Laira
The Laira, previously recorded as Lare (1591),[1] Lary poynte (1638), the Leerie (1643), and the Lairy (1802) is the broad, tidal estuary of the River Plym, in south-western Devon, from the Cattewater up to Marsh Mills, now a suburb of Plymouth. It has been largely hemmed in and filled since the industrial age but the open water preserves its character, changing each tide from a broad, shining water to a mudflat through which the little river winds its way.
The name 'Laira’ may derive from an old British language word corresponding to the Welsh llaeru, meaning 'to ebb'.[2]
History and modernity
The Laira was once a broad, muddy, tidal reach opening into the Cattewater. The grand Saltram Estate looks out over it, on the south side of the water. Since the Victorian age the Laira has been embanked and the mudflats of the upper reaches drained and reclaimed, so that the Laira today forms a mere lower reach of the river.
The name 'Laira' is also given to a pair of bridges, both known as Laira Bridge, by which the A379 road and the disused Plymouth to Yealmpton railway line cross the mouth of the estuary just above the Plymouth suburb of Cattedown.
The name 'Laira' now also refers to the area of Plymouth surrounding the Laira Traction Maintenance Depot. Much of the housing here was built around 1900 for employees of the depot. There is a memorial plaque to the men of Laira who died in the Great War along Old Laira Road. Also situated on Old Laira Road is the old Police / Fire Station which is currently used as a library. Laira Green Primary school is situated in the area, as well as a disused United Reformed Church.
Until the beginning of the 19th century, Old Laira Road had constituted the northern shore of Lipson Lake (or Bay), an extensive tidal inlet on the western side of the estuary. This area – on which the railway depot and Lipson Co-operative Academy now stand – was reclaimed from the estuary and drained, together with Tothill Bay on the south side of higher ground at Mount Gould, upon the completion in 1802 of an embankment along the whole western shore of the Laira.[3] A new road, laid along this embankment shortly afterwards, from Laira Green to Prince Rock, soon became the main highway into Plymouth from Plympton, Exeter, and beyond, avoiding the often steep and narrow way by way of Old Laira Road and Lipson, though the new route was to remain a toll road until 1924.
Location
- Location map: 50°22’48"N, 4°6’4"W
References
- ↑ http://www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/onlineex/unvbrit/a/zoomify82820.html
- ↑ Gover, J. E. B. & Mawer, A. & Stenton, F.M.: 'Place-Names of Devon , Part 1' (English Place-Names Society, 1931), page 20
- ↑ Moseley, Brian (September 2011). "The Embankment". Archived from the original on 28 September 2013. https://web.archive.org/web/20130928230325/http://www.plymouthdata.info/Embankment.htm. Retrieved 13 February 2015.
