SOS

Photo on the left, taken some time probably in the 60s, of my mum on Rotherslade beach.

Photo below taken last month of the same beach.

It's changed. They've taken away what had become a ramshackle old structure and made it safe and easily accessible. But the major change isn't man-made, or rather, not intentionally.

The ratio of sand to stones on a beach changes slightly week to week; that's inevitable. But the change on this particular beach now is striking.

It's 'my beach', the one we nearly always went to as I was growing up. it was the closest within walking distance of the village, and it wasn't that popular with tourists, being more of a locals's beach. There was a band of pebbles at the top and then patches here and there but it was a sandy beach. All that has changed.

In the colour photo you should be able see three different bands of pebbles. On high tide the sea comes up to the top one - even higher on occasion. Below this mark there should be sand; there was sand. Now as you see the stones go much further down the beach.

The big rock on the left is called Donkey Rock and is popular for diving from (when the tide's in!) Again in the photo you can see it has a darker grey bit around the bottom; when I was growing up that band of rock was covered.

Many people blame sand dredging off the coast for this change in our coastline: it's affected a number of beaches, such as Port Eynon, on Gower. There is even a Save Our Sands campaign. Seeing the impact for myself has made me think that I must get in touch with them.