Palaeo-environmental Study Area P13 Bill - Pagham, West , south coast UK

PALAEO-ENVIRONMENTAL STUDY AREA P13

SELSEY BILL - PAGHAM, , SOUTH COAST, UK

AN ASSESSMENT OF ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND PALAEO-ENVIRONMENTAL EVIDENCE FOR COASTAL CHANGE ON THE EASTERN MARGIN OF REGION AT SELSEY, WEST SUSSEX, UK

Plate P13 beach regrading along a shingle ridge in , near Selsey, east Solent, UK (HR Wallingford Ltd. And Council)

1. LOCATION

Selsey Bill is a low-lying coastal peninsular occupied by a 19th century resort town. The peninsular is an southward extension of the Sussex coastal plain and it projects some 6km into the . The landscape comprises low-lying pasture and arable land seldom exceeding 5m in height (Plate P13). The soft light soils of the peninsular rest on the Bracklesham Beds, a unit of Tertiary sands which offers little resistance to coastal erosion.

Selsey lies within the county of West Sussex which is responsible for strategic planning and the maintenance of environmental data-bases on the natural and historic environments of the area. The control of development and the defence of the coastline is the responsibility of Chichester District Council. There are few special designations affecting this coast. However, is an internationally designated Ramsar Site for the protection of birds and a meadow adjacent to the Broad Rife stream is recognised as a Site of Nature Conservation Interest.

2. MODERN HUMAN GEOGRAPHY

The resort town of Selsey now accommodates some 10,000 residents but during the summer the population increases to 25,000 when the number of visitors is boosted by a very large

1 Palaeo-environmental Study Area P13 Selsey Bill - Pagham, West Sussex, south coast UK

caravan park west of the town. Effectively, the town reached its optimum size and the present development plan shows very little new land allocated for new housing or industrial use. A major constraint is the low-lying land in the region of the old Broad Rife. This is protected by countryside planning policies and it is also highly vulnerable to flooding (Figure P13.1).

3. CONTEMPORARY COASTAL PROBLEMS

The entire coast of the Selsey peninsular is naturally fronted by storm beach material which is vulnerable to natural fluctuations and depletions This coastline has been divided into three management units. On the east side of the Bill the beach is composed of shingle and sand which is strongly affected by wave-driven littoral drift. This coastline is heavily defended by groynes. There is a strong ebb current flowing out of Pagham Harbour and this has produced a large shingle delta at the entrance to the channel. The near-shore wave height varies between 3'9 and 4.7m during a 10 year period. The tip of the Bill has seawall defences and a further series of groynes. West of the tip of the Bill the shoreline is fronted by a shingle ridge which offers poor protection to low-lying land and a large caravan park. Here, the potential for wave induced transport exceeds the rate of natural supply here and the beach has tended to deteriorate. This beach is now maintained by frequent re-charge schemes and regular regrading operations. Inshore, substantial areas are vulnerable to coastal flooding and these include the low-lying margins of the old Broad Rife channel and Pagham Harbour. Particularly vulnerable is the West Beach which, without major defence works, may admit the sea to the rear of the town. This beach is already subject to shingle-loss and periodic overtopping.

4. KNOWN HISTORY, ARCHAEOLOGY AND PALAEO-ENVIRONMENTAL SETTING OF THE COASTAL COMMUNITY

The coastal history of the Selsey peninsular is one of progressive erosion which can be traced with difficulty over the historic period.. General advice by the UK’s coastal protection administration (MAFF) advocates the use of old cartographic evidence to detect the progress of past coastal erosion. Unfortunately the simple ogival shape of the Selsey peninsular has not been plotted with sufficient accuracy on early maps and this makes the history of shoreline recession difficult to detect and quantify over the past four centuries.

The history and archaeology of human settlement is more revealing. The archaeology of the peninsular suggests that during the 1st century BC a substantial Iron Age coastal community had established itself at the tip of the Bill at a location which now lies off-shore. During the 20th century a number of archaeological features and Iron Age and Roman artifacts have been recovered from the beach and the sub-tidal zone in this vicinity. These have included Iron Age gold coins and some other gold artifacts. Such artifacts suggest that the site may have been used for the operation of a mint. These activities might be equated with an important tribal centre such as a fortified town or oppidum. Immediately on-shore, a large Iron Age ditch has been identified leading in a seaward direction. This seems to be a remnant of an Iron Age settlement which has otherwise been lost to the sea.

The establishment of a tribal capital or civitas at Noviomagus (Chichester) suggests that the Selsey community may have transferred to a new and safer site inland during the 1st century AD. It is interesting to observe that the new site at Chichester is not actually situated on the coast but lies some 2km east of the ria inlet which is known as the Chichester Channel. Such a siting contrasts with the shoreline position of Roman towns such as , Southampton and Chester and we might suspect that particular precautions may have arisen at Chichester after a specific inundation event had occurred on the neighbouring coastline at Selsey during or before the early 1st century AD. While Chichester grew to become a successful prosperous coastal town there is evidence to suggest that the Roman community at Selsey was not entirely eclipsed. Roman buildings, putatively those of villas, have been identified at three locations in close proximity to 19th century Selsey and these attest the continued presence of prosperous rural population.

After the close of the Roman period occupation continued at Selsey, the location being given a particular boost in the 7th century when St Wilfred set up a religious community at this spot. The

2 Palaeo-environmental Study Area P13 Selsey Bill - Pagham, West Sussex, south coast UK

settling of Wilfred at Selsey does not necessarily suggest that this location was highly regarded at that time. describes the place as Selesea, that is the island of the sea-calf and he adds that here Wilfred was granted land of eighty-seven families to maintain his company, who were in banishment. In AD 711 Wilfred’s church at Selsey gained cathedral status under Bishop Eadberht, a designation which was to continue until c.AD1075. Traces of Late Saxon goldsmith’s hoard, found in 1879 suggest that community was then a prosperous one (site 16724).

During the 11th century AD there is reason to suspect a further retreat of the population from Selsey. The first hint of marine incursion comes from a neighbouring Saxon coastal settlement on the Chichester Channel at Bosham. This is a small coastal port which is undeniably the subject to the marked effects of sea-level rise and it is here that the Saxon king Canute is claimed to have delivered his commands against the advancing sea. This claim for Bosham is not, however, well substantiated. At Selsey the history of the community and diocese is less dramatic but during the episcopate of Stigand, after AD1070, the see of Selsey was abandoned in favour of a new diocese based inland at Chichester. This move accorded with a recommendation of the Council of AD1075 that episcopal seats should be transferred from villages to towns. This, and a modest return in the Domesday survey of AD1086 offers arguable evidence that Selsey was then a failing coastal community unable to maintain its acquaintance with the sea.

4.1 Historic evidence for physical changes in the coast

The physical nature of Selsey during historical times is not well documented. Bede, writing in the early 8th clearly cites an island but his description could be figurative rather than literal. The configuration of an island seems difficult to reconcile with the present shape of the peninsular but this is due to the changing nature of an old sea channel which had effectively truncated the tip of the peninsular by connecting Pagham Harbour with the beach at Bracklesham Bay. Cartographic evidence indicates that from at least the late 16th century the channel was not truly open and that a link of some kind tied ‘Selsey Iland’ to the mainland at Bracklesham Bay (Palmere 1587). Nevertheless, the Tudor route to the `island’ completely ignored the link at Bracklesham and instead approached by means of a ferry. This suggests that the link was probably the product of sand and shingle accretion and was unsuited to regular or wheeled traffic. Effectively, Selsey remained isolated until the shallow tidal channel was finally cut further east by a causeway which was constructed at the ferry point in AD1809. The course of the old channel is now marked by a cut-off stream known as Broad Rife and a building which is still known as Ferry House.

Prior to its unification with the mainland the configuration of Selsey island is poorly understood and this makes the prediction of further coastal change difficult to calculate. An important question is whether the long term erosion of the peninsular has been sustained or episodic. To investigate this issue it will be necessary to know how much land has been lost over a substantial time trajectory. A particularly important piece of archaeological evidence comes from the excavation of the Roman palace at Fishbourne (Cunliffe 1971; Cunliffe et al1996). A major building programme began here around AD 75/80 when various supplies of local and exotic stones were delivered to the site. One of the local materials was a glauconitic sandstone. This has been equated with an outcrop which is now submerged at Church Rocks reef in Bracklesham Bay (Cunliffe 1971 1, 15). Seabed investigations by the Hume Wallace and members of the British Sub-Aqua Club have since located a putative quarry offshore from Selsey Bill in the vicinity of the a rocky shoal known as the Mixon ( HWTMA site 16772). Given that it is highly unlikely that quarrying was carried out on an outcrop detached from the shore it may be postulated that the stonemasons at Fishbourne had access to a stone source which was exposed on or above a contemporary beach. This would indicate a shoreline retreat of some 2km since the 1st century AD.

Further Roman evidence for shoreline recession comes from another offshore site on the outer edge of the Mixon shoal. Here a perceived Roman wall has been reported by divers (HWTMA site 16774) This sites lies some 300m south of the quarry site, a location which might seem well

3 Palaeo-environmental Study Area P13 Selsey Bill - Pagham, West Sussex, south coast UK

placed for a contemporary quay suitable for the shipment of stone. It is clear that both of these sites require archaeological investigation to verify the date and nature of these remains and, more specifically, their precise relationship to past and present sea-levels and shorelines. A further potential source of information on Selsey’s changing coastal environment is the sediment archive contained within the drained Broad Rife channel. This too has yet to receive scientific examination.

5. ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND PALAEO-ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES AND POTENTIAL

5.1 The desk-top assessment of known archaeological sites within the coastal zone of the Selsey sub-area

The Sites and Monuments Record for West Sussex contained 85 entries for the coastal zone in the Selsey-Pagham sub-area. Two of these (nos 139 & 140) were shipwrecks of relatively recent date offering no immediate contribution to the study. Two sets of anti-tank blocks (nos 16768 & 16832) and two heavy machine-gun emplacements (nos 16769 &16770), all of 2nd World War date, were noted at beachhead locations but without field inspection they could offer little contribution to the present study of coastal erosion and their overall potential remained low.

Of the remaining 77 sites, 18 were perceived to offer some particular potential for the study of sea-level rise (Appendix P13.1). Finds of Iron Age, Roman and medieval coins found in offshore locations (sites 16722; 16781;16791; 16829 & 16776) were considered to be of potential value until a sea-bed examination of their find-spots could demonstrate that any trace of their original depositional context has been removed by coastal processes. At site16785 Roman coins had been found in association with Roman tiles in the intertidal zone and this suggested that some of these sites might retain some archaeological integrity after inundation. The height of such occupation levels could be particularly helpful to the study. Iron Age occupation (site16830); a Roman well (site16778) and Saxon occupation (site 16820), all noted in offshore locations, gave further cause for a seabed archaeological investigation.

The desk-top assessment of the Selsey sites found difficulty in distinguishing between potential for the study of sea-level rise and potential for the study of shoreline change. It was observed that sites noted in the sub-tidal zone might offer a potential value for the study of sea-level rise if they still survived on the seabed. Even where such sites had been destroyed however, their geographic position remained of value to the study of shoreline change.

Some sites noted in the sub-tidal zone showed outstanding potential. The earliest of these was a perceived group of standing stones observed in the vicinity of the Mixon shoal at site 16805. A few rare examples of submerged megaliths such as these are well known on some sections of the European coast; Er Lannic in the Golfe du Morbihan and the Cork Harbour cromlech being outstanding examples. At the Mixon, this putative site had been observed by divers during the 1970's but had not been followed up by archaeological inspection. The site is presumed to be Neolithic and its validation is clearly important to the long-term coastal history. Two other sites were also noted to be of outstanding importance at this offshore location. Divers record traces of a submerged Roman wall near the Mixon shoal (site 16774) as well as a submerged quarry (site 16772). The latter might be equated with evidence of a 1st century offshore quarry which has been suspected from archaeological evidence gathered onshore at Fishbourne Roman palace. Both the height and the offshore position of these two sites was of clear value to the study.

On-shore potential evidence for the nature of the past coastal environment could be perceived at a small number of sites. Pagham tide mill (site 16716) was of medieval date and was constructed to intercept contemporary high tides. An examination of this structure and a comparison with modern tide levels was perceived worthy of investigation. Similarly, any sediment archive surviving within the mill pond was perceived to offer palaeo-environmental potential. Evidence from the south west coast of Wight (sub-area 3) had demonstrated that analyses of ancient shell middens could contribute to knowledge of past and differing coastal

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environments and with this possibility in mind it was perceived that some on-shore sites, ranging from Neolithic to medieval date, might offer an opportunity to gain this type of information (sites 16793; 16801). These sites included medieval habitation at Norton Priory, Becket’s Barns and St Andrew’s chapel (sites 16713; 16721; 16712). Palaeo-environmental evidence for coastal change could not be effectively gathered through the County Sites and Monuments Record because the remit of most County databases of this type is essentially cultural. Nevertheless the potential of surviving sediment archives had been well demonstrated by an investigation of Pleistocene palaeo-channel fills exposed on the East Beach at Selsey. More specific to the history of Holocene coastal change at Selsey may be the sediment archives remaining in the Broad Rife channel. This however is an observation of the LIFE study and not an observation which could be gleaned from the Sites and Monuments Record.

6. CURRENT APPROACH TO THE IDENTIFICATION AND PROTECTION OF ARCHAEOLOGICAL RESOURCE

All of the known archaeological sites in the Selsey peninsular are listed in the County Sites and Monuments Record and this has afforded them a measure of protection from those processes which are subject to planning control. A small number of sites are also recognised to be nationally important and these have been accorded the status of Scheduled Ancient Monuments. It is important to recognise that inclusion in the County Sites and Monuments Record does not secure automatic protection of archaeological sites from coastal defence works, the activities of statutory utilities such as gas, water, electricity or telephone services or the impacts of offshore operations including mineral extraction, beach recharge, trawl fishing, pipe-laying and diving. Whilst the County Sites and Monuments authority may attempt to monitor or mitigate some of these activities it has no statutory duty to do so and this can lead to weaknesses and inconsistencies in the level of protection for the historic environment. Protection offered by the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979 falters at the low water boundary on the English coast. This is particularly unfortunate at Selsey where the presence of a submerged offshore archaeological resource is suspected in an area where there is a particular need to gain knowledge of the nature scale and pace of the long term advance of the sea.

7. CURRENT APPROACH TO IDENTIFICATION AND PROTECTION OF THE PALAEO- ENVIRONMENTAL RESOURCE

No designations protect palaeo-environmental resources in the study area. Areas of potential value include the submerged off-shore land surface, particularly in the vicinity of the Mixon shoal where underwater observations and archaeological records suggest that in situ terrestrial deposits may survive from historic or prehistoric times. This area is seen to be pertinent to the study and measurement of long term marine advance. The survival of submerged palaeo- environmental deposits is well demonstrated on the East Beach at Selsey where a submerged palaeo-channel containing a rich array of Pleistocene fauna has been examined in the intertidal zone. In this LIFE report the drained Broad Rife channel is perceived to be a potential sediment archive offering evidence of long term marine influence and environmental change at the margins of this vulnerably sited town.

8. SUCCESSES AND PROBLEMS IDENTIFIED BY THE LIFE PROGRAMME

The completion of a commissioned Shoreline Management Plan in 1997 has offered a clear framework for coastal management on this highly vulnerable section of coast and it has presented a well informed appraisal of future problems which will beset this modest seaside town. A weakness in the this plan has been a failure to examine archaeological and palaeo- environmental evidence for the past configuration of the coast. There has also been and a failure to identify or validate potential sites where information of this kind may still be gained.

9. SOCIAL INCLUSION AND COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT

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Community involvement in coastal issues within the town of Selsey has yet to be assessed. In the offshore zone, important work has been carried out since the 1960's by a small amateur diving team led by Hume Wallace. The activities of this team has now been succeeded by the Hampshire and Wight Trust for Maritime Archaeology, a charitable trust, which has been able to plan a modest programme of underwater archaeological evaluation on the West Sussex coast. At present however the offshore features at Selsey and Mixon shoal have yet to be fully validated. The role of fishermen is seen to extremely important in reporting and monitoring the disturbance of seabed archaeological evidence. Once commenced, liaison with fishing organisations must be sustained if long term results are to be achieved. For fishermen, the inauguration of short term recording schemes can be counterproductive and damaging to long term liaison. Currently there are no plans or incentives to encourage fishermen to participate in the enhancement of sites and monuments recording in the offshore zone.

10. CONCLUSIONS AND KEY ISSUES

Selsey presents a case where the sea has demonstrably advanced over a submerging land surface which was formerly occupied in prehistoric and historic times. There is a need to evaluate the submerged off-shore land surface and to scientifically interrogate, and to protect, submerged sites which can be threatened by human activities in this domain. The LIFE study reveals that the present protective arrangements are flawed at mean low water mark and that the cultural and palaeo-environmental resources in the off-shore zone are neither being sustained nor recovered. On-shore, the long term sustainability of the Selsey town and its environs requires further study and there is a need identify, interrogate and protect archaeological and palaeo-environmental remains which can elucidate the nature, scale and pace of the long-term timetable of coastal change.

12. BIBLIOGRAPHY

Bede. The ecclesiastical history of the English nation. Cunliffe B. 1971. Excavations at Fishbourne. Society of Antiquaries of London. research report no 27. 2vols. Cunliffe B. Down C. and Rudkin D. 1996. Excavations at Fishbourne 1969-1988, Chichester excavations 9. Chichester District Council. Heron-Allen. 1911. Selsey Bill, historic, prehistoric. Duckworth. London Kenny J. 1988. Excavations at Selsey. Chichester Archaeological Unit. Chichester. Mee F. 1988. A history of Selsey. Philimore. Chichester. Salzmann L.F. 1907. In Page W. (ed.). Victoria County 2. London Searle S A 1975. The tidal threat. The Dunes Group. .

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