You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles
YUMPU automatically turns print PDFs into web optimized ePapers that Google loves.
BATTLING THE SEA IN EAST SUSSEX<br />
continued from page 17<br />
The cliff edge threatens the<br />
Coastguard Rocket House, but the Cottages are still<br />
well back from the sea, c. 1930. Printed card, issued by the<br />
R.A.P. Co. of East London<br />
reported from the Alps and<br />
elsewhere. There have been<br />
suggestions that the debris<br />
becomes fluidized as it travels<br />
outwards, perhaps supported<br />
(like a Flymo) on a<br />
basal cushion of trapped<br />
air.<br />
At Birling Gap, a major<br />
Downland valley reaches<br />
the sea and the cliffs are<br />
unusually low. The rate of<br />
cliff retreat averages about<br />
69 cm a year, and old postcards<br />
record that many for-<br />
mer buildings have been<br />
lost to the sea.<br />
The chalk cliffs, which<br />
extend eastwards from<br />
Brighton, end at Eastbourne.<br />
Beyond are the<br />
low-lying marshy pastures<br />
of Pevensey Levels, protected<br />
on their seaward side by<br />
a narrow shingle beach that<br />
in recent years has required<br />
much artificial recharging.<br />
Few historic postcards were<br />
issued portraying this<br />
The same scene c. 1980.Erosion continued<br />
unbated, the Rocket House has long gone and the<br />
end Coastguard Cottages have had to be demolished. An<br />
anonymously published card<br />
New sea defences at Winchelsea Beach in the 1930s, as<br />
photographed by Shoesmith and Etheridge of Hastings<br />
18 <strong>Picture</strong> <strong>Postcard</strong> <strong>Monthly</strong> <strong>Jul</strong>y 20<strong>11</strong><br />
Coastguard Cottages<br />
at Ecclesbourne Glen in about 1910, looking<br />
west towards Hastings. An anonymously published real<br />
photographic card<br />
less than photogenic coast,<br />
except at Pevensey village.<br />
At Bexhill and Hastings, by<br />
contrast, picturesque sandstone<br />
cliffs line the shore<br />
and have been much photographed.<br />
Battered by the<br />
sea they are slowly retreating<br />
landwards at rates of a<br />
few tens of centimetres per<br />
year.<br />
Just east of Hastings is<br />
the deep valley of Ecclesbourne<br />
Glen. The Coastguard<br />
Cottages on the west<br />
side of the valley feature in<br />
many cards. Photographs<br />
from around 1910 show that<br />
the Cottages were still some<br />
distance from the cliff edge.<br />
By 1930 the cliff edge had<br />
almost reached the westernmost<br />
cottage, which not<br />
long afterwards began to<br />
fall into the sea. In 1962 all<br />
the cottages that survived<br />
were demolished. Now only<br />
part of a boundary wall<br />
remains.<br />
At Cliff End (east from<br />
Ecclesbourne) the coast and<br />
cliff line diverge. The cliffs<br />
r u n<br />
The cliff edge approaches<br />
ever nearer (late 1920s). Another card sold by<br />
an anonymous publisher<br />
inland, long abandoned by<br />
the sea. On their seaward<br />
side are the grazing marshes<br />
of Pett Level, which<br />
extend east to Winchelsea<br />
Beach. In the 1930s great<br />
efforts were made to<br />
strengthen the beach in<br />
front of the marshes, and so<br />
The Old Ship abandoned<br />
to the sea. An anonymously published<br />
card, possibly also the work of Gouldsmith
Change language