Lympstone Harbour Website
Locals and visitors alike are welcome as pedestrians to enjoy the property. A pathway on the hardstanding between boats is maintained throughout the year for pedestrians wishing to walk north from the Harbour when the tide allows. Only boat owners may go amongst the boats. The Harbour is on occasion closed to the public by the Board, when for instance large vessels are lifted between the hardstanding and the Brook twice a year.
Private Harbour
Lympstone Harbour is part of the property of the Lympstone Fishery & Harbour Association (LFHA). The property is managed & administered on a day-to-day basis by volunteer members who are elected to the Harbour Board, the executive arm of the Association and which includes the foreshore throughout Lympstone including our moorings. The Board ensures that the rights & interests of all members of the Association are protected, and preserves the property in the possession or control of the Association as an amenity of interest to the community.
How do I apply to launch, store or moor my vessels at Lympstone?
There are conditions that apply to new applicants & their requirements the first being:
You must permanently reside within Lympstone Parish and be on the Electoral Roll
To request a membership application form please email the LFHA Membership Secretary.
Dogs
Dogs must be kept on a short lead and all droppings removed and are not permitted amongst the boats.
Vehicles
No vehicles, private, commercial or service, are permitted in the Harbour, which includes the slipway and the foreshore. LFHA members servicing their vessels on the hardstanding may park on the slipway, whilst being available to move their vehicles on request.
Fishing
No fishing between the railway arch north of The Cliff ( Parsonage Style) and the rocky breakwater visible looking south from the Harbour off Quay Lane.
The Exe Estuary
The Exe Estuary is quite unusual in that the foreshore and river-bottom are not owned exclusively by the Crown. The Earl of Devon owns an area between Starcross and Turf known as the Manor of Kenton. Lympstone manor passed from the Dynham to the Drake family at Lympstone and runs from Darling Rock to Courtlands Cross. It includes the foreshore up to the line of Mean High Water Spring Tides, the ramp at Sowden End and the Harbour, Hard and Slipway in the village. The title to this land was purchased by the Association in 1996 from Mrs Clark, the doyenne of Belvedere. A map of this property is shown on a sign fixed to the railings at the end of the harbour wall. In addition, the Harbour Board of the Association (its executive committee) negotiated and pays for a 25-year lease on the land from Darling Rock to the Northern abutment of the railway bridge at Parsonage Stile. In all, over 92 acres (71 acres freehold and 21 acres leased) is owned by the LFHA. Part of this property at the Southern end has been leased to Ingham Fisheries for use as a shellfish farm. The property provides facilities to residents of the parish – a necessary qualification given that the Board can only grant a finite number of licenses.
Colonel Graeme Wheeler, Chairman, LFHA