Post by Dave on Aug 28, 2017 16:10:06 GMT
Start Point & Great Mattiscombe Sands 28th August 2017
Due to having to spend so many weekends rebuilding this site thanks to Photobucket breaking the links to all the images on here, plus having to take any work I can get right now, has meant I have been working Saturdays and have had little time to go out and do the things I enjoy doing.
I was determined to go out today and had planed to go to the Lustleigh Show, but as I have been there before and all these types of shows are much the same, I changed my mind. One place I have never been to for some strange reason is Start Point and after doing some research found I could park in the car park, walk to Start Point and then around to the Great Mattiscombe Sands.
Such trips always means plenty of driving in narrow lanes which being a Bank Holiday were far busier than normal, so reverse gear was selected more times than I care to remember. Got there in the end and the car park was already nearly full, handed over the grand sum of £3.50 and parked up.
From the car park the Start Point lighthouse does not look that far away, but it does take around twenty minutes to get to it. From the car park you get a great view of the lost village of Hallsands which you can read about on this thread
davesworld.proboards.com/thread/8/hallsands-lost-village-march-2009
I had only seen the village from the viewing platform at the other end from which I was viewing it now and the view from the car park is a much better one. I walked on down the lighthouse and the only problem was some sea haze that is visible in some of my photos. You can pay and go on a guided tour of the lighthouse, but its always on the hour and that was another forty five minutes away.
So I decided to give the tour a miss and head around to Great Mattiscombe Sands. To do so I had to walk part way back the way I had come and take a path to my left. The walk to the sands is not the easiest as it goes up and down with some large stones to step over and in between. Also at some points the pathway is very close to the edge of the cliffs and trust me, it’s a long way down to fall.
Great Mattiscombe Sands is a delightful cove and reminded me very much of Ayrmer Cove which is near Bigbury On Sea.
davesworld.proboards.com/thread/54/ayrmer-cove-hidden-gem
I much prefer Ayrmer Cove but both require a long walk from a car park to get to them, or from the coast path. I sat on a bench over looking the sands before heading up another pathway that would take me back to the car park. Its good half mile walk up hill but it’s not too steep and not hard to do.
When I got back to the car park it was full and over flowing into a field that is used when it is very busy. No matter what worries we might have to deal with, when you do a walk like this and see the very beautiful place we live in, you soon realizes just how lucky we really are.
A bit about Start Point and Great Mattiscombe Sands
Start Point is a spectacular promontory in South Hams, south Devon on the most southerly headland in the county. It marks the western side of Start Baywhich extends eastwards to the River Dart estuary.
The name “Start” derives from an Anglo-Saxon word steort, meaning a tail. This word also appears in the names of birds with distinctive tails, like the redstart.
Start Point Lighthouse took 40 men to build , at a cost of £5892 (just over 4 million pounds today).and has provided a welcome way-mark for returning sailors to the South West since it was built in 1836. And apart from confirming your position it is situated at the end of one the most exposed peninsulas on the South Devon coast, its beams and booms warn sailors of the notoriously hazardous waters around Start Point and the infamous Start Point tidal race.
The lamp, originally oil, could be seen 21 miles out to sea. Powered by electricity since 1959, it flashes three times every ten seconds with a range of 25 nautical miles. There is also a fixed red light over the Skerries Bank. When needed a foghorn booms out to sea once every minute.
Lighthouse keepers and their families lived in the tower until houses were built for them at its base. The inhabitants grew vegetables, kept pigs and chickens and collected seagull eggs from nearby cliffs. Extra supplies came in by sea until the roads were improved after the First World War. Before then the remoteness of the lighthouse made it an unpopular posting with the keepers’ wives.
The nearest shop was in Hallsands and could only be reached by walking along the coast path and the children had to walk four miles to school in Huccombe. The lighthouse was automated in 1993 and is now monitored and controlled from the Trinity House Control Centre at Harwich in Essex.
Over the years many ships have met disaster on the rocks in this area. The worst occurred on March 9th 1891 during the Great Blizzard. Late that afternoon the steamer Marana struck the Black Stone at full speed. The crew of 28 took to the lifeboats but only five men reached the shore below East Prawle, two of these died shortly after from exposure. Less than 12 hours later the sailing ship Dryad with a crew of 22 was driven ashore near to Start Point and broke up within minutes. Two schooners were wrecked in the same gale. In total this short stretch of coast claimed 52 lives that day.
Steam ship Marana Wrecked Off Start Point
Great Mattiscombe Sand.
Great Mattiscombe was once known as 'More Rope Bay'. According to local legend, a ship was lured to shore by wreckers looking for plunder, and less villainous residents attempted to rescue its unfortunate crew by lowering a rope down the cliffs to the rocks where they were stranded. In vain the survivors called for more rope.
