ON THE EROSION OF THE SEA-COASTS OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 385 



from Robin Hood's Bay to Whitby the average will be 120 feet to 200 feet ; in the 

 hay west of Whitby 200 feet at neap, 300 feet at spring. 



8. — In the bay west of Whitby it is sand nearly the whole year through, but 

 ■occasionally beds of shingle and gravel are visible ; at Robin Hood's Bay it is 

 sand and shingle mixed. After heavy seas most gravel will appear, but in the 

 ■summer it is mostly sand ; but this applies only from the bottom of the cliff for about 

 40 yards seawards; beyond this it is beds of flat rocks strewn in places with large 

 boulders. The Scarborough North Bay is of the same character as Robin Hood's Bay, 

 the South Bay is all sand, with a rim of shingle and boulders at the cliff foot 20 yards 

 wide ; at the south end of the bay Gristhorpe and Cayton Bays are mostly shingle 

 for about 30 yards from the cliff foot, and flat rocks and boulder beds beyond. Filey 

 liay is all sand, stretching for about 3 miles ; Bridlington Bay is all sand, excepting 

 about 3 miles of the north side forming the Flamborough Head projection, which is flat 

 rocks and boulders. Excluding- these bays, all the remaining and by far the greater 

 portion of this coast consi.^ts of beds of large boulders (ranging from a few hundred- 

 weights to several hundreds of tons) and beds of flat rock mostly strewn with 

 boulders, but bare in those parts where from their position the seas break over them 

 with violence. 



!i. — Asalready stated, there is scarcelyany shingle worth calling so on this coast ; 

 where there is, its greatest breadth would not exceed 40 yards, while the mean 

 •would be between 20 and 80, and this would be in all cases at the cliff foot. The 

 liigh-water mark of an ordinary spring tide would about equally divide it, i.e., half 

 would be covered and half dry. In all cases it would travel south, barring the in- 

 lluence which the eddy and a south-east wind may have in moving it a little north ; 

 but this rarely occurs, and is so trifling in its eft'ect as not to be worth mentioning. 

 It is sufficient to say that no wind that blows can take anything north betwixt the 

 Tyne and Flamborough Head. This is proved by the fact that portions of vessels 

 wrecked about the Tyne's mouth are picked up all down the coast to Flamborough 

 Head, but no portion of the wreckage of any vessel wrecked, say, at Flamborough Head, 

 Scarborough, or Whitby, has ever been found north of those points. The egg of a 

 goose would represent the size of the largest pebbles, and these occur at Caj'ton Bay. 

 The shingle forras'one continuous slope ; there is no ' spring full ' or ' neap full.' 



10. — The shingle is certainly not accumulating, and on the other hand the diminu- 

 tion is too small to be perceptible, and the rate cannot be ascertained. From Bridling- 

 ton to Whitby the foreshore, wherever accessible, is the great quarrying ground for 

 the wants of the immediate neighbourhood, .sand, shingle, and boulders alike being 

 obtained as required, and this must certainly diminish the amount ; but this is pro- 

 bably made up again by the frequent falls of cliff which occur after heavy seas and 

 through springs in the cliff. 



] 2. — There are no groynes on this line of coast, with the exception of two or three 

 at Bridlington Quay, built for the protection of the sea-wall or promenade there. 

 These are built at right angles to the shore line ; their length and distance apart can 

 be obtained from the plans, their height ranges from about 7 feet at the shore end 

 to 2 feet at the other. I have no knowledge of where they were built, and there is 

 no shingle at this place — they are built of masonry and wood. 



13.— The material is taken indiscriminately from all the foreshore between high- 

 and low- water mark. The shingle and boulders are mostly taken for road and path 

 making, the sand for building and other purposes, and large boulders are taken for 

 building purposes. It is mostly taken by highway and local board authorities, 

 and by lords of the manor, who levy a toll upon all private individuals taking it 

 with their consent. No half-tide reefs are known to have ejilsted before such 

 removal, but it is certain that these large boulders (and at Scarborough even the reefs 

 of flat rocks are being quarried), shingle, and sand form a breakwater, which breaks 

 the violence of the waves, and consequently their removal cannot but affect the cliffs 

 in their neighbourhood. 



14. — The coast is being worn back along the whole line from Bridlington to 

 Whitby, but the greatest recession is between Bridlington and the Humber, where in 

 places it has receded as much as 90 yards between thepresent survey and that made forty- 

 three years ago, and it has been computed that 2 j-ards go annually along this line of 

 coast. In all the bays, Filey. Robin Hood's, Whitby, and the smaller ones (Scarborough 

 is in part protected by a sea-wall), where the cliffs are mostly of boulder clay, there 

 the recession has been most. The average width lost in these during the above period 

 would probably be about 20 j-ards, in places much more, in others less. After the 

 boulder clay the shale and sandstone cliffs, as between Peak and Whitby, appear to 



1895. c c 



