Saxon Lymington

The earliest settlement in the Lymington area was at the Iron Age fort at Buckland known as The Buckland Rings. The hill and ditches of this fort still remain.

Lymington began as a Saxon village. The Saxons arrived in the 6th century. They founded a settlement called ‘limen tun’. The word ‘tun’ means a farm or hamlet, The name ‘Limen’ is believed to be a Celtic name meaning either elm river or, perhaps, marshy river, So Lymington was known as the village by the marshy river.

At the time of Domesday Book in 1086 the settlement was called 'Lentune'.

Lymington In The Middle Ages

Lymington was made a town by the Lord of the manor, William de Redvers, during the period between 1190 and 1200.

He gave Lymington a charter (a document granting the people of the town certain rights). Lymington was given the right to hold a market, Merchants and craftsmen would come to live in or near Lymington to sell their goods at the market.

As well as a weekly market Lymington held an annual fair. In the Middle Ages fairs were like markets but they were held only once a year for a few days. People would come from far and wide to buy and sell at these fairs. After 1315 Lymington only had 2 of these fairs.

The original settlement of Lymington was a group of huts beside the shore edge, Until the Lord of the manor enlarged Lymington. He laid out a High Street, which was made extra wide to accommodate the market, Which to this day still runs every Saturday.

From the Middle Ages until the 19th century Lymington was famous for making salt. It was made from seawater. It was left to evaporate in the sun or boiled in copper pans leaving a salt residue. The salt was then taken by sea to other parts of England. This was done in the part of the town now known as ‘The Salterns’.

In the Middle Ages Lymington was a small but busy port. Wine was imported from France and cloth woven in Salisbury was exported. Much to the annoyance of the people of Southampton.

In time of war, ports were required to provide the king with merchant ships, which could be easily converted to warships. Ports like Lymington were also required to provide crews for the ships. In 1346 during a war with France, Lymington was required to provide Edward III with 9 ships and 159 men.

During the hundred years war (which dragged on through the 14th and 15th centuries) the French attacked and burned Lymington twice. Once in 1338 (when they also attacked Southampton and Portsmouth) and again in 1370.

The first mention of a mayor of Lymington was in 1412.

The 16th And 17th Centuries

In 1545 the French again attacked and burned Lymington.

In 1685 the Protestant Duke of Monmouth led a rebellion against the Catholic King James II.

The townspeople wholeheartedly supported him. They raised a troop of cavalry who were led by the mayor. However the rebellion was crushed.

In the late 17th century a boatbuilding industry began in Lymington.

Celia Fiennes the travel writer said of Lymington: 'Lymington is a seaport town. It has some few small ships and some little trade but the greatest trade is by their Salterns'.

In the early 18th century Daniel Defoe said that all of Southern England obtained its salt from Lymington.

Smuggling In Lymington

By the early 18th century another industry was flourishing in Lymington - smuggling! 

In one tale of smuggling in Lymington it is said that some weeping passengers and downcast crew came ashore from a ship that was moored here with the sad news that the captain had expired during the voyage. A doctor was called, and he duly certified the captain as deceased, and called the undertakers.

Soon a sombre procession including the local customs men headed up the main high street, to drown their sorrows. The mourners called at ‘The Angel Inn’ (Originally called ‘The George Inn’, it is the oldest Inn in Lymington), where the King's men were especially well treated. The cortège continued, in a slightly less dignified manner, but as soon as there was a clear road, the hearse sped off so they were far away from the funeral, and the coffin and its contents of contraband were spirited away to a safer spot, no doubt to the benefit of undertakers, doctor and all of the mourners. There is good reason to believe that this ruse would have been successful even if the customs men had not had their brains fuddled by drink, The vicar was in league with the smugglers too, and he allowed the tower of St Thomas' church to be used for storage.

Lymington's most famous smuggler must be Tom Johnstone. He was born here in 1772 and was brought up as a fisherman by his smuggling father. By 12 he had already developed formidable skills of seamanship, and knew the south coast of England well enough to act as a pilot to virtually anywhere. By 15 he was a smuggler himself. When he was 21 he was taken prisoner by the French, and briefly languished in a French prison. He soon negotiated release, agreeing to carry messages on board a smuggling cutter to a spy in England. However, his jubilation at being released was short-lived, for the cutter was intercepted by a naval vessel during the crossing. Though Johnstone managed to avoid arrest by handing over the package of letters, he was grabbed by the press-gang as soon as the ship docked at Southampton.

He fought free of the press gang and escaped, He then volunteered as a navy pilot in the campaign to drive the French out of Holland. His skill as a navigator to the expedition won him a cheque for £1000 — a staggering sum in those days — a free pardon, and a personal letter of gratitude from the commanding officer. With these advantages, Tom was able to set up a fashionable household in London, and he began to lead a lavish lifestyle, running up debts of £11,000.

In 1802 his creditors caught up with him, and Johnstone was thrown into the Fleet prison. No prison could hold him for long, though.

This report soon appeared in a newspaper:

Johnstone recovered from his wounds in France, and was persuaded to take up the guinea run, smuggling gold from England to pay Napoleon's armies. Significantly, Johnstone does not seem to have regarded this activity as unpatriotic — despite the fact that England and France were then at war.

In the final phase of Johnstone's career he became the commander of the revenue cutter HMS Fox, pursuing his former comrades with all the vigilance of a poacher turned gamekeeper.

He eventually retired with a navy pension at the age of 44. Johnstone died — remarkably peacefully, after such an active life — at the age of 67.

(The above smuggling information is used with the kind permission of www.smuggling.co.uk)

The 18th Century

In 1731 a wealthy miller from Boldre named William Cross built a dam across the river to create a good head of water to work his mill a couple of miles upstream, much to the annoyance of the townspeople. The river tended to silt up and this was made worse by the dam. He later turned the dam into a toll bridge (Below).

In 1899 the second lord Montagu was driving King Edward VII on one of his first car rides, but at the toll bridge was made to wait by the gatekeeper, who was still annoyed after someone had sped across earlier that day without paying the toll fee. The king was very amused by this incident.

In 1738 the first poor house was built in Lymington. The destitute went to live there.

The first theatre in Lymington was built in 1771 in New Lane.

In 1783 a new prison was built in the High Street.

Anyone who uses the Lymington river, must have at some time noticed the slender tapering concrete point poking out through the tops of the trees on Mount Pleasant Hill situated on the right hand bank just past the ferry terminal. (As seen in the picture below from the town quay visitors moorings.)

This is an obelisk, It is a memorial dedicated to the memory of Sir Harry Burrard Neale born in 1765 and died at Brighton on 7^th February 1840 aged 75, he was buried at Lymington Church.

He held the office of Member of Parliament for Lymington at different times between 1790 and 1835. He gained the office of a Lord of the Admiralty between 1804 and 1807, and the rank of Admiral of the Royal Navy in 1810. He was invested as a Knight Commander and a Knight Grand Cross Order of the Bath in 1815 and 1822 respectively, then a Knight Grand Cross in the Order of St Michael and St George in 1824.

In 1825, he became Commander-in-Chief of the Mediterranean Fleet of the Royal Navy. During his naval career he saw a considerable amount of action and under his orders 20 enemy ships of war were destroyed.

The obelisk (Right) was erected in the 4^th year reign of queen Victoria and unveiled by her majesty Adelaide, the queen dowager their royal highnesses duchess of Gloucester & Princess Augusta. The obelisk can be viewed by a road via Monument Lane which is situated opposite the Wightlink ferry terminal vehicle entrance, a little way up on the left hand side.

‘Burrard Inlet’ (Above) it is a relatively shallow-sided coastal fjord in south-western British Columbia. Formed during the last Ice Age, it separates the City of Vancouver and the rest of the low-lying Burrard Peninsula (to the south) from the slopes of the North Shore Mountains, home to the communities of West Vancouver and the City and District of North Vancouver.

The first Spanish explorer in the region, Captain Alcalá Galiano named the inlet Canal de Florida Blanca upon seeing it on June 19, 1792. Just days later, the inlet was again named by Captain George Vancouver, after his friend Sir Harry Burrard Neale.

The 19th Century

By the time of the first census in 1801 the population of Lymington was 2,378. It would seem very small to us but by the standards of the time it was a small market town.

The cricket club in Lymington was founded in 1807.

The football club was founded in 1876.

Lymington gained gas street lighting in 1832.

The town obtained it’s water from over 600 wells until 1884 when a piped water supply was obtained from borings at Ampress, which was conveyed to a water tower near the cricket field.

Until the middle of the century there was a town hall standing in the middle of the High Street (Below),

between ‘The Angel Inn’ & ‘The Nags Head’ (‘The Nags Head’ changed it’s name to ‘The Londesborough’, Now a ‘Boots’ Opticians). The town hall was demolished in 1858.

In 1836 the first real police force in Lymington was formed. It merged with the county constabulary in 1853.

This picture shows the rowing ferry crossing the harbour breaking the ice with pickaxes. One ferryman 'Puffer' Tomkins who late one night around 1930, worse for drink was rowing an old lady out to old ferry house. On his return trip 'Puffer' fell into the river and clung onto the stern of the boat. 'Puffer's' worried son later rowed out in the darkness to haul his father out from the cold water. Despite an injection administered by Dr Pitt, 'Puffer' died of hypothermia. 

A fire brigade was formed in 1889.

In 1833 the seawater baths opened, an open air swimming pool. (The Baths Today, Below)

In 1836 the poorhouse was rebuilt. This time it was called the workhouse and conditions inside were made deliberately harsh to discourage 'idlers' from seeking help.

In 1830 the first paddle steamer travelled between Lymington and Yarmouth.

By 1893 ‘PS Lymington’ (Below) was the smallest paddle steamer to sail to the Isle of Wight,

It was built to replace ‘PS Mayflower’ (Below).

Paddle Steamer 'Solent' (Above) turning at the pier.

The railway reached Lymington in 1858.

In the early 19th century salt making was still a flourishing industry. The seawater was boiled using coal brought in barges by sea. But in the early 19th century the salt trade declined. For one thing Lymington was further from the coalfields than other places where salt was manufactured and the cost of transporting the coal had to be passed on to the consumer. Then in the mid-19th century mineral salt was discovered in Cheshire, which provided a cheap new source, and the Lymington industry promptly died out. The last salt works closed in 1865.

There had been a boat building industry in Lymington since the late 17th century. From the early 19th century there was specifically a yacht making industry.

The population of Lymington was 4,182 in 1851 but it hardly changed in the second half of the 19th century.

In 1901 it stood at 4,165. The end of population growth was largely because of the death of the salt trade.

But in the 20th century new industries came to Lymington and population growth began again...

The 20th Century

The quay looking towards 'The Ship' & the fisherman's quay (Above).

Looking towards the town quay (Above). In the foreground is the pontoon where passengers alighted on the halfpenny rowing boat ferry. Along the riverfront at the quay are Mew Langton's brewery buildings.

The paddle steamer Mayflower iced up off the quay in 1908 (Above).

Disaster hit Lymington in 1909 when there was a severe flood (Above).

One of the greatest legendary characters of the Lymington River was Dan Bran (Above). The son of seaman George Bran, he was born at the waterford end of town and named by his mother as Daniel Plat Bran,  after colonel platoff who was standing for parliament at the time. After learning the trade at Lymington shipyard and at Poole, Dan began his own boatbuilding business in 1910, in a large shed on the river's edge by the seawater baths (Below).

He designed and built the first 11-foot 'Lymington Pram' in 1912 for keen racing yachtsman Captain Nicholson of Creek Cottage, then in 1925 came the 14-foot pram. His famous Lymington Scows underwent a revival in the 1980's. Dan never worked to plans for boatbuilding, but would draw lines on the dirt floor of his shed and say 'I keep the Measurements in my head'. He lived in King's Saltern Road, next door to the Mayflower Hotel, where his drinking capacity was equally renowned - and was not averse to firing his shotgun at any intruder on the river, he once fired both barrels of his 12-bore shotgun into the wheelhouse of Southern Railways Lymington to Yarmouth ferry 'Solent' (Below) after repeatedly complaining that the wash from the paddle-steamer had caused his dinghies to break from their moorings. Dan Bran's shed was burned to the ground - many believe it was arson - and he died in December 1950, followed by his wife one week later.

At the top end of the high street a cinema called the Lyric was built in 1912 by local builders Rashley with seating inside for 500 people. The cinema (Above) also acted as an army recruiting office during the first world war. On the site now stands a ‘M & S’ supermarket. The Cinema closed in 1963.

In 1913 a hospital was opened in Lymington. The money to build it came from voluntary donations. The hospital was demolished at the end of 2006.

A new Town Hall was built in 1913. It was demolished in 1966 to make way for the Earley Court shopping precinct.

27th May 1913 a fire destroyed 5 houses in Belmore Lane (Above).

In 1919 the Wellworthy engineering works was founded. It closed in 1989.

A yacht club was founded in the 1880’s which soon faded re-emerging again in 1914, to last only one season. This club, ‘The Lymington River Sailing Club’ was re-founded in 1922 to become ‘The Royal Lymington Yacht Club’ in 1938.

In 1932 slum clearance began in Lymington.

The picture above was taken in 1905 showing the old Fords furniture shop in St Thomas Street next door to the six bells pub. In 1941 Fords was destroyed by a German bombing raid and then rebuilt.

The river looking north towards the quay (Above), in the days before the riverbank was reinforced. The tall building on the opposite bank, to the right, is the Pierside Laundry. This was originally built as a theatre and place of entertainment. The laundry with many rows of washing lines at the rear to dry the clothing. There were approximately 50 employees, in later times the site was used as an engineering works.

Lymington gained a new coat of arms in 1965.' By Sea And Forest Enchanted '

The Fortuna Dock Area, 1960’s.

The Town Quay Area Looking Towards The Railway Bridge, Winter 1963.

In 1989 another severe flood affected Lymington.

Previous Harbour Master Fred Woodford, Previous Chairman of The Commissioners Mike Corbin & Previous Harbour Assistant Jason Coombes After The 1989 Floods.

The Lifeboat Station in Bath Road, With The Mayflower Pub In The Background.

Harbour Masters In Lymington

For more on the history of Lymington visit the St Barbe Museum in Lymington.

Click Logo for directions.

This History of Lymington page was compiled by J.G.Coombes. August 2007.

Thanks also go to www.smuggling.co.uk