% SCIENTIFIC SURVEY OF BLACKPOOL AND DISTRICT 



king piles and walings are pitch pine. The walls and aprons are all faced with 

 basalt columnar stone, bedded and grouted in ground Portland cement mortar. 



With the exception of a small area of basalt pitching used on the Princess 

 Parade length, and imported from the Giant's Causeway, all the basalt stone 

 was imported from the Rhine and delivered here at the remarkably low figure 

 of 16s. per ton. 



The following figures give an idea of the magnitude of the works carried out 

 by the Corporation direct, and not by contract. 

 213,000 cubic yards of P.C. concrete. 

 750,000 cubic yards of sand filling. 

 25,000 tons of basalt stone. 

 192,000 square yards of asphalt and flagging. 



It will be seen from the cross sections, which show the level of the foreshore 

 at the time of construction, and the level at the present time, that accretion 

 is taking place at the southern end of the borough, and erosion is taking place 

 at the northern end of the borough. 



Accretion is slowly but surely extending northwards, and is due, in the 

 author's opinion, to the dredging operations taking place in the Mersey and 

 the Ribble, particularly the Ribble, where great alterations in the estuary have 

 been carried out during the last 35 years. The dredgings (chiefly sand) are 

 carried in suspension during the flood tide, and deposited on the foreshore at 

 Blackpool. From the Victoria Pier to opposite Central Beach, a distance of 

 2,800 yards, the accretion averages 5 feet, and extends to low-water mark of 

 neap tides : from this point to opposite Princess Parade, a distance of 700 yards, 

 the accretion averages 2 feet, and even further north, for a distance of some 700 

 yards, the accretion averages about 6 inches. 



All this accumulation of clean, golden sand, has taken place since the com- 

 mencement of the works in the spring of 1902. The author wishes to point 

 out that 750,000 cubic yards of filling required in the construction of the work 

 was got chiefly from the foreshore at the southern or Victoria Pier end of the 

 works. 



Sea Wall from Old Borough Boundary to Arundel Avenue. 



One of the most bracing and enjoyable seaside walks at Blackpool is over 

 the cliffs to Norbreck and Cleveleys in a northerly direction. These cliffs 

 rise to a height of 100 feet above Ordnance Datum. 



The geological formation is, generally speaking, the lower boulder clay, 

 attaining in some places an elevation of 50 feet above Ordnance Datum, and 

 in two cases dipping down at a steep incline to 40 feet below O.D. (see 

 longitudinal section, Fig. No. 8). Overlaying the boulder is a bed of sharp 

 sand, containing deep veins of gravel, and averaging 40 feet in depth, which, 

 again, is covered with the upper boulder clay, about 10 feet in depth. 



Prior to the commencement of these works in 1917, the erosion of these 

 cliffs had been at the rate of 2 yards per year during the preceding 30 years. 

 Chiefly in order to preserve them from further erosion (the cliffs have always 

 been considered as greatly adding to the amenities of the county borough), 



