2,000 people lend a hand
Revived for the first time for 21 years, the annual potwallopers throwing back the pebbles day on Monday proved a record occasion, some 2,000 people, many of them holiday-makers taking part.
No-one seems certain of the exact origin of this useful custom. It was once observed every year in the days when the custom was linked with Northam potwallopers. It was a day of holiday and enjoyment and families would picnic on the Burrows or sand while men-folk and children engaged in the task of throwing back the pebbles that had strayed onto the grazing and golfing land of the Burrows replacing the pebbles in positions to strengthen the natural breakwater of the ridge in anticipation of high tides and winter storms.
Gazette article 9 August 1957