At its peak in the late 19th century, the village had around 160 residents (Image: Wikimedia Commons)
The UK is home to a surprising number of abandoned villages and their histories are fascinating. While you can visit most of them, there is one that no one is allowed to ever walk through again. It was once home to around 160 people, but now there is almost nothing left.
That village is Hallsands in South Devon. The village grew during the 18th and 19th centuries and was built around the local fishing industry. While a chapel existed at the site as early as 1506, the village itself expanded later on as fishing became more important to the area.
Hallsands is an abandoned fishing village in South Devon (Image: Wikimedia Commons)
People living there mainly caught crab, lobster, mackerel and pilchards from the nearby Skerries Bank.
Fishing involved the whole community. When fish were spotted offshore, villagers would rush to help bring in the large nets.
Many residents also had other jobs. Some worked as carpenters, blacksmiths and tailors, while others farmed small plots of land on the clifftops above the village.
At its peak in the late 19th century, Hallsands had around 160 residents. There were 37 houses, a bakery, a grocery store, a post office, a piggery and a pub called the London Inn.
However, all changed in 1897 when dredging started off the coast as part of work linked to the expansion of the Royal Navy dockyard at Keyham near Plymouth.
Over the following years, more than 650,000 tonnes of sand and shingle were removed from the seabed.
Everything changed in 1897 when dredging started off the coast (Image: Wikimedia Commons)
The beach in front of Hallsands had previously helped protect the village from the sea, and as the beach became smaller, waves began reaching the buildings more easily.
Residents quickly raised concerns about what was happening, but the dredging licence was not revoked until 1902. By then, the damage had already been done.
Eventually, the village was severely damaged on January 26, 1917. Strong storms and high tides hit the coastline, destroying many buildings and forcing the villagers to leave.
The settlement was never rebuilt, and the population continued to fall over the following decades.
Nobody is allowed to enter the village, because the ruins sit beneath unstable cliffs (Image: Wikimedia Commons)
By 1960, only one resident remained. That was Elizabeth Prettejohn, who continued living in the last habitable house until she died in 1964.
Today, nobody is allowed to enter the village, because the ruins sit beneath unstable cliffs where there is a high risk of landslides and rockfalls.
Access became even more restricted after a big landslide in 2012 that damaged the area and destroyed the road leading to a viewing platform.
Visitors in the area will see heavy gates and warning signs. However, people can still see the village from a distance.
Visitors walking along the South West Coast Path near South Hallsands can look down towards the remains of the settlement from the clifftops. Parts of the old London Inn and several former cottages can still be seen from there.