A walk with Sue and Lauren, from Bossington to Porlock Weir across the Salt Marsh and back. Taking the seaward path we had to walk through the river where the sea breached the coastal gravel barrier. Fortunately, it was low tide. We picnicked on the other side to get our feet and sandals dry again.
According to the Geological Conservation Review: “The coastal gravel barrier and beach at Porlock is the longest continuous coastal gravel barrier system on the western coast of Britain. It is 5 km long and fronts low-lying farmland, which is being flooded daily by the tide as a result of a major breach that occurred during a severe storm in 1996. The breach has not ‘healed’ and has resulted in saltmarsh …”.
The trees and hedgerows killed, I suspect, by the salt water when the sea invaded the marsh are now left as birdless sculptures in the flat landscape. Near this point, on 29th October 1942, a Liberator aircraft of the American Air Force, returning from a mission over the Bay of Biscay, clipped Bossington Hill in rain and fog and crashed. Eleven of the twelve man crew were killed. There is a Memorial to the airmen but somehow the dead trees are a more poignant reminder.
