Pendine Sands
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Pendine Sands () is a beach on the shores of
Carmarthen Bay Carmarthen Bay () is an inlet of the South Wales coast, including notable beaches such as Pendine Sands and Cefn Sidan sands. Carmarthen Bay is partially within the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park. The Joint Nature Conservation Committee list C ...
on the south coast of
Wales Wales ( ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by the Irish Sea to the north and west, England to the England–Wales border, east, the Bristol Channel to the south, and the Celtic ...
. It stretches west to east from Gilman Point to
Laugharne Laugharne () is a town on the south coast of Carmarthenshire, Wales, lying on the estuary of the River Tâf. The Ancient borough#Charters, ancient borough of Laugharne Township () with its #Laugharne Corporation, Corporation and Charter is a ...
Sands. The village of Pendine () is close to the western end of the beach. In the early 1900s the sands were used as a venue for car and motor cycle races. From 1922 the annual Welsh TT motor cycle event was held here. The firm, flat surface of the beach created a race track that was straighter and smoother than many major roads of the time. '' Motor Cycle'' magazine described the sands as "the finest natural speedway imaginable".


Classic record attempts

In the 1920s it became clear that roads and race tracks were no longer adequate venues for attempts on the world
land speed record The land speed record (LSR) or absolute land speed record is the highest speed achieved by a person using a vehicle on land. By a 1964 agreement between the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) and Fédération Internationale de M ...
. As record-breaking speeds approached 150 mph (240 km/h), the requirements for acceleration to top speed before the measured mile and safe braking distance afterwards meant that a smooth, flat, straight surface of at least in length was needed. The first person to use Pendine Sands for a world land speed record attempt was Malcolm Campbell. On 25 September 1924 he set a world land speed record of 146.16 mph (235.22 km/h) on Pendine Sands in his Sunbeam 350HP car ''Blue Bird''. Four other record-breaking runs were made on Pendine Sands between 1924 and 1927; two more by Campbell, and two by Welshman J. G. Parry-Thomas in his car '' Babs''. Firstly the barrier was broken by Campbell. In April 1926, Parry-Thomas added approximately 20 mph to break the land speed record at 171.02 mph (273.6 km/h). Campbell raised the record to 174.22 mph (280.38 km/h) in February 1927 with his second '' Blue Bird''. On 3 March 1927, Parry-Thomas attempted to beat Campbell's record. On his final run while travelling at about the car crashed. There is an untrue urban myth that the exposed drive chain broke and partially decapitated him; ''Babs'' went out of control and rolled over. Parry-Thomas was the first driver to be killed in a world land speed record attempt. One further attempt at the Land Speed Record was planned by Giulio Foresti in the "Djelmo", but Foresti crashed during a test run on 26 November 1927, totally destroying the car. In 1933,
Amy Johnson Amy Johnson (born 1 July 1903 – disappeared 5 January 1941) was a pioneering English pilot who was the first woman to fly solo from London to Australia. Flying solo or with her husband, Jim Mollison, she set many long-distance records dur ...
and her husband,
Jim Mollison James Allan Mollison MBE (19 April 1905 – 30 October 1959) was a Scottish pioneer aviator who, flying solo or with his wife, Amy Johnson, set many records during the rapid development of aviation in the 1930s. Early years Mollison wa ...
, took off from Pendine Sands in a
de Havilland Dragon Rapide The de Havilland DH.89 Dragon Rapide is a 1930s short-haul biplane airliner developed and produced by British aircraft company de Havilland. Capable of accommodating 6–8 passengers, it proved an economical and durable craft, despite its outd ...
, ''G-ACCV'' "Seafarer", to fly non-stop to New York. Their aircraft ran out of fuel and was forced to crash-land at
Bridgeport, Connecticut Bridgeport is the List of municipalities in Connecticut, most populous city in the U.S. state of Connecticut and the List of cities in New England by population, fifth-most populous city in New England, with a population of 148,654 in 2020. Loc ...
, just short of New York; both were seriously injured in the crash. In June 2000, Donald Charles "Don" Wales, grandson of Sir Malcolm Campbell and a nephew of Donald Campbell, set the UK electric land speed record at Pendine Sands in '' Blue Bird Electric 2'', achieving a speed of 137 mph (220 km/h).


Present day

The
Ministry of Defence A ministry of defence or defense (see American and British English spelling differences#-ce.2C -se, spelling differences), also known as a department of defence or defense, is the part of a government responsible for matters of defence and Mi ...
(MOD) acquired Pendine Sands during the Second World War and used it as a firing range. The beach is still owned by the Ministry of Defence; prominent signs warn of the dangers of unexploded munitions and public access is restricted. From Monday to Friday part of the beach is closed off because of MOD operations. Between 9 July 2004 and May 2010 all vehicles were banned from using Pendine because of safety concerns, but since May 2010 cars have again been allowed access. Parry-Thomas's car was buried in the sand dunes near the village of Pendine after his accident. In 1969, Owen Wyn Owen, an engineering lecturer from Bangor Technical College, received permission to excavate ''Babs'', which he spent the next 16 years restoring. The car could be seen on display at the Museum of Speed in Pendine village during the summer months, prior to demolition of the building for redevelopment.Stunning new Sands of Speed Museum and hostel in Pendine starts to take shape
''
Wales Online Media Wales Ltd. is a publishing company based in Cardiff, Wales. As of 2009 it was owned by Reach plc (formerly known as the Trinity Mirror Group). It was previously known as the Western Mail & Echo Ltd. History The ''Western Mail'' was fou ...
'', 29 August 2019. Retrieved 10 August 2021
In 2011,
Aardman Animations Aardman Animations Limited, known simply as Aardman, is a British animation studio based in Bristol, England, United Kingdom. It is known for films and television series made using stop motion and clay animation techniques, particularly those fe ...
claimed the world's largest
stop motion Stop-motion (also known as stop frame animation) is an animated filmmaking and special effects technique in which objects are physically manipulated in small increments between individually photographed frames so that they will appear to exh ...
film set for Gulp, a
short film A short film is a film with a low running time. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) defines a short film as "an original motion picture that has a running time of not more than 40 minutes including all credits". Other film o ...
. The beach was used as a 'canvas' with some props and characters sculpted from the sand. The film was captured using
Nokia N8 The Nokia N8 is a touchscreen-based smartphone developed by Nokia. Announced on 27 April 2010, the Nokia N8 was the first device to run on the Symbian^3 mobile operating system and it was the company's flagship device for the year. It was rel ...
, then Nokia's top-of-the-range mobile phone. Overhead shots were obtained via a telescopic cherry picker platform on wheels. On 21 and 22 June 2013, Pendine Land Speed Racing Club initiated land speed racing events again on the sands. The Vintage Hot Rod Association hosted their inaugural Amateur Hot Rod Races on Pendine Sands on 7 September 2013. Racing was open to members of the VHRA and their pre-1949 hot rods and saw 80 vehicles being timed flat out on the sands. This annual event involves participants from around the world. The event culminated in the VHRA winning a Motoring Event of the Year accolade at the International Historic Motoring Awards. In September 2013, Guy Martin broke the UK speed record for a bicycle ridden in the slipstream of another vehicle. He hit a top speed of 112.9 mph while riding behind a modified truck driven by former British Truck Racing Championship winner, Dave Jenkins. The preparations for the record attempt were documented in Episode 1 of a
Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by Channel Four Television Corporation. It is state-owned enterprise, publicly owned but, unlike the BBC, it receives no public funding and is funded en ...
series called '' Speed with Guy Martin'', first broadcast in the UK in December 2013. On 7 May 2015, actor
Idris Elba Idrissa Akuna Elba Order of the British Empire, OBE ( ; born 6 September 1972) is an English actor and musician. He has received a Golden Globe Award as well as nominations for three BAFTA Awards and six Primetime Emmy Awards, Emmy Awards. He w ...
broke the historic 'flying mile' UK land speed record, originally set by Malcolm Campbell, in a
Bentley Continental GT The Bentley Continental GT is a grand touring car manufactured and marketed by the British company Bentley Motors since 2003. A two-door coupé or convertible, and has four seats, it was the first new Bentley released after the company's acqui ...
Speed. The recorded speed was 180.361 mph. On 21 July 2015, at Pendine beach, the 90th anniversary of Sir Malcolm Campbell's first world land speed record in "Blue Bird" was recreated by his grandson, Don Wales, also a land speed record holder, in the fully restored car. Commenting on the restoration appeal, Wales said: "This beautiful car has been lovingly restored and looked after by Doug Hill and the team and it's only right that such an iconic car deserves to have the final pieces in place to complete her!"' The new gearbox will be part of a long-term project to restore the car to its 1925 specifications. This would also require the fabrication of two full-length exhaust pipes, a new seat and upholstery, and the re-manufacture of a slightly dropped nose cone and rear wheel spats. On 12 May 2018, a home-built 'wooden shed' (using an Audi RS4 twin turbo engine, installed in a metal frame with wooden shed cladding) set a new speed record, achieving , breaking its own previous record of . The following day, 45-year-old Guernsey businessman
Zef Eisenberg Ze'ev "Zef" Eisenberg (22 March 1973 – 1 October 2020) was the British founder of sports nutrition brand Maximuscle, an ultra-speed motorbike racer and television presenter. Eisenberg founded the sports nutrition brand Maximuscle in 1995. He ...
set a new land speed 'sand' record of on his 350-horsepower supercharged Suzuki Hayabusa motorcycle, the first time a speed in excess of 200 miles per hour had been achieved at Pendine. This was the fastest speed achieved by a wheel powered vehicle ever at Pendine. In 2019, Eisenberg set a new record of in a modified
Porsche 911 The Porsche 911 model series (pronounced ''Nine Eleven'' or in ) is a family of German two-door, high performance Rear-engine design, rear-engine sports cars, introduced in September 1964 by Porsche, Porsche AG of Stuttgart, Germany. Now in it ...
. He broke the records for flying mile and flying quarter on the same day. Pendine Sands has been used as a location for filming, including BBC's '' Top Gear'' and the
BBC Cymru BBC Cymru Wales is a division of the BBC and the main public broadcaster in Wales. It is one of the four BBC national regions, alongside the BBC English Regions, BBC Northern Ireland and BBC Scotland. Established in 1964, BBC Cymru Wales is ba ...
drama ''
Keeping Faith ''Keeping Faith'' (1999) is the sixth novel by the bestselling American author Jodi Picoult. The book is about a custody battle involving a seven-year-old girl, Faith White, who may be seeing God. Plot summary When Mariah White catches her h ...
'', starring Eve Myles.


References

Notes Bibliography * *


External links


British Pathé film of ''Babs'' being recovered from Pendine Sands in 1969
{{Coord, 51, 43, 57, N, 4, 29, 51, W, type:landmark_region:GB-CMN, display=title
www.pendinelrc.com
Pendine Land Speed Racing Club (archived homepage)
www.vhra.co.uk
The official website of the Vintage Hot Rod Association Carmarthen Bay Coast of Carmarthenshire Beaches of Carmarthenshire