Value State 1 - actively eroding sea cliffs

In this state there is little or no nature conservation value. Rapidly eroding cliffs can cause substantial loss of land. On the Holderness coast, for example, 26 villages listed in the Domesday Survey of 1086 have been lost (Steers 1964). More recent landslips have attached considerable press attention, see Picture below:

Caption: The loss of this cliff top hotel was a major news item for several days in 1996.

However despite these losses and the resulting desire to protect them from erosion they have values, which are need to be considered when assessing protection policy, namely:

1. They provide sedimentary material for deposition elsewhere along the coast and opportunities for new coastal habitats such as beaches, precursors to sand dunes and shingle or even saltmarshes;
2. Active geomorphological systems provide opportunities for geological study;
3. Exposure of fossil bearing shales (e.g. as at Whitby, North Yorkshire or Lyme Regis in south Devon);
4. Some of these areas also have landscape and cultural significance. The history of Dunwich on the coast of Suffolk provides important historical interest in the context of understanding the role coastal erosion plays when extensive (over the long-term) losses occur.