The Permian Period - 290 to248 million years ago
Here in the middle of the horseshoe bay that shapes the English Riviera, the land is made of the softer red sandstones which erode far more easily. In the past, the view from this point would have been very different.
Travel back 280 million years and you would be in the sweltering intense heat of an arid desert that covered most of Britain and Europe. Thanks to the movement of continental plates, Torbay lay around 150 to 300 north of the equator. At that time Paignton lay in a broad depression surrounded by mountainous ridges of limestone and slates. Occasional but violent storms caused flash floods to sweep rocks and stones down the desert valley out onto the plains where the water sank into the parched rocky ground. The rocks and stones were deposited creating the very jumbled, fruitcake-looking rock known as Breccia, found at the end of Goodrington Promenade. In these arid conditions irons within the rocks were oxidized, turning them red.
Very little seems to have been able to survive in these Permian deserts, although between Goodrington and Saltern Cove strange fossilised burrows up to 10 cm across, in the stony deposits, may have been the home of giant centipede like creatures.
Visit the Seashore Centre at Goodrington to find out more about this areas geopark features and events taking place.
