Odds and Sods May 2026

May was a fantastic month for taking photos, dry and sunny. In fact the climate alarmists are telling us yet again that a lovely summer means we are all doomed. They are even building a new sea wall in Paignton which, we are told is because "Climate Change". Well there is a lot of climate change in this particular post, just not in the way they tell us.

This series of photos has a Breccia bias. Breccia in South Devon is all about climate change, mainly because South Devon used to be on the equator.

Paignton Harbour.

Breccia - Breccia is a clastic sedimentary rock composed of large, sharp-angled fragments (called clasts) cemented together by a fine-grained matrix. Because its jagged fragments did not travel far from their source, breccia often indicates a high-energy environment or sudden geological activity.

There are different sorts of Breccia which are the result of different ways they can be formed. Here in Paignton and Goodrington, like most of Torbay, we are looking at Sedimentary Breccia.

The boating pond in Goodrington.

This is a near perfect example of Sedimentary Breccia. Sedimentary Breccia: Forms via rockfalls, landslides, or debris flows at the base of cliffs. This particular cliff face borders the cliff garden in Goodrington. Most of Torbay looks like this, and because it is soft and easily eroded, it explains why Torbay is a bay and not a promontory, like nearby Start Point, which we'll see later.

These cobble stones and this assorted rubble, which looks like it appeared yesterday, actually landed in this mudflow 400 million years ago and in geological terms did only appear here yesterday, as the Breccia here in Torbay is gradually uncovered.

This is Torbay, with Paignton harbour wall in the foreground, the pier in the middle and the red Breccia cliffs in the distance with Torquay behind.

By way of contrast, this is Start Point which is made of sterner stuff and therefore sticks out into the English Channel. This is metamorphic rock called greenschist and mica-schist. 300 million years ago, some earlier sedimentary rock got pressed and twisted under great heat and pressure to form something longer lasting. Imagine if you drove over some light crumbly baklava, how compressed and tough it would then be.

This is the twisty road down to the lighthouse.

This is the twisty path along the cliff garden in Goodrington. There is that Breccia again. The red sand on the beach is also made from Breccia

Between Torbay and Start Point lies the National Trust house and garden that once belonged to the D'Oyle Carte family. The family owned the Savoy Hotel in London and this was their summer home. D'Oyle Carte was also famously an opera company which produced Gilbert and Sullivan light operas. I had mistakenly thought the hotels paid for the opera but now discover that in fact the operas paid for the hotels which was a surprise.

This most evocative of country homes was built in the Arts & Crafts style, and is imbued with Art Deco elegance. A light, joyful atmosphere fills the rooms, and music plays, echoing the family's Gilbert and Sullivan connections. You can get an insight into 1920s life 'upstairs and downstairs' from the glamorous Saloon and the airy servants' rooms.

In the RHS accredited garden, viewpoints give enticing glimpses out to sea, paths weave through glades past tranquil ponds, and tender plants from the Mediterranean, South Africa and New Zealand thrive in the moist and sheltered valley.

In 1913 Rupert D'Oyle Carte inherited the family firm of hotels from his stepmother, worth at the time an estimated £2.2 million. An estimated £174 million today. In the 1800's this part of Devon was two or three days away from London by road and quite an arduous journey. The railway arrived in nearby Kingswear in 1864, making London only a few hours away. It saw the birth of the weekend retreat.

The house at Coleton Fishacre was built as a country home for Rupert D'Oyly Carte and his wife, Lady Dorothy Carte, between 1923 and 1926. The architect was Oswald Milne, a former assistant to Edwin Lutyens, who designed the house with the principles of the Arts and Crafts Movement in mind: simplicity of design and quality of craftsmanship. The influence of this older movement notwithstanding, the house is influenced by its own time, especially in its Art Deco interior.

Being almost exactly 100 years ago that the family moved in, we were treated to free celebratory cocktails on the terrace on our visit.

This is an anemone in a rock pool right next door to Paignton harbour. The first one I have ever seen. The rock pool is made of Breccia of course.

Part of the stunning floral display at Coleton Fishacre.

The D'Oyly Cartes called it Coleton Fishacre because it was positioned between two places with associated names. Fishacre is an ancient local place name traceable as far back as Martin de Fishacre in the 1240's, while Coleton is a small settlement nearby. Martin de Fishacre was a prominent 13th century knight and landowner owning several manors in South Devon.

This small display sits next to Paignton harbour. The anchor was pulled from the seabed by a Brixham trawler in 1980. One of the crew that found it owns the café right next to this display. The anchor was found off Portland Bill, another rocky outcrop 50 miles further east. That outcrop is famous for Portland Stone. Portland Stone was used to face many of London's iconic buildings. It was also used in building Claridge's hotel, which was also owned by the D'Oyly Cartes.

Having seen a lot of Breccia on my various visits to Torbay this stood out as unusual. I had never seen a white layer in the Breccia before. This was on the cliff above the beach next to Paignton harbour. The mainly red Breccia is made of windblown sand and water-washed mud layers stained by iron oxide. The white layers are made by the remains of tropical coral reefs washed down from hillsides in flash floods. This is a lot of climate change visible here. There was nobody campaigning to save the coral back then. It would be another three hundred and ninety-nine million and seven hundred thousand years before the first future virtue signalling humans started walking around.

Here the steps down to the beach are hewn out of the Breccia layers.

This is the remaining part of the old Paignton sea wall. Guess what it is made of?

North of the pier is the first phase of the new sea wall, constructed of Breccia pink concrete. Apparently this is needed because the sea now comes over the old sea wall on the right. There is a problem with this explanation though.......

.......because the original sea wall was much higher and for some reason was reduced in height many years ago. This short section which is much higher is still visible south of the pier. I am no expert but maybe this is why the area now gets flooded. This whole area of Paignton, east of the railway line, was, after all, a sea marsh before it was developed. This sea wall was built in 1939.

The main walls of Paignton harbour are 188 years old and are Grade 2 listed structures. The sea level doesn't seem to have changed here, apart from the tide twice a day. Remember this was built only 80 years after the start of the Industrial Revolution, which, apparently, has caused the "Climate Emergency", leading to sea level rise.

Many people think of Paignton as a holiday resort and don't realise its age and history, or that it still has a working fishing harbour. Here come the lobsters.

Roundham forms a small jutting out point between Goodrington and Paignton, the cliff garden is built on this promontory.

Roundham Road in Paignton was predominantly developed during the late Victorian and Edwardian eras, spanning from the 1870s to the early 1900s.The expansion of the railway in the 1850s transformed Paignton into a seaside resort. As a result, the vacant hill slopes of Roundham were developed into a spacious suburb featuring large detached and semi-detached villas.

Back at Start Point is the Lighthouse which was built in 1836 to protect shipping off Start Point. Open to the public in summer months, it is owned and operated by Trinity House. It has been designated by English Heritage as a grade II listed building.

The winding road down is a relatively new addition. The main access road down the peninsula to Start Point Lighthouse in South Devon was built and improved shortly after the First World War. Before this time, the headland was highly isolated. The lighthouse keepers originally had to rely on sea deliveries for supplies, and their families had to walk to the nearest shop and school.

The sheep make their own way down here.

Here is a good demonstration of the difference between Breccia and Schist. The crest of the point of Start Point is a knife edge of sharp protruding rock. Well, a serrated knife anyway.

This is the infamous former village of Hallsands. Only two ruined cottages are left clinging on to the rock platform. An entire village set on a shingle beach once stood here, and there was even a pub. Due to shingle extraction in the bay to build Plymouth Naval Dockyard over a hundred years ago, the shingle that defended the village eventually disappeared.

This is one of the stunning sights at Coleton Fishacre.

If you walk down the garden at Coleton Fishacre you reach the hidden cove. Just out of sight below, is a beach with a tidal bathing pool once used by Lady D'Oyle Carte.

This is the view from the top of the cliff garden in Goodrington. Torbay looking south. It looks quite tropical, for a piece of the world that once sat on the Equator.