The West Country was on the brink of an environmental disaster on this day in 1967 after supertanker Torrey Canyon ran aground on rocks between Land’s End and the Scilly Isles and began to leak its cargo of crude oil into the sea.

The 974-foot tanker became – at the time – the largest vessel ever to shipwreck when it hit Pollard’s Rock on the Seven Stones reef.

The tanker’s 100,000-ton cargo began to leak into the sea shortly after it hit the reef, and within a few hours the eight-mile-long oil slick was threatening the coastline of Cornwall and Devon.

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