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Hallsands Ruin

Hallsands

The South Devon coastline has around 100 miles of drama and spectacle, but nothing perhaps so strange and moving as the hollow remains of what was once an entire fishing village. Hallsands, just a few miles south of Torcross, was, in the 1890s, home to 160 folk, mainly fishermen and their families, living in 37 houses strung along the foot of the cliffs, protected by a sea wall and large shingle bar. It had been there since at least the 17th Century.

In the late 1890s, in the wake of a decision to extend the dockyards at the Plymouth naval base, the company of John Jackson Ltd began dredging for construction materials from the seabed off Hallsands. The villagers were greatly concerned, predicting damage to their fishing livelihoods and to the beach itself. By 1900, a falling beach level suggested that their fears were justified, and after petitioning their MP, a new sea wall was built. Dredging was finally stopped in 1902, following further signs that the village was under threat.

Hallsand's residents struggled through each following winters in fear of their lives as the beach continued to shrink and storms broke over their houses with increasing regularity. The population began to shrink and in January 1917, a particularly ferocious storm took away the sea wall and damaged many of the houses to the point that they were uninhabitable. The village died on that night. Two houses at the extreme end of the village remain intact. The rest, apart from a few ruins perched on rocks are now just memories. The village is closed to the public now but there is a viewing platform at the cliff edge.

Find more information on BBC Devon.