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Friday 2 September 2011

Have you seen any nude sunbathers recently?

At last, a bright sunny summer day welcomed my early awakening in glorious Milford on Sea. Having walked & fed the dogs, I was waiting for my wife to arise from her slumbers to let me know what I was doing today. As I patiently waited for her dreams of me to cease, I thought it might be interesting to find out a bit more about our Milford on Sea village beaches from my friends at Google. I started with ‘Paddys Gap’ and identified a ‘smuggling connection’. Point noted to research at a later time. I then did a search for ‘Taddiford Gap’. As some of you may know there is a Second World War pillbox on the cliff top, and during World War 2 the gap was 'plugged' with the concrete obstacles commonly known as 'dragons teeth'. There are still a few remains of the anti-tank defences (dragons teeth), some of which have now fallen to the beach from the eroding cliffs. 

A bit more delving and I found out a bit more than I had expected. Oooo, it appears I had found an unofficial local nudist beach! I felt like Kojak when he had just latched onto an unexpected case, other than I was eating a KitKat rather than a lollipop. I obviously now had a choice, continue looking into information about the local beaches, or research the nudist bit a little more. I think you probably know what I decided.

I have to say, on previous walks on Taddiford Gap beach I had never seen any exposed ‘wobbly bits’. I can’t make up my mind if I was fortunate or not, however my intrepid research needed to continue. One web search revealed the statement that: ‘Taddiford Gap is an unofficial naturist beach. The area to the west of the access point is much favoured by nudists. Naturists might also learn something about wildlife in the area’. Good point, I suppose a bit of bird watching whilst nude sunbathing can be educational. 

I also found out that a couple of years ago the British Naturism website was requested to remove the beaches location from their directory of naturist beaches. The request had been made by Longdown Management Ltd, on behalf of the landowners of this beach (The Trustees of the Barker-Mill Discretionary Trust.) Reading one of the web entries, I have to say I did giggle immaturely when they mentioned the ‘Pay & Display’ car park! Why is it that any beach with a name containing ‘Gap’, and an association with nudists, just gets me sniggering like a five year old.

Milford on Sea of course need more signs on the seafront, so how about one saying; ‘Attention: Nude bathing is prohibited, but encouraged’.
 
Now, I have never been, or even knowingly known a naturist, so to find out more I felt we had to visit to research the beach in person. I suggested to my wife that we should go ‘under cover’ to blend in. I have never seen her so horrified! Her complexion changed from warm pink to stark white, her mouth dried in front of my eyes and she wobbled as if her legs were about to give way. It was obvious this plan was not going to work.

Oh well, I would need to diet before going anyway. So for now, I think I will pop down to Boots for a heavy duty body razor and some sun cream oil in preparation for next summer.

3 comments:

  1. Taddiford Gap has been a naturist beach for many years. Never been there myself, but always known about it, since I was a kid.

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  2. well i dont see any harm in it provided you are not upseting anybody as its nice to be able to socialise with like minded people

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  3. Like most naturist beaches you have to make a considerable effort to get there and very few people 'stumble' across the area by accident. Those who do tend to pass out of sight lower down the steeply-sloping pebble beach, respecting the privacy of those sunbathing on the 'top terrace'. I've never known anyone express outrage or concern. I for one would be disappointed if anyone interfered in this harmless personal freedom.

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