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Birling Gap



GoldWithFalmer

GoldWithFalmer

Seaweed! Seaweed!
Apr 24, 2011
12,687
SouthCoast
Anybody been lately?
Amazing what can happen in 100 odd years..

article-2599560-1CECD3C200000578-884_964x494.jpg
picture dates around 1906

la-0319-pin04.jpg
March 2014-note the cottage closest to the cliff edge has now been dismantled on safety grounds

Apparently the cottages date from 1800 to 1820 and were the second set in the area,as an earlier set of 5 (i am still trying to find evidence of this) were abandoned in the early 18th century...

I find the area fascinating and it just goes to show the power of nature..
 






Leekbrookgull

Leekbrookgull

Well-known member
Jul 14, 2005
16,249
Leek
Is there a connection between the houses and the Lighthouse ? Having visited a few Lighthouses the 'build' for staff looks familiar ?
 




GoldWithFalmer

GoldWithFalmer

Seaweed! Seaweed!
Apr 24, 2011
12,687
SouthCoast
Leekbrookgull said:
Is there a connection between the houses and the Lighthouse ? Having visited a few Lighthouses the 'build' for staff looks familiar ?
Click to expand...

Think your right,although some may vary region to region in terms of build material many followed a variation on a theme
 






GoldWithFalmer

GoldWithFalmer

Seaweed! Seaweed!
Apr 24, 2011
12,687
SouthCoast


GoldWithFalmer

GoldWithFalmer

Seaweed! Seaweed!
Apr 24, 2011
12,687
SouthCoast
Barrel of Fun said:
Relatives live in one of those cottages. For how much longer, I do not know.

Is it 5 years worth of erosion in two months?
Click to expand...

It's been a lot and could quite easily be more than that.

When i was out there last week there was movement in a cottage a light was on in another despite the power being cut to them in 1994 (i think i read somewhere) and even a sky dish....

It's all a shame really,and when the time comes i'd like a lighthouse build on the site of the cottages or a floating buoy or something to commemorate the hamlet for future generations to see where the village once stood.
 




Barrel of Fun

Barrel of Fun

Abort, retry, fail
Aug 22, 2005
52,833
Sūþsēaxe: The Land of the South Saxons
My brother-in-law runs the show down there, so I should really know. I expect he got a little tired of repeating the same things on each and every tv station that hot footed it down there.

I'll be sad when they move on/out. Such a great place to live.
 


Theatre of Trees

Theatre of Trees

Well-known member
Jul 5, 2003
7,718
TQ2905
Leekbrookgull said:
Is there a connection between the houses and the Lighthouse ? Having visited a few Lighthouses the 'build' for staff looks familiar ?
Click to expand...

No there is not. The coastguard were originally founded to prevent smuggling and a number of cottages were built at places, often away from centres of population, where smugglers would land their goods. Many of the cottages date from around the turn of the 19th century and a good many survive though some have been lost.

1. A set at Southwick survive opposite the power station but are hidden by another terrace of more modern housing.
2. Hove had a row roughly where the King Alfred car park is today guarding the mouth of the River Adur before the current mouth near Kingston was cut around 1818.
3. Those at Saltdean were demolished in the 1930s where Teynham House now stands.
4. Telscombe's row still survive opposite the Badger's Watch - it guarded Portobello Gap.
5. Cuckmere Haven's still survive.
6. Crowlink's set in the middle of the Seven Sisters fell into the sea during the 1930s, an embankment is all that survives. Crowlink Gap's access to the sea eroded away in the 19th century whilst the valley leading up to Crowlink and Friston is still called Smuggler's Bottom.
7. Birling Gap's set originate from the first part of the 19th century and were rebuilt in the 1880s.
 








Leekbrookgull

Leekbrookgull

Well-known member
Jul 14, 2005
16,249
Leek
Theatre of Trees said:
No there is not. The coastguard were originally founded to prevent smuggling and a number of cottages were built at places, often away from centres of population, where smugglers would land their goods. Many of the cottages date from around the turn of the 19th century and a good many survive though some have been lost.

1. A set at Southwick survive opposite the power station but are hidden by another terrace of more modern housing.
2. Hove had a row roughly where the King Alfred car park is today guarding the mouth of the River Adur before the current mouth near Kingston was cut around 1818.
3. Those at Saltdean were demolished in the 1930s where Teynham House now stands.
4. Telscombe's row still survive opposite the Badger's Watch - it guarded Portobello Gap.
5. Cuckmere Haven's still survive.
6. Crowlink's set in the middle of the Seven Sisters fell into the sea during the 1930s, an embankment is all that survives. Crowlink Gap's access to the sea eroded away in the 19th century whilst the valley leading up to Crowlink and Friston is still called Smuggler's Bottom.
7. Birling Gap's set originate from the first part of the 19th century and were rebuilt in the 1880s.
Click to expand...

Thanks,for the information. However anything built by Trinity House just looks 'rock solid' just like their Lighthouse's.
 


S

Shropshire Seagull

Well-known member
Nov 5, 2004
8,496
Telford
Justifies the investment of the undercliff walk from Blackrock to Saltdean.
Imagine if that had receded 100 meters in the last 100 years.

When was it first built?
 




Theatre of Trees

Theatre of Trees

Well-known member
Jul 5, 2003
7,718
TQ2905
Shropshire Seagull said:
Justifies the investment of the undercliff walk from Blackrock to Saltdean.
Imagine if that had receded 100 meters in the last 100 years.

When was it first built?
Click to expand...

1930s. Prior to that erosion had become so bad around what is now the Marina that the coast route was diverted up Arundel Road and along Roedean Road. See http://regencysociety-jamesgray.com/volume33/ for pictures of both Marine Drive and the Undercliff Walk being built along with a few buildings that disappeared.
 














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