When Isambard Kingdom Brunel built the South Devon Railway through Dawlish he included a footpath alongside. The residents of Sea Lawn did not want people walking past their front garden so insisted that the footpath was carried past their house at beach level. Sea Lawn has since been replaced some terraced houses but the footpath remained at the low level until the storms of February 2014 showed how much more vulnerable it made this stretch of the railway, so the footpath is being raised. A new set of steps at the south end will give access to the beach and these can be seen under construction in August 2015, two weeks before the new footpath was opened to the public.