THE GERMAN OCEAN—ITS GEOGRAPHICAL POSITION—ITS TIDES—DISASTROUS EFFECTS
IN COMBINATION WITH GALES OF WIND FROM THE NORTH-WEST ON DIFFERENT PARTS
OF THE COAST UNDER CONSIDERATION—EXAMPLES.
THE workings of Nature itself, under the control of an Allwise and
Omnipotent Being, ever exhibit a restorative as well as a destructive
power. Its laws and constitution being no where directly revealed to us,
are only to be inferred from the inspection of particular facts, obtained
from observation and experiment, the only trust-worthy guides to the
knowledge of Nature. Let us inquire—first, the cause of the German Ocean
gaining upon the Norfolk coast? secondly, whether every portion is the
subject of such visitation, attended with similar results? and thirdly,
whether art can arrest its progress?
The German Ocean, from its being intersected with numerous shoals of
sand, some of immense length and breadth, presents a greater variation in
the tides and currents than probably any other ocean in the world; and
from its exposure to variable and violent winds, renders the navigation
extremely dangerous. Its extent in area is about two millions of square
miles, and is confined within its narrowest limits between England and
Holland, and there in consequence the tides rise highest. It opens into
the Atlantic on the north, and communicates with the English Channel by
the Straits of Dover, and with the Baltic Sea by the Scaggerac and
Cattegat. It may be considered as divided into two parts by the Dogger
Bank, which traverses it in almost all its width, and a strong tide runs
from north to south, {32} which is much increased by north and north-west
winds.
From the earliest records to the present time, that portion of the coast
extending from Cromer to Winterton-ness has been most subjected to the
ravages of the ocean; lands have been swept away, buildings of
considerable value have been swallowed up, and notwithstanding every
effort hitherto made, the sea continues to advance in the interior as
little satiated as before. The line of coast is extremely favourable to
its rapacity, presenting, as it does, the appearance of a cape, and the
different strata composing the cliffs are generally of too yielding a
nature to resist its influence, even under ordinary circumstances.—The
Hasborough Sands, extending from Winterton, to or a little beyond Bacton,
must, from their dimensions and abrupt elevation, be a source of
considerable mischief, confining a vast body of water within a narrow
limit, which, when increased and disturbed by gales of wind from the
north-west, upon a spring tide, urges the waves against the cliffs with a
greater or less velocity, and with a force not only sufficient to sweep
away large quantities of the earth, which, from the perpendicularity of
the cliffs, is deposited at their base, but actually to undermine them to
a considerable extent.
Numerous instances can be adduced where the current has taken away
twenty-one yards of land from the interior in three tides; and it was
computed when the present Inn was built in Lower Sherringham, near
Cromer, in 1805, that it would require seventy years for the sea to reach
the spot, the mean loss of land being calculated, from previous
observations, to be somewhat less than one yard annually; the distance
between the house and the sea was fifty yards, but no allowance was made
for the slope of the ground being from the sea, in consequence of which
the waste was naturally accelerated every year as the cliff grew lower,
there being at each succeeding period less matter to remove when portions
of equal area fell down. Between the years 1824 and 1829, no less than
seventeen yards were swept away, and the distance between the house and
the edge of the cliff at this time is only from eight to ten yards.
The whole site of ancient Cromer {33a} now forms part of the German
Ocean, the inhabitants having gradually retreated inland to the present
situation, from whence the sea still threatens to dislodge them. The
locality of this portion of the coast, the scarcity of sea beach material
in the offing, the bed of the ocean of a rocky character, and the beach
presenting nearly a level approaching a dead flat render it peculiarly
liable to its invasion.
At Trimingham {33b} upwards of fifty acres of land have been removed
during the last sixty years, and on one occasion four acres and a half
were taken away in one tide.
The property belonging to Mr. Wheatley, at Mundesley, {34a} has become
considerably reduced in extent and value, and has only been preserved to
the present time by substantial walls erected next the sea, and numerous
piles of wood driven into the sand beyond them: but what renders it most
disheartening is, the sea has excavated the cliff at their extremity; and
the probability is, should a heavy lasting gale of wind ensue from the
north-west upon a spring tide, they, with perhaps the greater portion of
the property, will be swept away by the water intruding behind and
between them. Land attached to the estate of S. Bignold, Esq., adjoining
Walcot {34b} Gap, previous to 1839, was rapidly taken away.
At Hasborough, {34c} the sea has encroached upwards of one hundred and
seventy yards during the last sixty years, and it is calculated the
church will be engulphed in the Ocean before the middle of the ensuing
century.
The ancient villages of Shipden, {34d} Whimpwell, {34e} and Keswick {34f}
have entirely disappeared, and nearly the whole of Eccles. {34g} A
monument, however, still remains in the ruined tower of the old church,
which is half buried in the dunes of sand. These have been fast
encroached upon since 1839, laying bare the foundations of dwellings, the
chancel end of the church, with a portion of a wall supposed to have
surrounded the church-yard. The upper part of the buildings had
evidently been removed previous to the foundations having been buried
under the sand.
Hills of blown sand, between Eccles and Winterton, {34h} extending to
Yarmouth, have barred up and excluded the tide for many centuries from
the mouths of several small estuaries; but there are records of nine
breaches, from twenty to one hundred and twenty yards wide, having been
made through these, by which immense damage was done to the low grounds
in the interior. One of the most remarkable occurred in the year 1792,
on which occasion a body of water passed through between Horsey {35a} and
Waxham, {35b} extending beyond Hickling, a village situated three miles
inland, which, uniting with the fresh water contained in a large lake,
termed the Hickling broad, destroyed all the fish. The injury the land
sustained in the immediate neighbourhood was very considerable; upon one
farm a loss of upwards of three hundred pounds was experienced, and years
passed by before the land recovered its former fertility. The effluvia
arising from the subsidence or sinking of the water filled the air with
malaria of the worst description. Intermittent and typhoid fevers of a
most formidable character prevailed, so that many an individual was
brought to a premature grave through this catastrophe.