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By the Dart • A Walk in South Devon


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Hallsands Coast path © Bill Boaden


Heritage The first record of a house at Beesands appears in 1588. Even at this time, however, most people would have lived a short distance inland at the village of Beeson, which offered more refuge from seafaring raiders. Beesands developed as a close knit fishing community. Crabs and lobsters were caught in willow ‘pots’ woven on the shore by the fishermen and dropped to the seabed from small boats in the bay. The lost village of Hallsands was once a thriving settlement. In the 1800s it was home to 128 people in 37 homes and boasted a pub, grocery, post office, and allotments. Every able bodied person in the village, young and old would help to haul the seine nets, which were drawn around shoals of fish and pulled in to the shore. In the 1890s, the admiralty decided to extend the naval dockyard in Plymouth. 650,000 tons of shingle was dredged from the bay at Hallsands for the purpose. It was hoped that nature would replenish the shingle but it did not. Instead, the beach which protected Hallsands from the sea dropped by up to 20 feet and the village was left exposed. storms in 1903-4 breached the sea walls, and in 1917 the village was entirely destroyed by the waves during a violent storm.


Landscape The beach at Beesands has been formed from shingle thrown up by the sea in only the last 2,000 years as sea levels rose. A large static caravan park was at one time sited just behind the beach, until the land was reclaimed as a village green and the caravans were removed.


Hallsands © Rob Purvis


Wildlife The cliffs at Hallsands are home to a breeding colony of several hundred Kittiwakes. These attractive gulls have yellow bills, black tips to their wings, and a ‘kitti- wake!’ call from which comes their name. Kittiwakes build mud nests on the cliff faces and perform elaborate greeting ceremonies with one another involving nodding heads and rubbing necks. They spend the winters away from land, far out on the ocean. The Guillemot, a sleek brown and white diving bird, can sometimes be seen sitting on the sea just offshore, as can Razorbills. These striking birds have a black head with a slender white stripe by the eye and a thick bill. Both species catch fish on deep dives from the surface. Kestrels are often to be seen


hovering above the rough grassland on the cliffs. They have rich reddish-brown upper wings with dark tips and fan their tails distinctively as they hover on the wind whilst hunting. Kestrels prey on voles and other small animals. There are reed beds both behind the beach at


Hovering Kestrel ©Walter Baxter


Hallsands and to the right of the green lane leading to Middlecombe. The common reed is Britain’s tallest grass, growing to over two metres and, unlike most plants, it can grow in both fresh and salt water. Reed beds are rare and important habitats, especially for birds and insects. They are also difficult and expensive to maintain, as they naturally tend to dry out.


Kittywake


above Beesands © Matt Newbury


start Bay from little Dartmouth


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