CLEVELAND WAY EARTHCACHE 5: DEFENDING RUNSWICK EarthCache
CLEVELAND WAY EARTHCACHE 5: DEFENDING RUNSWICK
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"Defending Runswick from the Waves" is one of a series of Earthcaches that can be completed by Geocachers walking the 110 mile Cleveland Way, without straying far from the path.
The coastline between Saltburn and Filey is dominated by steep cliffs which rise to
200m (650 ft) at Boulby – the highest sea cliffs on the east coast of England. However, the coastline has been eroding for centuries.
The rate at which erosion takes place will depend upon a range of circumstances - the hardness and structure of the cliffs, the extent of any wave cut platform at the cliff base, sea state and weather conditions to name but a few. Measuring rates of erosion is difficult but in the late 1950’s a study concluded that between Saltburn and Ravenscar the base of the cliffs has eroded on average 9m (30ft) per century on the bare shale foreshore but less where the rock was harder or the wave cut platform more extensive. The overall average amount of erosion was estimated at 5m (16 feet) per century or 5 cm a year! As always, the dilemma is whether to let nature take its course or try costly protection measures and at Runswick the decision was to try the latter.
The cliffs here consist of Jurassic mudstones, sandstone, shales and limestones formed
under marine or freshwater conditions dating between 200 and 135 million years ago.
Due to the high cliffs, the limited habitation developed where vallies gave access to the sea and where there was also shelter from storm winds (which are common on the east coast!) The original village of Runswick Bay lay slightly to the north of Lingrow Beck but in one tragic night in 1682, due to the instability of the soft, slippery shales, the entire village slid into the sea. At the time many of the villagers were attending a wake but a latecomer noticed the steps to the house were slipping away under his feet. The alarm was raised and mourners saw the ground slide several feet down the cliff. They escaped from the back of the house and roused the rest of the village, most of whom ran to safety. By morning every house had fallen into the sea, except one – the house of the dead man !
The whole village of Runswick Bay was rebuilt in its present position, sheltered at the northern end of a beautiful sandy beach. For years, the inhabitants retained their insularity – the only link with the outside world being a precipitous winding road and but it was not until the coming of the railway that the village began to change. New houses were built at the top of the cliffs and slowly the villagers moved away. By the 1940s the shops had closed, fishing had declined and Runswick Bay had become a holiday village. Today the village has only 40 permanent residents so although a popular resort in summer, the winter months offer peace and tranquillity. The thatched property on the seafront is the only remaining thatched house on the Yorkshire coast.
Coastal erosion continued however, and in 1970 a new sea wall was built to try and prevent prevent further damage. However, in 1993 the Holbeck Hall Hotel famously collapsed into the sea and the sea wall, road and car park areas were threatened. After a survey concluded that the crumbling sea wall might not survive another winter, a new large scale coastal defence scheme was implemented. This involved the positioning of 19,000 tonnes of massive Diorite boulders (from a quarry in Norway) along the base of the cliffs near the village to protect it from the risk of further erosion. This modern rock armour absorbs the wave impact thus dissipating its energy and thereby reducing knock-on problems, unlike concrete walls which, while preventing further cliff foot erosion, are themselves subject to wear and tear and also reflect waves which may result in problems elsewhere. In addition nearly 500 tubular steel piles were driven up to 25 metres into the cliff to aid stabilisation and horizontal channels drilled up to 50 metres into the cliff face to lower the ground water level in the cliff above the village.
This coast protection and cliff stabilisation scheme for Runswick Bay in North Yorkshire cost a huge amount of money considering the size of the village. It was chosen by the Yorkshire Association of the Institution of Civil Engineers for the 2000 Award of Engineering Excellence and as a result there are several panels and a plaque describing the works.
If you are at the listing co-ordinates you should be near one of these panels and the beach isn’t far away. So you should be able to e-Mail me to tell me:-
1) Which month and year the new sea defence and slope stabilisation works were completed ?
2) How many millions of pounds (sterling) was the stated cost ?
3) How many organisations jointly funded the works ?
4) On the beach look at the diorite boulders and tell me one of the crystals you can see in the rock and finally
5) Your estimate the number of blocks used in the sea defences as follows:- Measure a typical boulder and (assuming it to be a cube or rhomboid) work out its volume in cubic metres. 19,000 tonnes of diorite was used, so you should now be able to estimate the number of blocks used assuming the density of diorite to be 3.2 tonnes per cubic metre (th figure used by engineers in their calculations).
Then if your answers are acceptable, you may log the Earthcache as a "found".
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Unir sha pnpuvat!
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