Axminster

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Many thanks to Weycroft Bridge B&B for facilitating this camera's location and to the Westcountry Rivers Trust  for capitally funding its installation. The River Axe is a river in Dorset, Somerset and Devon, in the south-west of England. It rises near Beaminster in Dorset, flows west then south by Axminster and joins the English Channel at Axmouth near Seaton in Lyme Bay. During its 22-mile course it is fed by various streams and by the tributary rivers Yarty and Coly. The Axe is a fertile river with good Trout fishing and a run of Salmon and Sea Trout also brown trout, dace, roach can be caught. Axminster dates back to the Celtic times of around 300 BC. It lies on two major Roman roads: the Fosse Way from Lincoln to Seaton, and the Dorchester - Exeter road. There was a Roman fort on the crossroads at Woodbury Farm, just south of the present town. Axminster was recorded in the late 9th century as Ascanmynster and in the Domesday Book of 1086 as Aixeministra. The name means 'monastery or large church by the River Axe' and is a mixture of languages; the river name Axe has Celtic origins and mynster is an Old English word.