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Walton-on-the-Naze Coastal Heritage Regeneration - Naze Tower
Coastal Heritage Regeneration - Naze Tower - East Coast of England - Essex
~ The Naze Tower ~
Naze Notes on its regeneration at Walton-on-the-Naze

official site
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Charity Link With Tower Project:
The Naze Protection Society is pleased to announce that its committee has elected local entrepreneur, Michelle Nye-Browne to serve as a member. This is a significant event since Michelle was a leading figure in the renovation of the 288 year-old Naze Tower - built upon the world famous *Naze Cliffs as a daymark for sailors - from a virtually derelict state. The Tower is now part of the regeneration of the Naze, operating as a commercial business.
       [historical note: There had been a 40 foot high tower nearer the cliffs that had stood for at least 200 years before the present 85 foot Trinity House construction.]
      The Naze Tower is now open to the public and provides not only an excellent viewing point, but also a local museum and art gallery. The charity’s avowed intent to protect ‘features of historic interest’ from the threat of erosion means that - profit motive aside - Michelle shares a common environmental interest with the **Society in safeguarding the Tower's future.  
    
    * VIDEO CLIP [from Mike Todd - NAZEMAN]
   ** Naze Protection Society:  AGM  |  CLIFF PROJECT  |  CARNIVAL '06 APPEAL
"Trinity House 1720"
Naze Tower in Danger?  
In 1724, four years after the Naze Tower had been constructed, Daniel Defoe - author of 'Robinson Crusoe' - wrote of Walton, "the sea gains so much upon the land here... that within the memory of some of the inhabitants there, they have lost above 30 acres of land in one place". At about that time the Naze Tower was situated some three quarters of a mile from the cliff edge and owned by local lord of the manor, Richard Rigby.
      Today it is barely fifty yards away! In the intervening years it has served as Georgian Tea Rooms, army lookout post, navy signalling point, RAF radar installation and telephone relay station. To get some idea of the extent of the cliff erosion over this time, glance to the end of Walton Pier (see opposite) which extends half a mile out to sea. Imagine half as much again and that is the extent of the land loss over the past three centuries!
      The sea continues to be the cause of considerable land loss. Half  of the 1930's golf course has since disappeared. However, man's own inane stupidity knows no bounds. In 1961 the cricketer, Godfrey Evans,  hatched a scheme to develop 78 acres around the Naze Tower into - yes, you've guessed it - a holiday camp!!
      He ploughed up everything in anticipation for the construction of 350 dwellings, beach huts  - plus a motel... The Naze surrounding the Tower became a desert of mud. Fortunately the powers-that-be weren't completely stupid and his outrageous scheme was finally turned down. However, much damage had already been done. The developers have got as far as bulldozing the cliffs to 'grade' them prior to making pretty winding paths down to the beach. The groundworks severly damaged any natural drainage in the already unstable cliff strata, and that along with the removal of the vegetation greatly increased the amount of water which the lower levels had to now cope with.
      This resulted in the saturated mid-layers of the cliff being forced towards the shoreline by the sheer weight of the waterlogged layers above. The result was catastrophic as the whole cliff face sank into the sea taking with it the clifftop wartime pillboxes as they descended slowly to the beach, carried almost intact on the oozing mud flow.
      It is now more than forty years later and still no remedial action has been taken! The 'leaning' Naze Tower remains in a precarious state. One way to protect the cliffs is to prevent wave erosion (undercutting) by shielding the base of the cliffs with rocks or a concrete revetment, and then to drain the cliffs using 'dutch drains' - trenches dug some way back from the edge and filled with large pebbles. However, the resultant grading (natural angle of settlement for the cliff incline) might now encroach far enough inland to put the very foundations of the Naze Tower at risk. Another solution would be to move the tower inland - like Clavell Tower on the south coast.
      One thing's for sure - at today's erosion rate, time is fast running out; the pictures below tell their own story... - and for some sort of topographical comparison, just look at what has happened a few miles up the coast at Bawdsey - in less than a year!
      
 Regeneration Links:
 'LOST TOWN' [EEDA Project] | NAZEMAN EDUCATION TRUST  [Erosion Update]
Walton Pier - sunrise
Naze Tower - dawn mist
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RELATED WEB PAGES:
NAZE NEWS
Naze Protection Society Newsletter
 ______________________
Tendring District Council
Project Plans for Joint
Charity / Council Venture:
____________________________________________________
Storm Force:
Heavy seas break harmlessly on the rocks flanking Tower Groyne. Unfortunately, these sea defences were built 100 metres short of the cliffs [behind]  that buttress the land in the vicinity of the Naze Tower.
BBC COAST Tower Heritage Walk ^
 _________________________
public open space:
 'SAVE THE NAZE'  info point
 coastal erosion:
Walton Backwaters
 the cliffs:
  maritime view:
 Naze Notes...
  
  ______________________________  
 Naze Notes...  
 _________________________
Tower Groyne takes some powerful waves full-on... Rocks within the 'A' frame absorb the destructive power of the sea, protecting the concrete sea-wall and beach - but well short of the position of the Naze Tower!
Flashback - to November 1998:
300 tons of Leicestershire granite are delivered to the Naze - to be placed on the north side of Tower Groyne as the 'first stage' of a plan to protect the Tower - however, 'stage two' of the plan never happened...
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Google links - left and right - will take you to a listing of related environmental sites and their associated web images
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COUNTER RESET: June 06
HITS Apr 05-May 06 = 2000

 

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