7) Agatha Christie's hideawayĪ fun way to start this picturesque mini-adventure is by jumping on board the restored steam train at Littlehempston station in Totnes and chugging your way up to Staverton station, around the Dartington Estate. The century-old dredging operation is still thought to be affecting the coastline with huge sea walls having to be built at both Beesands and Torcross over the last 20 years to protect homes along with the swamping of the Slapton line coastal road that was undermined first in 2001 and then again in 2018. When the dredging started in 1897, Hallsands was a thriving village of 150 souls living directly or indirectly off fishing with their own pub, post office and shop.īut by 1918 Hallsands was uninhabitable after beach levels plummeted by more than 15 feet leaving the village vulnerable to south westerly storms which undermined homes and battered them into ruins.Įxperts have said the effects of the offshore dredging in the late 1800s and early 1900s are still being felt with beach levels at Slapton Sands have dropped by a further two metres in recent months.
The fishermen of the doomed village of Hallsands were cheated out of their future and their families lost their homes back in 1917 as the sea flooded in after their beach was stripped of gravel to build Plymouth's dockyards. It is closed off to the public, although South Hams District Council has built a viewing platform, which is accessed from the track below Prospect House Apartments. Today only a few ghostly shells of buildings remain of the old village at South Hallsands. Take a tour here 2) Most famous pub on Dartmoor The room is packed with symbols of the Craft, containing many of the working tools of a medieval stonemason. Members gather here in chairs surrounding a black and white checkerboard floor, representing the light and dark of life. The interior is surprisingly plain, more like an old town hall than a church, until you reach the first floor temple, where all the ceremonies take place. Long ago members abandoned the attractive Gandy Street entrance and now used a tucked away back entrance. It is the Freemasons Hall in Exeter and members granted DevonLive exclusive access. The Grade I listed building, sandwiched between a jewellers and a children's clothing shop, dates back to the 14th century. You may often pass this lovely old building in Exeter's Gandy Street without stopping to wonder why it looks like something from a Harry Potter stage set (author JK Rowling studied at Exeter University and was indeed inspired by many Devon landmarks) and why the front door never opens.
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