Broadsands and Elbury Neighbourhood Plan
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Broadsands and Elbury Neighbourhood Plan A Draft Framework Steve Freer Table of Contents INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................................................... 2 RELEVANCE OF WRITING THE PLAN. ................................................................................................................ 2 THE NEOLITHIC TOMB. ..................................................................................................................................... 4 THE VICTORIAN FARM. .................................................................................................................................... 5 LORD CHURSTON’S BATH HOUSE. .................................................................................................................... 6 THE BROADSANDS HOUSING SCHEME. ............................................................................................................ 7 ENVIRONMENT AND CONSERVATION .............................................................................................................. 8 TRANSPORT ..................................................................................................................................................... 8 HOUSING ......................................................................................................................................................... 9 HOUSING DEVELOPMENT PLAN ....................................................................................................................... 9 DESIGN GUIDELINES ......................................................................................................................................... 9 ECONOMY ..................................................................................................................................................... 10 HEALTH AND SOCIAL SERVICES ...................................................................................................................... 11 LEISURE AND TOURISM.................................................................................................................................. 11 EDUCATION ................................................................................................................................................... 11 NEIGHBOURHOOD PLAN PRINCIPLES ............................................................................................................. 11 STRUCTURE SHOWING HOW CONTRIBUTIONS ARE MADE TO THE BRIXHAM PENINSULAR PLAN .................. 13 END................................................................................................................................................................ 14 Page 1 Introduction This document has been written by the Broadsands and Elbury Resident’s Association (BERA). Its purpose and intention is to document through community engagement the aspirations for this area over the next 20 years. As a collaborative alliance it is anticipated that the findings and views expressed will be read in line with the contributions made by Churston and Galmpton. Critically it plays to the areas unique strengths as identified by local people and balances the challenges, of economic development, the careful toning of jobs, housing and the environment. BERA was established in 1958 operating now for the last 55 years, it played a key role in the formation of the Churston, Galmpton & Broadsands Community Partnership (CGBCP) and been a participant of the Brixham Peninsular Neighbourhood Forum (BPNF). BERA has an area of membership covering approximately 480 households. Relevance of writing the plan. It is our desire that the coherent activities of the Community Partnership will reduce duplication of information and improve Integration of current knowledge with new knowledge. The process has developed strategic partnerships strengthening the information chain which can be further exploited delivering medium and long term actions and bringing about positive outcomes. Page 2 History and Heritage of Broadsands and Elbury. Broadsands/Elbury lies on the South Devon coast between the villages of Goodrington and Churston. The names refer particularly to the land that stretches from the sea up to the Brixham road, from Broadsands Avenue over to Brunel Road and the Long Wools and Stone Park houses. It is a place of great scenic beauty and provides habitats for a rich variety of wildlife, as well as being a wonderful place to live and visit for holidays. Broadsands is a picturesque bucket-and-spade beach with soft, reddish sand and safe, shallow water that consistently wins a Blue Flag for its excellent quality. The sea here is not affected by South West Water overflows and has benefited from the Torbay Clean Sweep scheme in the 1990s, and the high standard of sewage treatment at nearby Brokenbury Quarry. When the first train travelled along the new line from Paignton to Churston on March 14th 1861, a reporter described the view from his carriage for the Western Morning News: “…as pretty a little bay at the Broadsands as the most timid swimmer could desire…” It is just as beautiful today. Holiday makers share the beach with black-necked grebes and Cirl buntings as well as herring gulls. Buzzards and owls live in the woods behind, foxes and badgers saunter through the gardens of houses by Tor Rocks and seals regularly patrol near the shore, diving amongst the shoals of fish and socializing with people in canoes and pedalos. Across the headland of Elbury Common, with its superb views and woodland walk, lies Elbury Cove. Here the beach is bleached shingle and large areas of the sea bed are covered with seagrass. This is an important habitat and breeding ground for many species, notably native seahorses. Pipefish, spider crabs, sea hares, swimming crabs, sea slugs, shelled molluscs and sea worms are also found in the seagrass beds. Although rich in beauty and wildlife, it would be easy to think that the area cannot compare with the neighbouring villages of Churston and Galmpton, which abound with ancient industries, stately homes, manor houses, cottages and old pubs. But nothing could be further from the truth; Broadsands and Elbury have a fascinating historical heritage of their own. Above the beach at Broadsands, the gently sloping fields formed part of Lord Churston’s estate and had been farmed for hundreds of years. The tithe map of 1839 showed that fields were rented by different individuals, who probably travelled from Galmpton and Churston to tend them. But we know that people lived and farmed in this area long before there was a Lord of the Manor at Churston, for nestled in a hedge on a slope overlooking the bay is a Neolithic tomb. Page 3 The Neolithic Tomb. Five and a half thousand years ago this must have been an impressive landmark, and would have needed a great deal of skill and effort to build. At that time it was a stone mound, about twelve metres in diameter, entered by a passage. The tomb chamber itself was constructed from eleven upright limestone orthostats with dry stone walling packed between them. The tomb was discovered in 1956 by Guy Belleville, a local archaeologist. He had also found evidence that people had lived in the valley leading from Warborough Common to Broadsands during the late Paleolithic and Bronze Age. About half a mile from the tomb he had unearthed numbers of worked flints, arrowheads and fragments of polished flint axes. In 1958 an excavation of the tomb was carried out. This revealed that the chamber was an irregular polygonal shape and several bodies had been buried within it at the time of construction. It was difficult to determine the exact number as they had later been cleared to the sides of the chamber and trodden into the floor, but the archaeologists established that bones belonged to an adult male aged at least forty, a young adult male who was at least 5ft 6ins tall, and an infant. At a later period the tomb was used again, and it was at this time that the earlier bones were cleared away. There was evidence that several ritual fires had been lit before a new pavement was put in position. Above this pavement were the remains of a young male who had not reached the age of twenty. Neolithic pottery was found with the burials. The tomb was a significant discovery because there were no other certain examples of a Passage Tomb in the south-west of England and they are comparatively rare in Britain. Examples were much more common in Portugal and Brittany, suggesting that people had travelled from those areas and brought their burial traditions with them. Some stones and items from the tomb are in Torquay Museum and the bones have been analyzed since the original excavation. They date from 3768 to 3641 B.C. and reveal that, despite living so near to the sea, the people who were buried in the tomb ate very little fish. Clearly, the land around Broadsands was fertile enough to provide all the food they could want. Page 4 The Warrener’s House. We have other interesting buildings. Perched in the middle of Elbury Common was Warren House. It is a ruin today, but it was the home of Lord Churston’s warrener. He must have enjoyed spectacular views from his windows, although the sea breezes would have been extremely bracing in the winter. Elbury Common formed the warren for the estate, and the warrener was responsible for providing rabbits for Lord Churston’s kitchen. The Victorian Farm. Elbury Farm, a short walk from the Common,