About Dawlish

Dawlish is much more than a "kiss me quick" hat and penny arcade seaside town.

It has impressive literary connections, having been the haunt of both Charles Dickens and Jane Austen; Dickens used the town as the birthplace of Nicholas Nickleby.

The town boasts classic Regency and early Victorian villas built when the town became a fashionable resort, as well as fisherman's thatched cottages surviving from the old village.

Isambard Kingdom Brunel's Atmospheric Railway line ran past the town, along the coast, and the route is still used by trains running from Plymouth, Paignton and Torquay to Exeter and London. The Dawlish Seawall is an impressive piece of railway engineering.

The Black Swan, introduced from New Zealand by John Nash, a Dawlish born man, has been the Town's emblem for over 40 years. There are records of black swans being on The Brook in the early 1900s, but the current flock of black swans was introduced in the 1940s