Photo 11 (Return)
Meon Shore and Tichfield Haven, 1978. The lagoon and freshwater marsh of Tichfield Haven occupies the reclaimed lower estuary of the Meon that was formerly tidal inland to the village of Tichfield. Drift operates from northwest to southeast (left to right) transporting sand and gravel from eroding cliff sources to beaches at Hill Head and Lee-on-the-Solent (in distance to right). A series of unusual gravel bars are apparent on the intertidal lower foreshore and either move onshore themselves, or feed gravel onshore. A possible explanation is that they could represent residual onshore feed from an abandoned ebb tidal delta on the foreshore that would have been active at a time when Tichfield Haven was a tidal estuary.