Wednesday 1st February.........
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| Freezing at Start Point |
We were looking forward to a nice long stroll along the coast. If it wasn't for the arctic winds, we would have had that! We started at the aptly named Start Point, and shivered in a -5C wind chill factor while we posed for the group photo.
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| Hallsands ruined village |
First stop was at Hallsands, a ruined village which was destroyed in 1917 by the mismanagement of the fragile coastline. The shingle was dredged from the bay to make concrete for the expansion of Devonport Dockyard in Plymouth. Sir John Jackson who was commissioned to build it, failed to understand how the sediment cell in Start Bay functioned. Consequently, the beach in front of Hallsands disappeared in a matter of years, leaving the village to face the brunt of the North-easterly winds.
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| Beesands village showing different types of coastal defence. |
Further up the coast, the engineering constructed to protect the village of Beesands was examined. Sea walls, gabions and rip-rap are used extensively for this purpose. We used a variety of methods, including bi-polar and cost-benifit analyses to determine the effectiveness of the defence schemes. A do-nothing scheme north of Beesands was also implemented where the land is not worth the expense of protecting. This allowed us to contrast the effects of these coastal defences. Further to the north, similar methods were used in the village of Torcross, except on a much larger scale, because of a violent storm that hit in January 1979. Finally, we looked at shingle bastions, which are a more sustainable way of protecting the coastline.
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| Stone sampling |
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| Torcross with its sea-wall |
Despite the bitter, ice cold winds, and the relief of being back at the field centre, which never seemed more inviting, it was a very worthwhile day.
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| With the memorial Sherman tank in Torcross |
Ashley & Anthony
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