The shingle bar that makes up Slapton Sands, across which the A379 runs, and which protects the freshwater body of Slapton Ley, was deposited about 5,000 years ago. Further deposition has not happened since – any part of the coast washed away is not replaced by natural processes. Recent visitors will see significant signs of erosion along this part of the coast. For example, the beach car park, not far from Slapton village, is clearly being eaten away by the waves when the sea is rougher. Here is a view of the carpark in 2014 from Google Maps streetview, where erosion is not apparent. The following YouTube clips show the effects of a great storm early in 2014, including erosion along the beach:
A year later, 27,000 tonnes of shingle, deposited as a coastal defence measure, were washed away in one day, only three weeks after being put in place:
Just two or three kilometres to the south of Slapton Sands, at Hallsands, most of the shingle beach was removed in the late 1890s as building material for Devonport dockyards, leaving the village exposed to storms. It was struck by a storm in 1917 and most of the village was washed away. A local historian tells the tale of Hallsands in the following way:
In 1917 a huge bank of shingle was removed from about two miles off Hallsands, just south of Torcross, to help in the construction of a new breakwater at Plymouth harbour. W hen the next gale came, this vacuum filled with a gigantic wave which swept wildly inshore , up the beach, and completely engulfed the little fishing village of about twenty cottages. Even those cottages which were built higher up in the cliffs were affected, but happily no lives were lost. The vilage was never inhabited again, save by one occupant, the daughter of a fisherman. She had been born in the cottage, up on the cliff, which had always been her home, and soon after the disaster she returned to live alone, the only occupant of this ghost village. There she stayed until her death in 1970. (Grace Bradbeer, 1973, “The Land Changed its Face; The Evacuation of the South Hams 1943-44”, page 30.)
The view of Hallsands on Google Maps today shows houses atop cliffs – the original village was at the foot of these cliffs. Will Torcross be spared the same fate? The following YouTube clip from a “Britain is Great” TV programme tells the story of the importance of the shingle beaches of South Devon:
See also the following Tumblestone Posts: Slapton Sands, Part One: A Visit, Mid-2016; Slapton Sands, Part Three: The Historical Significance of a Shingle Beach – The 1943-44 Evacuation; Slapton Sands, Part Four: The Tragedy of “Exercise Tiger”; Slapton Sands, Part Five: Beach Stones in the Rough; Slapton Sands, Part Six: The Beach Stones Polished.
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