Starter-The Coast & Music-Benjamin Britten

1. Starter-The Coast & Music-Benjamin Britten • Benjamin Britten was one of the most famous English 20th century composers. He lived in Suffolk and he was inspired by the landscape that he lived in. His opera, ‘Peter Grimes’, is all about a young fisherman who was accused (wrongly) of murder and he eventually decided to commit suicide by drowning at sea. Rather a sad story, but some of the music is very good! You are going to hear two pieces from his ‘4 Sea Interludes’. • As you listen to each of the pieces, write down some of your thoughts. What images do you get in your head- think about the following: - • What time of day could it be? • What is the weather like? • What do you think the sea is like? • What sort of a seascape do you think of? Make sure you explain your ideas. How do the two pieces of music differ?

2. What did the music mean to you? • Track 1 • Discussion • The track is called ‘Dawn’ and is meant to evoke intermittent gusts of wind and lapping waves • Track 2 • Discussion • The track is called ‘Storm’ and is meant to evoke images and of a violent sea sweeping everything before it • Was your interpretation similar to this?

3. An Example of a Small-Scale Coastline that has Changed over time- East Head Spit, West Sussex • The music you have just listened to suggests that the sea can be both peaceful, but also extremely powerful. In fact, the coast is dynamic- a great example of this can be found at East Head spit where both calm and stormy seas have created the landscape • By the end of the lesson, you will understand the physical processes and the issues involved at East Head

4. Where is East Head?

5. What is it like? • The picture here was taken from Google Earth which lets you explore aerial photography and Bird’s Eye views The ‘Hinge’- was going to be breached permanently until the rock berm was constructed

6. Spits • Spits are long, narrow accumulations of sand/shingle with one end joined to the mainland and the other projecting out to sea or across a river estuary. • They form where the orientation of the coastline changes. Sediment is deposited and it continues to grow over time. • They develop a hooked end due to a succession of storm events from the opposite direction to the prevailing wind, and also due to wave refraction. • Spits become more permanent when people build groynes, but also naturally by the formation of salt marshes behind the spit. • Spits reach an equilibrium when stretching across an estuary as the water becomes too deep for the sediment to continue to build above the level of the sea. The strong currents of the river prevent them from extending further too. • The Animation will explain further! Click here for a Flash animation showing how spits form from the Wycombe High School geography portal.

7. Discussion Rates of retreat have been about 1-2 metres per year- however, 1 metre was lost in a single storm events in 2000 The ‘hinge’ (the narrowest part) was breached in 1964 due to high tides and strong storm events. It has also been suggested that trampling of the sand dunes by tourists could have made things worse 1786-1866: No defences along the coast- lots of sediment reached the spit and it built up Defences from 1887 onwards: lack of sediment supply and wave action caused the spit to reduce in size and retreat What Have You Found Out?

8. What has been done and why bother? • http://www.conservancy.co.uk/learn/places/easthead.htm has much more information on this! • A virtual field trip is available at http://www.conservancy.co.uk/learn/places/ft_easthead/easthead.htm • I took a number of photos on my trip to East Head. However, unfortunately I have lost my notes on the protection strategies and also a record of where I took the photos. Can you help me on the following slides? • You will need to plot on where the pictures were taken and in which direction is was facing • Can you also suggest what management has taken place in the picture and why it was used?

9. Place each of these pictures on the map with an arrow pointing in the direction of which the photo was taken.. Part 1

10. Place each of these pictures on the map with an arrow pointing in the direction of which the photo was taken.. Part 2

11. Next time… (some suggestions) • Follow-up tasks could include: • Should it have been protected? Use the website to see what species are present on the spit/ salt marsh • Use tourist numbers to plot on map traffic counts/ pedestrian counts/ user surveys etc- this could be done using GIS • Perhaps a list of possible defence methods with costings- give the students a budget and they have to present what they have done to manage/protect the spit- they could annotate a map using an interactive white board

12. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16