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.

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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.

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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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Devon: Devon is a county in South West England, bordering on Cornwall to the west, Dorset and Somerset to the east. The name Devonshire was once common but is now rarely used, although it does feature in some names and titles (such as the Duke of Devonshire), and is still to be seen on signposts in the co...

Coast: The coast is defined as the part of the land adjoining or near the ocean. A coastline is properly, a line on a map indicating the disposition of a coast but the word is often used to refer to the coast itself. The adjective, coastal describes something as being on, near or having to do with a coas...

England: :For an explanation of often confusing terms like England, (Great) Britain and United Kingdom see British Isles (terminology)....

Sidmouth related Images and Photos (experimental)

Sidmouth: The River Sid