BEACHCOMBING

Beachcombing on the Estuary is an ancient occupation. It was going on in the time of King Edward I. Ursula Brighouse in A View from the Beacon tells the story:

“In the summer of 1301 a ship carrying a cargo of wine from France to Exeter was wrecked off Teignmouth and 10 casks, each holding 240 gallons, were washed ashore at Lympstone where they came into Geoffrey’s (Geoffrey de Albemarle’s) hands. The crew of the vessel survived to report the loss to the owners in Exeter and Geoffrey was asked to hand them back. One may suppose that by this time the casks were no longer intact. At any rate Geoffrey had no intention of handing them over and in September of that year, after the owners had failed to get any compensation, the King ordered the Sheriff to distrain on Geoffrey’s goods without delay to satisfy the merchants for the price of the ten casks - valued at 4 marks each – ‘so that the King may not hear renewed complaints for lack of justice’.”

And I have heard it said that after the Spanish Armada, and in the days when bullion ships were forever being wrecked, the beaches of the South West were strewn with gold pieces. But no one has to believe this and I have yet to hear of anyone finding gold in the Estuary.

After his death my father’s shed had to be emptied of ‘things he had found on the beach’. He had a saying: “If you keep a thing for seven years there will be a use for it.” It didn’t always work.

The age of miracles seems to have passed. These days the Estuary beachcombing is tame compared to beachcombing on the coast but now and again someone finds something on the beaches that is well worth taking home.

Beachcombing was traditionally a serious occupation for fishermen and longshoremen. Rough seas robbed them of their livelihood both by keeping them from fishing and by smashing standing gear like crabpots and longlines but they could hope for some small return from the sea by way of a buoy here, a length of rope there. At the very least the seas were a sure provider of firewood.

March is always a good month for rough weather. If the weather is wild enough I might just give beachcombing another whirl. A cask of wine or a few doubloons would come in handy.

SALT

Ursula Brighouse in her fascinating history of Woodbury, "A View from the Beacon" makes much of the mystery of how Woodbury Salterton came by its name. All the clues, and they are listed, seem to point to Woodbury Salterton being named after "salt-workers or salt-sellers engaged in some sort of storing and distributing business connected to the salt trade." and yet, "it is hard to see, looking at the map, how Woodbury Salterton could have been on a direct route leading from any of the known saltpans to an inland market."

But what if salt was being produced in quantity on the Exe estuary? Surely then Woodbury Salterton would be a likely place to store salt for onward distribution.

In Charles Vancouver's "General View of the Agriculture of the County of Devon" which was published in 1808, he writes the following:

"In the parish of Dawlish there is a large proportion of coarse, though improvable land. A large range of sand-hills extend south-westerly from the mouth of the river Axe:" (This a typographical error for Exe)" these are chiefly appropriated as a warren; some of their lower parts have been enclosed with a view to improvement, but the rank driving sand of which the surface is composed, defeated the undertaking. Among these sand-hills are some lagoons or lakes of salt water, where the making of salt has lately been renewed with the prospect of answering very well."

So there was at least one saltern on the Exe at Dawlish Warren. This is the only reference I have seen to it but there must be more about this nineteenth century initiative. Vancouver writes here of a renewal and salterns can be very ancient and it is not unthinkable that salt was being made on the Warren and/or elsewhere on the Estuary before ever Woodbury Salterton got its name.