SEA EROSION CAUSES BIG LOSS IN BRITISH ISLES

Manawatu Times, Volume LIV, Issue 6801, 3 January 1929, Page 3

SEA EROSION CAUSES BIG LOSS IN BRITISH ISLES

The recent landslide on the Isle of Wight, which has tumbled thousands of tons of land into tko sea, has called forcibly to the attention, of those on the island the truth of the geological statement that the face of the earth is forever changing, and has confronted the English people with the possibility that over a period of timo such as thoso with which geologists and astronomists deal, the British Isles may be washed entirely away. The average yearly loss by erosion of the British Isles is estimated at about 2000 acres, allowing for the slight accretion at points where the sea deposits soil instead of carrying it away. At least 35 towns and villages shown on old maps have disappeared completely, and at certain spots on the Yorkshire coast the beach is eaten away at the rate of 15 feet a year. 'way back in the days of Henry VIII tko “outrageous flowing surges and courses of the sea,” attracted attention but then, as now, there was little that could be done about it. Since the Doomsday Book was- written Yorkshire has lost 160 square miles of land. Kavenspurn, which was once the rival port to Hull, and which was represented by a member in the Parliament of Edward I, has vanished long ago; now it is somewhere under the ocean off the coast of England.

Hornsea Church is referred to in an old rhyme as being 10 miles from the sea. It is one mile away now. The Town Hall of Aldeburgh, once several blocks from the ocean, is now on the beach. Beverly was once on tho coast but the ocean built up defenses beforo it, and put a dozen miles between it and tho sea. Now tho ocean is returning, and if tho present conditions tontinuc Beverly may one day find itself not on the coast, but even under the waves.

And not only at the Isle of Wight, but at Dover, Deal, Hornsea, and Withernsca, huge chunks of cliff have a habit of suddenly breaking off and leaving tho land that much poorer.