The Sea Coast

TO

James and Grace

EDITORS:

JOHN GILMOUR M.A.V.M.H.

SIR JULIAN HUXLEY M.A. D.Sc F.R.S.

MARGARET DAVIES M.A. Ph.D.

KENNETH MELLANBY C.B.E. Sc.D.

PHOTOGRAPHIC EDITOR:

ERIC HOSKING F.R.P.S.

The aim of this series is to interest the general reader in the wild life of Britain by recapturing the inquiring spirit of the old naturalists. The Editors believe that the natural pride of the British public in the native flora and fauna, to which must be added concern for their conservation, is best fostered by maintaining a high standard of accuracy combined with clarity of exposition in presenting the results of modern scientific research. The plants and animals are described in relation to their homes and habitats and are portrayed in the full beauty of their natural colours, by the latest methods of colour photography and reproduction.

CONTENTS

Cover

Title Page

Dedication

EDITORS’ PREFACE

AUTHOR’S PREFACE

CHAPTER 1 THE RELATION OF THE COAST TO THE GENERAL STRUCTURE OF GREAT BRITAIN

CHAPTER 2 THE MOVEMENTS OF BEACH MATERIAL

CHAPTER 3 EROSION AND ACCRETION EVIDENCE OF COASTAL CHANGES

CHAPTER 4 THE COAST IN PROFILE AND PLAN

CHAPTER 5 CLIFF SCENERY

CHAPTER 6 SAND AND SHINGLE SPITS, AND SALT MARSHES

CHAPTER 7 MAJOR SHINGLE STRUCTURES

CHAPTER 8 STUDIES IN THE EVOLUTION AND SETTING OF OUR COASTAL SCENERY

CHAPTER 9 EVIDENCES OF ELEVATION AND DEPRESSION OF COASTLINES

APPENDIX THE STORM OF 1953 AND ITS AFTERMATH

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Index

About the Author

Plates

Copyright

About the Publisher

EDITORS’ PREFACE

SOMEWHERE in the heart of the Midlands of England is a spot which can claim to be the most distant in these islands from the sea. Yet the distance from the nearest tide water is less than 70 miles. If the sea is a part of every Briton’s natural heritage, then the sea coast is doubly so; and it must be rare to find an inhabitant of the British Isles of mature years who has never seen the sea. Another volume in the New Naturalist series has disclosed the richness of the flora of our coasts and that wealth in plants is due in large measure to the great variety of coastal habitats. The British coasts have indeed everything—from towering cliffs rising several hundred feet sheer from deep water to mud flats a mile or more wide uncovered by every tide; from restless shingle spits and moving sand dunes to granite headlands which see little change in a century. How is it that along some stretches, despite all the efforts of man, the sea succeeds in gnawing away several feet of land a year, only to throw back the discarded material a few miles away? In this book Professor Steers seeks to explain, as far as the present state of knowledge will permit, how the varied types of coastline have been evolved and how the changes still taking place provide such a remarkable range of differing conditions for plant and animal life.

Now Professor of Geography and President of St. Catharine’s College, in the University of Cambridge, and previously Dean and Tutor of his College, his special field of study has been the evolution of coasts and coastlines. His studies took him early to the Great Barrier Reefs and to the cays of the West Indies, but these expeditions were but holidays from the long continued detailed studies of the Norfolk coast—resulting in a book devoted exclusively to Scolt Head Island. When the Ministry of Town and Country Planning was set up he was commissioned by the Minister to make a comprehensive survey of the whole coastline of England and Wales. The lengthy report which resulted provides the essential basic information on which policies of coastal preservation and development can be based. When this was completed Professor Steers undertook a similar survey of Scottish coasts. As a natural consequence he became a member of The Nature Conservancy and so retains a continuing interest in work which must of necessity be greatly concerned with the natural history of coastal lands.

Clearly no-one is better qualified to write on the Sea Coast, and in this book we believe he has successfully combined a clear exposition of what we know, with an indication of the many directions in which the amateur observer can help in the elucidation of outstanding problems—in the true tradition of the field naturalist.

THE EDITORS

AUTHOR’S PREFACE

THERE ARE many ways of studying the coast of a country. In this book the approach is physiographical—that is to say a study of coastal scenery in relation to its origin. This is a vast subject, and cannot be treated fully in a volume of this size, nor by one author. The proper understanding of the coast must be the result of the combined research of workers in several subjects—including geography, geology, ecology, and botany. In the meantime it is perhaps worth while for someone to try to give a comprehensive picture and to call attention to some of the ways in which our knowledge of the coast needs augmenting. I can only make two claims to do this; first I love the coast, and secondly it has been my good fortune to see the whole of the mainland coast of Great Britain and by far the greater part of that of the adjacent islands. This experience has emphasized only too clearly how impossible it is for any one person adequately to deal with so big a subject!

In this volume there are three main themes: (1) A brief synopsis of the relation of coast to the structure of the country and a summary analysis of the physical agencies working on the coast; (2) a discussion of the nature of different types of coastal scenery; and (3) a short account of the evolution of parts of our coastline. The final chapter on raised beaches and submerged forests is conveniently treated by itself, but its subject matter is relevant to all the other chapters.

So far as I am aware no one has attempted to deal physiographically and in some detail with the whole coast of Scotland. To do so at this stage would, I think, be difficult, much as the subject deserves it. This is so for several reasons. First of all a great deal more local work is required on specific problems and places. The interesting and extensive dunes of Aberdeenshire are now for the first time being studied. The Machair of the Western Isles, the Ayres of Orkney and the numerous saltmarshes all demand attention. Extremely little has been written about the cliffed coasts of Scotland—a study involving the relation of structure to marine erosion and other factors along miles of interesting and beautiful coast, and presenting problems for many workers. The investigation of raised beaches and associated phenomena has hardly begun in the sense of explaining how they were cut and the human uses to which they are now put. Moreover, the actual sequence is not always quite clear—where, for example, does the “pre-Glacial” beach of Islay, Colonsay, and the Treshnish Isles fit? Perhaps the controvery concerning the origin of fiords is settled, but there is still scope for much work on the local differences in form of the western sea-lochs. Still more important, and this applies to England and Wales with equal force, is the examination and mapping of the topography of the adjacent sea floor. The full study of a coast must depend a great deal on a knowledge of the adjacent submarine floor—and yet how little is this matter discussed in many coastal studies in which its introduction would be highly relevant!

Coastal scenery also depends greatly on that of the country to which it forms the margin. The contrast between the flat-topped cliffs of the Hartland district of North Devon and the hog’s-back cliffs of Exmoor; or the striking difference between the even skyline of the cliffs of the Tenby and Gower Peninsulas or of the Lizard district with the coast on either side of Salcombe Harbour in South Devon or with that of the north coast of Sutherland, all demand attention if we are going to explain fully the scenery of our coastline.

I am fully aware of many of the shortcomings of this book, and also of the generalizations made in it. A complete explanation of the intricate landscape of the Western Isles and mainland of Scotland is not at present possible. The origin of the North Sea and its connection with the cliffs of our east coasts, the reason for the Shetland archipelago, the former river systems of the North Channel and Irish Sea, the significance of the Cornubian peninsula, and the means of separation of Britain from the Continent and of Ireland from Britain are all great and largely unsolved problems. Yet to appreciate our coastline fully we must try to understand these topics just as much as the more obvious ones of erosion and accretion. If I have done nothing else than provoke discussion or disagreement I am well satisfied because it has always seemed to me that some of these matters have been all too readily overlooked—and it is a long time since Sir Haiford Mackinder introduced some of them in his Britain and the British Seas.

Once again I acknowledge with great pleasure my indebtedness to Dr. H. Dighton Thomas, who read through this book in typescript and made many helpful suggestions. To the Editors of the New Naturalist volumes I am also grateful for much constructive help and criticism. The diagrams have nearly all been drawn for me by Mr. L. R. Thurston, who spent much time and care on them. The sources of those diagrams based on the work of others are all duly acknowledged elsewhere. Permission to use maps and diagrams which have appeared in official publications has been obtained from the H.M. Stationery Office. The Royal Geographical Society and the Cambridge University Press have also kindly allowed me to make use of certain maps and figures. The photographs are from various sources, and I am indeed glad to record my thanks to those who have allowed me to make use of them. The origin of each photograph is given below it.

In order that the large figures 44, 47 and 50 may be printed from single blocks, they have had to be placed somewhat remotely from the text-passages to which they refer.

The Index was compiled by Mr. Geoffrey Willett, to whom I am most grateful.

J. A. STEERS,

Cambridge, May, 1952

Preface to the Third Edition

An appendix has been added in this edition. It begins with a brief account of the great flood of 1953, and then summarizes some of the important trends in coastal work, mainly since the War.

J. A. STEERS

Cambridge, July, 1960

Preface to the Fourth Edition

In this edition a note has been added to Chapter 9 in order to call attention to recent work on raised beaches.

J. A. STEERS,

Cambridge, May, 1968

It should be noted that throughout this book Plate numbers in arabic figures refer to the Colour Plates, while roman numerals are used for Black-and-White Plates

CHAPTER 1

THE RELATION OF THE COAST TO THE GENERAL STRUCTURE OF GREAT BRITAIN

BEFORE discussing coastal matters sensu stricto, it will repay us to glance at the general relation between the structure of the rocks forming the coastline of Great Britain and that of the country as a whole (see Fig. 1).

Although the interpretation of much of the geology of Scotland is still hypothetical, the main structural regions of the country are clearly differentiated, and are associated with coastlines possessing marked characteristics. The dominant grain of Scotland is north-east and south-west over most of the country, but more nearly north-north-east and south-south-west in the North-west Highlands. To this geological fact must be added the physical one—namely, that Scotland is higher in the west than in the east. The slope of the country to the east and south-east is related to the preservation of the Old Red Sandstone in Caithness and around the Moray Firth. Formerly this formation, as well as still newer ones, spread over some of the mountainous interior.

The effect of the grain on the coastline is apparent in many places, but from Cape Wrath to the Caithness border, along the Moray Firth particularly in Banffshire, in Argyll, Jura, Islay, and Kintyre, it is conspicuous. This is emphasised in Figs. 20 and 21, which illustrate how the headlands and re-entrants of Sutherland and Banff follow the trend of the rocks which form them. In Argyll and the adjacent islands the correspondence is often more obvious, but is best appreciated by a study of a geological map of the whole country.

Whilst the folds and thrusts, which enter so largely into the structure of the North-west Highlands, are generally parallel to the coastline, it is nevertheless the case that the north-west and south-east trends of sea lochs, valleys, and igneous dykes, produce the most effective coastal scenery in western Sutherland and Wester Ross.

The gradual change from the north-west and south-east trend of the sea lochs between Cape Wrath and Skye, through the east and west direction of those between the Kyle of Lochalsh and Loch Sunart, and then to the south-westerly trend of the Great Glen and the Argyll lochs, hardly reflects the major structural traits of the country, which are more clearly shown in the parallelism of the Outer Hebrides and the North-west Highlands, and that of the Coll-Tiree ridge with the prevailing grain of the Grampians. The region from the Shiant islands to the south of Mull was at one time buried under lavas and other products of the great volcanoes of Skye, Rum, Ardnamurchan, and Mull. This and the later collapse of parts of the area obscure the relations between the coastline and the general structure of the country.

In the Central Valley, between the great faults bordering the Highlands and the Southern Uplands, a tract of country, the rocks of which have been folded in a south-west and north-east pattern, has been dropped down. This general direction of strike of the strata as shown on a map is clearest in the Old Red Sandstone outcrop extending from Loch Lomond to Stonehaven, but it is also apparent in the trends of the Ochil and Sidlaw Hills, and in the folds involving the Carboniferous strata. The trend, however, has no very pronounced effects on the coast except perhaps between Stonehaven and Arbroath. In the Firths of Tay and Forth, and also inland, numerous outcrops of igneous rock and the necks of old volcanoes are more likely to focus the attention, than is the influence on scenery of the strike of the beds in which they are intruded.

The marked trend of the Southern Uplands locally affects the coast, especially near St. Abb’s Head and in Wigtownshire. It may also be observed in detail on parts of the Solway coast, 1 and in the line of the Solway Firth. The bays and larger inlets of Wigtown, Kirkcudbright, and Dumfries are discordant, and may recall a time when rivers flowed on a cover of newer rocks and so passed athwart the grain of the older rocks.

The cartographical relation between the major structural trends of the country and the coast is close enough, but the field relationships are often obscured; along many miles of the Moray Firth and of Aberdeenshire sand flats and wide dune systems hide it completely. Elsewhere, the frequent raised beaches and the grassing over of the old cliffs may divert attention from it. Yet in the trend of small inlets, the lines of cliff faces, the direction of certain valleys, and in all sorts of other ways, the grain has a pervasive effect. In places, not only cliff detail but also that of the adjoining land, may be completely hidden by boulder clay. This, however, is a more marked characteristic of coasts south of the Border.

In England and Wales the relation of coast to the structure of the interior of the country is perhaps less impressive. Geological maps emphasise the strike of the Jurassic and Cretaceous beds, and the scarps of the Cotswolds and Chiltern Hills, but in eastern England the influence of either the trend or of the rocks composing these formations is small indeed. In the coastal parts of Holderness and Lincolnshire the Cretaceous beds are completely hidden by boulder clay, and in north Norfolk, apart from an outcrop at Hunstanton, the Chalk lies behind a wide fringe of salt marsh, and only makes a final appearance on the foreshore at and near Sheringham.

From the Border to Flamborough Head, rock type locally has a great effect on the coastal scenery (see here), although the connection between the coastal scenery and the structure of both coast and interior is not striking. On the coast itself this is partly because the extensive sandy beaches and long lines of dunes on the Northumberland coast hide it. The Carboniferous rocks of Northumberland and Durham are roughly concentric around The Cheviot, and for many miles south of Berwick they (including the Calciferous sandstone series) outcrop on the coast in such a way as to give rapidly alternating beds of usually thin sandstones, shales, and limestones locally intruded by the Whin Sill, which produces the most interesting features, including the Farne Islands. The Millstone Grit and Coal Measures follow to the south, and form the coastline of the southern part of Northumberland. The Magnesian limestone, of Permian age, makes nearly the whole of the Durham coast.

In the Cleveland district of Yorkshire, the Jurassic rocks are gently folded along an east and west axis, but near the coast, local anticlines and synclines modify the major trend. The low ground near the Tees mouth is clearly related to the soft Permian and Triassic rocks thereabouts.

FIG. 1—A simplified Geological map of the British Isles. (Based on Geological Survey)

The north-east and south-west trend so characteristic of Scotland reappears in the Lake District and in Wales. In the Lakes the older rocks—the Skiddaw Slates, Borrowdale Volcanics, and Upper (Silurian) Slates—are approximately parallel with the folds in the Southern Uplands, but they do not reach the coast. The history of the Lake District is long and complicated; suffice it to say that before the final doming which immediately preceded its present form, Carboniferous and newer rocks had been deposited over the older Palaeozoics. As a result of the doming in Tertiary time, the newer rocks have been worn away from the centre of the district, but remain as a girdle on the coast and in the Eden valley.

North and central Wales show the Caledonian trend to advantage. The orientation of the Lleyn peninsula conforms to it, as also do the major outcrops in Anglesey. Between, approximately, Aberystwyth and Pembrokeshire, the coast of Cardigan Bay runs in the same direction, but the exact significance of this is uncertain, although the coast may conform to a structural line parallel with the central Wales syncline and the Teifi and Towy anticlines. North and central Wales are built around the dome of Cambrian rocks, the outcrop of which coincides fairly closely with Merionethshire.

There is no need to enquire in detail into the structure of central England, but the significance of a line running from Carmarthen Bay to Church Stretton, and then northwards to the great faults that border the western side of the Pennines, and perhaps as far as the Solway, needs brief mention. The line separates to the west a tract in which prolonged sedimentation went on throughout Lower Palaeozoic times. There were many movements of the sea floor, and at times, especially in the Ordovician, there was a great deal of vulcanicity, which has given us the characteristic scenery of Cader Idris, much of the Lleyn peninsula, and the Borrowdales in the Lake District. But from the early part of the Cambrian until the close of the Silurian this western sea was an area in which thousands of feet of sediment slowly accumulated. To the east of this long line there was a continental area on the margins of which the sea occasionally spread and laid down sediments. The contrast between the slowly subsiding western region and the continental areas to the east is of great significance in the formation of the Caledonian mountains.

In the region now called the Southern Uplands of Scotland, there was also a sea in early Palaeozoic times, and in the waters more distant from the coast, thin and fine shales slowly accumulated. In the more coastal parts, sedimentation was far more rapid. A comparison of the rocks in the Hawick and Girvan districts soon reveals the difference of conditions.

In the North-west Highlands region there was also an early Palaeozoic sea. The Cambrian rocks of that area were deposited in it, but its later history is obscure.

In all three regions there was great tectonic activity at the close of Silurian times. For whatever may have been the reason, the sediments which had accumulated in the seas were violently squeezed and folded, and later raised into mountain ranges. The details vary from place to place, but the general direction of movement was from the south-east, and it is this which has produced the marked north-east and south-west grain so noticeable in these regions of Caledonian folding.

In South Wales and in southern England the trend of the rocks is more nearly east and west. This is exemplified with great clarity in the coalfield of South Wales, and the adjacent folding in the Tenby and Gower peninsulas. It occurs in the Mendips, and in Cornwall and Devon. Farther east it gives rise to the characteristic scenery of the Isles of Purbeck and Wight, and of the Weald. The main direction of the syncline of the London Basin is in accord, and so also is that of the lower Bristol Channel.

The east-west trend in the south of Britain is the result of folding movements of two distinct and long separated periods of time. The folding of the coalfield and adjacent parts of South Wales took place at the end of Carboniferous times, and is named the Armorican folding. The much newer folding of the Tertiary period, the Alpine folding, followed the same east and west direction, but also involved much newer rocks. In Kent the surface folding, which is the key to so much of the scenery, is generally parallel to the underlying folds which have been studied in the deeply buried Kent coalfield. This ancient folding is probably continuous below the surface with that of South Wales on the one side, and the Boulonnais, Belgian coalfield, and the Ruhr on the other.

The Armorican and Alpine folds are largely responsible for the major pattern of our southern coasts. The Chalk headlands of the North and South Forelands, and Beachy Head, the sweeping curves in the softer Wealden and Tertiary beds of the Hampshire basin, the lozenge-shape of the Isle of Wight, the intricate relation of structure and coastal scenery in Purbeck, the disposition of the rocks in Cornwall on either side of the Watergate anticline, the arrangement of the beds in the Ilfracombe district, the beautiful symmetry of the coasts of Gower and Tenby, and the final meeting in western Pembrokeshire of the Armorican and Caledonian folds—the latter almost east and west at this point—all illustrate this.