At last, after three months, we have high pressure over us in Dorset, gone are the storms, and in the sky a shiny, glowing, warm object. Time to check our site at Hive Beach to see if it still exists!
Hive Beach cafe in the background and in the foreground our site
As I drove down the road I saw the welcome site of the cafe and the NT information hut, the car park and the wall next to the sea. Passed the wall could be a different sight, I parked and headed for the low cliff were our excavated building was. There was definite evidence of waves having broken over the cliff and in people from the cafe told me the waves had come right up to their veranda.
- Looking East before the storms
Looking East after the storms
The change in the profile of the cliff was very obvious and parts of the building were on the beach. I walked along the top and checked a scar at the side of the site, I noticed some shattered pebble flint. As I moved to get a better look and a photo I slipped down the scar and ended up on the beach! Oh well at least I could now see the remains of the building better, and the sticky clay all over me would soon dry!
Looking at the back wall of the building from the beach before the storm
Looking at the back wall of the building from the beach after the storm
Although we have lost parts of the floor and plaster from the walls the site has acted like a erosion barrier, with the cliff either side eroding much more. The most obvious change is the now straight section through the beach and ground the house was built on, we can see the stratigraphy, the different types of sand deposits and also how shallow the foundations are.
The storm cleaned section
Further along to the east of the building, a section of wire and metal fence stakes had been uncovered by the storms, they must be part of the WWII defences erected over 70 years ago.
the metal stakes and wire fence uncovered by the storms at Hive Beach
Like many others over the past hundred years I took photograph looking West to record this moment in time, so in years to come we can compare the cliff line after many more stormy seas have swept in undermining the cliffs and devouring the land and buildings in its way.
The cliffs have suffered more falls of rock over the last few months (or site is in the lower right)
Hive Beach view from the past looking west
Archaeology National Trust SW 