Beaches of Connecticut - List of Beaches in New England, Sherwood Island State Park, Pleasure Beach, Calf Pasture Beach, Silver Sands State Park (Paperback)

Purchase includes free access to book updates online and a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Chapters: List of Beaches in New England, Sherwood Island State Park, Pleasure Beach, Calf Pasture Beach, Silver Sands State Park, Rocky Neck State Park, Cove Island Park, Cummings Park, Cummings Beach. Excerpt: Calf Pasture Beach is an historically significant park and beach in East Norwalk, Connecticut along Long Island Sound . The area of the park lands (including adjacent Shady Beach Park and Taylor Farm Park) is approximately 35 acres (14 ha ). Access is by road or public transport: East Avenue intersects I 95 at exit 16 and travels past the East Norwalk (Metro-North station) and the East Norwalk Cemetery down Gregory Boulevard, past the Roger Ludlowe memorial at the rotary to Calf Pasture Beach Road. Bus service directly to the park entrance is provided by the Norwalk Transit District . History The area now known as Calf Pasture was used by Connecticut colony settlers in the 1600s as grazing land for cows. This activity gave rise to the name of the beach. The beach was used for disembarkation and encampment during the Tryon raid of the American Revolutionary War in 1779. After having conducted retribution raids at New Haven and Fairfield William Tryon led 2,600 British troops by boat to Norwalk at approximately 5:00 p.m. on July 10, 1779. They landed near the Round Beach island at the Calf Pasture peninsula where they spent the night. The next day they set off on the burning of Norwalk that left only 6 houses standing after the raid. In 1917 the Norwalk City legislature authorized the city to acquire and create a park at Calf Pasture Beach. Property condemnation to acquire the land was started in 1919. In 1922 the descendents of the Betts, Marvin, and Taylor families who owned much of the adjoining property donated their lands to the city. The park opened formally in 1924 while wo...