Washed away

We drove today (of course we did!) a little further each time we venture out. To the remains of a village called Hallsands. Which went from this in 1885:
To this, after dredging for shingle off the coast to use in the building of Plymouth's dock yards in the 1890's caused the beach to erode and collapse spectacularly destroying most of the village by 1917.

We ordinary folks can't be trusted not to kill ourselves and aren't allowed down into what's left of the village any more (except for the owners of the two remaining standing houses who obviously aren't stupid enough to kill themselves on the rocks.) So we had to stand on a viewing platform. It was quite spooky. "Modern" ruins.

Some photos from our day. You can click on any of them to see a large version.

From the place where we had to turn the car around because we had taken the wrong turning. You can see the remains of the village hanging on to the rocks. I love our patchwork countryside and all it's shades of green. Eventually we parked down by the beach you can see here.

Look, you can see our car! Oh my aching heel after that climb!

From the viewing platform.
All that remains.

Ray found a tiny path down to this house perching on the top of the cliff.

He went scrabbling about on the rocks to see if we could sneak to the village via the beach. My intrepid explorer has taken me places I probably wouldn't normally go. But not this time and not without a tide timetable and some much tougher shoes!

We sat in the car with a flask of tea and jam sandwiches like two middle aged tourists. It might look warm but it was rather windy.

Every time we go out in our car I imagine George in the back seat. I think of all the places we would have shown him and the many beaches he would have played on. Each day out is always happysad for me. I hope one day we will have a living son or daughter to explore with.


When we got home this evening we opened a letter from the local council refunding some of the council tax paid while I have been off work. More than enough to cover the enormous gas bill that is more than twice as much as it was last quarter. The greed of these utility companies is astounding. Profit for the sake of profit seems pointless to me. Re-nationalise!