Bectan Sands

Weather records

Locals think that global warming is affecting the village.
Over the last fifty years the weather has got better during the summer, and this year April was the hottest everyone remembers.
Also, the winters are getting worse with the tides and storms getting higher each year.
Some residents are worried that it won't be long before the storms come over the cliffs and flood the village.

Kaira, Nottingham

The Roads

In the 1800's roads in Bectan Sands were not made out of tarmac, they were made out of mud and tiny pebbles on top.
Even today you can still see the wheel ruts, left by the wheels of carts that were pulled by horses.
In the Summer the roads can go soft and soggy, and in winter the road surface freezes over.

Shak, Douglas Primary

Smugglers!

In the smugglers cliffs a long time ago the villages found it wasn’t called that for fun, because that’s where smugglers smuggled cargo.

The smugglers went to the light-house and put out the beacon of fire and then put lots of little lanterns on the rocks, so that the ships thought it was the Harbour, but it wasn’t and the smugglers who crashed the ship, robbed the cargo and put the cargo into a tunnel.

Now hundreds of years later the people of Rivermouth are just finding out about it. They described the way in as a well. So you’ll never know what’s still down there. There could be some really old documents or some gold coins next to some barrels of wine. You’ll never know!!

Tom, Douglas Primary

Festive activities

In the last few years the locals of Rivermouth and Bectan Sands have started to revive the ancient festival of the the two villages.

In previous years the two villages would spend one Sunday in August competing against each other in many events. The steeplechase event (run from the shadow of the largest yew tree in the churchyard at Bectan Sands, to the shadow of the steeple of the church in Rivermouth) was a popular race, as well as the two villages tug of war contest.

Along with the vegetable contest, tree felling contest and childrens fun and games it is a very popular day with the villagers, as well as vistors from Forest Town and beyond.

Written by Southwold Primary

The church and the smugglers

The small church in Bectan Sands holds a terrible secret.

It is said that the church is haunted, and on dark winter evenings there is sometimes a flickering light seen moving about inside when there is nobody in the church.

In the 1700's the vicar of the church refused to let smugglers hide inside the building when they were trying to escape capture by the British navy. Many of the smugglers were caught and gaoled, but some escaped. They came back to the church and dragged the vicar into the crypt where they tied him up and left him.

It is often said that the flickering light is the ghost of the vicar looking for the smugglers.

Written by Southwold Primary