From the Torcross Hotel to At The Beach

At The Beach occupies the building that for generations was the Torcross Hotel, a Victorian landmark standing right on the edge of Slapton Sands. Its story is bound up with the village around it, a place shaped by fishing, by war and above all by the sea.

A fishing village between the Ley and the sea

Torcross grew up on the narrow strip of land where Slapton Ley, the largest natural freshwater lake in the South West, meets Start Bay. It's first recorded in 1602, when a representative of the new settlement reported to the manorial court at Stokenham that all was well. For a long time there were only fishing cellars and workshops here, with families living further inland, away from pirates and close to work on the farms.

Torcross fishermen worked mainly with nets: seine nets for mackerel, pilchard, grey mullet and herring, and weighted tuck nets dragged along the seabed. By the 1860s French fishermen were crossing the Channel to buy Torcross sand eels, prized as bait.

The road, the coach and the visitors

In 1854 the coast road between Kingsbridge and Dartmouth was built through Torcross, running along the shingle bar between the Ley and the sea. A coach service between Dartmouth and Kingsbridge followed in 1858, and with it came visitors. The Torcross Hotel, built in the late 1800s, stood at the heart of the seafront, and by the 1930s it was appearing on picture postcards of Start Bay alongside Start Point lighthouse and Blackpool Sands.

The war years

In late 1943 Torcross and the neighbouring South Hams villages were evacuated so that Allied troops could rehearse for the D-Day landings on Slapton Sands, chosen because it looked so like Utah Beach in Normandy. In the early hours of 28 April 1944, during Exercise Tiger, German torpedo boats attacked a convoy in Lyme Bay heading for Slapton Sands. Two tank landing ships were sunk and 946 American servicemen were killed.

When photographers from the Ministry of Information visited in September 1944, they found the Torcross Hotel empty and windowless, its front pockmarked by naval shelling. Their caption noted that the damage was "surprisingly superficial" for a hotel standing on an assault beach. Civil Defence teams were soon at work re-glazing the village.

In 1984 a Sherman tank lost during the rehearsals was recovered from the bay, a project financed by Torcross hotelier Ken Small. It now stands beside the seafront as a memorial to those who died in Exercise Tiger.

Living with the sea

The sea has always set the terms in Torcross. In 1951 a large section of the seafront was undermined by the waves. In the winter storms of 1979 waves broke over the roofs of the seafront buildings, and a new curved sea wall was built in 1980. Storms in 2001, 2014 and 2016 brought more damage to the road and the shingle ridge. Just down the coast, the village of Hallsands was lost to the sea in 1917, and its ruins can still be seen today.

The latest chapter is under way now: the Environment Agency's rock armour scheme, due to be finished in spring 2027, will protect the seafront, including At The Beach, for decades to come. Read about the works.

From hotel to holiday apartments

The old hotel was later converted into the self-catering apartments of At The Beach, keeping its Victorian character while opening up the views across Start Bay. The carriage house behind the main building became The Barns, now Nos. 20 and 21. Today the apartments are individually owned and let through several agents, but they share the same seafront and the same long view out to sea. See all the apartments.

Timeline

• 1602Torcross is first recorded, in the manorial court rolls at Stokenham.
• 1854The coast road from Kingsbridge to Dartmouth is built through the village.
• 1858A coach service starts between Dartmouth and Kingsbridge.
• Late 1800sThe Torcross Hotel is built on the seafront.
• 1917Neighbouring Hallsands is destroyed by the sea.
• 1943Torcross and the surrounding villages are evacuated for D-Day training.
• 28 April 1944Exercise Tiger: 946 American servicemen are killed off the coast.
• 1951Part of the seafront is undermined by the sea.
• 1979–80Storm waves break over the seafront roofs, and a new sea wall is built.
• 1984The Sherman tank is raised from Start Bay and becomes a memorial.
• 2026–27New rock armour sea defences are built along the seafront.

Sources: Torcross, Wikipedia; Field Studies Council, Explore Torcross Village; Imperial War Museum photographs D21986, D21992 and D21996 via Wikimedia Commons; TuckDB Postcards.