Groynes

Do any of you old fuckers (tony lol) know when they went on a mad programme of Groyne building , from extensive google action I get different answers , maybe pre 1950 is favourite , horrible ugly things , but I am just interested in when they started adding them all

Kit wrote:Do any of you old fuckers (tony lol) know when they went on a mad programme of Groyne building , from extensive google action I get different answers , maybe pre 1950 is favourite , horrible ugly things , but I am just interested in when they started adding them all

I confess that i had to look what one was, but ive seen tons on the east coast as long as i can remember as we'd play on them when we went on the beach

They've been all around the Essex coast for as far back as I can remember.
My mum has photos of me next to them when I was about 6 (1955) and they looked old and worn even then.

I only have a mild interest , was just wondering how old they are really

Concrete defence walls >1950's , so I am guessing that they were pre war in the main?

Definitely

Mad Tony wrote:Definitely

20's and 30's then prob.

wonder what the reason was they built so many

Some lovely watercolours and snaps here

http://www.ryepress.com/beachtex.html

before I looked into it I always assumed they were to do with WW2 lol

19th Century

Interesting stuff, i recall doing coastal erosion in Geography

http://www.coastalwiki.org/coastalwiki/Groynes

These are the only groins that interest me:

Kit wrote:

Mad Tony wrote:Definitely

20's and 30's then prob.

wonder what the reason was they built so many

To prevent longshore drift

Bert wrote:

Kit wrote:

Mad Tony wrote:Definitely

20's and 30's then prob.

wonder what the reason was they built so many

To prevent longshore drift

what did they do bert , dredge it and fuck it up or something?

No, longshore drift would zigzag sand up the coast if you let it. The tide runs up the beach at an angle from the perpendicular but is brought back vertically by gravity. Sand particles get moved up, then dragged down, moved up, dragged down and the tide ends up silting up one end with what it has stipped bare from another.

Groynes broke up the pattern. Reckon their use either came from pier building or piers were built with the knowledge of building groynes. My guess would be the latter, Victorian initiative from existing knowledge

Bert wrote:No, longshore drift would zigzag sand up the coast if you let it. The tide runs up the beach at an angle from the perpendicular but is brought back vertically by gravity. Sand particles get moved up, then dragged down, moved up, dragged down and the tide ends up silting up one end with what it has stipped bare from another.

Groynes broke up the pattern. Reckon their use either came from pier building or piers were built with the knowledge of building groynes. My guess would be the latter, Victorian initiative from existing knowledge

well thanks for your input, I do find this sort of thing very interesting , perhaps some flooding events caused the initiative?

that fanny looks like some dead newborn hairless blind mammal thingy

missyj wrote:that fanny looks like some dead newborn hairless blind mammal thingy

trust you to bring fanny into it jones , in my social history thread lol

Kit wrote:

missyj wrote:that fanny looks like some dead newborn hairless blind mammal thingy

trust you to bring fanny into it jones , in my social history thread lol

tony introduced it kit

missyj wrote:

Kit wrote:

missyj wrote:that fanny looks like some dead newborn hairless blind mammal thingy

trust you to bring fanny into it jones , in my social history thread lol

tony introduced it kit

oh sorry , trust him!

Kit wrote:

Bert wrote:No, longshore drift would zigzag sand up the coast if you let it. The tide runs up the beach at an angle from the perpendicular but is brought back vertically by gravity. Sand particles get moved up, then dragged down, moved up, dragged down and the tide ends up silting up one end with what it has stipped bare from another.

Groynes broke up the pattern. Reckon their use either came from pier building or piers were built with the knowledge of building groynes. My guess would be the latter, Victorian initiative from existing knowledge

well thanks for your input, I do find this sort of thing very interesting , perhaps some flooding events caused the initiative?

Thinking about it, Kit, tourism probably caused the initiative. You'd want to preserve a beach at a spa or resort and nature would be trying to both remove the sand and with that, remove the beach.*** Depending on what was beneath as well, the same drift would possibly leave susceptible rock open to erosion. Enough villages have been lost to the sea that way for positive action somewhere along the line

***You could tie a bathing cabin to one as well

Bert wrote:

Kit wrote:

Bert wrote:No, longshore drift would zigzag sand up the coast if you let it. The tide runs up the beach at an angle from the perpendicular but is brought back vertically by gravity. Sand particles get moved up, then dragged down, moved up, dragged down and the tide ends up silting up one end with what it has stipped bare from another.

Groynes broke up the pattern. Reckon their use either came from pier building or piers were built with the knowledge of building groynes. My guess would be the latter, Victorian initiative from existing knowledge

well thanks for your input, I do find this sort of thing very interesting , perhaps some flooding events caused the initiative?

Thinking about it, Kit, tourism probably caused the initiative. You'd want to preserve a beach at a spa or resort and nature would be trying to both remove the sand and with that, remove the beach.*** Depending on what was beneath as well, the same drift would possibly leave susceptible rock open to erosion. Enough villages have been lost to the sea that way for positive action somewhere along the line

***You could tie a bathing cabin to one as well

That certainly makes sense , you hardly see them on the South Wales coast

I dont know why nobody has written a detailed study/history of groynes , they have become these 'things' that are left from a bygone age

You still have them after a fashion, but they're usually those interlocking concrete monstrosities that look like jacks. And they are shit.

Marram grass is also used to do the same job in stabilising coastal dunes

Quite like the rock causeways that do the job now, though. Unobtrusive, unnatural nature

The tourism bit certainly makes sense especially with the time

Where I came from was a thriving tourist place until the great war, and less between the wars , after that it became a virtual backwater slum.