Photo 12 (Return)

Evolution of Pagham Harbour Entrance 1955-66. This sequence of photographs illustrates the instability of the inlet and the highly dynamic nature of the spits prior to inlet stabilisation in 1963. In 1955 the inlet was close to the root of Church Norton spit at a position established artificially in 1937. Shortly after the 1955 photo, a major breach occurred over a wide front during a storm and by 1958 the entrance was some 700m wide. Rapid drift thereafter led to a further NE extension of the Church Norton spit across the inlet narrowing it to 250m by 1961. The entrance channel was stabilised by a training wall along the distal end of the Pagham spit completed in 1963, and this situation has been maintained subsequently. Note the evolution and shifting positions of the ebb and flood tidal deltas as the inlet altered size and position. Note also the numerous gravel bars in the nearshore that migrate shoreward supplying gravel to the beaches and spits. Wave action drives sediment ashore in the form of swash bars that migrate landward from the margins of the delta. (Photos : Environment Agency).