The Channel formed as we know it about 9, — 8, years ago and Britain was separated from European mainland. Marine activity swirled away the chalky muds of the channel area and left the flint debris behind. Currents and wave activity gradually rounded the flints into sub-angular pebbles. Currents and storm conditions drove some of this ashore as a fringe to wave activity, leaving a large quantity in the deep channel.
It does not move either side of high water. It all ends up at Dungeness eventually. There is a worrying finding by Sussex University geographers which has become apparent recently, and that is the fact that the shingle is a decreasing resource and that rising sea levels on the south coast, linked to increased storm activity, and dwindling shingle, means a bleak time ahead for coastal dwellers. Geoffrey Mead, sent to website mailing-list, At last! I have always thought that the pebbles were the result of erosion caused my nature, even as a boy.
Some people think that they were put there by man but can you just imagine the man power and machinery needed for such a task! The pebbles stretch a long way out into the water and provide a solid shield from the limestone mud.
They may not be quite as comfortable as sand on a beach, but Brighton Beach is still very popular with holidaymakers in the summer. Brighton Beach is one of the countries longest and the shingle section runs for an unbroken apart from the groyne divisions 5. You can find both brick-walled chalets and timber beach huts running along much of the length of Brighton Beach.
If you really want to see sand, you should head to the area which is east of the Palace Pier. When the tide is low, you can see some sandy flats quite clearly when as the water flows out. One of the big attractions on the beach is a sporting complex, which is dedicated to beach sports, and if you enjoy volleyball or ultimate frisbee, that might be the best place to spend your time in Brighton.
The section of the beach known as Cliff Beach is for naturists and clothes are strictly optional in this area. So, we threw the question open to the voters on Tripadvisor to make our decision for us and they said, Weymouth Beach in Weymouth Dorset.
That beach offers 3 miles of soft sand fronting a very traditional British seaside town. Managed by the National Trust , there are various events that take place on the beach. Or, if you prefer to discover things by yourself, you can always hunt for fossils alone in the chalk falls on the beach, or scour the rock pools for fish, anemones and even the fierce velvet swimming crab.
Image Credit: Leanne Phillips via Flickr. Why not check out the historic buildings along the beach front, including a Norman Church, the year-old Moot Hall and a converted windmill! Query Are the pebbles a natural phenomenon, or were they put there to stop erosion?
If so, when, and where did they come from? Response 1 Pebbles are moved along the South Coast by longshore drift. This combination of prevailing wind and tidal current moves material from West to East.
Whenever there is a cliff fall the chalk gets washed away and the embedded flint, being much harder rolls around the sea floor getting rounded. Sometimes the flints get trapped in sand or clay for a few thousand years. In this case the pebbles are stained brown on the outside. Pebbles that have been trapped in chalk get stained white. Blue grey flints have not been stained at all and are prized by the pottery industry as they can be crushed and used as a glaze.
Baskets of these were often collected for sale by poor people in the 19th century. Thus it can be seen that pebble movement can be entirely natural and can protect the coastline from further erosion. Where man has interfered with the natural processes by building Newhaven Harbour arm or Brighton Marina pebbles have to be transported to depleted beaches as at Seaford in order to restore the protection to the coastline.
Tricker questions to answer are how the flint got into the chalk in the first place, and how the chalk is formed. See more information on my web sites:. There is also a local booklet by Dr Malcolm Cornwall about pebbles on the beach, probably published by the University of Brighton. Response 4 I believe that originally the beaches at Brighton were sandy.
I have seen several old prints which show this. According to my history lessons at school in Brighton some years ago now much of the sand was removed for use in building to mix with cement before there was any regulation of this sort of extraction of natural resources.
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