{"id":387941,"date":"2026-01-24T12:23:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-24T12:23:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/387941\/"},"modified":"2026-01-24T12:23:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-24T12:23:11","slug":"pier-washes-away-and-railway-sea-wall-crumbles-as-storm-lashes-south-west","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/387941\/","title":{"rendered":"Pier washes away and railway sea wall crumbles as storm lashes South West"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"PetaPeta Howell<\/p>\n

Part of Teignmouth Grand Pier has washed away in the storm<\/p>\n

Part of a historic pier has washed away and a sea wall next to a railway line has crumbled as Storm Ingrid lashes Devon and Cornwall.<\/p>\n

Teignmouth mayor Cate Williams said the town had “taken a real battering” overnight into Saturday with “just wild” waves damaging part of Teignmouth Grand Pier.<\/p>\n

A sea wall protecting the railway line at nearby Dawlish has partially collapsed and passengers with services currently suspended between Exeter St Davids and Plymouth.<\/p>\n

A Met Office yellow warning for rain is in place until 22:00 GMT and the Environment Agency said flood warnings were in place across the south Devon and south Cornwall coasts.<\/p>\n

\"SteveSteve Briars<\/p>\n

The sea wall protecting the rail line at Dawlish is damaged<\/p>\n

Teignmouth’s mayor said it was “sad” to see part of the resort’s pier, which opened in 1867, washed away.<\/p>\n

“It has lost part of the pier structure itself, that has dissolved and gone away into the sea,” she said.<\/p>\n

“It’s an old pier and it was needing some attention and I suppose age and wear and tear has taken its toll.<\/p>\n

“It has survived many weather conditions as well as world wars. It’s sad when you look at it now to see some of it now missing.”<\/p>\n

\"BBC\/JohnnyBBC\/Johnny Rutherford<\/p>\n

Teignmouth experienced a “wild” night as waves battered the coast<\/p>\n

Dawlish also experienced a “very dramatic” night, said resident Peter Large.<\/p>\n

He said part of the wall protecting the rail line had “just crumbled”.<\/p>\n

“The wall is now gone at either end,” he said.<\/p>\n

“I’m looking down at it now and there’s a strip about 80 to 90 ft long where the wall has just crumbled.<\/p>\n

“The waves are still crashing over the railway line and over the wall.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A tree fell down in Heavitree Park in Exeter during high winds<\/p>\n

Network Rail issued a black alert, its highest warning, as 12ft (4m) waves hit the sea wall at Dawlish.<\/p>\n

It is only the second time a black alert has been issued since a storm destroyed sections of the track<\/a> around Dawlish in February 2014.<\/p>\n

Great Western Railway said the sea wall at Dawlish would be inspected once the storm had passed and services would be suspended until at least 18:00 GMT.<\/p>\n

The firm advised passengers to avoid rail travel with tickets remaining valid on Sunday.<\/p>\n

\"EmilyEmily Davidson<\/p>\n

“It’s really disheartening,” says Cornwall cafe owner Emily Davidson<\/p>\n

In Cornwall, the owner of a cafe housed in a converted shipping container said they had battled with stormy weather and that their premises, less than a year old, had been “bashed in” by waves.<\/p>\n

Emily Davidson, owner of Castle Beach Cafe in Falmouth, told BBC Radio Cornwall: “We have loads of water coming in.<\/p>\n

“All of our electrics have failed. We had some glass sliding doors that have snapped.<\/p>\n

“It’s really disheartening – you spend a lot of money to storm-proof it and then the damage still happens.”<\/p>\n

Rail services have also been cancelled between Par and Newquay and Liskeard and Looe due to flooding.<\/p>\n

GWR spokesman James Davis said: “There’s been a significant amount of debris that the sea has thrown onto the track that will need to be cleared before we can run trains safely.<\/p>\n

“The line remains closed and we have a limited bus replacement service operating. <\/p>\n

“Clearly, if the same number of people choose to travel as normal you’re going to find yourself waiting quite some time.”<\/p>\n

\"PenzancePenzance Council<\/p>\n

Waves overtopped the sea wall at Penzance on Friday<\/p>\n

Trees have also come down across the region, with one blocking both lanes of the A377 near Lapford, Devon County Council said.<\/p>\n

Cornwall Council warned trees might still be weak or unstable following Storm Goretti.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Peta Howell Part of Teignmouth Grand Pier has washed away in the storm Part of a historic pier…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":387942,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":{"0":"post-387941","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387941","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=387941"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387941\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/387942"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=387941"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=387941"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=387941"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}