Slapton is a village and

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authorit ...

in the

South Hams South Hams is a local government district on the south coast of Devon, England. Services divide between those provided by its own Council headquartered in Totnes, and those provided by Devon County Council headquartered in the city of Exete ...

district of

Devon Devon ( , historically known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South West England. The most populous settlement in Devon is the city of Plymouth, followed by Devon's county town, the city of Exeter. Devo ...

, England. It is located near the A379 road between

Kingsbridge Kingsbridge is a market town and tourist hub in the South Hams district of Devon, England, with a population of 6,116 at the 2011 census. Two electoral wards bear the name of ''Kingsbridge'' (East & North). Their combined population at the ab ...

and Dartmouth, and lies within the

South Devon Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty The South Devon Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) covers 337 square kilometres, including much of the South Hams area of Devon and the rugged coastline from Jennycliff Bay to Elberry Cove near Brixham. The purpose of an Area of Outstandi ...

(AONB). The nearby beach is Slapton Sands; despite its name, it is not a sandy beach but a shingle one. In 1901 the population of the civil parish was 527, decreasing to 473 in 2001, and decreasing further to 434 at the 2011 census. The parish is surrounded clockwise from the north by the parishes of

Blackawton Blackawton is a village and civil parish in the South Hams district of Devon, England. According to the 2001 census, it had a population of 647. ''Blackawton'' is a major part of the West Dart electoral ward. The ward's population at the 2 ...

, Strete,

Stokenham Stokenham ( təʊ̯kən'hæm not stəʊ̯kənəm being a break with other comparators in England) is a village and civil parishes in England, civil parish in the English county of Devon. The population of the parish at the United Kingdom Ce ...

and East Allington.

History

Slapton was recorded in the

Domesday Book Domesday Book () – the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book" – is a manuscript record of the "Great Survey" of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manus ...

of 1086 as ''Sladone''. The Collegiate Chantry of St Mary was founded in 1372 or 1373 by Sir Guy de Brian. The Tower Inn and West tower remain and the tower has been designated by

English Heritage English Heritage (officially the English Heritage Trust) is a charity that manages over 400 historic monuments, buildings and places. These include prehistoric sites, medieval castles, Roman forts and country houses. The charity states that i ...

as a grade I

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

. The Church of St James dates from the late 13th or early 14th century, and is also grade I listed. Medieval Coin, Quarter Noble of Edward III (FindID 716757)

Medieval Coin, Quarter Noble of Edward III (FindID 716757)

The nearby beach is a coastal

bar Bar or BAR may refer to: Food and drink * Bar (establishment), selling alcoholic beverages * Candy bar * Chocolate bar Science and technology * Bar (river morphology), a deposit of sediment * Bar (tropical cyclone), a layer of cloud * Bar (u ...

(see below), known as Slapton Sands. After ''

Lalla Rookh ''Lalla Rookh'' is an Oriental romance by Irish poet Thomas Moore, published in 1817. The title is taken from the name of the heroine of the frame tale, the (fictional) daughter of the 17th-century Mughal emperor Aurangzeb. The work consi ...

'', a tea clipper, was wrecked at Prawle Point in March 1873, some of her cargo of tea and

tobacco Tobacco is the common name of several plants in the genus '' Nicotiana'' of the family Solanaceae, and the general term for any product prepared from the cured leaves of these plants. More than 70 species of tobacco are known, but the ...

, heaped up to high in places, as well as pieces of wreckage, were washed up on Slapton Sands. The beach itself is not sand, but consists of small smooth pebbles ranging in size from ¼ inch to several inches. Sherman_tank_at_memorial_for_those_killed_in_Operation_Tiger

Sherman_tank_at_memorial_for_those_killed_in_Operation_Tiger

In 1944, during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, it was part of the site of

Exercise Tiger Exercise Tiger, or Operation Tiger, was one of a series of large-scale rehearsals for the D-Day invasion of Normandy, which took place in April 1944 on Slapton Sands in Devon. Coordination and communication problems resulted in friendly fire ...

, a rehearsal for the Invasion of Normandy which was attacked by German

E-Boat E-boat was the Western Allies' designation for the fast attack craft (German: ''Schnellboot'', or ''S-Boot'', meaning "fast boat") of the Kriegsmarine during World War II; ''E-boat'' could refer to a patrol craft from an armed motorboat to a lar ...

s and also saw a large number of

friendly fire In military terminology, friendly fire or fratricide is an attack by belligerent or neutral forces on friendly troops while attempting to attack enemy/hostile targets. Examples include misidentifying the target as hostile, cross-fire while en ...

deaths. An M4A1 Sherman tank that was sunk in this action has been recovered and now stands on the road behind the beach at nearby

Torcross Torcross is a village in the South Hams district of south Devon in England. It stands at grid reference at the southern end of Slapton Sands, a narrow strip of land and shingle beach which separates the freshwater lake of Slapton Ley from ...

. A stone memorial presented by the

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the land warfare, land military branch, service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight Uniformed services of the United States, U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army o ...

to the residents of

also commemorates those who participated in the practice area for the Invasion of Normandy. The monument is accompanied by two flag poles either side. Part of

Exercise Fabius Exercise Fabius was a formal exercise for the Allied Operation Neptune in World War II. The other was Exercise Tiger, which had occurred a week earlier. The exercise was planned to start on 2 May 1944, but bad weather delayed it to the next day ...

took place a week after Exercise Tiger on Slapton Sands. Slapton Sands Memorial

Geography and environmental importance

Slapton Sands aerial view facing southwards

Behind Slapton Sands is

Slapton Ley Slapton Ley is a lake on the south coast of Devon, England, separated from Start Bay by a shingle beach, known as Slapton Sands. Slapton Ley is the largest natural freshwater lake in south-west England being long and has two sections; the Low ...

, a nature reserve and example of serial or ecological succession — the process whereby open water becomes reed bed and eventually, as silt and

leaf litter Plant litter (also leaf litter, tree litter, soil litter, litterfall or duff) is dead plant material (such as leaves, bark, needles, twigs, and cladodes) that have fallen to the ground. This detritus or dead organic material and its constituent ...

builds up, woodland. The beach itself is a

: the material that makes up the beach was pushed up by the

rising sea levels Rising may refer to: * Rising, a stage in baking - see Proofing (baking technique) *Elevation * Short for Uprising, a rebellion Film and TV * "Rising" (''Stargate Atlantis''), the series premiere of the science fiction television program ''Starga ...

during the Flandrian transgression after the last glacial period (from 10,000 to 5,000 years ago). A similar process formed

Chesil Beach Chesil Beach (also known as Chesil Bank) in Dorset, England is one of three major shingle beach structures in Britain.A. P. Carr and M. W. L. Blackley, "Investigations Bearing on the Age and Development of Chesil Beach, Dorset, and the Associat ...

. Beaches formed like this are reworked by coastal processes now but are not supplied by enough material to recreate them, should material be removed. This had terrible consequences nearby at

Hallsands Hallsands is a village and beach in south Devon, England, in a precarious position between cliffs and the sea, between Beesands to the north and Start Point to the south. History The early history of Hallsands is unknown, but a chapel has exi ...

where most of the beach was removed as building material for Devonport dockyards, leaving the village exposed to storms. It was struck by a storm in 1917 and most of the village was washed away, although no villagers were killed. Further north, the beach is known as Strete Gate and at the northernmost end is Pilchard Cove. The southern end of the beach is known as Torcross Sands. A length of beach about south of Pilchard Cove is regularly used by

naturist Naturism is a lifestyle of practising non-sexual social nudity in private and in public; the word also refers to the cultural movement which advocates and defends that lifestyle. Both may alternatively be called nudism. Though the two terms a ...

Notes and references

External links

Village web siteExercise Tiger Memorial

Listed buildings in Slapton
{{Authority control Beaches of Devon Civil parishes in South Hams Villages in South Hams Nude beaches

History

Geography and environmental importance

See also

Notes and references

External links