A HISTORY OF DEVONSHIRE 



Cucullaea beds are limited on the south by a line about i8 miles long, starting from the south 

 end of the Baggy Point prominency, passing by Kingsheanton in Marwood and by Stoke Rivers 

 village to Barton Wood, reaching High Bray after crossing about three quarters of a inile of 

 Charles parish in the South Molton district, also throw^ing out a spur in the parish of 

 Stoke Rivers from the village to Akeford about i^ miles long in a W.S.W. direction, the 

 breadth of the main area being about half a mile and of the spur rather less ; the Pilton beds 

 begin at the coast at Croyde Bay, and their boundary on the south follows a line so as to include 

 Santon, Braunton and Heanton Punchardon villages ; it then crosses the river Taw, and just 

 avoiding Bickington village recrosses the Taw a little above the town of Barnstaple ; it passes 

 on to Landkey Newland, strikes the Devon and Somerset Railway near Swimbridge station, 

 and follows the course of the railway to the boundary of the South Molton district. 



At the mouth of the Taw and Torridge estuary there is a delta, each of the three sides 

 of which measures about 5^ miles ; it includes a considerable area of blown sand outside the 

 marshes ; in this tract lies the famous botanical ground known as Braunton Burrows, 



Nearly the whole of the remainder of the district belongs to the Carboniferous system, 

 locally termed Culm Measures ; the fertility of the soil over most of this system is much 

 inferior to that of the Devonian formation. 



The Radiolarian (Codden Hill) beds in the Lower Culm Series extend at intervals along 

 a nearly straight line a short distance south of Barnstaple in narrow bands through the 

 parishes of Fremington, Tawstock, Bishop's Tawton, Landkey and Swimbridge. 



There is an isolated patch of New Red Sandstone by the coast of Bideford Bay, between 

 Peppercombe and Portledge in the parish of Alwington ; there is also a small piece of Green- 

 sand near Orleigh Court in Buckland Brewer. 



The geological information for this and the other districts is mainly derived from sections 

 of the original one-inch ordnance survey maps, coloured to indicate the different formations 

 by Mr. Joseph Green Hamling, F.G.S., of Barnstaple, who has kindly lent them for the 

 purpose ; he states that the colourings were copied by him from similar ones made by the 

 late Mr. Townshend Monckton Hall, F.G.S. 



The climate of the district is illustrated by the following tables : — 



Table i 

 Calculated for the decade 1890-9 from the records given by Symons and Wallis in British Rainfall. 



Station 



Altitude, 

 feet 



Mean annual rainfall, 

 inches 



Mean annual No. of days 

 on which -oi in. or 

 more of rain fell. 



Parracombe 



Arlington Court . . . 



Barnstaple 



Horwood 



Gammaton, Bideford . . 



Northam 



Hartland Abbey . . . 



79S 

 613 



288 



33S 

 173 



222 



4S-I8 

 51-67 

 33-10 

 33-24 

 37-94 

 34-35 



39-22 



179 

 206 

 171 

 189 

 172 



183 

 16s 



Table 2 

 Partly taken from Mr. A. Chandler's paper above referred to, partly calculated from articles on the 

 climate of Devon in various volumes of the Reports of the Devonshire Association and partly calculated from 

 figures furnished by Mr. Thomas Wainwright, secretary of the North Devon Athenaeum, Barnstaple. 



Station 



Alti- 

 tude, 

 feet 



Mean annual 

 rainfall, 

 inches 



Mean 

 percent- 

 age of 

 possible 

 sunshine 



Mean 

 percent- 

 age of 

 humidity 

 of the 

 air 



Mean 

 percent- 

 age 

 of cloud 



Mean 

 annual 

 temper- 

 ature, 

 Fahren- 

 heit 



Mean 



annual 



minimum 



temperature 



Mean 



annual 



maximum 



temperature 



Lynmouth . 

 Arlington . 

 Ilfracombe . 

 Woolacombe 

 Barnstaple . 

 Horwood . 

 Abbotsham . 

 Northam . 









20 

 612 



•35 

 60 



25 

 288 



87 

 173 



48-54 



30-63 



31-47 

 38-56 



34 

 34 



83 



8i 

 79 



65-4 

 59-3 



66-3 



Si-i 

 Si-6 

 51-0 



25 

 22-6 

 26-86 



27-95 

 22-2 



19 

 20-33 

 21-67 



83 

 81-4 

 81-8 

 82-37 



83-52 

 81-2 



84-83 

 84-67 



66 



