The Geography Department
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The Geography Department |
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Highcliffe, Naish Farm and Barton-on-Sea October 2001
Dr Ian West's Geology field pages on Highcliffe, Naish Farm and Barton
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Highcliffe and Naish Farm Estate on multimap
21 October 2001
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The boundary between defended and natural sections of this part of the Hampshire coast is marked by a pair of groynes, either side of the outlet of Chewton Bunny. |
The clays and gravel mix as they slide into the beach zone, a mixture termed 'colluvium'. The scale of the slippage is evident from the human scale object.
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Groyne H12 marks the boundary between the Borough of Christchurch and New Forest District Council, who preside over the wasteland in centre shot. |
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The undercliff roadway is quite wide, enough for heavy diggers at least, and is used to facilitate maintenance on the rock armour of the groynes and beach material between them. |
A large car park provides good accommodation for fieldworkers wishing to visit this site. there is a toilet and observation pavilion, and ice creams in season. Access is via the traffic lights in central Highcliffe, opposite G&T's! |
A rock groyne, H12, below the car park. The width of the undercliff is evident.
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A luxury house, with an unpleasantly short garden to the cliff top, here reinforced around a drainage works, and concrete pipework. |
More exclusive dwellings, adding weight to the defended coast argument. Such properties will contribute highly to the cost-benefit analysis equation. |
The drainage channels on the
lower part of the cliff at Highcliffe. |
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The managed slopes, drainage works, and rock groyne system at Highcliffe. |
Beach material at the top of the beach.
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Cusps have developed in the short embayments between rock groynes. |
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Diggers resting over the weekend, parked defensively. Behind lies the Isle of Wight and The Needles. |
Rip rap, machinery, drainage
channels and cliff top houses .. from the bottom. |
The undercliff road, essential for regular maintenance of rock groynes and shingle beaches alike. |
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Naish Farm Estate
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Naish Farm Holiday Estate lies between the protected zones of Highcliffe and Barton-on-Sea. the cliff is a SSSI, a site of special scientific interest, largely to geologists, as the eroding coastline is constantly generating fresh exposures. |
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From the western edge of the
holiday park, the awful gash of chaotic cliff falls, liberally saturated by
recent rain, stretches towards Barton. |
Towards the sea's edge the
slides continue; I think I detect a shear plane in this shot! |
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Towards the west and Highcliffe, the terminal rock groynes of the defences give way to the receding Naish Farm coast.
3 October 2001
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A close up of the groynes from
the cliff top in Naish Farm. |
The holiday chalets are visible
here, as are pipes leading to the abyss. Clearly the value of such assets
are not accorded the value of luxury homes, although they probably bring in
more cash to the area in general! |
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An abandoned service road in
Naish Farm.
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A close-up of the waters ponded on the debris flow.
23 October 2001
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Rotational slumps nearing the
eastern edge of Naish Farm.
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A series of slumps in Naish
Farm, looking towards Highcliffe.
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Two chalets have been abandoned
to their fate, and are boarded up. the nearest chalet has 1 metre of
clearance left. In the clefts below lie a pair of picnic tables .. just out
of shot. |
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Barton Cliffs
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The boundary of Naish Farm runs
along the cliff top here, but the recent slumping appears quite as regular
as further west. |
The end of the middle level
roadway on Barton Cliffs, just below the public toilets above. |
Displaced sheet metal piling and
the surface water build up reveals the cause as well as the extent of the
slippages here. |
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A drainage ditch , probably
constructed to remove liquid from this area, which has seen considerable
slumping. |
A roadway has collapsed completely at his point, and slithered off down the hill. Note the crevasses in the road surface itself.
23 October 2001 |
A zoom in on the last shot will
reveal sheet metal piling which has been swept down slope, impotent to
restrain the slumping. |
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The roadway from the
western-most access road.
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Over the fence and a close up of
the distorted piling. The drainage ditch is visible here, too. The materials
moved underfoot!. |
Order from chaos in this essay
in rock construction. The Barton groynes start to restore stability to the
coast further east.
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A rocky coast, with rip rap in
the bays and rock groynes separating them!
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More rock, under pressure from
choppy seas. Behind the undercliff road are stone blocks, a graded and
drained slope, another track and then the cliff. |
A newly-graded slope is probably
in response to a recent slump, evidence for which lies in the foreground.
the Barton shopping parade marks the horizon.
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Rip rap along the coastline, being attacked by a choppy sea with the wind from the south-west. Looking east.
23 October 2001
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The parade of shops at the seafront in Barton, seen from the undercliff track. The variety of textures and land cover, is dominated by defence works, before a relatively low free face of cliff. Even so the buildings' future must be suspect.
23 October 2001 |
Looking south over the rip rap from a mini rock groyne. An old wooden groyne still hangs on.
23 October 2001 |
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The greensward east of the shops at the front in Barton. To the left of this shot is the Beachcomber Cafe, a repository of refreshments and also a display of Barton's history of erosion, by the New Forest District Council. An ideal place to take stock of the coast and replenish one's fortitude!
23 October 3001
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