Lundy
| Lundy | |
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| Waters | Bristol Channel |
| Geographical location | 51 ° 10 ′ 0 ″ N , 4 ° 40 ′ 0 ″ W |
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| length | 4.5 km |
| width | 1 km |
| surface | 4.25 km² |
| Highest elevation | Tibbett's Hill 142 m |
| Residents | 28 (2007) 6.6 inhabitants / km² |
| main place | Lundy Village |
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Lundy is an island at the entrance to the Bristol Channel in Great Britain . The name is derived from the Norman lund-ey (island of the Lunde ). It belongs to the Torridge district and the historic Harde Shebbear Hundred of the English county of Devon , but is not assigned to any of the parishes of the district or the Harde, but represents an unparished area .
Lundy is located between mainland Devonian (about 18 km northwest of Hartland Point and a good 27 km west of Baggy Point ) and the south coast of Wales (47 km southeast of St. Govan's Head ). The island is about 4.5 km long from north to south, about 1 km wide. With an area of 4.25 km² it is the largest island in the Bristol Channel. Tibbett's Hill is its highest point at 142 m.
In 2007 there were 28 residents on the island.
In a survey of readers of the British magazine Radio Times in 2005, Lundy was named the 10th most named natural wonder in Britain.
history
Traces of settlement on Lundy have existed since the Neolithic . Middle Stone Age flint tools and Bronze Age burial mounds were also found. There are also Celtic tombstones with inscriptions and an early medieval monastery, which may have been dedicated to St. Elen or St. Helena.
In the second half of the 12th century, the Anglo-Norman family of the Mariscos and the Knights Templar , who were wealthy in Somerset , fought over the island. In 1154 Sir Jordan de Marisco was called Lord of Lundy , but in 1160 Henry II gave Lundy to the Templars. It is uncertain whether they actually took possession of the island. In any case, William de Marisco had brought Lundy back under his control by 1195 at the latest. In 1199, King John confirmed ownership of the island to the Templars in a document. 1235 was William de Marisco's nephew, who was also called William de Marisco , in an attempted murder on an adviser to Henry III. entangled and in 1238 on the king himself. Marisco fled to Lundy, where he was caught in 1242. After William de Marisco's execution, Henry III. 1243 build the Marisco Castle , erroneously named after Marisco, to pacify the island. During the English Civil War , Thomas Bushell, fighting on the royalist side, had the castle expanded in 1643.
Nevertheless, until the early 18th century, pirates and privateers, including members of the Marisco family, managed to take possession of the island at times, including 1627 corsairs from the barbarian state of Salé . The island was a perfect haven for all ships to and from Bristol Harbor to pass through. Lawlessness on Lundy lasted until the late 18th century when the island belonged to MP Thomas Benson. He let convicts whom he should have deported to Virginia work there for himself.
In 1834 William Hudson Heaven, scion of an old Gloucester and Bristol family, bought the island. In a sheltered valley between the only landing site and the plateau, he had Millcombe House built in Georgian style in 1836 , initially as a summer residence. After the decline of his sugar plantations in Jamaica after the end of slavery meant that Heaven could no longer maintain two residences at the same time, Heaven moved with his family to Lundy permanently in 1851. Many of the island's remaining buildings date from when Lundy was known as the Kingdom of Heaven . William Heaven's son, the Anglican clergyman Hudson Grosset Heaven, built St. Helena's Church in 1895/1896 . The cost of the construction and the running costs of the island could no longer be paid from the Heaven family's assets. Trying to generate income from a quarry turned out to be unprofitable. In 1918 the family of Heaven, who died in 1916, had to sell the island to Augustus Langham Christie, far below value.
In 1924, Christie's family sold Lundy to Martin Coles Harman. He declared himself the "king" of the island and introduced his own postal system. He issued postage stamps and his own "coins" (tokens). For this he was fined by the British judiciary and the tokens were confiscated. They are still coveted collectibles today. In the days of "King" Harman, the residents of Lundy did not have to pay taxes to Great Britain and customs controls were introduced.
The Harman family kept the island until 1968 when Harman's son died. In 1969 a group around the German title dealer Hans-Hermann Weyer tried unsuccessfully to take over the island in order to turn Lundy into a tourist paradise. It was then sold to the National Trust and leased from them to the Landmark Trust . This foundation maintains buildings on Lundy that are rented out to tourists. The proceeds go towards maintaining the buildings on the island.
economy
Tourism and stamps are the islanders' main source of income. The Oldenburg has served as a ferry since 1985 as the successor to the legendary Polar Bear . In the tiny center of Lundy Village is the Marisco Tavern , which claims to have never closed and which sells Lundy beer (which is, however, brewed on the mainland). Until the 1970s, most of the island, from the Quarter Wall to the Threequarter Wall , was used for sheep breeding. After that the agricultural use was limited to the southern half of the island up to the Halfway Wall . Part of the island is now reserved for nature conservation and scientific research.
Lighthouses
The rocks off Lundy were always a threat to shipping; 135 wrecks around the island are known. In 1819 the first lighthouse was built on the 124 m high Chapel Hill, which is still the highest lighthouse in Great Britain today. Thanks to its high altitude, Old Light had a long range, but it turned out that the lighthouse was too high, above the fog banks. In 1897 Trinity House had to build two new, lower-lying lighthouses at the north and south ends of the island. Old Light now serves as accommodation for group travelers.
On May 30, 1906, the British battleship HMS Montagu ran due to a navigation error on a rock off the southwest tip of Lundy, struck a leak and had to be abandoned. Through this sensational disgrace in the German-British arms race at sea before the First World War, Lundy briefly gained international fame.
Lundy's postage stamps
Due to the population decline on the island, the English Post Office lost interest in renewing the postal contract with Lundy in 1927 and closed the last post office. The then owner of the island, Martin Harman, who had previously proclaimed king of the island, decided to take the postal service into their own hands, and finally announced on November 1, 1929 own stamps out with the currency printing Puffins (German: Puffin ) , a native species of bird. The UK Post does not accept the stamps; However, letters from the island or Oldenburg usually reach their destination.
Over the years, Lundy postage stamps have become a sought-after collector's item.
Lundy's coins
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1 Puffin 1929 Martin Coles Harman
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In addition to postage stamps, Martin Coles Harman also issued two coins in 1929 with the denomination “One Puffin” and “Half Puffin”, corresponding to a British penny and halfpenny. On the front they showed his portrait, on the back the bird of the same name in whole or in half; the margin was Lundy Lights and Leads . This was considered a violation of the British Coinage Act 1870 and Harman was sentenced to a (more symbolic) fine of £ 5 in 1931; the coins already in circulation became collector's items.
Later, new coins with the years 1965, 1977 and 2011 were produced in the same design, but they did not come into circulation and are to be regarded as fantasy coins .
flora
Lundy cabbage ( Coincya wrightii ) only grows on Lundy . The east side of the island is overgrown by rhododendrons. An attempt is being made to push this plant back there. Sika deer often hide there during the day.
fauna
The seabird species found on Lundy include herring gull , black-backed gull , kittiwake , fulmar , shag , razorbill , puffin and oystercatcher, as well as songbirds, skylark , meadow pipit , blackbird , robin and linnet .
The mammal species on Lundy include the gray seal , sika deer , soay sheep , feral domestic goats and the pygmy shrew, as well as the Lundy ponies, their own breed of pony.
Research into underwater fauna and flora in the coastal waters off Lundy was initiated by Atlantic College in 1972 .
Eponyms
In 2010 the asteroid (100604) Lundy was named after the island.
literature
- Simon Dell: Lundy Island through time . Amberley Publishing, Stroud 2011, ISBN 978-1-4456-0074-1 .
- Anthony Langham, Myrtle Langham: Lundy, Bristol Channel . Broadacre Books, Bradford 1960.
- Anthony Langham: Lundy . David & Charles, Newton Abbot 1970, ISBN 0-7153-4861-2 .
- Anthony Langham: The Island of Lundy . Sutton, Stroud 1994, ISBN 0-7509-0661-8 .
- Lewis Loyd: Lundy, Its history and natural history . Longmans, Green & Co, London 1925.
- Myrtle Ternstrom: Light over Lundy. A history of the Old Light and the Fog Signal Station . Whittles, Dunbeath 2007, ISBN 978-1-904445-29-6 .
- Myrtle Ternstrom: The Lords of Lundy . Lundy Field Society 2011, ISBN 978-0-9506177-9-4 .
- Landmark Trust: Lundy Island . Shottesbrooke 2004.
- Lundy Field Society: Proceedings of the 60th Anniversary Symposium of the Lundy Field Society , 2007, ISBN 978-0-9530532-1-6 , online
Web links
- Private website with photos
- Lundy site of the Lundy Shore Office (English)
- Lundy Island at the National Trust (English)
- Website with Lundy Stamps (English)
- 1911 census results for Lundy
Footnotes
- ↑ Landmark Trust (Ed.): Lundy Island . Shottesbrooke 2004, p. 5.
- ↑ Lewis Loyd, Lundy, Its history and natural history . Longmans, Green & Co, London 1925, pp. 100-101.
- ↑ Anthony Langham, Myrtle Langham: Lundy, Bristol Channel . Broadacre Books, Bradford 1960, p. 16.
- ^ Myrtle Ternstrom: The Castle on the Island of Lundy: 750 years, 1244-1994 . Cheltenham 1994, ISBN 0-9523062-0-4 .
- ↑ A brief declaration of the severall passages in the treaty concerning the surrender of the garrison of Lundy, now under the command of Thomas Bushell Esq; Governor thereof for his Majesty . London 1647.
- ↑ Myrtle Ternstrom: The Lords of Lundy. Lundy Field Society 2011.
- ^ Peter Rothwell, Myrtle Ternstrom: The Lundy Granite Company: An Industrial Adventure . Westwell Publishing, Appledore 2008, ISBN 978-0-9521413-9-6 .
- ^ Anthony Langham: The island of Lundy . Sutton, Stroud 1994, p. 67.
- ↑ National Trust Handbook 2011.
- ↑ Lundy Island: New staff wanted for 'magical' pub - a pub that never closes its doors Website accessed August 2, 2019.
- ^ Myrtle Ternstrom: Some additions to the Lundy wrecks list. In: Lundy Field Society, 49th Annual Report for 1998, pp. 58-67. ISSN 1758-3276 .
- ^ GM Davis: The loss of HMS Montagu, Lundy 1906 . Atworth 1981, ISBN 0-9507391-0-3 .
- ↑ PJ Seaby, Monica Russell (ed.): British copper coins and Their values . 1967 ed.Seaby's Numismatic Publications, London 1967, p. 97 .
- ↑ James Mendelssohn, Marks McAvity, Michael Huhn and others: An underwater survey of the Knoll Pins. In: Lundy Field Society, 24th Annual Report for 1973, pp. 28-35. ISSN 1758-3276 .