Shoreline Management © Fred Dawson The changing face of 1999 Pottery works 1891 Plans are introduced by ©NT/D.R.Davis 125,000BC 125,000 years ago – 1800 90% of Poole’s population central government setting The area we now know was dependent on the Harbour The Pottery works on out how the UK’s coastline Poole as was a Poole harbour for employment, 1891 with should be managed over Harbour river valley enclosed by a but this dropped to 20% Brownsea drainage pipes stacked the next 50 years. The chalk ridge the remains of when railways reached the Island ready for shipping. whole coastline was split which are still visible at The town and deep hulled boats into different sections and Needles, . moved to . each was allocated one of Poole Harbour the following management options: ‘Do Nothing’, Poole Harbour and the surrounding coast has changed dramatically over ‘Managed Retreat’ or ‘Hold time. It has seen rivers of ice, huge storms and the wrenching of rock. The Line’. Meanwhile tides and waves work tirelessly with changing sea level to scour and shape the coast and continue to do so today. Construction of The great gale devastates 1920 1824 sea wall. the south west coast of Swanage Poole the UK. Hurricane force winds and a storm surge flood Poole to depths of 1.5 metres where local people 2005 Swanage beach recharge used boats to navigate the LYTCHETT scheme: During the winter flooded streets. Swanage of 2005/2006, 1.1 million cubic metres of sand

© John Williams was dredged from Poole 1600 1721 10-18,000 BC The last period of glaciation POOLE Harbour channels and comes to an end and sea pumped on to the beaches Poole levels rise at rates of up to of Swanage, Poole and Harbour 1.5 metre per year flooding to protect an ancient river valley to them from erosion as part create Poole Harbour. of a £5 million coastal protection project. The 11th century five 1849 1988 1926 arched South Bridge, Wareham Wareham’s gateway to the is removed and replaced with a wider road to improve access to motorists who had to travel

Growth of sand dunes since 1600 BROWNSEA a mile upstream to cross Storms and high tides BC Sea levels in the harbour Shell Bay, at the mouth of the River Frome. 2005 4,000 1880 caused flooding reach their highest point the Harbour, erodes more Poole Swanage in Swanage. and begin to fall, marking Studland than 1 metre per year, WAREHAM Harbour the beginning of a period of resulting in the loss of 200 varying sea levels. metres of shoreline over the next 50 years.

1930 Construction of Brownsea Island defences and Poole 2008 A high tide, storm surge and Brownsea heavy rain combine to cause town defences begins. Poole Island flooding around the Harbour 1881 Postcard of sand dunes even overtopping the sea Sandbanks and early development wall at Poole Quay causing of Sandbanks. flooding in the town. 300BC Sea levels in the harbour are approx. 2.7metres lower Poole than they are today. Harbour

1935 The great flood Swanage of Swanage.

1885 The arrival of the STUDLAND 2010 Redundant coastal steam train in Swanage defences are removed by Swanage transforms the town’s Brownsea National Trust on Brownsea fortunes, bringing in Island Island as part of a policy tourists and transporting of allowing the coast to Ralph Treswell completes Purbeck stone. change naturally 1586 After the Second World War Studland his map of Studland Parish. 1945 wherever possible. At the time Little Sea was Old Poole landing Craft are used as a partly open to the sea but temporary breakwater near has now been closed off by Town Poole Quay. Their remains the build up of sand. are still there below the surface today.

2011 The second Poole and Christchurch Bay Shoreline Poole Management Plan is 1890 Spartina anglica, a species Harbour published setting out how of cord grass begins to we can manage coastal Brownsea colonise in Poole The River Frome at Wareham C.1860. By this time change over the next much of the marshes would have been drained. Harbour transforming © Wareham Town Museum 100 years. them into and The marshes south of the dramatically changing the 1700 The Little Egret was river Frome at Wareham coast of the harbour in 1996 confirmed as a new British The Environment Agency, Wareham were slowly drained to locations like Hole’s Bay to SWANAGE 2012 Poole breeding bird, and by 1999 in partnership with local create grazing land as the alarm of local people. Poole Harbour at least 30 breeding pairs authorities, develop the historian John Hutchins The spread of Spartina Harbour were recorded at a total , Poole Harbour wrote in 1774 ‘they have continues until the 1930s of nine sites, including and Wareham Flood and been improved and made when the species begins Swanage and Coastal Erosion Risk firm ground by cutting to decline Poole Harbour Poole Harbour. Management Strategy drains, and raising the Commissioners looked at setting out plans for how to banks of the river, within how the spread of Spartina manage tidal flooding and the memory of man’. could be taken advantage erosion risk around of even considering making Poole Harbour. paper from it.

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