Axmouth to Lyme Regis Undercliffs

Rousdon is a village in East Devon off the A3052 road between Colyford and Lyme Regis in Dorset. The clifftop but well set back village developed as the main settlement, within its ecclesiastical parish Combpyne, which otherwise has only a few houses by its church and scattered farms. It did so north of Sir Henry Peek's grand house, billiard house and separate stable courtyard chiefly in the early 19th century. A boarding school called Allhallows moved there from Honiton in 1937 and closed in 1998. Adjoining the small fields to the south are the coastal cliffs which lie above the Axmouth to Lyme Regis Undercliff Nature Reserve that forms part of the Jurassic Coast World Heritage Site. It is a green wilderness littoral forest strip with many rugged parts and ruins of farmhouses formed largely from a landslip (major cliff erosion) in 1839. The South West Coast Path crosses it for some miles. No public right of way links Rousdon directly, nor any adjacent area, to the path below along Charton Bay which links the foot of the Axe estuary south of Axmouth (at the western edge of Seaton Seaton to Ware, immediately south-west of Lyme Regis, on the Dorset border.

Combpyne Rousdon is a civil parish in the East Devon district of the county of Devon in England. As well as the villages of Combpyne and Rousdon, it contains the hamlet of Pinhay. In the 2001 UK census its population was recorded as 231 persons, living in 88 households, increasing to 362 in the 2011 Census.

Combpyne is a hamlet in East Devon, England, off the A3052 road between Colyford and Lyme Regis in Dorset. Combpyne is situated within a remote Devon combe, and features a medieval manor house, a 12th-century church housing wall paintings and ancient bells and a village pond known as 'The Harbour'. It is in a parish that also includes the village of Rousdon to the south. The former railway station at Combpyne was a part of the Lyme Regis branch line and closed in 1965, along with many other small branch lines across the county. Traces of the dismantled railway, including the large Cannington Viaduct, can be seen nearby. The former stationmaster's house is now a private residence.

Hawkesdown Hill is an Iron Age Hill fort close to Axmouth in Devon situated on a prominent hillside above the Axe Estuary. It is approximately 130 metres (430 ft) above sea level.

The Jurassic Coast is a World Heritage Site on the English Channel coast of southern England. It stretches from Exmouth in East Devon to Studland Bay in Dorset, a distance of about 96 miles (154 km), and was inscribed on the World Heritage List in mid-December 2001.The site spans 185 million years of geological history, coastal erosion having exposed an almost continuous sequence of rock formation covering the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous periods. At different times, this area has been desert, shallow tropical sea and marsh, and the fossilised remains of the various creatures that lived here have been preserved in the rocks. Natural features seen on this stretch of coast include arches, pinnacles and stack rocks. In some places the sea has broken through resistant rocks to produce coves with restricted entrances and, in one place, the Isle of Portland is connected to the land by a barrier beach. In some parts of the coast, landslides are common. These have exposed a wide range of fossils, the different rock types each having its own typical fauna and flora, thus providing evidence of how animals and plants evolved in this region. The area around Lulworth Cove contains a fossil forest, and 71 different rock strata have been identified at Lyme Regis, each with its own species of ammonite. The fossil collector Mary Anning lived here and her major discoveries of marine reptiles and other fossils were made at a time when the study of palaeontology was just starting to develop. The Charmouth Heritage Coast Centre provides information on the heritage coast, and the whole length of the site can be visited via the South West Coast Path.

Stedcombe House is a country house in the civil parish of Axmouth, in the East Devon district, in the county of Devon, England. It is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade I listed building. Richard Hallet purchased the estate in 1691 from Sir Walter Yonge, and built the house there in 1697.

Axmouth is a village, civil parish and former manor in the East Devon district of Devon, England, near the mouth of the River Axe. The village itself is about 1 mile (1.6 km) inland, on the east bank of the Axe estuary. The parish extends along the estuary to the sea, and a significant distance to the east. The village is near Seaton and Beer which are on the other side of the Axe estuary. According to the 2001 census the parish had a population of 493.

The River Axe is a 22-mile (35 km) long river in the counties of Dorset, Somerset and Devon, in the south-west of England. It rises in Dorset and flows south to Lyme Bay which it enters through the Axe Estuary in Devon. It is a shallow, non-navigable river, although its mouth at Seaton has some boating activity. The name Axe derives from a Common Brittonic word meaning "abounding in fish", and is cognate with pysg (a variant of pysgod), the Welsh word for fish.The River Axe rises in several streams to the south of Chedington in Dorset, close the source of the River Parrett that flows north to the Bristol Channel. The Axe then flows west through Mosterton and Seaborough before turning south and forming the county boundary between Dorset and Somerset. In this section it flows past the villages of Wayford and Winsham, and the former Forde Abbey. At a point some 3 miles (4.8 km) north of Axminster it is joined by the Blackwater River and enters the county of Devon. It is then joined by the River Kit, before passing through Axminster after which it is joined by the River Yarty and continues south by the villages of Whitford and Colyford, where it is joined by the River Coly. At this point it spreads out to form the tidal Axe Estuary. The estuary flows past the village of Axmouth, on its eastern bank, before passing through a high shingle bank to the east of the seaside town of Seaton and entering Lyme Bay on the English Channel.In 1999, a section of the river extending for 13 kilometres (8.1 mi)—from the confluence with the Blackwater River to Colyford Bridge—was designated a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) by England's conservation body, Natural England. It was described as supporting "an exceptionally diverse aquatic and marginal flora". The river's diversity comes from its active geomorphology, which has created a number of natural features that support niche ecologies; it also comes from there being a limited number of trees on the river bank, allowing in light; and also the riverbed stability in the lower reaches of the river. A majority of the SSSI runs through Devon; only 160 yards (150 m) runs through Dorset. The underlying geology of the riverbed is alluvium with areas of valley gravel, clay, shale and marl. The fish life in the river is considered of European interest; ;other animals include more generally includes salmon, bullheads, otters, medicinal leeches and kingfishers, whilst there is a diverse aquatic and marginal plant life. The geomorphology of the meanders south of Axminster are the particular geological interest. Although now shallow and largely unnavigable, the estuary of the Axe was once important for shipping. According to Historic England, the village of Axmouth, which is some 1 mile (1.6 km) inland, 'was ranked as a major port by the mid-14th century and accounted for 15% of the country’s shipping trade'. The remains of a late medieval fishing boat can be seen at low tide in the river, just south-west of Axmouth village. Over the following years the estuary silted up and a moving shingle bar formed at the mouth. In 1870 the current Axmouth Harbour was developed at the river mouth. Although the harbour is nearer the town of Seaton than the village of Axmouth, the harbour and all of the estuary are in the parish of Axmouth.The estuary is flanked to its west by a series of low-level nature reserves, collectively known as Seaton Wetlands and including Seaton Marshes, Black Hole Marsh, Colyford Common and Stafford Marsh. Between them, these reserves include freshwater grazing marshes, intertidal lagoons, scrapes, ditches and bird hides, and are host to a diverse variety of birds and mammals such as otters. The reserves are separated from the estuary by the embankment of the former Seaton branch railway, which now carries the Seaton Tramway on its route between Seaton, Colyford and Colyton. with the open-topped trams offering a good view of both estuary and reserves. To its east, the estuary is flanked by the steeply rising land of the hills behind the Jurassic Coast and the Axmouth to Lyme Regis Undercliff.Prehistoric archaeology: The Axe valley has produced evidence for some of the earliest human (Palaeolithic) activity in the south-west of England. The Broom gravel pits (near Holditch) produced at least 1,800 Lower Palaeolithic handaxes when they were quarried in the late 19th century and the 1930s and 1940s. More recent archaeological investigations suggested that these artefacts are around 300,000 years old. Similar artefacts have been found in the gravel pits around Chard Junction.

Combpyne railway station was the intermediate station on the Lyme Regis branch line in East Devon, England. Serving the village of Combpyne, it was sited high on the sharp bend that changed the course of the line from south to an easterly direction.

Musbury Castle is an Iron Age Hill fort situated above the Village of Musbury in Devon. The fort occupies a commanding hill top approx 175 Metres above Sea Level overlooking the Axe valley at Ordnance Survey grid reference SY282941.

The River Coly is a 13-kilometre (8.1 mi) long river in the county of Devon, in the south-west of England. It rises in several streams in the north of the parish of Farway. It then flows south through Farway village before turning east and flowing through the town of Colyton, where it is joined by the Umborne Brook. Below Colyton the Coly turns south again and flows through the village of Colyford, shortly after which it joins the River Axe at the landward end of the latter's estuary.

Seaton railway station served the holiday resort of Seaton in Devon, England between 1868 and 1966. It was the terminus of a branch line from Seaton Junction. The station was about half a mile east of the centre of Seaton, on the western side of the estuary of the River Axe. Originally named Seaton and Beer, it was renamed Seaton by the LSWR.