HALLSANDS, the Devon village that “disappeared” into the sea last century, was the subject of a fascinating talk to the Thursday Friendship Group at Holsworthy Methodist Church.

The guest speaker was Mr David Trout, a Holsworthy Rotarian and himself a native of South Devon with deep family connections to the Hallsands area.

The appropriately named Mr Trout, whose family were fisher folk and hoteliers in and around Hallsands, described events leading to the catastrophic collapse of the village in 1917 after years of battering by seas and storms.

The last straw had been the over-dredging of shingle from Start Bay – 650,000 tons of it. Against local knowledge and warnings from local fishermen, this was ordered by the government of the day to provide ingredients for concrete needed to build warship bays at Devonport Dockyard as the clouds of the Great War gathered. Hallsands had been protected by its shingle, but the government wrongly assumed that this material could be regenerated. It could not. Local expertise had been ignored. “The powers that be didn’t listen to local knowledge,” said Mr Trout. “Some things never change,” remarked one of his audience.

Fortunately, no villagers died in the disaster, but Hallsands which had stood for centuries, was destroyed forever. No compensation was forthcoming, and the villagers felt betrayed. Today, the ruins of Hallsands can be seen from the South West Coast Path.

Mr Trout, the treasurer of Holsworthy Abbeyfield, also gave a brief outline of the history of Abbeyfield and its place at Densham Court in the town, one of 200 Abbeyfield sheltered-housing schemes throughout the country, plus 250 affiliated schemes.

The Thursday Friendship Group meets in the Bodmin Street Blue Room or chapel hall, from 2pm to 3.30pm, where everyone is welcome to come and share a cup of tea or coffee, a slice of cake and a chat.

Guest speakers are regularly planned for alternate Thursdays, and on the other Thursdays, the group holds games and quiz afternoons. On May 4 there will be a visit from the Bradworthy Singing for Fun group.