Doom Bar: Difference between revisions - Wikipedia

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In 1846, the [[Plymouth and Padstow Railway]] company took an interest in trying to remove the Doom Bar, hoping to increase trade through the harbour at Padstow. The plan was to create a breakwater on the bar, which would stop the build-up of sand, and the railway would transport sand from the nearby dunes to where it was needed for agricultural purposes elsewhere in the south west.<ref name="Clarke 1846" />

In the event, neither the breakwater nor the railway were built, but the issue was re-examined by the 1858 British Parliamentary [[Select committee (United Kingdom)|Select committee]] on Harbours for Refuge. The select committee took evidence from many witnesses about harbours all around the country. For Padstow, evidence from Captain Claxton, [[Royal Navy|RN]], stated that without the removal of the sand, ships in distress could only use the harbour only at high tide.<ref name=Committ1858_100>Reports from Committees (1858), pp.&nbsp;100–101.</ref> The committee was told by J. D. Bryant, a port commissioner and Receiver of Wreck for Padstow,<ref>Reports from Committees (1858), p.&nbsp;77.</ref> that in 1848 Padstow Harbour Association had cut down a small piece of Stepper Point, which had given ships about 50 fathoms of extra "fair wind" into the harbour. Bryant recommended further removal of the point which would allow a true wind along the whole channel past the dangerous sandbar.<ref>Reports from Committees (1858), p.&nbsp;79.</ref>

[[File:Doom Bar from Daymer bay.jpg|thumb|alt=The Doom Bar and Stepper Point from Daymer Bay|The Doom Bar and Stepper Point from Daymer Bay; the dip caused by rock being removed from Stepper Point is clearly visible.]]

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The committee's final report determined that along the whole of the rocky coast between [[Land's End]] and [[Hartland Point]], Padstow was the only potentially safe harbour for the [[short sea shipping|coasting trade]] when the most dangerous north-westerly onshore gales were blowing. It noted that Padstow's safety was compromised by the Doom Bar and by the eddy-forming effect of Stepper Point. The report recommended initial expenditure of £20,000 to cut down the outer part of Stepper Point,<ref name="Commiss1859_xiii">Reports from Commissioners (1859), p.&nbsp;xiii.</ref> which, in conjunction with the capstans, bollards and mooring rings, would significantly reduce the risk to shipping.

During the twentieth century the Doom Bar was regularly dredged to improve access to Padstow. By the 1930s, when Commander H. E. Turner surveyed the estuary, there were two channels roundaround the Doom Bar,<ref name="Morris 1995" /> and it is thought that the main channel may have moved to the east side in 1929.<ref>Cornwall SMP2, p.&nbsp;36.</ref> By 2010 the original channel had disappeared. The estuary is regularly dredged by Padstow Harbour Commission's dredgers, ''Sandsnipe'' and ''Mannin''.<ref name="Stepper Point Newsletter 2008" />

== Shipwrecks ==