River Otter
| River Otter | ||
 Lower course of the Otter, halfway between Otterton and its mouth. |
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| Data | ||
| location | Somerset and Devon , England , United Kingdom | |
| River system | River Otter | |
| River basin district | South west | |
| source |
Blackdown Hills 50 ° 55 ′ 47 " N , 3 ° 6 ′ 47" W. |
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| Source height | 278 m ASL | |
| muzzle | At Otterton Ledge , east of Budleigh Salterton , western edge of Lyme Bay Coordinates: 50 ° 37 ′ 44 ″ N , 3 ° 18 ′ 25 ″ W, 50 ° 37 ′ 44 ″ N , 3 ° 18 ′ 25 ″ W |
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| Mouth height | 0 m ASL | |
| Height difference | 278 m | |
| Bottom slope | 8.7 ‰ | |
| length | 32 km | |
The River Otter is a small river only 20 miles long in the counties of Somerset and Devon in south west England .
It rises in the Blackdown Hills north of Otterford, about 10 kilometers south of Taunton in the Taunton Deane district in the south of Somerset. From there it flows almost all the way to the mouth in a relatively straight line to the south-southwest. Only on the relatively short section between Honiton and Ottery St Mary does it take a southwest to west-southwest course. It flows into the English Channel immediately east of the seaside resort of Budleigh Salterton at the headland of Otterton Ledge .
The special thing about the River Otter is its mouth. A few centuries ago the estuary was a wide, navigable estuary . Otterton, about five kilometers north of today's estuary, was a seaport at that time. However, storms, etc. a. a very severe storm in 1824, repeatedly pebbles from the cliff west of Budleigh Salterton washed in front of the exit of the estuary and blocked it increasingly. Efforts were made to keep the access to Otterton free, and the estuary was still passable for 60-ton ships until 1810, but at some point, probably not least because of the declining importance of smaller ships for the transport of goods and passengers, these efforts were made set, and let nature take its course. As a result, the estuary silted up and turned into a freshwater mudflat landscape. Through the scree barrier, the river makes a sharp bend to the east before it finally reaches the English Channel. The former estuary is now a nature reserve and is not open to the public.
Individual evidence
- ^ Ian West: Budleigh Salterton, Littleham Cove and Straight Point, Devon: Geology of the Wessex Coast. 2012 richly illustrated online excursion guide
