1UTB OF EROSION OF THE SEA-COASTS OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 913 



■ward of this. The shore where now covered with shingle is described all the way to 

 the Medway, as well as the foreshore seaward, as ' ooze.' Here, as the mass of 

 shingle has increased, so has its size, and the usual characteristics of a sea beach, witlj 

 two distinct ' fulls,' are presented. 



The existence of an outer modern ' full ' in advance of the old beach is also 

 indicative of the increase of the Point, the western progression of which has amounted 

 to from 2,800 to 3,000 feet in 120 years, viz., from 1737 to 1857, being at the rate 

 of from 23 to 25 feet per annum. On the opposite shore, at Harwich harbour, a 

 similar shingle-formation, called Landguard Point, has progressed in a S.VV. direction 

 at the rate of 50 feet per annum during the last twelve years. 



Garrison Point appears to liave been resorted to for many years for material for 

 concrete for building purposes and for ballast for road-making in the Dockyard and 

 for your Department. From the eastern bastion up to the turnstile a good foreshore 

 of shingle continues, rendering unnecessary the old groynes, which have been allowed 

 to go to decay. From the turnstile to the east end of your property, a frontage of 

 nearly half a mile, are situate the works in question. 



At the west end, i.e., just east of the turnstile, from the degradation of the shingle, 

 caused by the groynes being allowed to fall to decay, or from other causes, the sea has 

 been allowed to impinge upon and breach a portion of the stone slope, which has only 

 been partially repaired, and that at a very acute angle. The stone wall, with the 

 exception of this breach, is generally uniform, but the original slope given to it, viz., 

 from 2 to 3 horizontal to 1 vertical, is very steep; the toe or footing is protected 

 by stake piles, which in places are getting undermined, and causing a corresponding 

 .■iettlement of the stone paving from the sea getting into the clay bed and washing it 

 from beneath. 



The shingle which is retained by the groynes running out from this wall is usually 

 liighest on the east side, showing the prevailing motion. The land ends are rather 

 above the level of high water, and they extend in varying lengths and directions, 

 generally about 120 feet in length, and with an average bearing N.E. by N. by 

 compass ; the wind to which the coast is most exposed blowing from the east by 

 compass, and after gales from this quarter large quantities of cement stone pebbles 

 are picked up along the beach, which work up out of the clay shore. The large 

 quantities of oyster-shells on Garrison Point and the beach in front of the east 

 bastion are also indicative of this movement. 



The ends of the groynes mark the limit of the shingle, beyond which is a great 

 extent of fiat oozy foreland, amounting in breadth to a mile in places at low water of 

 spring tides. 



In front of the Royal Hotel is situate a groyne of greater extent, as to length and 

 cross-section, than the others, through which the sewer from the hotel is carried, at 

 the mouth of which, for its protection, is a curved horn. This groyne has promoted 

 a deposit of ooze to the westward : and there is also a small accumulation of shingle, 

 which is, however, entirely local, for westward of it the clay makes its appearance, 

 with little beach to cover it, with the foot of the stone slope projecting above the 

 foreshore. 



The' stone wall terminates by a rectangular return near the windmill, and there i» 

 then a deep recess up to the east end of your property ; along this length of 114 j-ards 

 the groynes have been allowed altogether to go to decay, the shingle has travelled 

 landward, and the sea has gained very much on the shore, shown by the clay cropping 

 out in serrated ridges through the thin beach, which only partially covers it. By a 

 reference to Major Nugent's plan of October last the high-water mark appears 

 coincident, or nearly so, with the shore ends of the groynes, but is now considerably 

 landward of them, from this recession of the shingle. The degradation of the shore 

 would also appear in the then proposition to lengthen these groynes, which are now 

 quite decayed, and the piles of some of which may be lifted out of the shore, being 

 only a few inches therein, showing a lowering of the foreshore on their site of about 

 3 feet. At the termination of your property at the east end of this bay or recess, and 

 at the west end of Neptune Terrace, there is a very large old groyne of about six 

 parallel rows of stake piles in steps to the westward, filled in with rough Kentish 

 stone. This groyne has caused a local accumulation of shingle eastward of it, where 

 the pebbles are from 4 to 5 feet higher than on the west side ; but soon after passing 

 this local accumulation we find the shore to the eastward very much denuded, the 

 clay cropping through in ridges, a very thin medium of beach travelling landward. 

 The shore appears to be lower to the extent of from 5 to 10 feet in places, as evidenced 

 by the way in which it is dished out (leaving pools of water as the tide recedes) 

 1888. 3 H 



