River Caen

Royal Air Force Chivenor, or more simply RAF Chivenor, (ICAO: EGDC) was a Royal Air Force station located on the northern shore of the River Taw estuary, on the north coast of Devon, England. The nearest towns are Barnstaple and Braunton. Originally a civil airfield opened in the 1930s, the site was taken over by the Royal Air Force (RAF) in May 1940 for use as a RAF Coastal Command Station. After the Second World War, the station was largely used for training, particularly weapons training. During the 1950s and 1960s, No. 229 Operational Conversion Unit RAF (229 OCU) used Hawker Hunter aircraft for training. In 1974 the station was left on "care and maintenance", though No. 624 Volunteer Gliding Squadron (624 VGS) continued to fly from there. The RAF returned in 1979, forming 2 Tactical Weapons Unit (2 TWU) which flew BAE Systems Hawks, from 1979 until the unit was renamed as No. 7 Flying Training School RAF (7 FTS) in 1992. In 1994, 7 FTS left Chivenor, merging with No. 4 Flying Training School RAF (4 FTS) at RAF Valley, and the airfield was handed over to the Royal Marines. The Marines have an existing equipment testing base at RM Instow, in Instow, located across the Taw Estuary and approximately two miles from Chivenor. No. 22 Squadron RAF (22 Sqn) operated a Search and Rescue flight at Chivenor from 1956, flying Westland Whirlwind, Westland Wessex and Westland Sea King helicopters. In a spending review that was announced over the summer of 2004, the presence of 22 Squadron at Chivenor was under review. After the flooding at Boscastle, this threat was rescinded. "A" flight of 22 Squadron was disbanded in October 2015, with the search and rescue role being assumed by Bristow Helicopters on behalf of Her Majesty's Coastguard. In 1995, the site became Royal Marines Base Chivenor primarily used by 3 Commando Brigade.

Royal Marines Barracks Chivenor is a British military base used primarily by 3 Commando Brigade. It is situated on the northern shore of the River Taw estuary, adjacent to the South West Coast Path, on the north coast of Devon, England. The nearest towns are Barnstaple and Braunton. Originally a civil airfield opened in the 1930s, the site was taken over by the Royal Air Force (RAF) and was operational between May 1940 and 1995 when it was transferred to the Royal Marines.

Yelland is a village of 2,000 inhabitants situated in North Devon between Instow and Fremington in the English county of Devon. Yelland is included within the parish of Fremington.

Braunton Academy (formerly Braunton School and Community College) is a coeducational secondary school with academy status in Braunton, North Devon, England. The school specialises in mathematics and computing. The school first opened in 1937 with 140 pupils, and now has around 740 pupils aged 11 to 16.The school has various sports facilities, which include four tennis courts, a climbing wall, a dance studio, access to Tweedies Field and the North Devon Athletics Track. A new multi-usage games area was opened in 2014 supported by Fullabrook and is used by the school as well as being accessible to local primary schools and to other sports clubs. Braunton Academy secured £750,000 from the government to build a new library, reception and supported study centre which opened in Spring 2015.

Heanton Punchardon ( ) is a village, civil parish and former manor, anciently part of Braunton Hundred. It is situated directly east-southeast of the village of Braunton, in North Devon. The parish lies on the north bank of the estuary of the River Taw and it is surrounded, clockwise from the north, by the parishes of Braunton, Marwood, Ashford and across the estuary, Fremington. The population was 418 in 1801 and 404 in 1901. Its largest localities are Wrafton and Chivenor. The surrounding area is also an electoral ward with a total population at the 2011 census of 2,673.

The Museum of British Surfing is a Museum based in Braunton, Devon; the museum contains exhibits relating to the history of surfing in the United Kingdom. The Museum of British Surfing was founded by ITV News journalist and surfing historian Pete (Peter) Robinson as a non-profit organisation called 'The Surfing Museum' in 2003. It was originally an online UK surf heritage resource called the surfing museum.co.uk. The first public 'Exhibition of British Surfing History' was opened on 6 April 2004 in Brighton's heritage fishing quarter, along with help from local surfers, family and friends. The project was funded by the founder, along with an initial donation from the family of the late Viscount Ted Deerhurst and ongoing sponsorship from the surfing company Oxbow. The museum displayed Robinson's collection of British surfing memorabilia. Through the Touring Exhibitions Group (TEG) two main displays the 'Exhibition of British Surfing History' and 'An Art History of British Surfing' toured locations in the UK between 2004 and 2011 including London, Newquay, Aberdeen, Thurso, Marton, Brighton, Havant and Tynemouth. These early exhibitions included the loan of a historic wooden surfboard, belonging to Hawaiian royalty, high chief Abner Paki, that dated back to the time of Captain James Cook. This was the first time it had been exhibited outside its native Hawaii. The board was loaned by the Bishop Museum in Honolulu and was displayed at the Captain Cook Birthplace Museum in Marton near Middlesbrough in north-east England. This exhibition also featured a visit by the Hawaiian cultural ambassador Tom Pohaku Stone, who carried out a public shaping of a traditional 'olo' surfboard which he donated to the Cook museum.The surfing museum still maintains a mobile display which travels to surfing spots around the country. An oral history project, The First Wave, which collected the memories of early British surfers received funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund.Registered Charity status was awarded in 2010, with the updated name of the Museum of British Surfing. Its permanent site in Braunton, near the North Devon coast, opened on 6 April 2012 in the former goods shed of the old Braunton Railway Station on the Ilfracombe Branch Line. Several grants were awarded to help open the museum, notably from Leader 4, the North Devon Coast Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty, North Devon Council Section 106 - and from other local councils and charitable trusts to develop 'The Yard' (the building leased from Braunton Parish Council which contains the museum), and the surrounding site including the management of a local skatepark. It was awarded the Collections Trust award for 'collections on a budget' as a result of the museums commitment to working towards carbon neutral status.The founder Pete Robinson, donated "as a gift to surfing in Britain" his collection of surfboards and surfing memorabilia to start the museum. He left the project in 2015.The museum has been run since 2015 on a voluntary basis by a board of trustees, Kevin Cook, Charlie Spurr, Ian Watson and Christian Dormer. It was awarded Arts Council England accreditation in February 2019.The collection includes more than 200 different designs and shapes of British surfboards, many elaborately decorated. Some of the earliest board, known as coffin lids, were made by South West undertakers and were used in the 1920s and 1930s. There are also videos and photographs including the story of Devonian Agatha Christie with a surfboard in Waikiki. There is also a photograph of King Edward VIII when he was Prince of Wales, also surfing at Waikiki, illustrating the aristocratic nature of the sport in the first half of the 20th century. A recent exhibition concerned the pioneer in agricultural education John Wrightson who is reputedly the first person in Britain to surf when under the guidance of two Hawaiian princes David Kawānanakoa and Jonah Kūhiō Kalanianaʻole he took to a board at Bridlington in 1890.

Braunton is a large village, civil parish, ecclesiastical parish and former manor in Devon. The village is situated 5 miles (8 km) west of Barnstaple. It is one of the largest villages in Devon with a population at the 2021 census of 10,217 people. There are two electoral wards (East and West). Their joint population at the above census was 8,218. Within the parish is the fertile, low-lying Braunton Great Field, which adjoins the undulating Braunton Burrows, the Core Area in North Devon Biosphere Reserve, the largest psammosere (sand dune system) in England. It confronts the Atlantic Ocean at the west of the parish at the large beach of Saunton Sands, one of the South West's international-standard surfing beaches.

Instow is a village in north Devon, England. It is on the estuary where the rivers Taw and Torridge meet, between the villages of Westleigh and Yelland and on the opposite bank to Appledore. There is an electoral ward with the same name. The ward's total population at the 2011 census was 1,501. There is a small river beach and sand dunes, that home some rare species of orchid including the pyramid orchid.The Tarka Trail passes through Instow, providing an easy means for people to arrive on foot or by bike. This section of the Trail is also part of the South West Coast Path, offering longer walks along the coast. The village is served by the Church of St John the Baptist, which has 13th/14th-century origins and is a Grade I listed building. A chapel of ease, All Saints, was built in 1936 and is now also used as a community centre.

George Hakewill (1578 or 1579 – 1649) was an English clergyman and author.

St Brannock's Church is a medieval Church of England church in Braunton, Devon, England. According to legend it was founded by Saint Brannock, a 6th-century Christian saint. It became a Grade I listed building on 25 February 1965.

Fremington Army Camp was a military camp in the village of Fremington, Devon, England, which was used as a base to train the United States Army Air Corps. It was originally located there to be within easy marching distance from the railway station at the Quay.

The Church of St Peter is the Anglican parish church for Fremington, now a suburb of nearby Barnstaple but at one time a separate village. There has been a church on the site since at least 1268 with the present structure mostly dating to the 13th and 15th-centuries. The church comes under the Diocese of Exeter and has been a Grade II* listed building since 1965.