Between Prawle point and Start Bay

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How have human activities shaped the landscape between Prawle Point and Start Bay?

On day two, we analysed the human home settlements found in the villages of Hallsands, Beesands and Torcross. The whole aim of doing this was to find how these man made homes and settlements have affected the land at each village, and how other human activities have affected these settlements vulnerability to coastal damage, as how the natural coastline has developed due to this. We also looked at how these settlements have used man made sea defences t help protect them from coastal attacks.

Route

Firstly, here is the route we took along the coast from Start point (red) to Torcross (green), passing both Beesands and Hallsands along the way.

Hallsands - Description

When we visited Hallsands we noticed that it was had very small population, with little human settlements which were all near each other. Hallsands also had many narrow rough roads throughout the village and was ear the shore.

Hallsands - History

Between the years 1894-1903 the shingle beach close to Hallsands was lowered by 1.4m, due to the continuous taking of the shingle to build the dockyards at Plymouth. This made the village of Hallsands extremely vulnerable and open to floods from the waves of the sea.

In 1917 a storm with 10m waves destroyed the now unprotected village of Hallsands which was no longer protected by the defensive beach it once had.

Hallsands – Present Sea defences

Since the destructive storm of 1917 Hallsands has created new man made sea defences to ensure is constantly protected from future storms. You can see present day evidence of this when visiting Hallsands as it now has rip-rap, groups of large rocks stacked together, which break up strong waves and the energy they contain whilst they travel, reducing the impact when they hit these rocks.

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Beesands - Description

Compared with Hallsands, the village of Beesands had more human settlements dispersed throughout its land, with large areas of space between them, although thy were all generously within the same perimeter. Like Hallsands however, Beesands also had various narrow roads and is located near the shore.

Beesands - History

The village of Beesands is continuously vulnerable to flooding due to its beach having a lack of shingle moving northwards along the ...

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