Weathered
Porlock Bay is on the Bristol Channel, between Hurlstone Point and Porlock Weir in Somerset. The coastline includes shingle ridges, salt marshes and a submerged forest. Much of the coastline is under the care of the National Trust, and the coastline forms part of the South West Coast Path.
Porlock Weir lies about 1.5 miles west of Porlock, and is a small settlement which has grown up around the harbour. It is a popular visitor attraction.
Like most ports in West Somerset, the harbour is tidal but has a small home-based flotilla of yachts and is visited by many more in spring and summer. The port has existed for over 1,000 years. The Anglo-Saxon chronicle reports that in 1052 Harold Godwinson came from Ireland with nine ships and plundered the area and even before that in 86 AD it was visited by Danes. In the 18th and 19th centuries coal from south Wales was the main cargo, and in World War II pit props cut from local forests were exported the other way.
The shingle ridge that protects Porlock from the sea developed about 8000 years ago after the last ice age, as sea levels rose and cliffs to the west eroded. Since then, there has been a continual process of change, with deep core samples taken from the Marsh showing that the ridge has moved inland at different periods, with sporadic breaching and ‘healing' events as part of the natural cycle of evolution of the barrier.
The construction of groynes along Porlock Beach, in the early 19th century, was designed to interrupt and reduce the thinning and instability of the ridge to protect the main road.
Weathered
Porlock Bay is on the Bristol Channel, between Hurlstone Point and Porlock Weir in Somerset. The coastline includes shingle ridges, salt marshes and a submerged forest. Much of the coastline is under the care of the National Trust, and the coastline forms part of the South West Coast Path.
Porlock Weir lies about 1.5 miles west of Porlock, and is a small settlement which has grown up around the harbour. It is a popular visitor attraction.
Like most ports in West Somerset, the harbour is tidal but has a small home-based flotilla of yachts and is visited by many more in spring and summer. The port has existed for over 1,000 years. The Anglo-Saxon chronicle reports that in 1052 Harold Godwinson came from Ireland with nine ships and plundered the area and even before that in 86 AD it was visited by Danes. In the 18th and 19th centuries coal from south Wales was the main cargo, and in World War II pit props cut from local forests were exported the other way.
The shingle ridge that protects Porlock from the sea developed about 8000 years ago after the last ice age, as sea levels rose and cliffs to the west eroded. Since then, there has been a continual process of change, with deep core samples taken from the Marsh showing that the ridge has moved inland at different periods, with sporadic breaching and ‘healing' events as part of the natural cycle of evolution of the barrier.
The construction of groynes along Porlock Beach, in the early 19th century, was designed to interrupt and reduce the thinning and instability of the ridge to protect the main road.