Holderness Coast Visit

On Friday 1st July, the second year of Ripon Grammar School travelled 72 miles to the beautiful Holderness Coast.

Upon arrival, we walked down many steps to Flamborough Head. We learnt that waves eroding the cliffs causes wave-cut notches, which is where the waves crash into the coast at such force some of it falls down causing an over hanging cliff.

We carried out an experiment to observe the different sizes of sediment. We concluded that the closer to the sea, the smaller and rounder the shingle was. This is because the ones nearer the cliff have most recently fallen and have experienced less attrition and solution than the ones closer to the sea which had eroded more.

After climbing back up the steps from the bay, we went up to Flamborough Head to see the stack and arches that were a result of erosion. There was a large arch in the cliff caused by abrasion and hydraulic action and a smaller arch forming. A long time in the future, the large arch will collapse due to the waves and form a stack.

Bridlington was our next destination. After eating our lunch and buying an ice cream we watched longshore drift happen with an orange! To do this, we measured out 10 m and timed how long it took for the fetch of the waves to make the swash push the orange in a direction.

After this, we proceeded to take notes of things we could see on and around the beach, as well as along the beach front in Bridlington. After studying the aesthetic value and practicality of the beach flood defences, we were allowed to wander down the beach and skim stones.

72 miles, five hours, an action-packed day and many geographical facts later, the second years arrived back at Ripon Grammar School!

By Emma Adams 2A

On 1st July the second year journeyed to the East Coast to study the structure of our British coastline. Our investigation began at Flamborough Head, where we strolled through the long grass, gazing out to the vast sea.

We were mesmerized by the "Flamborosaurus”, its long head drinking from the salty sea. This imaginative metaphor (described to us by our teacher) really helped when we were taught to geographically draw Flamborough’s headland. This involved illustrating the promontory’s strata and identifying the water level on the cliffs at high tide. These fascinating white chalk sea cliffs are the only example to be found in the North, and provide a home to over 200,000 seabirds, these include Atlantic Puffins and Kittiwakes. The porous nature of chalk gives rise to natural arches and caves, dramatically shaping this prehistoric landscape.

After this we took the 194 wet muddy steps down to a beautiful beach. The shore had a wonderful range of pebbles which we learnt were due to longshore drift, as the beach was made of chalk, meaning all the other pebbles must have from other coastline destinations.

We observed the different colours and shapes of pebbles as we got closer to the shore, and recorded our results on a worksheet. Our findings displayed that the smaller pebbles were nearer the shore line, as they had been subjected to more erosive action from the sea.

We were also lucky enough to spot some other inhabitants - two playful, curious seals, which received a lot of paparazzi attention!!

Aisha Preece, 2C