A SECTION OF THE CLIFFS NEAR NEWBIGGIN 6 1 



A Section of the Cliffs near Newbiggin-by-the-Sea, in which 

 is exposed a Gravel Bed containing Chalk Flints. 



By R. G. A. Bullerwell, M.Sc. 



In the cliffs to the south of Newbiggin-by-the-Sea, and 

 about 450 yards from the mouth of the river Wansbeck, is 

 exposed an accumulation of coarse gravel occupying a 

 position between the Coal Measure sandstone and the 

 Boulder Clay, and abutting against an ancient cliff running 

 normal to the present sea front. 



The gravel deposit is 480 feet long, diminishing in thickness 

 as it is traced from north to south. At its northern extremity 

 it constitutes nearly the entire section of the cliff, which is 

 here 22 feet high, the visible gravel being 18 feet thick. Its 

 base is hidden beneath the gravel and sand of the present 

 beach, while it is covered above only by a few feet of boulder 

 clay. Southward the gravel thins out, and is seen resting 

 upon the dipping surface of the sandstone, and covered by a 

 thicker deposit of boulder clay ; until at a distance of 470 feet 

 from the old cliff it is only one foot thick and 1 1 feet above 

 the beach. No means exist for determining the extent of the 

 gravel bed inland, no deposit of a precisely similar nature 

 having been observed in the neighbourhood. 



From Newbiggin Bay southward the rocks form hard 

 precipitous cliffs in which two thin beds of coal are exposed. 

 The sandstone has in places been quarried for building 

 purposes. Below the point marked " Hawk's Cliff" on the 

 ordnance map the rocks are softer, and consequently have 

 been more readily affected by the abrasive action of the tide 

 and atmosphere ; so much so that in contact with the gravel 

 bed the precise structure of the cliff can be noted only after a 

 specially high tide, when the debris of crushed sandstone and 

 broken shale has been cleared away. The rocks are gently 

 folded and present a series of anticlines and synclines. The 



