East Head, Chichester Harbour

[StephenSails]

East Head at high tide today;- http://www.yachtinguniverse.com/index.php?module=photoshare&func=showimages&fid=19

Nice calm high pressure weather and the beautiful sand spit we all know is almost an Island, after walking around East Head today its quite obvious that due to the ongoing neglect it is in real danger of washing away all together, the effects of this would be very bad for Chichester Harbour and everyone who has an interest in it. Chichester Harbour Conservancy are fighting the Government quango English Nature over the matter, English Nature seem to be taking a very negative view on what should happen to East Head. More information on www.Conservancy.co.uk if anybody feels like helping stop this beautiful spot wash away I think a letter to the local MP or English Nature would be a good thing. Also another concerned person has set up a very basic website called www.eastheadrescue.co.uk

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[kds]

So - there's no change there then. I recall the same sort of thing in the early 60's.

But you are right - the end of Chichester harbour as we know it - and it could take just one real storm from the South at a high tide and it would be too late to do anything except whimper.
Ken

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[oldharry]

Not so Ken. 6 months ago, that part of the Hinge was still at least 50m wide, and as recently as a couple of years ago, 2 or 3 times that.

The battle of the hinge has been going on for many years, it is true, but it does seem the obstructionism of English Nature is going to ensure it is lost in the very near future. Probably in the next 3 months unless we get a very quite winter. I was there just a week ago, and in my view the battle is already lost unless something is done before the next major storm on a Spring tide. That would have been about now except we have a calm spell and northerlies.

What the actual effect will be on the harbour is very hard to say, but most experts seem to think it will cause major problems if - or rather when - the sea breaks through in earnest.

On the other hand, I have a copy of an early map, some 200 years ago, which shows sand dunes right across to the Winner bank. So what is happening is nothing new.

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[StephenSails]

Well I have been mucking around on East Head for nearly twenty years and todays walk really opened my eyes to the problem, its not just the hinge that is in danger either, I would say 30-40% of the arm (not sure whether thats the right term) is looking ify and if a semi permanent channel breaks through this will be even worse as we know how strong the tides can be within Chi Harbour. Not having been down to that part of the beach for a few years it is staggering that there has been virtually no sea defences or work on that part of the beach. A few years ago I do not think it would have taken much worj to maintain a good defence but now I reckon its going to be of King Canute proportions if they are going to save it. Just as well I sold my yacht this week hey!

If there is any kind people here I am considering trying to formate a action group of Chichester based sailors, it might even get to the point where we build a few very sand castles (at night with JCB's!)


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[Twister_Ken]

I'm out fo date with Chi, but from memory if it goes it wll provide a direct route from the English Channel to the Itchenor arm?

Any experts given a guess as to what affect that will have on navigation up to Chi Marina, Itchenor reach, etc?

Seems to me like it might turn that arm of the Harbour into something resembling Pagham. Which woud keep the RSPB happy.

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[gjeffery]

Does anyone understand the position of English Nature? They regard the dunes as an important habitat. Is their indifference due to a wish to distance themselves from the cost of remediation, simple interia, or do they see some "benefit", to them, if the hinge is washed out?

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[StephenSails]

Rumour has it that leaving a habitat to do what it does is what English Nature beleive to be the best thing, somebody told me this morning that they are taking this stance under a "European Directive". If this is the case I can see a Euro debate starting up!

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[gjeffery]

see:

http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/coastline/save/coastal_erosion.html

It seems as though the National trust are reluctant to defend East Head.

Perhaps there is insufficient time for a Public Enquiry. How does the Conservancy sit with the National Trust? Are they the superior authority?

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[jamesjermain]

As I understand it English Nature favours the 'let-it-be' approach which means East Head will go before too long. Is this a bad thing?

If the sea breaks through the eastern side of Chichester Harbour a new entrance channel will be formed and, almost cerainly, the west side will silt up and new dunes and sand bars grow. Hayling Island Sailing Club may get a bit isolated and the Chi Harbour Conservancy will have a trying couple of years getting the buoys in the right places but by the time it's all settled down the harbour will be different but probably still a fascinating place to sail.

I have been told that many years ago the main entrance was in the east and the harbour was none the worse for it. Plus ca change. It may even be that a rather nice small craft basin will form in front of HISC for dinghy racing while cruising yachts have a direct channel to Itchenor and Chi Marina - albeit an exposed one.

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[snowleopard]

with a new opening to the sea, the whole of the eastern 2/3 of the harbour will be trying to drain through the new channel which would scour out very quickly. correspondingly the channel alongside HISC with much less flow would probably start to silt up and become no deeper than the emsworth channel. there's a good chance that with slower tidal flows over a wider area some new land may build up in time.

i can't see it having too much impact on the harbour for sailors, different but not necessarily worse apart from the loss of the favourite lunch stop. the areas of moorings will not be exposed any more than now and there will still be channels to sail in.

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[Chris_Robb]

James, I think the worry is that with two entrances, the whole harbour will start silting with the reduced current flow, turning it into another Pagham. Good for the birds but not for boats. May be YM could run an article on this in detail, so that all of us could have a better understanding of the consequenses etc.



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[BrendanS]

This may help?

http://www.conservancy.co.uk/classroom/easthead.htm

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[oldharry]

Trouhble with the whole thing is these committees have been sitting talking about the hinge since before I first sailed in to Chi Harbour (circa 1970).

From what I saw there a week ago, unless the bulldozers move in in the next ten days - thats before the next lot of big tides - they have lost it. The sea has already breached the dunes, and the next big tide with a F6 - 8 behind it will just go through the whole think like a hot knife through butter.

Hate to be a pessimist, but the time for talking about it has gone, like the dunes.



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[Footpad]

The National Trust own East Head and as the land is "inalienable" it would take an act of parliament for the Conservancy to exercise its powers of compulsory purchase. The NT were given 70 acres in the 1960's, East Head is now over 140 acres, its not threatened its just changing - it always has and I hope it always will.

Yes English Nature do want to protect the dunes, dunes are by their very nature dynamic, it is only change and moving sand that keeps Marram Grass alive. If the dunes are stabilised by coastal defences they will cease to be dunes the vegetation will change and with it the character of East Head.

With rising sea levels more water has to pass through the harbour entrance with each tide, its natural response is to grow to accommodate this and the hinge is the narrowest part. What EN and the NT want is to allow the system to respond to sea level change by realigning itself in a sustainable position. Can anyone quote a case where a significant sand spit like East Head has ever disappeared?

One question we ought to be asking is why do the Harbour Conservancy always spray the bar dredgings on the Hayling Island shore and not put them back into the system that feeds East Head from whence they came?


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[oldharry]

<Can anyone quote a case where a significant sand spit like East Head has ever disappeared?>

Yes, in numerous parts f the country, notably on the East Coast, as well as E H itself, where 200 years ago the entrance was very similar to that at LAngstone a few miles down the coast. The Winner Bank, well known to many weekend yachtsmen opposite HISC was at one time an area of heathland and dunes.

Selsey Bill too, 300 years ago extended well beyond the Mixen, and the area inshore of the Mixen, known as 'The Park' , was just that.

This cuts both ways. Arguably, the coastal erosion which has gone on for centuries is a natural process which should be allowed to continue, and to destroy East Head. Or should we be working to preserve for posterity the last remaining vestiges of the sand heath that once covered the Winner?

By the same token surely the continuing developement of the one time sand heath of the eastern end of Hayling should be stopped immediately and the proposed Car Park HISC want to build on the site of the old Treloar Hospital, now just recovering from the removal of the old Hospital buildings.

It seems to me somewhat one sided to fight to preserve what little is left of E Head, while ignoring the desecration of the Western side of the Habour by an entirely avoidable developement.

But then there are no financial and commercial considerations wanting (or thankfully,able) to develop East Head - it would otherwise have gone long since.


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[Footpad]

Yes lots of the East coast has gone but which harbour/river mouth sand and shingle longshore drift spits have gone? What you describe at the winner is the forerunner of East Head, it hasn't gone it has just changed and moved as the coast has retreated, it is now East Head as we know it. I have a map showing the evolution of East Head over the last 170 years its changed a lot but its always been there. I wish I could find a way of posting it here. Apart from that I think we agree on a lot.

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[oldharry]

Most of my knowledge lies on the western Welsh Coast, which abounds with traditions of 'lost' villages etc. like the "Bells of Aberdovey" and the whole legend of the Cantref Y Gwaelod. More recently the Lanbedr and Pensarn yacht Club were deeply involved in rebuilding and replanting the dune spit on which their clubhouse stands, after the sea broke through into the lagoon a couple of years ago. (See their website). The dunes at the entrance to the river Nyfer (Nevern) at Trefdraeth are fast disappearing, and have retreated 100 metres or more since the war, although the associated sand spit of Traeth Mawr had actually grown last time I saw it.

I do not have detailed knowledge of the East Coast, except the generalised history of the 1953 disaster when in places the coast moved in some cases several miles inland, with by UK standards a huge death toll - overnight!

Returning to East Head, I have seen an earlier map of I think the late 1700's which showed an entirely different configuration to the harbour entrance to anything shown on later maps, showing the entrance as a narrow channel very much the same as the Langstone, and an expanse of heathland perhaps 1/2 mile wide, right down to the entrance channel from the hinge. It appears to have largely disappeared in quite a short space of time, less than 30 years!

And I am glad you confirm a hazy memory of my first vist to East Head nearly 40 years ago, that it WAS smaller then.

Nevertheless the breakthrough that has occurred is probably the first breach into Snowhill for many thousands of years - probably since the coastal plain appeared at the end of the last Ice Age, and the fact that it has survived until now is no guarantee whatsoever that it will not be destroyed in the very near future.

And I entirely agree - why does the Harbour Board move their dredgings further along the drift flow, and not put it back where it came from. the answer of course is that they do not want to have to move it more than once! But any beach-wise child knows that if you dig a hole in the sand - more sand will fall in to it. And what of the huge holes the shingle dredgers are digging further out to sea? What is filling them up again?

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[BrendanS]

>>The dunes at the entrance to the river Nyfer (Nevern) at Trefdraeth are fast disappearing, and have retreated 100 metres or more since the war, although the associated sand spit of Traeth Mawr had actually grown last time I saw it. <<

A lovely secret for those of us that know it. My childhood haunt, and some of my family come from there. Village doctor etc, name is well known in those parts. I used to be one of very few on that beach in years gone by, and the sands were golden, now the beach is covered in cars in summer. Are you from those parts?


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[oldharry]

Aha! Yes Brendan, I used the Welsh names (which still do not appear on the AA and OS road maps) to try to keep it secret, although as you rightly say, Bank Hols are becoming the usual nightmare nowadays. No, sadly I do not live there, but many hours of hols pottering around Parrog in a variety of more or (usually) less seaworthy craft in the 50s, and return whenever SWMBO can be persuaded we dont need to go abroad for sun (but it always rains to prove me wrong!)


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[BrendanS]

You can see the bar very clearly here in a pic I took in April this year Tide out.

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