Annex 04: Rye Harbour

Location Rye Harbour Nature Reserve The Shingle Ridges Gravel Extraction Pits Electric Fencing Invasive Plant Species Harrowing Shingle ridge restoration Ecotones Grazing Visitor Management Information Centres Birdwatching Hides Friends of Rye Monitoring Pett Frontage Scheme Pett Levels Lessons Modelling terminal groyne failure References
	1944 Luftwaffe air photo (Copyright US National Archives Record Group No.373)

Site Name: Rye Harbour, Winchelsea and Pett Levels

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Location

The following report deals with three main areas of the south coast of East Sussex between Rye Harbour and Pett Levels. Together they make up part of a major sedimentary system, the beaches of which are dominated by shingle deposits, stretching from Fairlight in the west to Dungeness in the east.

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Rye Harbour Nature Reserve

Introduction

The land lying between Rye, Rye Harbour and Winchelsea Beach was declared an SSSI in 1953. In 1970 84.6 ha of shingle beach, now owned by the Environment Agency, was declared an LNR by the County Council who also appointed a Management Committee. Since that time further land has been added by agreement with local landowners (now 326 ha) and it is hoped that further areas of the SSSI will be added in due course The SSSI is also part of the Pett Level to Dungeness SPA and is being considered for two other international designations (the Pett Level to Dungeness RAMSAR Site and the Dungeness SAC.

The area is of considerable geomorphological interest because of the succession of shingle ridges that traverse it. The shingle ridges are generally much younger than the nearby Dungeness complex as they have been reworked by the sea following severe storms in the 13^th century. These have been accurately dated and were established during known storm events (Lovegrove 1953). Thus, it is possible to put an accurate time-scale to the vegetation succession, from the bare shingle of the current storm crest to the stabilised grasslands of the more terrestrial ridges.

Studies carried out on the invertebrates of the reserve have shown it to be of ‘Outstanding National Importance’ with 2179 species recorded so far including 209 Notable species, 56 RDB species, one species new to Britain and the discovery of a new species.

Full details are available onhttp://www.naturereserve.ryeharbour.org

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The Shingle Ridges

Three types of shingle ridges are recognised at Rye Harbour covering some 325 ha:

1. Natural Unstable Ridges
   On these ridges soil development is limited and only a few specialised plant species can colonise: Crambe maritima, Lathyrus japonicus, Silene uniflora and Rumex crispus. The invertebrate fauna is similarly specialised with the rare flea beetle Dibolia cynoglossi which feeds only on Galeopsis angustifolia. These ridges are the habitat of a spider new to Britain, Neon (levis) pictus and a new species of phorid fly, Megaselia yatesi, that was discovered in 1999 living 50-100cm beneath the surface. These ridges are also the preferred nesting habitat of Little Tern, Ringed Plover and Oystercatcher. As matrix accumulates more species become established including Echium vulgare, Glaucium flavum and Geranium robertianum ssp. maritimum E. maritimum is an important plant for several rare micro-moths: Ethnia bipunctella, E. terminella and Cynaeda dentalis and the weevil Ceutorhynchus geographicus.
2. Natural Stable Ridges
   After several centuries, a thin, ranker soil develops on the older shingle ridges (which may have been grazed in the past) and a variety of grassland species occur including Plantago coronopus, Erodium cicutarium, Spergularia rubra, Hypochaeris glabra and some fifteen species of vetch and clover. Invertebrate species include Girdled and Hairy Legged Mining Bees. Around Camber Castle there are unique ancient ridges that have an extremely specialised grass flora.
3. Damaged Ridges

Figure Rye 01 Beach Ridge near harbour mouth. This area is supplemented by beach feeding and the ridge vegetation suffers considerably from reprofiling activities.

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Gravel Extraction Pits

Where shingle was extracted to a level below the water table important wetlands have developed with a wide range of salinity, giving around 85 ha of open water. Newer margins contain rare beetles: Omophron limbatum, Cercyon bifenestratus and Heterocerus hispidulus , all dependent on the bare substrate at the edge of still, fresh water. This habitat is short lived and small scale reprofiling (away from the remnants of shingle ridges) has created new habitat to maintain the populations of rare species. More mature areas that develop a cover of Typha angustifolia. or Phragmites australis are the habitat of the endangered Medicinal Leech and up to 10 wintering Bittern.

These excavated areas are also attractive to a wide variety of wetland plants and wildfowl throughout the year.

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Electric Fencing

Much of Rye Harbour LNR is protected by approximately 6 km of permanent electric fencing surrounding the site. This has been installed to provide some protection from foxes, badgers dogs and people. Because there are several accesses from public roads and tracks this fencing also protects the geomorphologically significant ridges and their flora from trampling and off-road vehicles. Some 800m of electric fencing are also used for temporary protection of ground nesting little terns on the foreshore.

This fencing has been in place for some years and is now in need of replacement. The Site Manager considers the present lightweight design is not effective enough for the effort involved in its maintenance. The intention is to replace it with a more physical barrier, but with electrical components at the top and bottom - 2km was replaced in February 2003.

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Invasive Plant Species

Several invasive species occur at Rye Harbour which are controlled to varying degrees:

• Ragwort Senecio jacobaea is a notifiable weed that may be increasing at Rye Harbour. It is not controlled as it is a nectar source of invertebrates and the host plant to the cinnabar moth;
• Old Man's Beard Clematis vitalba is also slowly increasing on site as a ground cover plant. No control undertaken yet, but it swamps considerable areas of the French shingle coast;
• Ivy-leaved toadflax Cymballaria mualis is very slowly invading parts of the reserve and in a few places is dominant.

Because some invasive species are thought to be a long-term threat to the present character of the reserve, they are controlled by spot spraying or weed wiping with glyphosate. These are red valerian Centranthus ruber, which is locally dominant on damaged ridges where the shingle matrix is sandy, bramble Rubus fruticosus agg., which encroaches over many of the bare inland areas and sea buckthorn Hippophae rhamnoides, which was deliberately introduced to the adjacent Camber Sand for dune stabilisation, but is now dominating damaged, level areas of shingle.

There is concern that the general development of scrub of elder, gorse and hawthorn will eventually replace the open character of the ridges. A long tern strategy still needs to be agreed. There is also concern that any improvements to the sea defences that reduce flooding will allow these non-specialist species to flourish.

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Management by Harrowing

Damaged shingle ridges at Rye Harbour were found to become more quickly vegetated than undisturbed ridges. This resulted from the presence of more matrix sediment and the closer proximity of the water table. This was seen to be detrimental to those species, especially birds, which prefer bare shingle. Little Tern and Ringed Plover were particularly affected. An initial ‘solution’ was to cultivate with tractor and harrow every 3-4 years to knock back the vegetation. This management was continued through the late 1970s and early 1980s and a micro-ridge system developed - see Figure Rye 02. The disadvantage of this technique was that a cultivated, over-managed appearance resulted and rare vegetation and invertebrates of the damaged ridges were themselves seriously disturbed!

Figure Rye 02 The ‘harrowed’ area of Rye Harbour LNR. This area looks 'cultivated' but was managed in this way to encourage ground-nesting birds in 1970s - 1980s.

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Shingle ridge restoration

Figure Rye 03 Some recent shingle restoration funded by English Nature through the Aggregates Levy Sustainability Fund.

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Significance of Habitat Interfaces - Ecotones

As well as the major significant habitats at Rye Harbour several rare or significant species occur in ecotonal situations which need to be specifically managed with these species in mind:

• Frankenia laevis occurs along a narrow zone at the boundary between saltmarsh and sandy shingle at the line of highest water level. Its distribution is limited to a few suitable sites from Hampshire to Lincolnshire with rare outliers in Devon, Glamorgan and Anglesey;
• Lactuca saligna (Figure Rye 04) occurs on low, sandy shingle near the saltmarsh edge. It is only present in south Essex and East Sussex and has its largest population at this site;
• Chenopodium chenopodioides occurs only around the margins of the saline lagoons. It is limited to a few sites in south east England and the Channel Islands.

Figure Rye 04 Lactuca saligna

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Grazing

Historically the Rye Harbour unstable shingle ridges were managed with some grazing by stock from adjacent pasture but this has not occurred since at least 1977 when the land was turned over to arable. The vegetated shingle inland and around Camber Castle, however has a diversity of grazing regimes, some of which are very intensive. In some areas thistle control is a severe problem and graziers apply herbicide broadly to the vegetation. Where the reserve committee are able to influence management of grazing and herbicide application, the result is significantly richer vegetation. There are not the resources to monitor this problem in detail. The use of an Eco-puller will be trialled in 2003. The winter feeding of sheep and cattle on shingle ridges (because they are drier) severely damages the floristic value (I have a photo of this, but it has declined in recent years) There is also extensive damage being done to shingle ridges at Rye Harbour by burrowing mammals, mostly rabbits, but also badger and fox. It is unclear whether this results in damage, which might be considered as minor or serious? The impact on stable shingle vegetation can be seen in Figure Rye 05.  

Figure Rye 05 Rabbit burrowing and other animal impacts on the vegetation by Rabbit, fox and badger, damage to sandy shingle ridges near Camber Castle.

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Visitor Management

Because Rye Harbour LNR is close to a centre of population and has several access points, it is important that visitor management is taken very seriously. The site has in excess of 150,000 visitors a year. A major problem encountered is damage and disturbance caused by dogs, which are left ‘off-leash’.

Access to the reserve is restricted to footpaths and in order to avoid disturbance to wildlife all visitors are particularly requested not to enter sign-posted ‘Wildlife Sanctuary Areas’ or other fenced areas in the reserve. Although there is a private road through the reserve it is gated and padlocked and a car park is provided at Rye Harbour where there are also toilet facilities.

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Information Centres

The Nature Reserve has an Information Kiosk in the Martello Tower car park at Rye Harbour, which is open daily from April to September and on winter weekends. Here information on the area, its flora and fauna are provided on illuminated displays. Some details are also provided outside the kiosk and at the Lime Kiln Cottage Information Centre on the Reserve, which is opened on most days by volunteers. This centre is still being developed and offers a range of interpretation material including an information ‘Touch Screen’ and video monitor showing video of the reserve and sometimes live video of wildlife. There is another Touch Screen at the Rye Harbour village shop. Descriptive leaflets are available without charge, as are details of three circular walks and four habitat leaflets (shingle, saltmarsh, reedbed and sand dunes).

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Birdwatching Hides

There are four bird watching hides permanently open to the public including the Colin Green Memorial Hide (with wheelchair access) which gives excellent views over the shingle beach. Plans are to replace the oldest hide in December 2003 with one large enough to cater for school groups and with wheelchair access.

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Friends of Rye Harbour Nature Reserve

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Monitoring

In order to monitor the health of the Reserve, the Rye Harbour Nature Reserve Management Committee has set up an historical photo archive, part of which is available on its website ( http://www.ryeharbour.org/ ):

• Fixed-point photos are repeated annually at significant sites. Remote sensing by NCEDS and LIDAR aerial photography is also made use of;
• Shore mobility is monitored annually at a single fixed transect locations but more frequent survey is recommended. Permanent quadrats have been set up within different plant communities and these are resurveyed periodically to assess change.
• Thirty-three years of bird data have now been recorded, including breeding numbers, peak monthly and annual counts
• Specialists in difficult taxa such as invertebrates are encouraged to visit and record with the resultant species records being maintained on the RECORDER computer programme. This enables queries and maps to be easily generated. For the Rye Harbour SSSI there are 115,443 records of 3,809 species.

All these data are used to ensure management is of optimum quality.

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Pett Frontage Scheme

The Environment Agency is welcoming the participation of everyone living and working in the Pett Level area, near Rye, in its bid to protect those whose homes and businesses are vulnerable to flooding. The Pett Level area, which includes the picturesque villages of Cliff End and Winchelsea Beach, (Figure Rye 06) is low-lying and as such is at risk from coastal flooding. Whilst it is currently protected by a shingle beach and, along its western part, a sea wall - this is not enough. Environment Agency flood engineers believe that the current defences, which are maintained by recycling shingle that has collected against the River Rother Harbour arm, could be breached as often as once in every five years - possibly causing flooding to homes nearby. During a major storm event 390 homes are at risk of flooding, together with the coastal road and the Pett Level area - an area of high nature conservation value.  

Figure Rye 06 Whinchelsea Beach: Note old wooden groyne system now largely submerged by shingle. The present sea-wall has also been damaged by storm waves.

Experience from last winter shows that this would cause misery, financial hardship and chaos to hundreds, possibly thousands of people. The Environment Agency has been working hard on plans for a flood defence scheme. It has spent many years developing proposals that allow for the needs of local people and provide protection that could withstand the severest storms - likely to occur only once in every 200 years. The proposals were first presented at a public exhibition in Rye in August 2000. An extensive public consultation has since commenced to take into account the views of local residents on more detailed plans. The Agency presented its proposals for the management of the sea defences between Cliff End and Rye Harbour at a public meeting held by Icklesham Parish Council. Local people heard how a strategy had been developed to determine the best way forward for flood risk management over the next fifty years. In this area the Agency proposes to enhance beach management operations to maintain the defences by installing new timber groynes and charging the beach with shingle. Environmental and economic factors mean that the defence between Winchelsea beach and Rye Harbour would follow a line to the south of the existing secondary defence embankment - known locally as ‘The Ridge’.

Extensive consultation will begin prior to the submission of a planning application for the scheme. The Agency hopes to start work as soon as possible, to maximise the protection afforded to local people, with the first phase of the £12.5m scheme planned to begin in October 2002. The Environment Agency’s Flood Defence Manager for Kent, Andrew Pearce said "Whilst there is a common agreement that an improvement in the standard of flood defence is needed there are also important quality of life issues which must be addressed before details of the scheme can be finalised. The Agency wants to give the local people the flood protection that they need and deserve. It is a fine and difficult balancing act between defending homes and livelihoods whilst trying to avoid impairing people’s quality of life as we do so. This decision is for those who are most at risk to determine; those with homes and families that could be affected by a flood event."

The scheme is more like £30M, is the quote above about the river flood defence scheme Rye Harbour to Rye - that’s about £12.5M (Barry J Yates)

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Pett Levels

The Pett Levels are mainly agricultural grazing land with wet ditches, with some pools (borrow pits, created by sea defence works) which attract birds and other wetland wildlife. Most has SSSI and SPA designations. The surrounding low lying land is residential, thus limiting options for large scale managed realignment. It was flooded during the war.

The coastline enclosing Pett Levels comprises a shingle beach in front of a sea wall of clay with a concrete facing constructed between 1947 and 1950. It extends for 5km from Pett Level to the western end of the Rye Harbour SSSI (Figure Rye 04). From here it gives way to a renewable shingle ridge. It is now maintained by the Environment Agency with shingle feeding and timber groyne works. From the Old Lifeboat House to the River Mouth there is a more natural storm crest.  

Figure Rye 07 Pett Level beach with Winchelsea in distance. Note the low level of the agricultural land inland of shingle ridge, relative to sea level.

A steel pile, concrete block and asphalt wall was constructed along 5km of this shoreline with a crest of 7.31m OD. The continuing erosion led to the start of beach recharge to prevent the toe of the wall from being undermined. Pett, Rye Harbour, Broomhill and Jury’s Gap are all maintained by beach feeding.

Comment: The situation at Pett Levels is illustrative of the fact that on sedimentary shores hard defences alone may be insufficient for adequate and long term coastal defence. The Environment Agency flood defence schemes in this area which involve beach nourishment are one means of helping to overcome these problems.

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Summary lessons from Rye Harbour

At Rye Harbour there are major coast protection structures and shingle recycling plays an important role in this. The Environment Agency recycles shingle to add to sea defence and augment the use of groynes. Shingle is taken off the beach and recycled on the shore, up to six kilometres to the west. From here it is moved by longshore drift again back along the shore to the entrance to the harbour.

The need to keep the channel open for shipping also interrupts the sediment flow along the coast, possibly creating greater problems and coast protection costs. The consequences of a failure of the ‘terminal groyne’ protecting the entrance to the harbour has been modelled by Halcrow consulting engineers.

Rye Harbour also has links with the Baie de Somme in France through an Intereg II project which was completed in 2001 - the Two Bays Project. It is hoped to continue to develop the work. A web site is maintained by one of the project leaders @ www.yates.clara.net and there is a web site for the Bay de Somme which lies within the coastal cell covering the Seine to the Somme.

Comment: Considerable damage has occurred over many years as a result of non-emergency sea defence work. This includes unnecessary levelling, bulldozing and tracked vehicles running over vegetated shingle. There has been considerable improvement in the last few years.

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Modelling terminal groyne failure

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References

Lovegrove, D. 1953 Old Shorelines near Camber Castle. The Geographical Journal, 119, 200-207

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