OCR Text |
Show 268 ENCROACHMENTS OF TilE SEA ON bourne, low hills, or dunes, of blown sand, are formed along the shore, from fifty to sixty feet high. They are compo~ed f d sand bound in a compact mass by the long creepmg . o ry ' . ) S h. roots of the plant called l\Iarram (Arundo arenar1a . uc Is the present set of the tides, that the harbours of Clay, W, ells, and other places, are securely defended by these barners; affording a clear proof that it is not .the strength of the material at particular points that determmes wheth~r the sea shall be pro()'ressive or stationary, but the general ,contour of the coast. 0 The waves constantly undermine the low chalk cliffs, covered with sand and clay, between VV eybourne and Sher· ringham, a certain portion of them being annually remov?d. At the latter town I ascertained, in 18~9, some facts wlnch throw light on the rate at which the sea gains upon the land. It was computed, when the present inn was built, in 1805, that it would require seventy years for the sea to reach. the spot ; the mean loss of land being calculated, from previous observations, to be somewhat less than one yard annually. The distance between the house and the sea was fifty yar~s; but no allowance was made for the slope of the ground bemg from the sea, in consequence of wh.ich, the waste was natur~lly accelerated every year, as the chff grew lower, there b:mg at each succeeding period less matter to remove when portions of equal area fell down. Between the years 18~4 and 18~9, no less than seventeen yards were swept away, and only a small garden was then left between the building and the sea.. '!'here is now a depth of twenty feet (sufficient to float a frigate~ at one point in the harbour of that port, where, only forty-eJght years ago, there stood a cliff fifty feet high, with houses upon it ! If once in half a century an equal amount of change were roduced at once by the momentary shock of an earthquake, history would be filled with records of such w~nderfu~ revolud tions of the earth's surface, but, if the conversiOn o~ high ~~ into deep sea be gradual, it excites only local attentwn. .~e flag-stafl' of the Preventive Service station, on the south h51 • e of this harbour, has, within the last fifteen years, beenat rJCe removed inland in consequence of the advance of ~he seh. f Farther to th' e south we fin d cl '1fJ 's , compose d ' l1ke t ose o · d f 1 t' strata of b1 u e c1 a y, Holderness before ment10ne , o a terna mg . d h h h met1mes excee gravel, loam, and fine sand. Alt oug t ey 50 THE EAST COAST OF ENGLAND. 269 two ~undred feet in height, the havoc made on the coast is most formidable. The whole site of ancient Cromer now forms part of t~e German ~cean, the inhabitants having gradua1ly re.treated mland to their present situation, from whence the sea still threatens to dislodge them. In the winter of 18~5 ial le n mass was prec·i p·i tated from near the lighthouse wh'icah covered twelve acres, exten~ing ~ar into the sea, the cliff's being tw~ hundred and. fifty feet m height !JI: . • The undermining by sprm~s has ~omet1mes ca~sed lar~e portions of the upper part of the cliffs, with houses still standmg upon them, to give way so that it is impossible, by erecting breakwaters at the base or'the cliffs, permanently to ward off the dange1·. On the same coast tl~e ancient villages of Shipden, "'\Vimpwell, and Eccles, hav~ disappeared; several manors and large portions of nei()'hbouring parishes having, piece after piece, been swallowed ~p; nor has there been any intermission, fl'Om time immemorial, in the ~avag~s of the sea along a line of coast twenty miles in length, m whiCh these places stood t. Hills of blown sand, between Eccles and Winterton, have barred up and excluded the tide for many hundred years from the mouths of several small estuaries; but there are records of nine breaches, from twenty to one hundred and twenty yards wide, having been made through these, whereby immense damage was done to the l~w grounds in the. interior. A few mi~es south of Happisburgh, also, are hills of blown sand, winch extend to Yarmo~ th; and these are supposed to protect the coast, but in fact t?eir formation proves that a temporary respite of the incurSIOns. of the sea on this part is permitted by the present set of the tides and currents. Were it otherwise, the land, as we have seen, would give way, though made of solid rock. At. Yarmouth, the sea has not advanced upon the sands in the shghtest degree since the reign of Elizabeth. In the time of t?e ~axons, a great estuary extended as far as Norwich, which Cit~ Is represented, even in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, as" situated on the banks of an arm of the sea." The sands whereon Yarmouth is built first became firm and habit~ ble ground about the year 1008, from which time a line of unes has gradually increased in height and breadth, stretching • Taylor's Geology of East Norfolk, p. 32, t Ibid. |