Welsh Journals

ALIEN STONES ON PORTEYNON BEACHES Apart from the ugly gashes which mar the cliffsides, the only relics of the days of the limestone trade at Porteynon, are the charac- teristic blue-green Devon stones which are strewn haphazard in Crowders Quay, on the sea approaches to Sedges Bank, and in the coves to the west of the Point. These stones were brought from the beaches of Barnstaple and Bideford in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, as ballast in the Devon boats, and were discarded before the taking on of cargoes of limestone. The bulk of the ballast was dumped in deep water before the vessels came in to berth. Depending on weather conditions, and the need for ensuring a correct list on grounding, a few stones were retained and discharged after berthing at the loading point. These are the stones which are seen today, and their position on the beaches proves that the old Devon sea-dogs nosed their craft into these dangerous and rockbound creeks, which could only be approached in calm weather. The procedure adopted by these vessels, was to approach the creek at flood tide and anchor a cable's length to the seaward of the marker buoy which indicated the spot where the ship was to berth. The cargo of limestone was piled beforehand alongside a patch of shingle on which the vessel could safely lie. The craft was then backed in by means of oars, and the anchor cable payed out till she came abreast of the buoy. She was held there till she grounded, and listed to starboard or port as required. As soon as the tide ebbed sufficiently, no time was lost in loading. A number of local hands would be standing by to ensure that the vessel got away with the cargo safely under hatches on the next flood tide. When the boat was again water-borne, she was pulled out to deep water by a winch which hauled on the anchor cable. Then she was able to make leeway under her own canvas. The last Devon fore-and-aft-er to load a cargo west of the Point, was the Roe," which came into Slade's Foot one fine summer's day in 1876. Sam Ace of Overton had been some weeks quarrying and hauling the stone in preparation for this ship's loading, and it was little thought, as the Roe made headway across the Channel that she was the last of the line ever to berth in the Overton coves. The disfigured hillside is slowly being clothed by nature with scrub and verdure, and in time, wind and weather will doubtless soften its harsh contours, and it will revert to something like its pristine form. The sea however, has not been, nor ever will be as successful in eliminating the traces of our visitors from across the Channel. The smooth and water-worn surface of these Devonian boulders is more resistant to incrustation by marine life than the native limestone. Consequently they are conspicuous on these Gower shores where they will be a reminder, for centuries, of the old limestone industry.