BEER
Beer is a small fishing village with a population of about 1,500 persons. The population has remain fairly static for several decades now, despite much building in resent years, because there are now less people per household than there would have been some years ago. Beer's population was about the same even in Norman times, according to the Doomsday Book.

Beer is situated on the South Coast of Devon in the West Country of England. It is about two miles off the A3052 and lies between Seaton and Branscombe at the head of Lyme Bay. It is situated in a valley with a small brook that runs down to the sea between prominent white cliffs. There is a fault line between Beer and Seaton that stretches inland to Ottery St. Mary. On the Seaton side there are Mercia Mudstones from the Triassic period whilst on the Beer side belong to Cretaceous period. It is the only outcrop of chalk on the south coast of Devon. . Further along toward Lyme Regis there are Jurassic deposits. 

The chalk has an effect on the architecture as well as the flora and fauna.

Beer has been inhabited since Mesolithic times, down through the Neolithic, Bronze Age, Iron Age and Roman times though to Norman times and the present. Beer was important in Neolithic times because of the flint, but the sheltered cove with its headland (Beer Head) pushing approximately three quarters of a mile out to sea on the western side, protecting it from the prevailing westerly winds, is probably the reason for its centuries of habitation following that.

ORIGIN OF THE NAME BEER
According to "A dictionary of English place names" by A.D.Mills, Beer in Devon, was called Bera in 1086 (Doomsday Book) meaning place by the grove. From the Old English Bearu. There is also a theory that it means Barley. 

SHORT PREHISTORY OF BEER
Mesolithic 10,000 - 4,000 BC. Only one flint has been found, to my knowledge, in Beer that dates from the Mesolithic and it could be said that one swallow does not make a summer, but as Mesolithic people were nomadic Beer would not have been a permanent settlement, but a place to visit, perhaps for shellfish along the foreshore. The Mesolithic flint (if that is what it is) is of chert, probably from the Blackdown Hills.

Neolithic 4,000 - 2,000 BC. There are flints galore. Nearly everybody could find one in their garden in Beer.

Bronze Age 2,000 - 600 BC. There have been Bronze Age artefacts found (some of which are in Seaton Museum) and there is a Bronze Age burial mound at Bovey Fir Cross.

Iron Age 600 BC - Roman times. No direct evidence yet, but around this area are numerous Iron Age Hill Forts, showing that Iron Age Man was well established. Hill forts near Beer include; Blackbury Castle near Southleigh, Hawkesdown Camp at Axmouth, Musbury Castle, at Musbury and Hembury Fort near Honiton. There are many others at Dumpton, Stockland, Membury and over the border into Dorset.

SHORT HISTORY OF BEER
There was a strong Roman presence at Seaton (Moridunum) so I am sure some of them made it over to Beer. There is folk lore to say there used to be a Roman temple up at the top end of Beer. The Fosse Way or at least a branch of it came down to Axmouth, part of it was recently unearthed while they were digging the Axminster by-pass.

Beer is mentioned in the Doomsday book 1086. There are Norman workings at the cave and a Norman tower on St. Winifred's Church at Branscombe.