- Cattewater
The city of
Plymouth , Devon,England is bounded byDartmoor to the north, the river Tamar to the west. The open expanse of water calledPlymouth Sound to the south and the river Plym to the east.The Cattewater is that stretch of water where the mouth of the river Plym merges with Plymouth Sound, just to the east of Sutton Pool. It is around this Pool that the manor of Sutton started which grew to form the present day city. On the northern shore of this confluence of waters there was a rock outcrop, which it was claimed, had the appearance of a cat [ compare the similarly named
Kattegat which ultimately derives fromOld Dutch , the common North European language of Mediaeval mariners ] . This gave its name to this stretch of water and eventually the name ofCattedown to the adjoining wharves and commercial area. Apart from an occasional small oil tanker the area is now used mostly by fishing trawlers yachts and smaller pleasure craft. There is a water taxi across it from theMayflower Steps on PlymouthBarbican to MountBatten and alsoOreston both on the southern bank.The spelling 'Cattewater' is by not old or consistent. Local sources and texts together with early maps and drawings refer to the opning of the estuary variously as Catwater, Cat Water and Catt Water. The internet search engines throw up other versions.
References
External links
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.