marina. In the early days, when money was tight, Hems provided a personal guarantee to pay Westminster Dredging Company for the design and build of the marina. Once works started, Lymington Yacht Haven proceeded to sell several 20-year berthing contracts,

Raising capital which paid for marina construction works in full. There were only a few UK yacht marinas in the 1960’s and most boats were kept afloat on river moorings close to a yacht club with basic facilities. The Yacht Havens Group Managing Director Dylan Kalis explains:

“boat owners were obliged to park either at or near their local yacht club and row out to their boat on its mooring. The concept of being able to walk down a pontoon and step onto the boat directly was a huge novelty. Cynics said it would never catch on!”

Reflecting on those early days, Yacht Havens Group Chairman Dirk Kalis added “walk-on pontoons extended many customers’ boating activities by a good decade.” In the early days the 200ft vessel “Medina” served as the temporary marina office and any servicing or maintenance was undertaken in the workshop barge “Actief” until 1977,

When construction began on the main office building. By the late 1980’s, Yacht Havens Group were well-established, involved in building and operating several marina projects around the UK including Largs, Swansea, Hartlepool, and Pwllheli. Fast forward to 2022 and the group now successfully operates from nine locations

This includes in Lymington, Plymouth, North Fambridge, Neyland, Troon and Largs in the UK and Jachthaven Biesbosch in the Netherlands. When talking about Lymington, we also need to talk about the Lymington River. The Lymington River drains part of the New Forest in Hampshire in southern England.

Numerous headwaters to the west of Lyndhurst give rise to the river, This includes Highland Water, Bratley Water and Fletchers Water. From Brockenhurst, the river runs southwards to the Solent at Lymington. Highland Water rises north of the Ocknell Inclosure and flows for 10 km (6 mi) to Bolderford Bridge where it meets Ober Water.

From there, it is known as the Lymington River and flows for a further 12 km (7 mi) to Lymington In 1731 a merchant navy captain, Captain Cross, constructed a causeway and bridge across the estuary to the north of Lymington.

He built toll houses and charged travellers using his causeway, more than a mile south of the existing bridge at Boldre. This impeded the river and further silted up Lymington harbour, losing its minor shipping rapidly. Lymington Corporation pursued the matter in court and lost their case.

In 1795 the mud building up in the estuary “has rendered it already very narrow; and will probably in a few years, so completely choke it up, as to make it unnavigable by any ships of considerable burden.”

The causeway was taken over by the regional rail firm which collected the tolls until, after nationalised rail, it was bought out by Hampshire County Council in 1955 – tolls paid down the price and ceased a few years later. Today silting in the harbour as a result of the structure (almost a dam) occurs,

But is ameliorated by a higher sea level and the scouring effects of the Isle of Wight ferries. Before the structure, it is said the diurnal tide influenced flow up to Brockenhurst.

Against the sea, the outer limit of the end of the estuary’s mud at low tide is 550–650 metres closer to land than in 1895.

Erected by subscription as a tribute of respect and gratitude to Admiral Sir Harry Neale BGCR for his munificent gift of the iron columns for the public lamps in this town The whole of the public lamps were presented to this town by George Burrard Esquire

Explore the wonderful Lymington town and Lymington Marsh in England at 4K 60fps. 🎧 Best with headphones for an immersive experience.

Don’t miss out on this amazing video – subscribe to our channel to get notifications when new content is released!

This route has a total distance of 8 km (4.97 miles).

🗺️ The map route of this walk can be found here 👉 https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/edit?mid=1Janpd-rYAJv0tgtTDso8jQ83fWwADrA&usp=sharing

📍 Location: Lymington, Dorset, UK

📜 Learn about the history and significance of each attraction by turning on Close Caption [CC]
✨ *Subscribe* to Walk with Wat now to join our community of explorers 👉 https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMOg8JDzDejcn7xEtSI3vEQ?sub_confirmation=1

╔═╦╗╔╦╗╔═╦═╦╦╦╦╗╔═╗
║╚╣║║║╚╣╚╣╔╣╔╣║╚╣═╣
╠╗║╚╝║║╠╗║╚╣║║║║║═╣
╚═╩══╩═╩═╩═╩╝╚╩═╩═╝

Timeline of the Lymington walking tour:
0:00:00 – Intro/Preview
0:01:10 – Start of the walking
0:05:10 – Lymington Quay Harbour
0:09:16 – The Quay Lymington
0:12:25 – Lymington High Street
0:24:15 – Walking through the English countryside in the Lymington area
0:54:20 – Lymington Marsh
1:16:30 – Lymington Yacht Haven
1:39:25 – Lymington Quay Harbour

🎥 Filmed in 4K Ultra high-definition for an immersive experience using DJI Osmo Action 3:
https://amzn.to/455gpYx
🎙️ Sound recorded using Zoom H1N Handy Recorder:
https://amzn.to/3ZqrwtI
📸 Additional Footage and Images captured by iPhone 13 Pro Max

#Lymington #HiddenGems #WalkingTour #Captivating #Travel #Explore #Discover #Wanderlust #Nature #Heritage #HistoricalSites #Landmarks #TouristAttractions #ScenicBeauty #CoastalTown #Seaside #NewForest #Hampshire #BeautifulPlaces #BucketList

________
No part of this video may be used or reproduced without my written permission.
All material in this video is original and personally recorded by myself on location.

Copyright © 2024 Walk with Wat. All Rights Reserved.