🔥 BREAKING: 0603 continued.shtml - Live Updates April 2026

This page has been archived and is no longer updated. Find out more about page archiving.

28 October 2014

	BBC Homepage

»	BBC Local Devon Things to do People & Places Nature History Religion & Ethics Arts and Culture BBC Introducing TV & Radio Sites near Devon Cornwall Dorset Somerset Related BBC Sites England
	Contact Us

The inscription below appears on the memorial to the left of the tank

Doubtful whether even one percent of those that sit on Slapton Sands today, realise the activity that once took place, heralding the preparations for D-Day 1944

SEE ALSO

If you enjoy Tony's Dartmoor Diary, you may also like to take a

look at Anton Coaker's Farming Diary.
Grass Roots is an informative and entertaining look at life down on the farm.

And if you want to see more of this beautiful part of the county, check out our Dartmoor Photo Gallery

WEB LINKS

Dartmoor National Park Authority

Widecombe Parish Website
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external websites.

PRINT THIS PAGE

View print friendly version of this page..

Thanks from the USA
Talking of memorials, just visit Slapton Sands today and there you will find a large granite monument presented to the inhabitants of that area about 10 years later by the American Forces.

Part of the inscription reads:

Moving Story
For a cottager, the task of shifting home was a couple of days work at the most. For the farmers it really was far more complicated.

Not only did they have to empty their homes but there was all the livestock, implements, farm equipment, feeding stuffs and crops to move.

Some crops already harvested, some still in the ground. Swedes, mangolds, potatoes, grown to feed the stock that winter.

Slapton Ley - a 'wonderful freak of nature'

Much of the livestock were driven to their new homes but the rest had to be transported. Lorries full of implements, fodder, hay and corn had to be moved. A great state of destruction greeted those that did return so we must remember the hard work of those that restored this green and pleasant beautiful area of rural Britain.

Visit it now and it's difficult to appreciate the mass activity of those 60 or so years ago. The sea, the ridged beach, the road running the full length of the beach, and - the other side of it - that wonderful 'freak of nature' the freshwater Ley with its wide variety of flora and fauna, insects and birds.

Doubtful whether even one percent of those that sit on Slapton Sands today, realise the activity that once took place, heralding the preparations for D-Day 1944.

Thousands of American feet pounded these acres of Devonshire soil.

Now, just once a year, the sound of trampling feet is heard at the Annual Worm Charming Competition held close to the village pub at nearby Blackawton.

Its name is aptly "The Normandy Arms".