Beer (Devon)
Beer is a village on the English Channel coast in the east of the county of Devon. It belongs to East Devon District and counted 1381 inhabitants in 2001.
Location
The village of Beer is situated on the coast between Exeter and Dorchester. It is located about two kilometers west of Seaton, about 35 kilometers east of the city of Exeter and 13 kilometers east of Sidmouth.
History
Previously, the population was living from smuggling and Spitzenmacherei. Today the area is a popular tourist destination.
The village
The village of Beer has a pebble beach and stretches from the sea from the cliffs along the height. Tourists can admire the view of the sea, buy fresh fish and visit caves in the limestone, which is also probably gave the village its name.
The name " Beer" was not created in connection with the drink, but goes on a old word for " forest " or cave ( Anglo-Saxon " bearu " = " grove " / cavity) back. The caves were once used by smugglers as hiding their prey.
Probably the southern slopes of the cliffs were once used by the monks of the monasteries Sherborne and Newham for wine growing. The limestone has already been won by the Romans in quarries for building materials. The white limestone coastline alternates here on the red variant.
Geology
The coast and cliffs along the English Channel coast in East Devon and Dorset are among the natural wonders of the world. From Orcombe Point in Exmouth, up to Old Harry Rocks, east of Studland Bay, a 155 km long coastline, which has been declared as the first natural landscape in England by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site stretches.
Beer is a "Gateway Town", the cliffs and the beach are part of the so-called Jurassic Coast.
The rock layers along the Jurassic Coast are tilted slightly to the east. The oldest part of the coast is therefore found in the western area, progressively younger rocks forming the cliffs to the east. The nature of revelations along the coast reveal a continuous sequence of resulting in Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous geological structures and present about 185 million years of Earth's history.
- See also list of places on the Jurassic Coast