The " Eastward-Drift " of Beach
reef or bank, form a spit or bar of shingle extending in an easterly direction, and running out at a right angle on the eastern side of the point or headland. The bar of shingle running from Cliff End at Fairlight to the mouth of Rye Harbour is a good example of this phenomenon. This particular bar of shingle completely shuts out the sea from the cliffs and plains of Winchelsea. It is not, however, the usual result, and no great or permanent accumulations of beach exist on the eastern sides of the coast-projections or groins. The reason for the absence of such eastward accumulations is, that the motive power is continually exerted in one direction only, that of the flow, and scarcely ever in the reverse direction, the ebb of the tide in an open strait being practically a periodical cessation of onward motion. We may readily conceive that any movable body carried forward from west to east in the Channel by the tidal flow will never assume a retrograde course, unless for a very brief period through the intermediary of a temporary opposing force. This latter may arise if the tidal wave is met by a strong storm current coming from the east, when the opposing action of the two forces will result in a current more or less at right angles to the shore, and the shingle will be carried out to sea by an action that the Portland islanders call a " drawing sea," and that the Hastings folk term a " scour from the east." As soon, however, as the impeding cause has passed away, a fresh flow of shingle from the west restores the beach to its normal condition, and that frequently in the course of two tides.
It may well be asked, what is the origin of this enormous supply of shingle ? Without entering into a detailed geological explanation, it may be simply stated that in every district, and in all climates, from the Equatorial to the Polar regions, there is usually between the superficial covering of vegetable mould and the underlying rock a deposit of loose gravel, sand, and mud, to which the name " alluvium " has been applied. We will not here discuss the more complex causes of these beds, which have been the result of natural agents operating through a long succession of geological epochs, let it suffice to say that the gravels of our shores have been derived principally from beds of ancient drift formed from the denudation of the Chalk-formation, while other associated rounded fragments of stone and sand are for the most part derived from more ancient formations, either brought down by the agency of rivers, or filched from the cliffs and adjacent land by the action of weather and waves.
And now we may apply these known laws to the changes of the coast-line which have taken place at and near Hastings - changes of which there exist some records. Unfortunately, these records are deplorably vague and scanty. But we do know for certain that the coast-line on either side of Hastings extended for a considerable distance beyond the present sea-boundaries. There was also, at some comparatively recent period, a dense forest-growth upon much of this submerged land ; the ancient forest has left a record of its existence in the shape of a considerable deposit of vegetable matter, containing trunks and roots of trees in situ, and vast masses of leaves, nuts, and acorns. Records also are extant of great inundations (see postea) from the sea, by means of which the seaward promontories were denuded, large portions of ancient parishes submerged, and buildings upon them ruined and washed away. It has even been suggested that a more ancient town of Hastings once stood to seaward of our present sea-walls, and that an island a mile and a half long lay off the coast of Bulverhithe. However that may be, there can be no question that harbours once existed at Pevensey, Bulverhithe, -
