Dover Beach
- 2 April 2010 20:0445740When it is said that Dover shouldn't lose any beach with the developments, before the 'Admiralty Harbour' there wasn't much beach at the Clock Tower end.....
Been nice knowing you :) - 2 April 2010 20:1545746Strange to think that that magnificent granite wall is still there beneath the shingle.
Does anyone remember when the hoverport was built behind the Prince of wales pier. The sand was dredged from the goodwins and a lot was pumped onto the beach near the clock tower. Metal detectarists had a field day looking for coins and artifacts. - 2 April 2010 20:1645748So further enclosure protects the beach Paul?
Watty - 2 April 2010 20:2845759Seems that way. Would imagine that with a bit of replenishment it will stay for a lot longer.
It is an impressive wall along there
Been nice knowing you :) - 4 April 2010 05:0745916Don't panic. Scotchie's photo shows what the beach looked like when the tide was in! This photo, taken in 1895, shows what it looked like when the tide was out.
The grey stipple on this chart of 1897 shows the area of beach between the Low Water mark of ordinary tides and the High Water mark of ordinary tides. It also depicts the groynes seen in the photos which trapped the sand and shingle and helped to prevent it moving inexorably eastward along the coast as a result of longshore drift, and serve a similar purpose today in retaining the material in the modified flows now encountered.
At this time, the beach was open to the sea and consequently constantly replenished. The encircling breakwaters of the Admiralty Harbour were built between 1898 and 1909 and the hydrodynamic regime thereupon changed forever.
The tides ebbing and flowing outside the breakwaters cause jetstreams to enter through the Eastern and Western Entrances which create powerful circulatory currents within the harbour. These, allied with the effect of wind and waves during storms, are responsible for the manner in which the beach is maintained today.
The effect of the currents is modified by the ever-changing structure within the harbour. Each new berth constructed alters the current flows, as does the dredging performed to give adequate depth of water for shipping using the harbour. The WW1 blockship by the Western Entrance has been retained as it influences the wave climate in the Eastern Docks.
Variable accretion and depletion has occurred at different times and in different sections of the beach due to these manmade structures. As for the future, DHB commissioned H.R. Wallingford to model the characteristics in their test tanks of the proposed Terminal 2 and the new marina. The principal consideration was, of course, to determine the most effective design for facilitating ferry movements but one of the parameters they were invited to evaluate was whether there would be any potential degradation of the beach. - 4 April 2010 06:5045922Thanks fro that Ed. as usual very interesting.
Roger - 4 April 2010 08:5345938Totally fascinating - thank you
Just last week vistors from Johannesberg came to Dover. They'd contacted the DWMP for help and advice a couple of weeks previoulsy. One of the things they wanted to do was read aloud Matthew Arnold's poem "Dover Beach" standing actually on the beach.
I'm very pleased to say they did this, as well as visiting the graves they wanted to see.
As always, grateful thanks to Joyce Banks and Brian.! The visitors couldn't locate the graves they wanted and 'phoned us again. We contacted Joyce and Brian, and at a moment's notice they went to help the visitors - all in the rain too!The Dover War Memorial Project
www.doverwarmemorialproject.org.uk - 4 April 2010 09:2445943Good to hear Maggie - thank you.
Roger - 4 April 2010 17:4445978Thanks Maggie, and belated thanks to you and Simon for sending me the photos of U9 in Dover, the one of her on the beach which we are discussing is reproduced below.
For the benefit of others, this was the most notoriously successful U-boat of WW1. Under the command of Otto Weddigen, she sank three obsolete armoured cruisers of the "Live Bait" squadron in the Broad Fourteens in the space of one hour: HMS Aboukir, Cressy and Hogue. She later sank another cruiser, HMS Hawke, and assorted merchantmen. U-9 is shown on Dover beach in 1919 with the Promenade Pier in the background. She was being towed from Harwich to Morecambe Bay for scrapping but went aground for a month enroute and was towed into Dover in sinking condition for repairs. She sank in the harbour and was raised and beached in front of Waterloo Mansions, eventually being repaired in the Camber. Those evil torpedo tubes in the photo accounted for the deaths of 1459 men of the Live Bait squadron alone.
High res image at: http://shipsintheportofdover.fotopic.net/p53328414.html
Here is "Dover Beach" by Matthew Arnold, taken from the superb little booklet "Kingdom's Key" compiled by Christine Waterman when she was curator of Dover Museum.
High res image at: http://shipsintheportofdover.fotopic.net/p64057327.html - 4 April 2010 20:5846047There were quite a few people from Dover, and Deal, and along the coast, who lost their lives in the "Live Bait" squadron. My own great great uncle was one of them, Harry Crascall, named on our memorial.
We have some stories from survivors of the "Live Bait" squadron on the DWMP website -
http://www.doverwarmemorialproject.org.uk/Information/Articles/Incidents/Live%20Bait.htm and
http://www.doverwarmemorialproject.org.uk/Information/Articles/Incidents/Survive%20Live%20Bait.htm
I often wonder what people from Dover must have thought, seeing U9 on the beach, and knowing that this was the submarine that had killed their loved ones. I wonder if members of my own family went down to look at it.....The Dover War Memorial Project
www.doverwarmemorialproject.org.uk - 5 April 2010 07:0046078Thanks Maggie.
A sad story from long ago.
Roger
