SEA EROSION CAUSES BIG LOSS IN BRITISH ISLES

Shannon News, 8 January 1929, Page 1

SEA EROSION CAUSES BIG LOSS IN BRITISH ISLES

The recent landslide on the I»l6 of Wight, which has tumbled thousands of tons of land into the s«a,''hai called forcibly, to the atteati'on ,of • *hose on the island the truth of the geological statement that the face of the*earthi is forever changing, and has confronted the English people • "with the possibility that over a period of time such as those with which geologists, and astronomists deal, the British ' Isles may be washed entirely away. The average yearly loss by erosion of the British Isle's is estimated at about 2000 acres, allowing, for the slight accretion at points where the s«a 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 the "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. Eavenspurn, winch 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.

i Hornsea Church is referred to in an old rhyme as being 10 niiles from the sea. It is one mile away now. The Town Hall of Aldcburgh, once several blocks from the ocean, is now on the beach. Beverly was once on th« coast but the ocean built up ■defenses before if, and put a dozen males between it and the sea. v Now the ocean is returning, and if the present conditions continue Beverly may one day find itself not on the- coast, but even under the waves.

And not only at tie Isle of .Wight, but at Dover, Deal, Hornsea, and Witherns'ea, huge chunks of cliff have a habit of suddenly breaking off andleaving the land that much poorer..