HATE OF EROSION OF THE SEA-COASTS OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 929 



plankino: of the main jetty above, on the western side, requires repairing and 

 heightening, to prevent the shingle passing through the top. 



When it is considered that the rateable value of the twenty-eight houses in East 

 Cliff Terrace is, as I was informed, from 3,000^. to 4,U00Z. per annum, and its 

 estimated value 60,000Z., it will be seen who is interested in the safety of the Castle 

 jetty, which, by an arrangement with H.M. Woods, &,c., on the information of the 

 town clerk and harbour engineer, appears to be transferred to the East Cliff pro- 

 prietors, and the Harbour Board relieved from all responsibility as to its maintenance, 

 its successor, the new stone groyne, being regarded now as the east boundary of the 

 harbour frontage, the one-mile frontage of the harbour trust, hitherto measured from 

 the old pier, called Cheesemans Head, at the west end, now enclosed by and 

 incorporated with the Admiralty Pier to the Castle jetty, now being defined east- 

 ward by the new jetty, and the frontage at that end reduced by 1,100 feet. 



I have defined by "a line from the shore end of the harbour groyne, and termi- 

 nating opposite the west side of Arlington House, the line I propose for the 

 revetment. 



I estimate the cost of this work at . . . . £4,800 

 Castle jetty repairs .... 1,700 



Total . . £6,500 



As it appears, on the information of the Mayor, that the garden wall of No. 1 

 East Cliff Terrace was washed down when the sea made certain inroads on this part 

 of the coast about forty years back, the December casualty was not unprecedented. 



The maintenance of the Castle jetty is quite as, if not more, important than the 

 construction of the revetment, nor should I recommend any steps being taken with 

 the latter without the works of renewal to the Castle jetty are carried out coinci- 

 dentally therewith. 



Should these works in their entirety, from want of concert between the parties 

 interested, not be carried out, in the event of another gale such as that of December 

 recurring, the result in all probability would be the cutting ofE the sea road commu- 

 nication, not to say the endangering of the western houses of East Cliff Terrace ; 

 the result would also probably recur that the harbour authorities would be compelled 

 again to continue to extend their jetty landward ; in effect the foreshore may be 

 expected to retreat and to be lowered to the eastward of the harbour jetty, as may 

 be observed at the Castle jetty, and the longer the construction of the sea-works of 

 defence are postponed, so will the difficulty of maintaining the present sea margin 

 be increased as well as the necessity entailed of continuing such works further 

 eastward.' 



Should the works be postponed for any lengtliened period and the shore margin 

 be much abraded and the foreshore lowered, it then may become a question whether 

 the construction of a stone sea wall in continuation of the harbour jetty eastward 

 would not be the best plan to adopt for the western end.- 



I have the honour to be. Sir, 



Your very obedient Servant, 



(Signed) J. B. Eedman. 



War Office, June 3, 1863. 

 SiH, — With reference to your letter, dated April 2, and the reply thereto of the 

 14th idem respecting the encroachment of the sea at east cliff, Dover, I am directed 



' [As the revetment was commenced just four years after, without the author of 

 this report being consulted or knowing aught of its details or execution, it is mani- 

 fest he is in no way responsible for the subsequent results ; nor did he authorise or 

 recommend the mode adopted. Had he been so, the last paragraph of this report 

 shows he might have advised a very different mode of procedure. 



He visited Dover in December 1867 for the first time (viz., 4i years' interval) 

 after making above report, when he found the timber revetment finished. From its 

 great irregularity he doubts if proper land-ties were provided, and now, from the 

 omission of a most important provision— viz., the heavy top paving and other de- 

 partures from his plan— sufficient reasons appear for its partial failure. Further 

 he has no evidence of the depth of piling or character or mass of concrete backing.] 



* [Ultimately done. Since replaced by a stone wall just prior to decease of late 

 town surveyor, Mr. Hanvey.] 



1888. 3 



