242 KINGSBRIDGE 



recommendation to occasional visitors who flock there in 

 the summer time. 



It is an interesting sight to watch the fishing-boats 

 returning home after a night of toil — first one, and then 

 another, and another, tiny sail appears on the horizon, until 

 the little fleet comes in close to the shore, where wives and 

 children are waiting to receive the spoils as they are handed 

 over to them by the weary fishermen. 



You will find a Coast-guard Station at Torcross, and a very 

 small barn-like dissenting chapel, but there is no church 

 nearer than Stokenham. Torcross is situated at one end of a 

 long straight road, two miles in extent, which crosses the 

 sands midway between the lea and the sea — between the 

 fresh water and the salt. 



Slapton Lea presents many points of interest. It is 

 situated in the parishes of Blackawton, Slapton, and 

 Stokenham. Its length from Street-gate on the north, to 

 Torcross on the south, is more than two miles, and it con- 

 tains rather more than two hundred and seven acres. It is 

 fed by three small rivulets, and the water thus accumulated 

 forms the Lea, which has no visible outlet into the Bay, but 

 discharges itself by percolating through the sand. A channel 

 was cut in 1854, underneath the cliffs of Torcross, to allow 

 of the escape of the surplus water, but it requires frequent 

 clearing from the sand and pebbles with which it becomes 

 choked up by the storms of winter. 



In Leland's " Itinerary " we find as follows : — " Ther is a 

 very large Poole at Slapton, a 2 miles in length. Ther is but 

 a Barre of Sand betwixt the Se and this Poole. 



The fresch water drenith into the Se thorough the Sandy 

 Bank. The Waite of the Fresch Water and the Rage of 

 the Se brekith sumtime this Sandy Bank. Good Fische in 

 Slapton Poole." 



