Railway Town of Brixham, Devon. Home of Sir Francis Drake's replical ship the Golden Hind. XPL 4728-443
Brixham is where William III of Orange landed with his Dutch army, on 5th November, 1688, during the Glorious Revolution, and many local people still have Dutch surnames, being direct descendants of soldiers in that army. A road leading from the harbour up a steep hill to where the Dutch made their camp, is still called Overgang, meaning 'transition' in Dutch. The coffin house reflects Brixham humour: it is coffin-shaped and when a father was asked for the hand in marriage of his daughter, he said he would 'see her in a coffin, before she wed'. The future son-in-law bought the coffin-shaped property, called it the Coffin House, and went back to the father and said 'Your wishes will be met, you will see your daughter in a coffin, the Coffin House'. Amazed by this, the father gave his blessing. The street names reflect the town's history. Pump street is where the village pump stood. Monksbridge was a bridge built by the monks of Totnes Priory. Brixham is also notable for being the town where the fishing trawler was invented in the 19th century; their distinctive sails inspired the song "Red Sails in the Sunset", which was written aboard a Brixham sailing trawler called the Torbay Lass. Looking west across Brixham HarbourIn the Middle Ages, Brixham was the largest fishing port in the south west of England. Known as the 'Mother of Deep-Sea Fisheries', its boats helped to establish the fishing industries of Hull, Grimsby and Lowestoft. In the 1890s there were about 300 trawling vessels in Brixham, most individually owned. The trawlers can still be seen coming in and out of the harbour, followed by flocks of seagulls. The fish market is open to the public on two special days in the summer, when the finer points of catching and cooking fish will be explained. The modern boats are diesel-driven, but several of the old sailing trawlers have been preserved. Hundreds of ships have been wrecked on the rocks around the town. Brixham men have always known the dangers but even
Size: 4006px × 5861px
Location: Brixham, Torbay. West. England. United Kingdom.
Photo credit: © David Gowans / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., 17, 457., 2001, area, attraction, bay, berths, blue, boats, brixham, buildings, built, carnival, census, channel, civil, coast, coastal, coastline, coffin, colourful, communities, connect, county, cowtown, devon, dock, drake, england., english, farmers, fish, fishing, fishtown, focal, francis, golden, harbour, haytor, held, hill, hilly, hind, holiday, homes, house, industries., interest, landscape, lane, lived, lived., major, marshy, mile, moored, moorings, paignton, parish, permanently, places, population, port., quay, remains, reminder, replica, residences, riviera, sailing, seamen, seaside, separate, sheltered, ship, sir, skies, small, south-west, southern, steam, summer, sunner, time, top, torbay, torquay, tourism, tourist, tourists, town, train, travel, trawlers., visitors
