wemburywaves

ON THIS DAY IN WEMBURY
17 June 1947

Wembury Parish Council met in emergency session on this day in 1947 to confront growing anxieties about naval activity at Wembury Point. Concerns had been circulating for months about new military developments on the headland and the possible closure or diversion of long-used public footpaths. These paths connected the village to the cliffs, the Point, and the Yealm, and many residents feared permanent loss of access.

To address the issue the Council invited Lieut Colonel R Bastard, speaking for the Council for the Preservation of Rural England, to brief them. His appearance signalled how seriously the situation was viewed at county level. The CPRE had been monitoring the Navy’s encroachment on coastal landscapes and Wembury Point was becoming a particular flashpoint. Villagers wanted reassurance that the paths would remain open and that the military would not fence off large areas of the headland.

This was a sensitive moment. The war had only recently ended and the Admiralty still regarded Wembury Point as strategically valuable. Locals, however, were determined to protect their coast from further restriction. The 17 June meeting is one of the earliest recorded examples of organised community pushback over the future of access at the Point, a theme that continued for decades until the eventual transfer of the land to the National Trust in the early twenty first century.