The Geography Department
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The Geography Department |
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Cudmore Grove Country Park 29th August 2001
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The western end of the Cudmore Grove site comprises low cliffs, believed to be 300,000 year old river gravels from when the Thames route flowed into the North Sea further north. Animal bones, including monkey and hippopotamus have been found following coastal erosion.
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Rectangular enclosures have been created by a fences of wooden stakes, filled with brushwood. The 'polders' , dating from 1989, were intended to trap sediment and build up the mudflats .. to protect the cliffs. These tufts of grass, next to the shore, are all of what remains of the build-up. Shore-line ridges can be seen in the foreground.
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The low cliffs are undermined and retreat takes place, marked by a succession of fallen trees on the beach.
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As above, but more dramatic!
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Cliff failure on to the beach, with a thin line of tree on the cliff top. Behind the cliffs lie an extensive area of open space, popular for picnics, games and kite-flying.
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Remains of World War 2 gun emplacements litter the beach.
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The sea wall at the concrete ramp has been refaced with asphalt, sealing and replacing the concrete block defences.
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Looking up-Sun to the low cliffs, concrete ramp and fences enclosing the polders. The narrow beach faces south, and is a popular family destination.
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Towards the Colne Estuary. Here are a pair of information boards, footpath signs and a life belt. Footpath routes go up and down the coast, along the drainage channel by the grazing marsh, and back to the car park.
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A view of the Colne Estuary and the beach beyond a new sea defence. This low, asphalt-clad structure, resembles a recurved spit, and is designed to build up shingle to protect the end of the sea wall. Retaining the existing salt marshes is a problem all along this coast. A low cliff can be seen a few metres to the right of the grass, centre middle distance, this is the eroded edge of the old salt marshes which once extended well beyond the sea wall.
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The surfaced pathway on the flood embankment out to the spit and Brightlingsea beyond. On the left of the photograph is the grazing marsh, well below the level of the defensive bank and close to, if not below, sea level.
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Tide lines on a beach of broken shells. Brightlingsea is in the background, across the Colne Estuary. The low cliff formed as the old salt marsh is destroyed shows up clearly. The marsh would have been a good first defence in front of the embankment. The shingle in the foreground appears to be rolling further over the vegetation along the backshore - rising sea level?
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Salt marshes between the defensive bank, the sea wall, and the beach. There are well-defined channels and areas of clear water amidst the vegetation.
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At the point of the spit the tide lines on the beach are clear, as is the shelly nature of the beach deposits, suggesting the area lacks a supply of beach-forming sediment.
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Across the Colne estuary, with the E. Mersea spit in the foreground, is a Martello Tower at Point Clear
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Channels in the mudflats beyond the salt marshes on the Colne Estuary. There seems to be more accretion here, but this area is still covered every tide, and lacks plant colonisation. The wood is a old ship.
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