Listed Building: RHENISH TOWER (1210267)

LYNTON AND LYNMOUTH SS7149 THE ESPLANADE, Lynmouth 858-1/4/86 (North side) 19/07/50 Rhenish Tower - GV II Folly, possibly intended as water tower. Mid to late C19, "… gift of General Rawdon…", badly damaged 1952, rebuilt 1954. Rubble, some brickwork. A square tower with battered sides, set directly on the Quay (qv); at the top are 2 balconies in brickwork, carried on brick machicolations, plus a small brick turret carrying an open brazier, and a rubble unit with raked top, over a doorway. At quay level, on the S side, is a plank entrance door, and to its right a throughway giving access to the quay, with an opening to the E, facing the river estuary. HISTORICAL NOTE: the tower has variously been attributed to the late C18 and early C19, but there is evidence that it was not there, for instance, in 1831. Built at first without the machicolated balconies, these were added, because the tower was regarded by some as an eyesore. Practically destroyed by the great 1952 flood, a stone on the tower records: 'Destroyed August 1952, rebuilt April 1954. Information principally from Pugsley, 1945 (qv), who refers to an earlier writer (Tugwell, 1863), who seems to have been the first to suggest that the design was copied from a tower on the Rhine, hence its name. Tugwell also says that it is '… on the whole, of no great use…', but now it is seen as an essential 'historic' landmark for the town. Included for historical and group value. (Transactions of the Devonshire Association: Pugsley HW: The Tower on Lynmouth Pier: Exeter: 1945-: 191). Listing NGR: SS7225649665