Slip sliding away

The cliffs at Hordle are moving so fast that you can almost hear them moving, in fact frequently you can actually hear and see them moving, as randomly a section of the upper gravels cascade towards the sea, like pennies falling from the 'push the penny' arcade game.  Whilst the cliff base bulges as the viscus layers of ancient marine clays slump into the waves under the weight above them. They've had to move the fence line back a few meters for a new path, as the path has disappeared in some sections. I reckon up to 1.5m to 2m has gone down in the last couple of years. I've seen whole archaeological features disappear in my time walking this path, just beyond this point only one of the many gun platforms which made up a gunnery school range remains in situ, and that only tentatively. The majority of the platforms a strewn across the cliff side or disappearing into the sea. A little way further again there was a line of World War 2 ATO's, Anti Tank Obstacles blocking Taddford Gap, a short valley which accesses the beach, have, all but for a couple displaced in the intertidal, gone. There's nothing to be done. Back a ways major coastal protection works have succumbed to natures desire for change, and even as they're replaced, you know it's an exercise in desperate Cnutism. You wont win again nature, and that's humanities biggest mistake, trying to flout nature rather than working with her. 

Hengistbury Head

Out of sight, out of mind, maybe. Though nature and time ensure that burying our past doesn't mean it's gone for good. Along the seaward face of Hengistbury Head, structures of our Second World War past continue to erode into the present. The Hengistbury headland was heavily utilized and fortified during the war years, and of course post war many of the associated feature were removed, or as I allude to, buried, whilst others, notably infrastructure elements such as the concrete and brick conduits which carried communication and power cables, already invisible underground, remained where they were. Many of the sturdier structures, Anti Tank Obstacles (ATO's), Pillboxes and Gun Emplacements were broken up and buried or used as hardcore. In the cliff face, just as the headland rises, some elements of those broken and buried structures are being exposed by erosion. The photo shows what I believe to be a destroyed Artillery Pillbox with some heavily corroded and concreted ironwork, whether associated with the pillbox or not, I'm not sure. I say an Artillery Pillbox as the embrasure (the aperture to fire through) is too substantial for small arms, offering a broad arc of fire; such a large embrasure would have left men inside with just rifles or light machine guns too exposed. It amazes me how clean and well preserved (except for the intentional damage) these structures can be, just look at the concrete, it looks recent, not 70 odd years old; and these structures were thrown up in haste too, with often not the best materials. As the cliff erodes I'll see if any more diagnostic features emerge. I also had a look at the surrounding fill for any smaller artefacts, though none revealed themselves. A walk that stimulates the mind as well as the body is twice the walk. Nice.

War torn or just forlorn

Slighted, though for the most part not in war; much of the World War Two archaeology on Goldlingston Heath and the Studland peninsula were just left forlorn, and have fallen to the ravages of time, a different battle in an endless war. A lot of the areas wartime sites were war torn, it's true, though not by an enemy, but by the allies; the Studland peninsula was an off limits secret training and weapons testing area. The beaches saw rolling artillery and rocket barrages from landing craft, the development and testing of 'Hobarts Funnies', and all manner of other preparations for defence and the D-Day invasion, culminating in live fire exercises watched by massed allied commanders. From the invasion fears period of 1940, right through to the end of the war, Studland saw military activity, in fact, it was so heavily used that it wasn't until the 1960's that areas of the beaches and dunes were cleared of ordinance and re-opened to the public. Some years back I had to call the rangers to contact Bomb Disposal after discovering a live wartime rocket protruding at 45 degrees amongst the dunes. The above sites; the remaining section of a line of Anti Tank Obstacles (ATO's)  at Bramble Bush Bay and a Type 25 Pillbox beneath Redend Point survived the war years intact, and haven't done too badly since, though the rigours of time are beginning to show, and the cracks are beginning to appear. I first saw these sites in the 70's and have witnessed their decline first hand. Over the years the ATO's have become undercut and are toppling, and as for the Pillbox, I remember when it was still well up the cliff side, rather than in the intertidal.  I suppose it's quite a wonder that they endure at all, after all most of the Studland peninsulas wartime sites, as with military buildings throughout the country at the time, were constructed in haste and with diminishing resources. 15 years ago I spent a lot of time recording the wartime sites on Goldlingston Heath and the Studland peninsula, I feel it may be time for a review of them.

We'd have fought them on the beaches

Churchill said we'd fight them on the beaches, though would we have stopped them? Would we have won?  On the beaches, no. In the longer campaign, apparently, yes. In the 1970's 'Operation Sea Lion', the 1940 German invasion plan was war-gamed by 30 British and German military experts and was umpired by three military commanders (air, land, sea) from each country. Initially, the Germans broke through the coastal defences and pushed 10 miles inland establishing a beachhead, though the forces that made it ashore became overstretched and lacked supplies, and as the Luftwaffe couldn't dominate the skies, so Royal Navy was able to successfully stop any German re-enforcements or supplies reaching the beleaguered forces. The game started on September 19th 1940 and by the 28th of September 1940 the remaining German forces either escaped back to France or surrendered and were imprisoned, the umpires unanimously declared the German invasion a failure. Like many other beaches, Kimmeridge was hastily defended in 1940, of those defences 2 type 25 pillboxes and 2 lines of 'Dragons Teeth' anti tack obstacles remain. The ATO's and pillbox in the 2nd and 3rd photos have recently been cleared of invasive growth, whereas the other end of that ATO line have almost disappeared under natures blanket.  Even though many of these wartime defences have been removed from the archaeological record, you'd be surprised at how many remain hidden and forgotten, a testament to the extent of the defences thrown up in 1940.