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Constructing the replacement sea wall and promenade in the Bay, c.1951/2
Constructing the replacement sea wall and promenade in the Bay, c.1951/2
Constructing the replacement sea wall and promenade in the Bay, c.1951/2
Constructing the replacement sea wall and promenade in the Bay, c.1951/2
Constructing the replacement sea wall and promenade in the Bay, c.1951/2
Constructing the replacement sea wall and promenade in the Bay, c.1951/2
Constructing the replacement sea wall and promenade in the Bay, c.1951/2
Constructing the replacement sea wall and promenade in the Bay, c.1951/2
Constructing the replacement sea wall and promenade in the Bay, c.1951/2
Constructing the replacement sea wall and promenade in the Bay, c.1951/2
From the Gordon Denoon album a series of photographs, with comments, of the construction of a new sea wall and promenade in St Margaret’s Bay during 1951/2.
In Gordon Denoon’s ‘Saga of St Margaret’s’ he writes:
‘Erosion caused by the undermining of the damaged sea wall, particularly by the gale and very high tide on 1st March 1949, continued to be mentioned in the newspapers. On the 12th March The Times published a photograph of the battered coastal fringe of the Bay and the collapsed sea wall, and a local paper mentioned the fear that the Bay, with its beach, might be lost for ever under the sea from which there was no adequate defence. (See item 4024). It seemed obvious that some scheme of protection must soon be put in hand and, although we knew nothing of it at that time, the Dover RDC had begun such a project in April 1948. As a result work began early in 1951 on a £50,000 scheme for a concrete wall 18-feet high round the bay with a 17-feet wide promenade above. This important contract lasted for two years, changing completely the appearance of the beach and leaving the Bay as we see it today.
When the building of this sea wall began all the wrecked buildings in the Bay were just as they had been left at the end of the war and they were not finally bulldozed into rubble until 1952 when the ground was cleared. It was somewhat surprising that in their ruined state they had survived so long. Once they were levelled, wild evergreen plants were soon growing everywhere in profusion around the around the foot of the cliff, in some places eventually reaching the top in a tremendous coverage of foliage.’
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