The Crabbing Bridge
A popular and memorable activity for small children at Sandy Haven is The Crabbing Bridge. This is the footbridge exposed at low tide across the stream running down Sandy Haven Creek. It is about 100 yards below the end of the asphalt road leading down from The Anchorage. In the summer school holidays it is usual to find this bridge crowded with small children and their parents catching crabs that are extremely numerous and well fed beneath the bridge. Required equipment is a bucket, a three of four foot length of string and some bacon ( or mussels meat if you can find it). Tie a stone and a piece of bacon to the line and lower into the water. Up to three crabs will start to eat the bacon and refuse to let go. Raise them up and drop into a bucket of seawater for study and handling. Cries of “Ooh they look like spiders” from tiny tots are not unknown. It is normal with a days crabbing to fill a bucket. As the tide returns empty the bucket onto the footbridge and watch the crabs run for home, where they will be ready to fed and caught again the next day. Also at low tide cockles, mussels and lugworms for fishing can be gathered from the sands.
