V.—Recent Coast Erosion at Southwold and Covehithe

Extract

The sixteenth of May last was a disastrous date for Southwold and the neighbourhood, for, owing to the prevalence of northerly winds on this and the two previous days, culminating in a moderate gale, the tides rose to an abnormal height, and this, combined with a rough sea, made fearful inroads upon the soft, sandy cliff and the shingle on the foreshore, washing away a large piece of land and creating a new cove at the northern boundary of the little town. The effect would have been worse but for the existence of a clay-footing and promontory at the extreme point, and two immense concrete blocks constructed a few years ago to act as a break water and give protection to this part of the cliff. These latter proved of temporary service, but became so shattered and disintegrated that they must be replaced, or a sea-wall built, to resist further inroads at the next high-flowing tide. Similar erosion has occurred on the face of Easton Bavents cliff and at Covehithe, and it is feared that the loss of land at those places will render Southwold all the more assailable in future. Upon two occasions during the winter of 1894–5 (December and January) the tide rose to even greater height, and inundated large tracts of salt-marsh around Southwold, making two ruptures in the railway embankment and stopping the trains for a few days, but as there happened fortunately to be no wind at the time the damage done to the sea-front was confined to the sweeping of the shingle further south, with comparatively little damage to the cliffs of Southwold. It became necessary, however, to remove all the boats and capstans from the beach and pull them up the cliff or drag them inland; and this had again to be done on the 15th and 16th May.