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Lost village

Hallsands

Start Bay, Devon

A fishing village washed away after its protective beach was dredged.

Between 1897 and 1902, contractors dredged around 650,000 tonnes of shingle from the bay to build the naval dockyard at Devonport. Without its shingle beach, Hallsands had nothing to protect it from the sea.

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When
Destroyed January 1917
Where
50.2360, -3.6610
Group
Lost & drowned villages

Visiting

A viewing platform above the ruins is reached on foot from the South West Coast Path.

Cover of The Ledger of Lost Britain by Cale Mills
Read the full story in the book

The Ledger of Lost Britain

The Romans arrived in AD 43. For most people that is where the history of Britain begins. But by the time the legions landed, people had already been living on these islands for thousands of years. They had hunted, farmed, mined flint, dragged stones across the country, raised a hill by hand, and buried their dead in great tombs. They left no written words. What they left was the ground itself. Every place in this book can be visited, or has been dug up, or is in a museum.

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