Dartmouth to Bodmin

A bit of a hiccup this morning with Geoff vomiting due to the antibiotics. The poor B and B owners were quite concerned. A rapid recovery and onto the day.

A short drive and a car ferry ride to Dartmouth. What a beautiful Harbourside village.

 

Dartmouth Castle is one of a pair of forts, the other being Kingswear Castle, that guard the mouth of the Dart Estuary in Devon

 

 

This small fortalice (coastal fort) was built in 1388 under the direction of John Hawley (rumoured to be the basis for the Shipman in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales). The present Guntower building is the earliest surviving English coastal fortress specifically built to carry guns. It was built by the corporation of Dartmouth between 1481 and 1495 and additions, including open-air gun platforms, were made during the 16th century by Henry VIII and again in the 17th century in order to accommodate new military technology.

During the Civil War it was besieged for one month and then taken by the Royalists, who then constructed an earthwork fort above the Castle at Gallant's Bower to protect its landward side. After being held by them for three years it was attacked and taken by Sir Thomas Fairfax for the Parliamentarians in 1646. The castle continued in use as a working fort until the nineteenth century, when it housed no fewer than five huge 64-pdr cannon on traversing carriages. The 19th century Gun Battery is the most substantial remaining part of the castle and itself remained in military use throughout the First and Second World Wars, overlooking the D-Day preparations in the latter.

After looking through the old church and castle we went had a hot chocolate and lemon drizzle cake as you do for morning tea. It is so nice to feel well again!

We went for a walk along the headland for a bit. With the clouds coming and going there was continual changes in the colour of the water.

 

After a small GPS mishap we set off to Beesands. A quick stop at Torcross to see a tank left from the D Day crossing.

In late 1943 Torcross was evacuated, along with many other villages in the South Hams area, to make way for 15,000 allied troops who needed the area to practise for the D-Day landings.

 

 

In the early hours of 28 April 1944 a tragic incident happened during Exercise Tiger: nine German torpedo boats, alerted by heavy radio traffic, intercepted a three-mile-long convoy of vessels travelling from the Isle of Portland to Slapton Sands to undertake landing rehearsals for D Day. Two Tank landing ships were sunk in the engagement and 749 American servicemen died. Poor communications led to badly-timed shelling on the beach, killing about 300 more men. Over 1,000 lives were lost over the course of the operation.

A Sherman amphibious tank and several plaques stand at Torcross car park between Slapton Ley and the beach as memorials to the men who lost their lives. The operation to salvage the tank from the shallow waters of Start Bay was completed in 1984.

Then it was onto Beesand which is a tiny fishing village. The tiny narrow streets are quite a challenge to drive particularly when you come across a double decker bus coming the othe way.

 

After some crab soup for lunch we had a beautiful afternoon's walk along the clift tops to Hallsand which is a village that has been lost to the sea.

 

 

It has such an interesting story-

 

The early history of Hallsands is unknown, but a chapel has existed there since at least 1506. The site of the village was located at a cave known as Poke Hole, and probably was not inhabited before 1600. The village grew in size during the 18th and 19th centuries, and by 1891 it had 37 houses, a spring, a public house called the London Inn, and a population of 159. Most residents of Hallsands at that time depended on fishing for a living, particularly crab fishing on the nearby Skerries Bank.

In the 1890s, following a scheme proposed by Sir John Jackson, it was decided to expand the naval dockyard at Keyham, near Plymouth, and dredging began offshore from Hallsands to provide sand and gravel for its construction. Soon, up to 1,600 tons of material was being removed each day, and the level of the beach began to drop, much to the alarm of local residents.The Board of Trade agreed to establish a local inquiry in response to protests from villagers, who feared that the dredging might destabilise the beach and thereby threaten the village. The inquiry found that the activity was not likely to pose a significant threat to the village, so dredging continued. By 1900, however, the level of the beach had started to fall. In the autumn storms that year, part of the sea wall was washed away. In November 1900, villagers petitioned their Member of Parliament complaining of damage to their houses, and in March 1901 Kingsbridge Rural District Council wrote to the Board of Trade complaining of damage to the road. In September 1901 a new Board of Trade inspector concluded that further severe storms could cause serious damage and recommended that dredging be stopped. On 8 January 1902 the dredging licence was revoked. During 1902 the level of the beach recovered; however the winter of 1902 brought more storms and damage.

On 26 January 1917, a combination of easterly gales and exceptionally high tides breached Hallsands' defences, and by the end of that year only one house remained habitable. The villagers' fight for compensation took seven years.

According to Pathe News real footage from 1960, the last inhabitant of the village was Mrs. Elizabeth Prettejohn who lived in the only house still standing until she died.

 

It was well after 4pm when we started our journey to St Austell where we were staying for the night.