Porlock Bay

Recently, the shingle ridge which protects the marsh from the sea has weakened due to high water levels and stormy weather and has been breached several times over the last few years. Attempts to repair the ridge by filling the gaps with shingle and building new breakwaters have not been successful, so now a decision has been made to follow a policy of 'Natural Retreat' and see what happens. This could mean that Porlock Marsh will once again become a lagoon, as it apparently was 200 years ago.

Porlock Bay - image supplied by kind permission of Somerset Tourism, Somerset County Council

What you see today at Porlock is a dynamic example of natural coastal processes-the power of the sea pitched against the land. Rising sea level piled up shingle into a 'barrier beach' at Porlock more than eight thousand years ago. A storm in 1996 breached the beach leaving a permanent gap and subsequent storms have moved the beach 20-30m inland. After major storms the beach used to be rebuilt to protect the pastures and freshwater marsh behind it. The last major rebuild took place in 1990, but since then natural processes have been allowed to take over.

Porlock Bay

Coastal erosion has led to the exposure of areas of old land surface on Porlock Beach. The earliest remains there are of a submerged forest which is 5000-6000 years old. This was first observed in 1870, but is now disappearing rapidly. Nevertheless, tree stumps, branches and organic debris can still be seen at low tide. Porlock Ridge is nationally important for the study of coastal geomorphology. The site is owned by the National Trust and Porlock Manor Estate.

Porlock Bay

In 1998 the remains of an aurochs (the precursor of modern cattle) were found on the beach protruding from the recently exposed blue clays of an old river channel. This animal died about 3500 years ago and is therefore one of the last aurochs to be found in Britain (they died out here around 1000 BC). The bones are on display in the Porlock Visitor Centre. In 2003 more animal bones were discovered on the beach. In addition, a piece of worked timber found embedded in beach clay close to the breach in the shingle ridge has been dated to around 900AD – finds of timber from this period are very rare indeed. Coastal change at Porlock is rapidly eroding this fragile information about past landscapes, but is also providing exciting opportunities to learn more. A particular problem in recent years has been the weakening of the shingle ridge that protects Porlock Marsh, much of which is a Site of Special Scientific Interest. The ridge was probably first formed more than 8000 years ago and has been sustained, on and off, by stones from cliff falls at Culbone. The natural supply of stone from Culbone cliffs no longer reaches the beach while the shingle already there is constantly being transported by the sea to build up the eastern end of the beach while the western end becomes thinner.

A combination of high water levels and storm waves has led to the ridge being breached on several occasions, most recently in October 1996

A view of the bay from Porlock Weir looking east

For many years attempts have been made to strengthen the ridge by the use of timber groynes and by replenishing the shingle but this has proved unsuccessful. In fact it has been suggested that the failure of the ridge was due partly to management measures over years which altered and steepened the profile of the ridge making it less stable. The October storm in fact made the ridge lower and wider and thus more stable. Now, after consultation with the National Trust who own the eastern end of the ridge, Exmoor National Park Authority, English Nature and environmental consultants, it has been decided to follow a policy of ‘managed retreat’. Nature will be allowed to take its course and this is likely to result in a return to the situation of 200 years ago shown on maps of that period, with a breached ridge and a lagoon instead of a marsh.

Porlock Bay

Porlock Bay

Porlock Bay is just a small part of Exmoor's 34mile (55km) coastline. The bay is sheltered by the high moorlands surrounding it. In the delightful area between Minehead and Porlock, close to the sea, the climate is often so balmy that the locals say the grass grows all the year round. The fertile Vale of Porlock is renowned for its agriculture and horticulture. The marsh at Porlock is home to a variety of birds including several pairs of Redshanks who breed here regularly, and has been designated a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI). The difference in height between the lowest water level on the spring tides and the highest is about 8.5 metres—nearly 30 feet. These two factors, the cliff falls to the west and the high tides have helped to fashion one of the most striking natural features of the Vale of Porlock, the natural 6,000-year-old shingle ridge which geologists believe was formed with the rise in sea levels at the end of the last ice age. The South West Coastal Footpath runs close by.  The archaeological importance of Porlock Beach has been known since 1870, when traces of ancient woodland, peat deposits and worked flints were noticed amongst the shingle and sand.

The submerged forest and peat deposits have been visible since then and are revealed at low tide. However, in October 1996 the sea breached the protective shingle ridge which runs along the beach from Porlock Weir to Bossington. The shingle started to move back into the marsh and exposed blue-grey silts previously protected beneath it. These silts represent old land surfaces which contain information about some of Fxmoor's most ancient human environments. Behind the shingle ridge further peat and forest beds from the prehistoric period are preserved beneath 10 metres of sediments that had built up over the last 8000 years. At this time sea level would have been much lower than today. Exmoor was largely forested; hunters would have exploited a wealth of wild animals and birds on the hills and around the coast, and collected fruits, nuts, seeds, leaves and roots to supplement the diet. A landscape of salt marshes and lagoons alternated with wet woodland and swamp as the influence of the sea came and went. The last wet alder woodland was flooded by the sea by about 3550 BC.

In these layers were found some bones, so well preserved that they were initially thought to be the remains of a modern whale or even a cow. The bones were excavated in April 1998 and subsequent identification confirmed that they were part of the skeleton of an aurochs. The aurochs (Bos primige-nius) is the now-extinct species of wild cattle from which nearly all domestic cattle are descended. It was widespread in Britain during warmer phases of the last Ice Age, and it was often portrayed in cave art of southern France and northern Spain, approximately 35,000-10,000 years ago. Its numbers gradually declined, and the last aurochs is believed to have been killed in Poland in 1627 AD. The exact time of the extinction of the aurochs in Britain is unknown, but is believed to be around 1000 BC. The Porlock specimen, dated to approximately 1500 BC, is therefore one of the last. The animal was found lying in an area of blue clay, representing a silted up former palaeochannel - a former stream - that would have drained out from the marsh into the sea.

Finds of complete or even partial aurochs skeletons are rare. Usually, only Isolated bones are recovered. The Porlock aurochs is therefore particularly significant. While it consists only of the pelvis, parts of the backbone and the rib cage, the bones nevertheless allow a reconstruction of its sex, approximate age at death, and some aspects of its life history. The Porlock aurochs was a bull; both the size and the shape of the pelvis indicate this. It was at least 10 years old but probably much older (wild cattle probably reached a maximum age of about 25-30 years). During its long life, the aurochs suffered a series of injuries. Three of the ribs have fractures which subsequently healed. The left side of the pelvis also shows a fracture which caused the animal to limp. In one of the fractured ribs the two broken pieces did not mend, and signs of infection can be seen around the fracture. The aurochs died very shortly afterwards, probably from this injury. There is no evidence on the bones to indicate that this aurochs was killed or butchered by the prehistoric (Bronze Age) farming people living in the area at the time, although aurochs would certainly have been part of their diet.

The erosive processes that revealed the Aurochs bones in 1998 are continuing, moving the shingle ridge inland. As it does so, areas of old land surface are being revealed on the seaward side of the ridge. These vary in date from the 19th century at the upper parts to about 4000 BC at the lowest end of the beach.

In order to better understand the environment in which the aurochs lived, Exmoor National Park Authority, supported by English Heritage, carried out an excavation on Porlock Beach in April 2001. The idea was to dig through the old river channel in which the aurochs was found and to collect a series of environmental samples. Porlock Beach has revealed some extraordinary archaeological evidence in recent years and no doubt will continue to do so. 

A pebbly 4 mile long beach comprised of a shingle ridge of considerable archaeological and geographical significance. There is fabulous marshland behind the beach which is home to numerous birds.

Contributed by: Tim Holden, Marc Heddon, Harry Roberts