In our News section this week we report on how fears the Mary Stanford Lifeboat House could collapse into the sea at any moment have led five local people to take direct action.
Using farm tractors and trailers they have placed large rocks in front of the building to try to protect it. Philip Merricks explains why he felt they had to act.
Few can fail to be moved by the tragic events of 1928 when the 17 men of the Rye Harbour lifeboat crew went to their deaths in a supremely valiant attempt to save the lives of others. An act of sacrifice which is poignantly remembered by an annual commemoration service in the little village church. An action which is eloquently remembered in a window in Winchelsea church by these words:
“These men of Rye Harbour having confirmed by the habit of a noble service, the courage handed down to them by their fathers, were quick to hear the cry of humanity above the roaring of the sea. In the darkness of their supreme hour, they stayed not to weigh doubt or danger, but went boldly into the last of all their storms.”
However, I doubt if many who attended the very moving church service in Rye Harbour a few weeks ago, were aware that the building from which the lifeboat was launched on that fateful day is is imminent danger of collapse. A building which stands on the shoreline as an iconic reminder of the bravery of others. A listed building that, for many years, has been protected from the sea by a secure bank of shingle, which in turn is held in place by a wooden groyne positioned a few yards to the east of the building. For, as most are aware, groynes have the crucial function of preventing the relentless eastward movement of the shingle, known as longshore drift.
And yet, for reasons best known to themselves, the Environment Agency (EA) have failed to maintain this particular groyne, which, as the photo below shows, has a number of horizontal wooden slats missing from its structure.
This, as a consequence, means that the groyne is unable to maintain its crucial function of securing the protective bank of shingle in front of the lifeboat house, which, in turn, has led to high tide wave action undermining the foundations of the building, as shown in the photo below.
Many might wonder why the Environment Agency have failed to maintain the structural integrity of this crucial groyne, which could have been swiftly and inexpensively repaired by the simple act of replacing the missing wooden slats as a remedial work.
Can it be that the EA were unaware that their failure to repair the groyne would lead to the undermining of the foundations in such an iconic, listed building? I think not. More likely that the EA’s local staff have had their hands tied by their head office strategy document known as the Shoreline Management Plan, compounded by the need to gain permission for any shoreline intervention from two other quangos, namely Natural England (NE) and the Marine Management Organisation(MMO). Both of whom have a statutory interest in the area.
Here is the rub. I fear that some local officials within all three agencies, (EA, NE and the MMO) may well be aware that their failure to agree on timely action will lead to to the loss of the lifeboat house but they are trapped in a three way state of bureaucratic paralysis, where holding meetings to agree to write a plan to save the lifeboat house is regarded as action.
However, the sea won’t wait for head office officials to write their next plan or their next strategy document before the moment of truth arrives when high tides coincide with high winds which will risk the building being destroyed. Hence a group of friends and myself decided that it was time to take direct action.
And so, over the last two weekends, we have taken two farm tractors and trailers, together with a farm telehandler and have loaded approximately 150 tons of granite stone blocks, known as rock armour, that was sitting wantonly unused at Rye Harbour and which we unloaded at the lifeboat house and moved into position alongside the building, to form a new groyne.
As I write these words, I’m acutely aware that large (Spring) tides are predicted for the coming weekend. Hence I doubt that I will be the only one down at the lifeboat house at the time of the high tides (approximately 11am on Saturday 6 December) in the hope that the recent action in building a new groyne will be enough to trap the shingle and hence protect the building.
In conclusion, it has become apparent that three things have emerged from recent events. The first is that the sea won’t wait for official plans, prescriptions and strategies to be formulated. The second is that a strategy which takes no account of how much an iconic building means to local people, will be disregarded. And lastly, it’s a reminder of how powerful a symbol the lifeboat house is to those who revere the memory of those 17 men who gave their lives to save others.
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Image Credits: Philip Merricks .