Warfleet Creek - Dartmouth - May 2015 - panoramio

Warfleet Creek is a small triangular tidal inlet in the west side of the

River Dart The River Dart is a river in Devon, England, that rises high on Dartmoor and flows for to the sea at Dartmouth. Name Most hydronyms in England derive from the Brythonic language (from which the river's subsequent names ultimately derive fr ...

estuary An estuary is a partially enclosed coastal body of brackish water with one or more rivers or streams flowing into it, and with a free connection to the open sea. Estuaries form a transition zone between river environments and maritime environment ...

in England. It is near

Dartmouth, Devon Dartmouth () is a town and civil parish in the English county of Devon. It is a tourist destination set on the western bank of the estuary of the River Dart, which is a long narrow tidal ria that runs inland as far as Totnes. It lies within the ...

. It has steep rocky sides. At low tide there is a stony beach with some small rockpools.

British Underwater Centre

The British Underwater Centre was one of the premises along its north side. It had anchorage for boats, and facilities for training in

scuba diving Scuba diving is a mode of underwater diving whereby divers use breathing equipment that is completely independent of a surface air supply. The name "scuba", an acronym for "Self-Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus", was coined by Chris ...

and

standard diving Standard diving dress, also known as hard-hat or copper hat equipment, deep sea diving suit or heavy gear, is a type of diving suit that was formerly used for all relatively deep underwater work that required more than breath-hold duration, which ...

. It was run by Captain Trevor Hampton who was based there for many years.

Dartmouth Pottery

The creek was home to Dartmouth Pottery, a local landmark building which has had many uses over 400 years, now converted to residential and holiday apartments.

Etymology

According to "The place-names of Devon", by J E B Gover, A Mawer and F M Stenton, volume 1 page 321, the etymology is uncertain. But since all early spellings start with Wal- or Wel-, it is not named after the "war fleets" of the

crusade The Crusades were a series of religious wars initiated, supported, and sometimes directed by the Latin Church in the medieval period. The best known of these Crusades are those to the Holy Land in the period between 1095 and 1291 that were i ...

s of 1147 and 1190, although the harbour of Dartmouth has seen many other war fleets, not least the American fleet en route to

Utah beach Utah, commonly known as Utah Beach, was the code name for one of the five sectors of the Allied invasion of German-occupied France in the Normandy landings on June 6, 1944 (D-Day), during World War II. The westernmost of the five code-named la ...

D Day The Normandy landings were the landing operations and associated airborne operations on Tuesday, 6 June 1944 of the Allied invasion of Normandy in Operation Overlord during World War II. Codenamed Operation Neptune and often referred to as ...

. The second element comes from

Anglo-Saxon The Anglo-Saxons were a Cultural identity, cultural group who inhabited England in the Early Middle Ages. They traced their origins to settlers who came to Britain from mainland Europe in the 5th century. However, the ethnogenesis of the Anglo- ...

''flēot'' = "estuary,

tidal creek A tidal creek or tidal channel is a narrow inlet or estuary that is affected by the ebb and flow of ocean tides. Thus, it has variable salinity and electrical conductivity over the tidal cycle, and flushes salts from inland soils. Tidal creeks a ...

". One possibility is Anglo-Saxon ''Wēala flēot'' = "the estuary or creek of the

Briton British people or Britons, also known colloquially as Brits, are the citizens of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, the British Overseas Territories, and the Crown dependencies.: British nationality law governs mod ...

s", if the Anglo-Saxons arriving found a settlement of

Celtic Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to: Language and ethnicity *pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia **Celts (modern) *Celtic languages **Proto-Celtic language * Celtic music *Celtic nations Sports Fo ...

-speaking or

Vulgar Latin Vulgar Latin, also known as Popular or Colloquial Latin, is the range of non-formal Register (sociolinguistics), registers of Latin spoken from the Crisis of the Roman Republic, Late Roman Republic onward. Through time, Vulgar Latin would evolve ...

-speaking British natives there (perhaps using it as a fishing boat harbour). The name is believed by local historian Ray Freeman to derive from Wall (perverted to War) and River/Stream (a meaning of Fleet). There is a stream at the head of the creek by a wall. The story that crusaders fleets moored there is believed by her to be an invention of local river cruise drivers looking for a more entertaining (but untrue) version of history.

References

External links

image
(3264 x 2448 pixels, 1724k, jpg). (The white object on the water just above the bottom bush or treetop is a small one-man

pedalo A pedalo (British English) or paddle boat (U.S., Canadian, and Australian English) is a human-powered watercraft propelled by the action of pedals turning a paddle wheel. Description A pedalo is a human-powered watercraft propelled by the ...

, for scale.) Rivers of Devon Dartmouth, Devon {{England-river-stub

British Underwater Centre

Dartmouth Pottery

Etymology

See also

References

External links