A WEST Dorset village with a rather unusual name is where we call in this week.
These old photos, taken by Claud Hider and archived by Neil Mattingly, show the coastal village of Eype at its bucolic best.
This collection is among the most glorious of Hider's we have seen here at the Bridport & Lyme Regis News.
It's full of chocolate box village images, sweeping shots of an untamed Chesil Beach and beautiful pictures of tucked away bungalows with unrivalled sea views.
The very steep village of Eype is south-west of Bridport and south of Symondsbury. It is a two-part village (Lower and Higher Eype).
This lane leads to an inlet in the cliffs formed by the mouth of the Eype stream - where the stream hits the sea is Eype’s Mouth.
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The legacy of local industries such as farming, fishing and boatbuilding is still apparent.
Eype’s early history is intertwined with legend and romance.
According to some, the village was founded in the seventh century BC by wandering Greek traders who built a temple and burial place on Quarr Hill to the north. They came from Epirus, hence the name Eype.
Conversely, another theory is that the origins of Eype – at least as far as its name is concerned – are Old English.
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First recorded in 1300 as Estyep, then as Estrhep in 1329, its name derives from the word gēap (meaning ‘a steep place’) and ēast and ēasterra (‘east’ and ‘more easterly’).
Eype’s major brush with fame came on Friday, December 10 in 1881 when the balloon Saladin touched down there, spilling out two of its passengers who were attempting to offload ballast to avoid a fully-fledged crash in the village.
The third passenger, Walter Powell, MP for Malmesbury, stayed aboard, waved as he rushed out to sea and was never seen again.
On New Year’s Eve, the balloon’s barometer (or ‘a thermometer with a single human hair’, depending on which source one believes) was found off Chesil beach.
Two years later, the balloon’s remains were found… again variously described as in the Pyrenees or in Sierra del Pedroza, in the Asturias in northern Spain; of the MP, no trace was ever found.
Jo Draper’s Dorset – The Complete Guide describes Eype as: ‘A small village close to the sea, approached down a deep and leafy narrow lane.’
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The village is now home to a secluded shingle beach boasting ideal conditions for fossil hunting, swimming and wildlife watching and this coastline stretch represents some of Dorset’s finest geography.
The imposing chapel of ease of St Peter cost around triple the average build-cost of a Victorian parish church; it was built in memory of the former rector, Gregory Raymond
With thanks to website the Eype's Mouth Country Hotel and freshford.com for some of the information provided here.
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