Stealing pebbles off the beach ?

[Dinger2]

When you walk past a household that has decided to 'landscape', their garden,they improve the look by the use of small pebbles etc; These pebbles are sold in 28lb bags at the likes of B&Q, Homebase,Wickes etc; for say£5-10 or so.Where do they(B&Q etc;) get the pebbles from ?Surely it can only be a beach,so do they just send a couple of tipper lorries and a JCB digger down to the beach and STEEL tons and tons,drive it to their depot and bag it up and sel lit to joe public? What a nice little earner!Del Boy would be proud! Or do they bribe a council to get permission? It smells of a scam to me,and how long will it be before that beach has been totally depleted?

[another-view]

They get them from a quarry, numbnuts.

[Riss]

When I went to Combe Martin last year on the beach they had these white marble type stones,they were lovely.I came home with buckets full,and used them in the garden for decoration.

[bundleone]

As far as I know ,it's against the law to take pebbles or sand from the beach, I live near the sea and sometimes take a few nice stones but you couldnt take bucket loads

[Riss]

It is isnt it Doc,did you go to Hele beach,thats where I found the stones.

[Riss]

Uh oh,should I hand myself in? How long will I get?

[Riss]

I was about 6 when shillings went.

[factor-fiction]

Decimal currency day was actually a day later, docspock...
But yes, Combe Martin is a lovely beach and hasn't run out of pebbles yet.
As others have said, B&Q etc get theirs from suppliers who produce them from rock from quarries .

[bednobs]

or by dredging

[boxtops]

When I lived in Brighton - and I am sure that JJ will bear this out! - it was an offence to take quantities of pebbles from the beach. In some places the council have had to buy in the shingle - it doesn't just arrive on some of the beaches! - and if all the landscapers helped themselves, the council would have to buy in another lot!

[CircusChimp]

No ones forcing "Joe public" to buy these stones just as no one is forcing them to buy "fresh Air" in a bottle but they do! besides some of us live no where near the beach or quarry so just see it as the stones are free but you're paying for the digging, washing and transport of them to you!

[alavahalf]

Under the cover of darkness B&Q staff are often seen shovelling shingle into bags...
I should think not....I'd imagine that B&Q will get their pebbles wholesale from a national aggregates supplier...

Our local aggregates supplier gets theirs... not off the beach....but some way out to sea.
They are sucked from the sea bed into a large gravel boat. Then they are deposited on the quay where they are sorted and graded...and then sold on to builders merchants etc.

[thugulike]

The rounded pebbles bought for landscaping come from dredging not a quarry. They're bought as sea washed pebbles. I bought 20 tons of them a few years ago and the delivery wagon couldn't get up the farm track so the driver dumped them on the road (steep hill) and the ran back down again. Had to hire a JCB.

[Dinger2]

Riss,don't take the P*ss,If I were the judge I'd give you 10 yrs -Dinger2,question author

[teff]

While walking up from a pebble beach, "five minutes ago" I stopped to ask two police officers if there was a law that states you can't take a pebble off a beach. Neither of them knew. One of them said, if there was a law then we would all be breaking it at some point and thousands of people would have been prosecuted. I wanted to know because I have collected a few. If the people who enforce the law don't know, who does?! and where can I find the written law about this subject, does anyone know please.