Adult
Education and the Arts |
Key Educationalists
visit the English Riviera Geopark
The
Principals of South Devon College ( Stephen Criddle), Brixham
College ( Mark Eager), Paignton Community College (Jane English)
and Torquay Community College (Gill Battye) met recently to
find out more about the enhancements made to Rock Walk which
has been renovated with money from the Sea Change fund.
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Royal Terrace Gardens or Rock Walk as it's known
locally, is the series of paths zig-zagging their way up the cliff
face overlooking Torquay's main beach. Opened in the late 1800's,
it was closed in early 2008 due to instability issues with the
cliff face. Over £3 million has been spent making it safe
and installing new paths and a cantilevered viewing platform.
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The Principals
met on the viewing platform which has key geology and heritage
prompts around the site. Endorsed by UNESCO, Torbay is the only
urban Geopark in the world. It is also the only Geopark where
40% of the park is a marine environment.
The Principals were impressed
with the views from the platform and the artwork, lighting and
standing stones with beach style planting. Sadly, there was
too much wind for them to enjoy an even higher trip to see all
aspects of the Geopark in the High Flyer balloon. However, Alastair
Gunning and his team have kindly offered another date to allow
the Principals to see many of the 32 designated sites, which
cover 3 geological time periods, from the air – from Berry Head
to Babbacombe.
Torbay is unique in having
the only Geological Period named after rock found locally. Roderick
Murchison found fossils in limestone in 1839 at Lummaton Quarry
helping him understand what was happening on Earth years ago.
This led to the naming of the Devonian period of geological
time and was soon used globally to identify rocks and fossils
with a similar age. Massively quarried, much of the fossilised
stone can be seen in local buildings and the seawalls in Torquay.
Stephen Criddle, Mark
Eager, Jane English and Gill Battye meet regularly to devise
the strategy for the future of Adult and Community Learning.
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Primary