General Discussion
Red Rock/Langstone
I've been looking at the picture gallery on this website, and see there are pictures of the Langstone, captioned Red Rock.
Quite a few people call it this, probably because of the Red Rock Cafe, but its actual name is the Langstone. Red Rock is the other side of Dawlish, in Coryton Cove.
In fact the Langstone has only been a separate outcrop of rock since 1845. Before that, it was Langstone Head, it was cut off by the building of the South Devon Railway. If you look at it from a distance (especially from the Warren side) you can see the V-shape left when the neck of the headland was blown up to allow the railway to be built.
Brunel was a bit naughty about his intentions on this part of the railway. He told Parliament, when the South Devon Railway Act was being passed, that he was going to tunnel under Langstone Head, when all the time he intended to blow the lot up! For safety reasons, warning of the explosion was given in the local press, so everyone went to watch it! Apparently there was one big bang, and everyone said 'was that it?' and went home.
The same thing happened when rocks were blown up to clear space for the five tunnels. This time Brunel came to watch for himself. There is a story that as the charges went off, they were counted, and one didn't go off. It's supposed to be still there, somewhere around the Parson Tunnel. (In fact the Parson Tunnel was later re-aligned, so it was probably dealt with then. But if it is still there - now that would really put the wind up the Virgins!
