Wembury is a village on the south coast of

Devon Devon ( , historically known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South West England. The most populous settlement in Devon is the city of Plymouth, followed by Devon's county town, the city of Exeter. Devo ...

, England, very close to Plymouth Sound. Wembury is located south of Plymouth. Wembury is also the name of the

peninsula A peninsula (; ) is a landform that extends from a mainland and is surrounded by water on most, but not all of its borders. A peninsula is also sometimes defined as a piece of land bordered by water on three of its sides. Peninsulas exist on a ...

in which the village is situated. The village lies in the administrative district of the

South Hams South Hams is a local government district on the south coast of Devon, England. Services divide between those provided by its own Council headquartered in Totnes, and those provided by Devon County Council headquartered in the city of Exeter ...

within the South Devon Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB). The

South West Coast Path The South West Coast Path is England's longest waymarked long-distance footpath and a National Trail. It stretches for , running from Minehead in Somerset, along the coasts of Devon and Cornwall, to Poole Harbour in Dorset. Because it rises ...

goes past the coastal end of the town. The

National Trust The National Trust, formally the National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty, is a charity and membership organisation for heritage conservation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. In Scotland, there is a separate and ...

has taken an active role in maintaining the scenic and historic characteristics of the village and its surrounding area The beach is well known for its surfing and rock pooling.

Wembury Marine Centre {{coord, 50.318, -4.078, display=title, region:GB_scale:5000 Wembury Marine Centre is situated in the small village of Wembury, near Plymouth. Run by Devon Wildlife Trust, it holds rockpool rambles throughout the summer months, educating some 20,0 ...

educates visitors about what they can find in the rockpools and how they can help protect and preserve them. The centre is managed by Devon Wildlife Trust and was refurbished in 2006.

Basking sharks The basking shark (''Cetorhinus maximus'') is the second-largest living shark and fish, after the whale shark, and one of three plankton-eating shark species, along with the whale shark and megamouth shark. Adults typically reach in length. ...

can be seen in the summer near the Mewstone. There is also Wembury primary school There are three pubs within the Wembury parish; the Eddystone Inn, Mussell Inn and the Odd Wheel (the Oddy). Three shops are also in Wembury; Down Thomas stores, Wembury stores and Wembury Spar. The Spar was a Knighton Store before it was taken over in April 2012. Its

electoral ward A ward is a local authority area, typically used for electoral purposes. In some countries, wards are usually named after neighbourhoods, thoroughfares, parishes, landmarks, geographical features and in some cases historical figures connected to ...

is called 'Wembury and Brixton'. The ward population at the 2011 census was 4,455.

History

Wembury was visited by

Mesolithic The Mesolithic ( Greek: μέσος, ''mesos'' 'middle' + λίθος, ''lithos'' 'stone') or Middle Stone Age is the Old World archaeological period between the Upper Paleolithic and the Neolithic. The term Epipaleolithic is often used synonymo ...

man as evidenced by flint implements found on local sites. Some

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: * Rome, the capital city of Italy * Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lett ...

coins have also been found. The name 'Wembury' may derive from a place name containing the name

Woden Odin (; from non, Óðinn, ) is a widely revered god in Germanic paganism. Norse mythology, the source of most surviving information about him, associates him with wisdom, healing, death, royalty, the gallows, knowledge, war, battle, victor ...

,Taylor, Isaac. 'Words and Places: or, Etymological Illustrations of History, Ethnology, and Geography'. Macmillan, 1865, Harvard University. Length: 561 pages. Pages 322 and 323Allen, Grant.'Early Britain' BiblioBazaar, LLC, 2007. , . Length: 172 pages. Page 63 and John Mitchell Kemble notes that it was called "Wódnesbeorh".Kemble, John Mitchell. de Gray Birch, John (editor). 'The Saxons in England V1: A History of the English Commonwealth Till the Period of the Norman Conquest'. Longman, Brown, Green & Longmans, 1849. . Length: 562 pages. Page 336, 343, 344 Saxons colonised south-west Devon during the 7th century and founded agricultural settlements here. There was also a church dedicated to

Saint Werburgh Werburgh (also ''Wærburh'', ''Werburh'', ''Werburga'', meaning "true city"; ; c. AD 650 – 3 February 699/700) was an Anglo-Saxon princess who became the patron saint of the city of Chester in Cheshire. Her feast day is 3 February. Life Werbur ...

, a

Saxon The Saxons ( la, Saxones, german: Sachsen, ang, Seaxan, osx, Sahson, nds, Sassen, nl, Saksen) were a group of Germanic * * * * peoples whose name was given in the early Middle Ages to a large country (Old Saxony, la, Saxonia) near the Nor ...

saint, in the area, an alternative derivation for the name. Wembury expanded vastly in the 20th century with areas of farmland sold off for housing. Some older buildings are still present in the village, mainly in Knighton and West Wembury.

Wembury in the public eye

Wembury is mentioned in ''The Forsyte Saga'' by

John Galsworthy John Galsworthy (; 14 August 1867 – 31 January 1933) was an English novelist and playwright. Notable works include '' The Forsyte Saga'' (1906–1921) and its sequels, ''A Modern Comedy'' and ''End of the Chapter''. He won the Nobel Prize ...

. Galsworthy visited Wembury as part of his research for the book, he was intensely interested in his own origins and descent through a long line of Devon farmers who farmed in Wembury for three hundred years from the 17th century to the late 19th century. Wembury was used as a location in the filming of the

Comic Strip A comic strip is a Comics, sequence of drawings, often cartoons, arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often Serial (literature), serialized, with text in Speech balloon, balloons and Glossary of comics ter ...

's parody ''

Five Go Mad on Mescalin ''Five Go Mad in Dorset'' was the first of three ''Five Go Mad'' specials from the long-running series of '' The Comic Strip Presents...'' television comedy films. It first aired on the launch night of Channel 4 (2 November 1982), and was writ ...

''. In the film the Mewstone can be clearly seen. Wembury,_St_Werburgh's_church_and_Wembury_beach_-_geograph

Wembury parish

The

parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest, often termed a parish priest, who might be assisted by one or ...

of Wembury was once divided into four manors: Wembury,

Down Thomas Down Thomas is a village in Devon, England. The village is situated about 4 miles south of Plymouth. It is on the Wembury peninsula and is surrounded by farmland. The village is a part of the South Hams local government district. The village ...

, Langdon and Alfelmeston. According to Lyson's ''Devonshire'', published in 1822, the manor of Wembury originally belonged to Plympton Priory. After the dissolution of the monasteries in 1539 it went into private ownership. Today the parish of Wembury is divided into three principal villages; Wembury,

, and Heybrook Bay. There are also a number of smaller hamlets; Hollacombe, Knighton, Thorn, Langdon, Andurn and Bovisand. The population of the parish was 2740 during the 2011 census. Wembury House survives as an elegant late Georgian mansion, originally an exceptionally grand

Elizabethan The Elizabethan era is the epoch in the Tudor period of the history of England during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I (1558–1603). Historians often depict it as the golden age in English history. The symbol of Britannia (a female personific ...

house built by the lawyer Sir John Hele (c.1541–1608) a

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members o ...

for

Exeter Exeter () is a city in Devon, South West England. It is situated on the River Exe, approximately northeast of Plymouth and southwest of Bristol. In Roman Britain, Exeter was established as the base of Legio II Augusta under the personal comm ...

and

Recorder of Exeter The Recorder of Exeter was a recorder, a form of senior judicial officer, usually an experienced barrister, within the jurisdiction of the City of Exeter in Devon. Historically he was usually a member of the Devonshire gentry. The position of rec ...

(1592-1605). It was already a ruin by about 1700, and was finally demolished in 1803. The surviving house on the site was built in the early 19th century and rebuilt by

Major Edmund Lockyer Edmund Lockyer, (21 January 1784 – 10 June 1860) was a British soldier and explorer of Australia. Born in Plymouth, Devon, Lockyer was the son of Thomas Lockyer, a sailmaker, and his wife Ann. Lockyer began his army career as an ensign in ...

. Fort Bovisand, an ancient monument lies in the North West corner of the parish. The first fort on this site was built in 1845. Plans have been approved for the conversion of Bovisand Fort and associated buildings, removal of one building, and construction of new towers, an apartment building, 11 new dwellings, new quayside commercial accommodation and conservation of historic fabric, together with associated landscaping, parking and re-establishment of the link to the coastal footpath, creating a total of 81 residential units, office, teaching/studio space, event space, visitor centre and facilities, café and relocation of MOD space and additional commercial space.

The Mewstone

A distinctive feature visible from Wembury Beach is the Mewstone, a triangular island which is uninhabited. In the past it has been host to a prison and a private home, as well as a refuge for local

smugglers Smuggling is the illegal transportation of objects, substances, information or people, such as out of a house or buildings, into a prison, or across an international border, in violation of applicable laws or other regulations. There are various ...

. Its most infamous resident was Sam Wakeman who, in 1744, avoided transportation to Australia in favour of the cheaper option of transportation to the Mewstone, where he was interned for seven years. After his internment on the island he remained there paying his rent by supplying rabbits for the Manor House table. It is said Sam Wakeman is responsible for carving the rough stone steps to the summit of the Mewstone. The island was painted several times by J M W Turner after sketching it during a sailing trip from Plymouth in 1813. "The Mewstone", painted between 1823 and 1826, was left to the nation by the Turner Bequest and is in the collection of

Tate Britain Tate Britain, known from 1897 to 1932 as the National Gallery of British Art and from 1932 to 2000 as the Tate Gallery, is an art museum on Millbank in the City of Westminster in London, England. It is part of the Tate network of galleries in ...

. A

watercolour Watercolor (American English) or watercolour (British English; see spelling differences), also ''aquarelle'' (; from Italian diminutive of Latin ''aqua'' "water"), is a painting method”Watercolor may be as old as art itself, going back to ...

of about 1814 in the

National Gallery of Ireland The National Gallery of Ireland ( ga, Gailearaí Náisiúnta na hÉireann) houses the national collection of Irish and European art. It is located in the centre of Dublin with one entrance on Merrion Square, beside Leinster House, and another on ...

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. At the 2016 ...

is entitled "The Mew Stone, at the Entrance of Plymouth Sound, Devonshire". Another watercolour traditionally known as "Storm off Margate" in a private collection, is now accepted to be a view of The Mewstone. A further Turner painting that had been identified as the

Bass Rock The Bass Rock, or simply the Bass (), ( gd, Creag nam Bathais or gd, Am Bas) is an island in the outer part of the Firth of Forth in the east of Scotland. Approximately offshore, and north-east of North Berwick, it is a steep-sided volca ...

in the

Firth of Forth The Firth of Forth () is the estuary, or firth, of several Scottish rivers including the River Forth. It meets the North Sea with Fife on the north coast and Lothian on the south. Name ''Firth'' is a cognate of ''fjord'', a Norse word meani ...

was re catalogued as The Mewstone when it was auctioned by

Christie's Christie's is a British auction house founded in 1766 by James Christie. Its main premises are on King Street, St James's in London, at Rockefeller Center in New York City and at Alexandra House in Hong Kong. It is owned by Groupe Artémi ...

in 2008.BBC News - Monday, 2 June 2008 - Fine art experts in Turner U-turn
/ref> The Mewstone and Little Mewstone is now a bird sanctuary and access is not permitted to visitors.

References

External links

Wembury Parish Council
the local authority *

Wembury Archives (1547-1925), Plymouth & West Devon Record Office, ref: 234
{{Authority control Villages in South Hams Civil parishes in South Hams