BATTLE WITH THE SEA

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LV, Issue 17108, 14 November 1929, Page 9

BATTLE WITH THE SEA

HOMES DEVOURED BRITAIN’S CHANGING COASTS LONDON, Sept. 14. Day by day the sea is devouring English soil. This week (says the Daily Telegraph) 40,000 tons of cliff collapsed near Mundeslev, Norfolk, and a cornfield’ which had just been harrowed, vanished. In (he past 35 years nearly 7000 acres, or 10 square miles, of land have been lost to the sea. Houses, churches, and inns that stood on the land are now the abode ol fishes. At the present time the village of Pnkefield, in Suffolk, which has lost 3£ofl. of land in the last 25 years, is threatened with total destruction. Dumvieh, near by. was once a great sea port and a bishop’s cathedral city, but its glories are now fathoms deep. The thirteenth century church at Pakefield may share the same fate. “This part of the coast, is very subject to erosion,” an official of the Geological Society stated yesterday, “and the sea is not depositing the eroded material further along the coast, as it does in some parts of the country. “In East Yorkshire, on the other hand, a. strip of land 40 miles long and four miles broad has been eaten away between Spurn Point and Flamhorough Head, hut much of (his material has been deposited again at Spurn. LOSSES AND GAINS. “Concrete sea walls are an effective method of preventing erosion,” lie added. “but they are very expensive and noti always successful. Hundreds, of thousands of pounds are'being spent by seaside towns all round the coast on these walls, yet sometimes even they are destroyed. About two years ago tho great sea wall at Scarborough bulged to a remarkable extent because underground springs washed away soil and rock from the foundations.” Mr. ,T. Reid Molr. the geologist, believes that such springs are the cause of the trouble at; Pakeb’eld. and that the sea only finishes off (lie work. A simpler method of saving the land is planting of riee grass. A thousand roots of this grass were planted on -the foreshore at Canvev Island, Essex, last March. But England is not likely to disnp pear. According to the report of tho Roval Commission on Coast Erosion, issued in 1911. more land has been gained through natural accretion and artificial reclamation than has been lost, through erosion bv the sea. Against the A 640 acres lost in the 35 years 48.000 have been deposited. If Peter is being robbed. Paul iv being repaid with interest is a Tact not likely to afford much consolation to Peter, who sees his homo falling into the sea.