Defence of the Realm – One Thousand Years of South Devon’s Coastal Bastion
Today we had an attendance of 20 with 3 apologies .
Our writer/photographer Tony Taft reports on today’s talk:-
The talk today was by the very popular John Risdon, John has done presentations to many groups around this part of Devon and never fails to please all with his vast knowledge on the geography geology and history of where we call home.
John’s talk was entitled Defence of the realm Devon’s southern bastion, and his talk centred on Dawlish Warren for the start of his presentation and was in the form of a journey along the coast to as far as Slapton sands.
John gave us a visual presentation of many wonderful photographs most he had taken he is an accomplished photographer also photos of drawings and paintings of historical events in our region.
John said that with the sea continuing to rise because of global warming, on the spit of land that is Dawlish Warren, nature is fighting back in the form of sand dunes covered in Marram grass and this is protecting the Exe estuary and Newton Abbot from flooding
We then worked our way along the coast to Babbacombe bay and used a picture of the erosion at Oddicombe beach as an example of how the land is gradually being eaten away by the sea, in the photo you could see the remains of a property that went over the edge,it was pointed out by a club member that the house was sold on EBay I wonder if they used PayPal to pay for it, I suppose we can not blame EBay for a land slide.
Then John talked a little about Compton castle which is really not a castle only a fortified Manor House, and also Torre Abbey and about the Spanish barn used to house prisoners, there was only one woman among the prisoners but along with many of the prisoners she died, and it is reported that her spirit still walks around the grounds.
We ended our journey along the coast at Slapton sands, we were shown a beautiful photo from the air which only highlighted just how vulnerable that part of the coast is and it is only a matter of time before the sea washes it away, if this happens then the main road goes with it and a new main road will have to be constructed a major undertaking.
Above photo taken and used by kind permission of John Risdon
We all look forward to John returning some time soon, we only heard a fraction of his vast knowledge. Todays talk only ended because we ran out of time.
Paignton Probus Club 