Listen to the track:
Wembury Struggle
In July 1932 an assault took place at Wembury Bay, then a relatively secluded stretch of coast used by holidaymakers staying in huts along the cliffs. A woman walking alone in the evening was attacked after being approached by a local labourer. A struggle followed, during which she was dragged from the path into long grass and threatened when she screamed. The attack was interrupted when other walkers came into view, allowing her to escape and return to her accommodation in a state of shock and collapse.
The case was heard at the Devon Quarter Sessions at Exeter, where evidence was given by the victim and by witnesses who had heard her screams and seen the struggle. The accused denied the assault and offered alternative explanations for his injuries, but the court rejected his account. He was convicted and sentenced to fifteen months’ imprisonment with hard labour.
The incident highlights both the vulnerability of isolated coastal paths and the seriousness with which such offences were treated by the courts in the early 1930s.
Verse 1
Seven miles from Plymouth town
Evening on the cliff
Holiday hut, borrowed peace
Wind was blowing stiff
Footsteps falling in behind
On the chalk and clay
Nothing moved, the sea held still
At Wembury Bay
Verse 2
Words at first, then fingers closed
Took her by the arm
Down she went on broken ground
Fighting, breath and calm
Teeth to blood, a bitten lip
Hands that would not stay
Silence broke into a scream
At Wembury Bay
Chorus
Wembury Bay, don’t turn away
The grass remembers all
Where the wind took hold of every cry
And the cliffs stood tall
Wembury Bay, the sea rolled on
As if it heard no plea
But the ground still knows what happened there
Above the summer sea
Verse 3
Lifted, carried from the path
Into the long wet grass
Hand across her mouth and nose
A line she could not pass
“If you speak I’ll find you
Sure as God can see”
The night fell hard on land and sea
For her, for him, for me
Verse 4
Voices, footsteps, breaking in
A moment, then a gap
She ran back to the hut alone
Shaking, near collapse
Later words were thrown like dust
Lies to hide the day
But the mark still spoke the truth
At Wembury Bay
Final Chorus
Wembury Bay, don’t turn away
The grass remembers all
Where the wind took hold of every cry
And the cliffs stood tall
Wembury Bay, the sea rolled on
But truth still found its way
Fifteen months hard labour, down by Wembury Bay