Sidmouth

Sidmouth is a small town of 14,400 on the east Devon coast in south west England about 15 miles south east of Exeter. It is surrounded by beautiful countryside and is on the Jurassic Coast world heritage site and the South West coast path, a long distance footpath that skirts almost all of the coast in the West Country of England. The principal income of the town is from tourism.

Related Topics:
Devon - Coast - England - Exeter - Jurassic Coast - World heritage site - South West coast path - Long distance footpath - Tourism

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Sidmouth holds an annual folk festival in early August attracting musicians and tourists from around the world. As of 2005 all commercial sponsors have pulled out of the festival. To save the festival and keep tourism strong, many shop owners in Sidmouth organised the festival themselves. This resulted in a much smaller scale event than previous years and offered no international entertainment.

Related Topics:
Folk - Festival - Musician - Tourist

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The town is also popular as a retirement community, with about 60% of the population being over retirement age.

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Sidmouth has many independent retailers, including a surprisingly big department store. There are several pubs, restaurants, coffee houses and tea rooms. The town also boasts an indoor swimming pool, a college, sports hall, cinema, and golf course. Of particular note is the museum. A very carefully selected accumulation of local memorabilia, artefacts, and geological samples provides a comprehensive and fascinating picture of the area's geology and history. At times the weather can be very rough in Sidmouth; the beach used to be pebbles, however, a violent storm washed away this. Subsequently a series of artificial rock islands and groynes were constructed, as was a large esplanade (or promenade) along the seafront, which has now become a symbol of Sidmouth and a popular attraction; it also provided a paved pedestrian link to neighbouring Jacobs Ladder beach. This task was completed in the mid 1990's.

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