Sidmouth - Culture and History

The Tamar River was explored as early as 1798 when Bass and Flinders entered the estuary. By 1804 both William Collins and Lieutenant Colonel Paterson had explored the river to the Cataract Gorge and by April, 1805 the first settlers were in the area. Settlers inevitably found land up and down the shores of the river. By the 1840s there were enough Scottish settlers around Sidmouth to start lobbying the government for a church.