Badger
Member
Where is the beach in dorset that 800 Americans died in the Day- Rehersals ??
I know it's somehere in Lyme Bay ??
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I know it's somehere in Lyme Bay ??
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Slapdown sands
- Thread starter Badger
- Start date
BrendanS
Well-known member
Re: Slapton Sands
Go West from Lyme Bay, it's between Dartmouth and Salcombe.
Interesting place from many points of view. Nature reserve, and have a Tank memorial on the sea road.
One of the best is the pub about a mile inland..it has the best array of real ale and ciders I've ever seen. On one of my many trips there, my girlfriend at the time drove me back to Salcombe in my mini moke while I 'wind surfed' off the side after sampling half the bar. They do fantastic music and have blue grass bands from all over the globe.
Not a place to anchor up. It's very exposed, with a steeply shelving shingle beach.. Great for flying kites, not for staying overnight
Go West from Lyme Bay, it's between Dartmouth and Salcombe.
Interesting place from many points of view. Nature reserve, and have a Tank memorial on the sea road.
One of the best is the pub about a mile inland..it has the best array of real ale and ciders I've ever seen. On one of my many trips there, my girlfriend at the time drove me back to Salcombe in my mini moke while I 'wind surfed' off the side after sampling half the bar. They do fantastic music and have blue grass bands from all over the globe.
Not a place to anchor up. It's very exposed, with a steeply shelving shingle beach.. Great for flying kites, not for staying overnight
Cornishman
New member
It is in Start Bay and is called SLAPTON SANDS in Devon. So long as there is some Westing in the wind you can anchor off Hallsands with some shelter, but it is far from ideal. The pub in Slapton Village, mentioned elsewhere here, is called The Tower. Interesting fresh water lagoon called Slapton Ley is separated from the beach by the road which is under threat of being washed away with each SE gale.
Further along the beach to the east of the tank memorial is another with a pair of flgstaffs either side of the stone which are clearly marked on the larger scale charts.
Go further east towards Dartmouth in warm weather and there is a nudists' beach if you are that way inclined!
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Further along the beach to the east of the tank memorial is another with a pair of flgstaffs either side of the stone which are clearly marked on the larger scale charts.
Go further east towards Dartmouth in warm weather and there is a nudists' beach if you are that way inclined!
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hlb
RIP
Hhmm. Must have missed this place. Better check it out this summer!!
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qsiv
New member
Yep - and don't make the same mistake as the Americans, and underestimate the rapidity with which the water gets deep. If my memory servers me correctly we anchored what seemed like a few feet off the beach - but were still in deep water.
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Gunfleet
New member
They were shot up by German torpedo boats. THe steep-to beach has nothing to do with it.
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LadyInBed
Well-known member
4 nM N of Start Point - nm
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Peppermint
New member
Re: Slapton Sands
If you've got the kids with you the Slapton Ley visitors centre does guided walks to see the Otters and other wildlife.
Great Fish & Chips on the seafront.
If you think all that concrete looks a bit stark it's not that long since a big easterly storm nearly destroyed the whole village. So a big coastal defence project was all that stops the cottages being filled with shingle.
The road from Torcross towards Dartmouth is very straight. Unusual for Devon. Until recent "calming measures it was the Drag Strip for the South Hams. Every kid with a fast car or bike enjoyed this amenity.
More info about the attack on the Yanks and the war in this area is in "Magic Army" by Leslie Thomas.
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If you've got the kids with you the Slapton Ley visitors centre does guided walks to see the Otters and other wildlife.
Great Fish & Chips on the seafront.
If you think all that concrete looks a bit stark it's not that long since a big easterly storm nearly destroyed the whole village. So a big coastal defence project was all that stops the cottages being filled with shingle.
The road from Torcross towards Dartmouth is very straight. Unusual for Devon. Until recent "calming measures it was the Drag Strip for the South Hams. Every kid with a fast car or bike enjoyed this amenity.
More info about the attack on the Yanks and the war in this area is in "Magic Army" by Leslie Thomas.
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longjohnsilver
Well-known member
Re: Slapton Sands
Not so much calming measures, the road virtually disappeared into the sea last winter after one particularly nasty easterly gale. Just along from the beach towards Start Point there is the former village of Beesands which slipped into the sea, villagers blamed it on dredging, but can't remember where thje sand they dredged went.
Lovely area of coastline with a superb beach called Blackpool sands towards Dartmouth.
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Not so much calming measures, the road virtually disappeared into the sea last winter after one particularly nasty easterly gale. Just along from the beach towards Start Point there is the former village of Beesands which slipped into the sea, villagers blamed it on dredging, but can't remember where thje sand they dredged went.
Lovely area of coastline with a superb beach called Blackpool sands towards Dartmouth.
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LadyInBed
Well-known member
Re: Sand
Sand went to London. There was an afternoon play on Radio 4 about it some months back.
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Sand went to London. There was an afternoon play on Radio 4 about it some months back.
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roger
New member
Re: Slapton Sands
If you anchor off you can send someone ashore to the tank in the car-park. There you'll find the authot of "The Forgotten Dead" selling his book about the wartime preparations for D-day
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If you anchor off you can send someone ashore to the tank in the car-park. There you'll find the authot of "The Forgotten Dead" selling his book about the wartime preparations for D-day
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peterb
New member
Slapton Sands also has the honour of being the site of the only recorded collision between a submarine and a bicycle (given in "Accidents will happen" by Anne Welch). Apparently the sub was making for the River Dart by night, made a considerable navigational error, and ran up on the sands so far that the bow overhung the road. Cyclist coming along failed to see the large black object and ran into it. Work that one out in Colregs!
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Johnjo
New member
Talking of strange happenings,
Remember reading somewhere quite a while back of a lorry that got torpedoed in Scotland,
The torpedo was a practice shot which was aimed at a local beach to aid recovery,
Apparently the road ran along the top of the beach, the tide was in when the torpedo was launched
so it travelled a lot further up the beach than it normally would, struck a glancing blow on a
rock went airborne jist as the lorry was passing.
The rest they say is history,
Sounds a bit farfetched! maybe someone can confirm or deny this event ever happened
mike
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Remember reading somewhere quite a while back of a lorry that got torpedoed in Scotland,
The torpedo was a practice shot which was aimed at a local beach to aid recovery,
Apparently the road ran along the top of the beach, the tide was in when the torpedo was launched
so it travelled a lot further up the beach than it normally would, struck a glancing blow on a
rock went airborne jist as the lorry was passing.
The rest they say is history,
Sounds a bit farfetched! maybe someone can confirm or deny this event ever happened
mike
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snowleopard
Active member
torpedoed...
during the war my father was serving on an anti-aircraft battery in tobruk harbour. one night an italian submarine got through the defences and fired off its torpedoes. what the italians thought was a ship was in fact the island my father was on. a torpedo came up out of the sea and ran up the beach, stopping less than a yard from my father's foot. the following day the italian propaganda radio claimed the sinking of a cruiser in the harbour.
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during the war my father was serving on an anti-aircraft battery in tobruk harbour. one night an italian submarine got through the defences and fired off its torpedoes. what the italians thought was a ship was in fact the island my father was on. a torpedo came up out of the sea and ran up the beach, stopping less than a yard from my father's foot. the following day the italian propaganda radio claimed the sinking of a cruiser in the harbour.
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Jacket
New member
Quite possibly true. Can't remember the name of the loch, but when I was very small my parents often took me camping at a site right on the waters edge. When the red flag, indicating firing, was up you were ment to stay well clear of the waters edge, and the road was closed to vehicles. You could watch the torpedoes being fired across the loch- most were set to stop just before the beach, and they floated to the surface (I imagine they had some sort of automatically inflated bouyancy bags fitted?) but sometimes you'd see one plow into the beach.
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jimi
Well-known member
Possibly the Torpedo Testing station at Arrochar?
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summerwind
New member
Re: Slapton Sands
Story hereabouts is that the reason Beesands fell into the sea was that the authorities took the stone to build Plymouth Breakwater. Gales then undermined the exposed ground causing the vallage to take the big dip.
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Story hereabouts is that the reason Beesands fell into the sea was that the authorities took the stone to build Plymouth Breakwater. Gales then undermined the exposed ground causing the vallage to take the big dip.
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JonA
Member
Re: Sand
Would like to blame London or some where else up country for stealing sand and shingle but it went to Devonport for the Dockyard.
<hr width=100% size=1>JonA
Would like to blame London or some where else up country for stealing sand and shingle but it went to Devonport for the Dockyard.
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JonA
Member
Re: Slapton Sands
Beesands hasn't fallen into the sea yet, it was Hallsands.
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Beesands hasn't fallen into the sea yet, it was Hallsands.
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longjohnsilver
Well-known member
Re: Slapton Sands
Quite right, I meant Hallsands, knew it sounded wrong as I typed it!
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Quite right, I meant Hallsands, knew it sounded wrong as I typed it!
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