Pebble Structures

The Bunter Pebblebeds of the East Devon heathlands have provided building material for people for at least 4,000 years when pebble cairns began to be constructed in the Early Bronze Age. Today, it is possible to document the exploitation of pebbles in the seventeen villages surrounding the heathlands where they form an important part of the domestic vernacular architecture. Building with pebbles reached its peak from about the mid 1800s to the early 1900s. Ottery St Mary, Budleigh Salterton, Woodbury, Newton Poppleford and other villages were once paved with pebbles, sadly today they have mostly disappeared beneath concrete and tarmac.
The majority of the pebbles for walls, paths, gutters and edging came from the fields or small quarries around the area, and it is still possible to buy pebbles for landscaping gardens and building from the Rockbeare quarries. The earliest 6” maps of the Ordnance Survey of this area dating back to 1890 and 1891 record numerous larger and smaller ‘gravel’ (actually pebble and sand pits) pits. In all there were about 67 smaller and larger workings. They are concentrated along the western scarp of the heathlands with smaller numbers along the eastern edges of the pebblebed exposures and a few in the middle of the heathlands. Most are close to or on roads. Some of these pits to the south of Black Hill, around the Warren and on Aylesbeare Common covered quite an extensive area of shallow workings. Smaller pits were often little more than irregular scoops of material used locally. The finer paths and walls built of smaller pebbles of similar size were collected from Budleigh Salterton beach, but this is now illegal. This was the practised in the 1800s, when pebbles of similar size and colour were brought from the beach by pony and trap. This is known to have happened at Lympstone, where a John Long brought the pebbles from the beach and built a path with a central line of black pebbles and the date depicted in black pebbles of 1861.

Figure 1. The pebble path John Long built at Lympstone.

All the villages have distinctive pebble structures that make them unique to this area of East Devon. However, it has to be said that the use of pebbles is not exclusive to this area as beach pebbles or small stones are used for paths, roads and building foundations in coastal areas in the surrounding counties of Cornwall, Dorset and Somerset. This article highlights examples from the 600 recorded structures from some of the villages that members of the public can look at. Possibly owners of ‘hidden’ structures will contact the author so they can be recorded, because of their unique nature. The use of pebbles as a building material would have been an everyday occurrence, because they were readily available, but people of status evidently used flint or brick in this area because it made a distinctive material statement reinforcing their social distinction from ordinary people building with local pebbles. The absence of pebble structures in Bicton House and gardens, at Knowle House, Tidwell Manor and elewhere is symptomatic of this. Interestingly the reverse was the case at Killerton House where Lydia Dyke Acland had a ‘Bears’ Hut’ built, with part of the flooring consisting of pebbles laid in a pattern and the surrounding area outside. But in this case pebbles were not local material and had to be transported a long distance.

Figure 2. The pebble floor in Killerton Bear Hut.

Types of Pebble Structures

The Aylesbeare Village Hall entrance lobby has a pebble floor, with the design picked out in black pebbles to represent a door mat, with a diamond pattern in-filling the central section. These were collected from Budleigh Salterton beach, because when the hall was built in 1923 the village could not find any other building material. This diamond pattern is repeated on paths at Netwon Poppleford and Otterton.

Figure 3. Aylesbeare Village Hall entrance lobby with a ‘pebble’ mat in a diamond design.

At Budleigh Salterton the pebble wall running down Saltings Hill is an iconic example of uniform rows of pebbles forming a wall.

Figure 4. Saltings Hill pebble wall.

An almost unique feature of the town is the roadside pebble guttering formed from neat rows of pebbles .05m (2inches) to .10m (4 inches) in size lining the drainage gutters. Fine examples can be found on the sea front running for almost 100m and along Cliff Terrace, Ryll Lane and Landsdown Road.

Figure 5. Sea front drainage guttering lined with pebbles.

Colaton Raleigh has the most structures, with 113 being recorded, of which 40 are walls. The majority of walls are constructed from rows of pebbles with a concrete capping. Barns built of pebbles with brick quoins are a feature in this village but here the pebbles were collected from the pits and the surrounding fields and not brought from the beach at Budleigh Salterton.

Figure 6. Pebble barn with brick quoins.

At East Budleigh there is a recent example of a new pebble wall that has been capped with tiles showing that people still regard the pebbles as a decorative building material. Along the High Street there are pebble paths with the pathways into the house defined with the pebbles running in the opposite direction (Fig 7).

Figure 7. New pebble decorative wall at East Budleigh.

At Fluxton there has to be one of the most amazing pebble structure, built 40 years ago with pebbles that were collected from the River Otter and sorted in the local farmyard. This decorative wall capped with tiles has arches, windows and dominates the garden, and is unique. It was built by a local stonemason Gordon Ash.

Figure 8. Pebble built wall with arches and door way.

One of the largest pebble areas can be found at Lympstone, where the whole of Quay Lane has a pebble path running between the cottages down to the estuary.

Figure 9. The Quay pebble area at Lympstone.

At Newton Poppleford 100 structures have been recorded, the majority being walls, running along the length of the High Street. Several walls have been painted black as at Southern Cross, and the only other example of this is at Woodbury. The only church in the 17 villages to have signs of pebbles used in its construction was St Gregory’s in the side chapel wall.

Figure 10. St Gregory’s Church wall with pebbles in its construction.

Figure 11. Examples of decorative paths can be found in the village along Station Road.

Pebble farmyards were once a common feature in the area but health and safety regulations have made such structures problematic and they have now been concreted over, though examples can be still found at Southerton, Newton Poppleford and Dotton.

Figure 12. A pebble yard at Dotton.

Topsham has examples of pebbles from the area and black angular pebbles that must have come from elsewhere or are from the river Exe but nobody so far has been able to identify their source. Their use as edgings and paths can be found thorough out Topsham, but some Bunter pebble structures have been identified making  decorative surface features in front gardens.

Figure 13. Typical Topsham pebble path.

Figure 14. Pebble decorated front garden in Topsham.

Woodbury Parish Council has insisted that all new building in the village should have pebble walls, which is a welcome development, and this can be seen at Gilbrook estate. Along Greenway can be seen a perfect pebble wall topping limestone blocks and a path of fan shape design. The path would have been built with the pebbles packed tightly together so that the stones supported each other; they were bedded into the earth with only the tips of the small pebbles showing. This was built by a local builder Charles Summerfield in the 1900s (Brighouse 1981, 239). The Church wall is a similar design to Colaton Raleigh church with a decorative capping of tiles and bricks and brick quoins.

Figure 15. Gillbrook estate with pebble walls.

Figure 16 and 17. Pebble walls and paths in Woodbury

Pebble Colour and Size

Having briefly reviewed the different types of structures that exist it just remains to highlight the differences in size and colour of the pebbles that can be seen across the areas. The pebble used in some of the walls in Woodbury are of a larger size than elsewhere. Some are up to .45m (18 inches) long and others as much as 91m (3ft) long although the average is .20m (8 inches). They are not always a uniform size in many structures, and a large number of black pebbles are included in the walls. At Budleigh Salterton the pebbles found in the walls, are on average .10m (4inches) long and of a uniform size. At Colaton Raleigh and Newton Poppleford the most striking feature about the pebbles is the colour, they range from red, yellow, olive and black, whilst at other villages the pebbles seem to be much duller. This may well indicate differential selection of bright colourful pebbles in these two villages. Two examples of alien pebbles can be found in the area, one is at the Halfway House pub almost in the middle of the Pebblebed heathlands, where flint pebbles have been used for a retaining edging, the nearest probable source being Sidmouth. The other is a hard landscaping in a garden with Charmouth beach pebbles because the owner considered the pebbles were of a better colour and smaller size than the local pebbles.
So far the project has only been able to record pebble structures visible from public rights of way (roads, paths etc.). We are aware that there must be other examples of pebble walls, paths, gutters, surface areas and buildings hidden away in gardens and farms. We would like to informed of where these are so they can be recorded for posterity and form part of a digital archive of pebble structures from East Devon that will be available on the web. Please contact Jill Cobley (Tel 01404 814406; email: jillcobley@tiscali.co.uk)