The Lymington River

Lymington Harbour about 1836

The Early Years:

Geographically, 'a drowned river valley', the Lymington estuary was originally a tributary of the River Solent which flowed between Poole and Chichester. Since the days of the Iron Age, Buckland Rings and Ampress (550-100 B.C.) stand proof of the early importance of the river to which the Romans gave the name, 'Full River.'

Some nineteen hundred years ago, the Emperor Claudius despatched his General, Vespasian, to conquer Britain. After pacifying Kent, Vespasian moved his legions to the Isle of Wight. Arriving at the western end of the Island, he almost certainly crossed to the mainland from the most convenient embarkation point which was later to become Yarmouth.

He disembarked at the Alaunian Wood (Alauna Sylva) or 'at the mouth of the river Alainus' (Full River): almost certainly the river or creek of Limenton (Celtic: limi = stream; ton = town). Here he attacked and reduced the British earthwork fortress, now known as The Rings. From that desolate battleground the view southward to the sea towards The Island, and to its Jagged, needle-like rocks, would have been little different to that of today; and on the slope of the hill near the river estuary, Vespasian would have noted a settlement of British huts, clustered by the waterside: there, too, sailing craft may have been moored to the nearby banks.

Man had not yet interfered with the course of the river which was then wider, deeper and certainly navigable to above Ampress and probably beyond Boldre, the tidal stream reaching as far as Brockenhurst. Lymington was a port by the time that William the Conqueror handed the kingdom over to his son.

Emerging from the Dark Ages, Lymington was granted its first charter in about 1200, by the Second Earl of Devon, Baldwin de Redvers. Lymington was one of the few English towns to have received its charter from its feudal lord alone. At one time during the Hundred Years War (1337-1453), the Port of Lymington provided nine ships and 159 seamen to man them; the town rivalled Southampton in importance and certainly out-shone Portsmouth.

French marauders frequently paced our streets; in 1370, Frenchmen, after destroying Portsmouth, burnt Newtown, Yarmouth and Lymington. In 1545, Claude d'Annebaut, failing to provoke Portsmouth with his fleet, sailed down the Western Solent, burning villages and farms as he progressed. Since then Lymington has had no cause physically to repel invaders. The modern pirate is more subtle: noise, numbers and pollution require no less energy and subtlety to resist.