Downderry ( kw, Downderri) is a coastal village in southeast

Cornwall Cornwall (; kw, Kernow ) is a historic county and ceremonial county in South West England. It is recognised as one of the Celtic nations, and is the homeland of the Cornish people. Cornwall is bordered to the north and west by the Atlantic ...

, England, United Kingdom. It is situated west of

Plymouth Plymouth () is a port city and unitary authority in South West England. It is located on the south coast of Devon, approximately south-west of Exeter and south-west of London. It is bordered by Cornwall to the west and south-west. Plymouth ...

and one mile east of Seaton. Downderry has a long beach of light shingle. There is road access down to the beach via a slipway although this is blocked by a locked gate, pedestrian access is still possible. Dogs are allowed on the beach. The east beach has a reputation as a nudist beach. The village and beach offer views of

Looe Island Looe Island ( kw, Enys Lann-Managh, meaning ''Island of the Monk's Enclosure''), also known as St George's Island, and historically St Michael's Island is a small island nature reserve a mile from the mainland town of Looe off Cornwall, England ...

to the west and

Rame Head Rame Head or Ram Head ( kw, Penn an Hordh) is a coastal headland, southwest of the village of Rame, Maker-with-Rame, Rame in southeast Cornwall, United Kingdom. It is part of the larger Rame Peninsula. History and antiquities The natural ...

to the east and on clear days sight of the

Eddystone Lighthouse The Eddystone Lighthouse is a lighthouse that is located on the dangerous Eddystone Rocks, south of Rame Head in Cornwall, England. The rocks are submerged below the surface of the sea and are composed of Precambrian gneiss. View at 1:50000 ...

to the south. The village has a

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Britain ...

church, a

Methodist Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a group of historically related denominations of Protestant Christianity whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's b ...

chapel, a shop with a post office, a pub, a restaurant, a coffee shop and a primary school. The Church of St Nicolas Downderry began as a mission church to service the growing population of the village. The building dates from the late 19th century.

Points of interest

Bass rock

Approximately east of the village center is a rocky outcrop known locally as "Bass Rock", this is a popular fishing spot as it affords access to deeper water.

Coleadon

further on from Bass Rock are the cliffs of Coleadon, the promontory past these cliffs means access to the beach past this point is cut off at high tide.

The Long Stone (Shag rock)

Past Coleadon is a stretch of beach which ends in a rocky outcrop known locally as "Shag rock" after the seabirds of the same name who can be seen sitting on the rock drying their wings after diving for fish. This marks the end of easy foot access to the coastline. There is a path up the cliff which leads to the road above this beach, the climb is pleasant but reasonably strenuous. The ruins of an old Victorian lodge, known as "St Germans hut", can be found halfway up this cliff path.

Television transmitter

On one of the hills above the village is a television transmitter which serves as a repeater for the local area.

Chain Home bunkers

During the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

Downderry was the site of a

Chain Home Chain Home, or CH for short, was the codename for the ring of coastal Early Warning radar stations built by the Royal Air Force (RAF) before and during the Second World War to detect and track aircraft. Initially known as RDF, and given the off ...

radar installation. The remains of this installation are present and can be found on the East side of the village. One of the bunkers has been converted into a residential garage, the other is no longer accessible from the road as it is now private property.

Neolithic earthworks

The only known example of a '

cursus 250px, Stonehenge Cursus, Wiltshire 250px, Dorset Cursus terminal on Thickthorn Down, Dorset Cursuses are monumental Neolithic structures resembling ditches or trenches in the islands of Great Britain and Ireland. Relics found within them in ...

' earthwork in Cornwall is situated behind the village in the fields near Triffle farm.

Wreck of the Gipsy

The wreck of the Gipsy can be found just off of Downderry in about of water west of the slipway. Originally named '

The Rodney ''Rodney'' was an iron-hulled clipper ship that was built in Sunderland in 1874 and wrecked on the Cornish coast in 1901. She was one of the last ships built for the Australian migration trade. Devitt and Moore operated her between Britai ...

' she was an iron full-rigged ship built in 1874 by W. Pile & Co., Sunderland. In Nov. 1895, Rodney lost her figurehead in a gale in the

English Channel The English Channel, "The Sleeve"; nrf, la Maunche, "The Sleeve" (Cotentinais) or ( Jèrriais), (Guernésiais), "The Channel"; br, Mor Breizh, "Sea of Brittany"; cy, Môr Udd, "Lord's Sea"; kw, Mor Bretannek, "British Sea"; nl, Het Kana ...

, while en route from

Gravesend, Kent Gravesend is a town in northwest Kent, England, situated 21 miles (35 km) east-southeast of Charing Cross (central London) on the south bank of the River Thames and opposite Tilbury in Essex. Located in the diocese of Rochester, it is t ...

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

. The

figurehead In politics, a figurehead is a person who ''de jure'' (in name or by law) appears to hold an important and often supremely powerful title or office, yet ''de facto'' (in reality) exercises little to no actual power. This usually means that they ...

washed ashore at

Whitsand Bay Whitsand Bay, situated in south east Cornwall, England, runs from Rame Head in the east to Portwrinkle in the west. It is characterised by sheer, high cliffs, dramatic scenery and long stretches of sandy beaches. The South West Coast Path runs t ...

, six months later. In 1897, the ship was sold to F. Boissière, of

Nantes Nantes (, , ; Gallo: or ; ) is a city in Loire-Atlantique on the Loire, from the Atlantic coast. The city is the sixth largest in France, with a population of 314,138 in Nantes proper and a metropolitan area of nearly 1 million inhabita ...

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

, and renamed Gipsy (the cross-over year, per

Lloyd's Lloyd's of London, generally known simply as Lloyd's, is an insurance and reinsurance market located in London, England. Unlike most of its competitors in the industry, it is not an insurance company; rather, Lloyd's is a corporate body gove ...

, is 1896/97). Re-rigged then as a

Barque A barque, barc, or bark is a type of sailing ship, sailing vessel with three or more mast (sailing), masts having the fore- and mainmasts Square rig, rigged square and only the mizzen (the aftmost mast) Fore-and-aft rig, rigged fore and aft. Som ...

. On Dec. 7, 1901, the vessel was wrecked, a total loss, at Downderry on the return voyage from

Iquique Iquique () is a port city and commune in northern Chile, capital of both the Iquique Province and Tarapacá Region. It lies on the Pacific coast, west of the Pampa del Tamarugal, which is part of the Atacama Desert. It has a population of 191,468 ...

(

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...

) to

with a cargo of

nitrate Nitrate is a polyatomic ion A polyatomic ion, also known as a molecular ion, is a covalent bonded set of two or more atoms, or of a metal complex, that can be considered to behave as a single unit and that has a net charge that is not zer ...

. The ship lost her bearings and became stranded on the reef. She was blown apart by explosives as she had become a hazard to local fishing vessels. Parts of the wreck are strewn over a large area in about of water.

Artistic impression

References

External links

{{authority control Villages in Cornwall Populated coastal places in Cornwall Nude beaches