Heather Denoon by the new sea wall. 1956

From the Gordon Denoon album.

The caption with this photograph reads:-

‘Heather (one of Gordon’s daughters) standing on the beach in 1956. This shows the height of the sea wall above the shingle. Not many years later I could step off the promenade on to the shingle’.

Of the new sea wall construction Gordon writes in his ‘Saga of St Margaret’s’:

‘The western part of this sea defence scheme, between the centre of the Bay and Ness Point, was finished first and the level of the shingle beach was about 16 feet below the parapet; at high tide the sea came in right up to the wall. Many times waves would break against this solid structure with sufficient force to send up a huge spray of water to fall on the new promenade. This was an unusual sight but when in time the restless sea gradually shifted the shingle up against the wall (and also on the Dover side of the new groynes) this phenomenon diminished and the waves – unable to reach the wall – broke on the beach. As indicated above, when the wall was first built the level of the beach was near the foot but in later years often I stepped off the promenade directly on to the shingle, indicating that its level had been raised some 16 feet.’