Walton


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Walton- on-the-Naze July 30 2001		Walton-on-the-Naze 1998 Walton-on-the-Naze July 30 2001 Walton-on-the-Naze September 22 2001 Walton-on-the-Naze January 1 2002 Walton-on-the-Naze February 15 2002 Walton-on-the-Naze May 26 2002 Walton-on-the-Naze November 16 2002 Walton-on-the-Naze January 6 2003 Walton-on-the-Naze October 30 2003 Walton-on-the-Naze January 18 2004 Walton-on-the-Naze June 5 2004 Naze Tower Walton-on-the-Naze June 5 2004 Walton-on-the-Naze November 3 2004 Walton-on-the-Naze February 2005 Walton-on-the-Naze May 29 2005 Walton-on-the-Naze July 2005 Walton-on-the-Naze November 2005 Walton-on-the-Naze February 2006 Walton-on-the-Naze September 2006 Walton-on-the-Naze February 2007 Walton-on-the-Naze May 2007
*'Save the Naze for Future Days '* links to local groups fighting to save the coastline at Walton Saving the Naze - slogan above - the news and a full set of links! The Naze Protection Society - seagull logo above! - very good on erosion history. NAZE NEWS Digest of stories - past and present - including new revetment plan!
These photographs were taken from 10.am to 11.am in very dry conditions, indeed in a heatwave, on July 30 2001. They represent a walk to the Naze and a photo shoot along the cliff top and its base.
The protected coast - by the Mabel Greville breakwater

The approach to the Mabel Greville breakwater is a steep concrete zig-zag, or steps. Beach huts dominate the area in the manner of limpets covering rocks!	The view south, to the town and an increasingly managed shoreline. Beach huts sit of drained and graded grassed slopes, with concrete bases, a roadway, and sea wall.			New and well-appointed toilets, at centre-left, demonstrate the managed, and valued, nature of this stretch of shore. The focus of tourism is the beach, and usage of the beach huts can be very high.
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Along the bottom of the protected cliff

To the north of Mabel Greville, the shore has multiple groynes, behind which a sea wall of heavy concrete blocks, faces a slope that has extensive drainage works in it.	The vegetated slopes look natural, but their drainage and grading are based on sound slope-control techniques!			The build-up on beach materials in the groyne cells is striking here, as we come up the northernmost groyne, the A-frame. Longshore drift here is northwards; 100 metres south it is southwards.
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Drainage pipes stain the concrete facing with seepage, and green algae.	The heavy concrete blocks have been moved by heavy seas, and in places have been stuck in place crudely with bitumen.			New sea defences have been emplaced in the last two years to defend the A-frame breakwater. In front of the sea wall are heavy boulders - rip rap - from which one lady had to be airlifted out after getting her leg trapped by shifting boulders.
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The extension to the defences have a footpath to the beach, but this is often unusable as the beach has dropped a metre or so.	Access to the shore is via a set of steep steps and concrete pathways. These will soon be threatened by erosion, but in the meantime provide a good marker for the coast's retreat.			The first embayment of the natural cliffs appears to be unaffected by the new protection measures, here seen behind its rip rap defences.
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The unprotected cliff - from the steps and then along the top of the Naze

From the edge of the protected coast towards the north. the two pillboxes are fine markers for features which sat behind the cliff top in 1940. Slumping is evident, even through the vegetation of a July day.	Although the cliff top has not receded for some time, the vertical face below the cliff has grown greatly, as material is removed from the slump toe by the sea.			A close-up of the free face of the cliff, shows the Naze Tower, the concrete track overhang, the sandy nature of the surface layers .. and what appear to be the nests of Sand Martins!
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An area of cliff collapse, with part of a rotational slump in the foreground.	A close-up of the free face against the background on the pillbox on the beach.			Looking back towards the Naze Tower; the rotational slump has carried off the concrete roadway, a slab of which can be seen perched in the abyss!
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An archive shot, showing the rotational slump, the information pillar, toilets and cafe.	A sheer plane and slumping looking towards the A-frame; the positioning of the rip rap shows well here.			The two pillboxes and vegetated cliff slumping, looking northwards.
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Towards the south; a small rotational slump.	An embayment, complete with slump and an exposure of dry, friable clay which is sliding downhill.			The sands have been fretted by the weather on this headland.
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Across the cliffs, showing the sharp embayments made in the cliff top by recent slips.	A feature that marked the late Spring/early Summer period was a strong stream flowing out below, complete with flood plain! I was told that earlier in the year it had gushed out a metre or so into the air!			The stream has made a lake and thoroughly saturated the flow material in this photograph.
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The Naze Tower and cliff face.	A close up of Tower and cliff top geology.			Clay-covered cliff face.
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The cliffs from the beach at low tide

Concrete tablets on the beach, the mobile outrun from slides.	Wave erosion has created these low cliffs in the slide material.			A new feature, this tablet of concrete has slid on to the beach- a new erosion marker.
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Tower, slumps and beach erosion.	A run-out crosses the beach.			More low cliffs, looking north.
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A view along the beach, looking northwards to Felixstowe; slumping is evident, but so also is marine removal of the debris, seen in the many low cliffs in the debris.	Erosion by the sea is evident at the toe of the slump beneath the Tower embayment.			The rock armour of the A-frame breakwater is already weathering with inter-tidal greenery. The slumping continues unabated.
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Property behind the Naze

This shows the managed slopes of the protected section, the Naze Tower and the expensive properties of the cliff top road.	The entrance to the car park at the Naze, with signs.			The view from the Naze car park towards the west; of substantial properties and, on the left, a glimpse of Hanford Water, with its low-lying landscape and marinas.
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