´óÏó´«Ã½

The rock hard sands at Pendine stretch for over seven miles along the shore of Carmarthen Bay, running between Laugharne Sands in the east and the village of Pendine itself in the west.

Babs ©

These days they are an ideal tourist location where sand castles and walks along the beach are the order of the day. But it was not so many years ago that young would-be drivers of Pembrokeshire and Carmarthenshire sat behind the wheels of their parents cars and, inexpertly and perhaps a little reluctantly, took their first stab at manoeuvering their vehicles along the sands.

Safe from the problems of traffic and other road users, it was the ideal place to learn to drive. Yet these Tyro drivers were simply following in the footsteps of more famous men before them.

For Pendine Sands were once the home to roaring motorbikes and daring attempts to break the world land speed record.

The sands at Pendine are rock hard, particularly the eastern stretch, and in the early days of motoring were often safer and more uniform than roads and racing tracks.

From 1922, for several years, the annual Welsh TT Races were held on the sands. They offered a smooth surface on which to race and, importantly, a long straight track where the motorcyclists could put their throttles down and achieve the maximum possible speed on their early machines.

Due to the success of the TT Races it soon became obvious that Pendine Sands might be the ideal location for world land speed record attempts. Such attempts needed, not just the measured mile but also a build up and run out area. It was estimated that any attempt at a speed record would require at least five miles of open track - and Pendine had seven.

The famous was the first man to use the area for a record attempt. And it was a successful one. Driving his car, the first Blue Bird, on 25 September 1925 he established a new world land speed record of 146.16 miles per hour.

Four other record breaking attempts were made on Pendine Sands between 1925 and 1927. Two of these were by Campbell and two by his arch rival, the Welsh driver in his car which he named Babs.

In February 1927, driving the second Blue Bird, Malcolm Campbell managed to hit 174.22 miles per hour, an incredible time for the 1920s. Parry-Thomas was adamant that the record could be broken and on 3 March the same year made his attempt.

Driving at 170 miles per hour, on his final run, tragedy struck. The drive chain on Babs - which was exposed rather than hidden under the bonnet - snapped, whipping up and back towards the driver. It struck Parry-Thomas in the neck, partially decapitating him and killing him instantly. Babs slewed out of control, crashed and rolled over onto the sand.

JG Parry-Thomas was the first driver ever to be killed while attempting to break the world land speed record and his death marked the end of Pendine Sands as a location for such attempts. His car, Babs, was buried in the sand dunes as a mark of respect and the sleepy little Welsh village returned to insignificance. It did, however, have its memories.

For years many parents, during a summer day out on the beach - and all eager for a little respite from their demanding offspring - would tell their children to go and see if they could dig up the car of Parry-Thomas.

The children dug for hours but never managed to find the car. However, in 1969 Owen Wyn Owen from Bangor was given permission to excavate Babs from her sandy grave. He then spent 15 years renovating the car which now goes on display at the every summer.

The sands at Pendine have, over the years, also been used as a landing field for aircraft - early, propeller-driven aircraft, not modern jets - and postcard views of aeroplanes on the sands are now eagerly sought.

During the World War Two, Amy Johnson and Jim Mollison took off from Pendine Sands in their De Haviland Rapide on a non-stop flight to America. The Ministry of Defence also acquired a large portion of the Sands during the war, using it as a firing range and putting much of the area out of public use.

Pendine Sands do still, occasionally, hit the headlines. In June 2002 the grandson of Malcolm Campbell set the UK electric land speed record at Pendine, clocking up an amazing speed of 137 miles per hour. It may not rank alongside the modern jet propelled records but Malcolm Campbell would be proud of his grandson's achievement on the same stretch of sand where he once risked life and limb back in the 1920s.