2-889-314 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Great Explosion at Seaford - Seaford Bay and Cliff, 1850. Long shore drift at Seaford in Sussex was causing deposition of debris to such an extent that Seaford Bay, a long time safe haven for shipping, was in danger of becoming too shallow for navigation. A plan was conceived to blow up part of Seaford Head and create a bank to divert the current. 'The operation of "blasting" or hurling by the explosion of gunpowder, an immense mass of chalk cliff from the heights at Seaford, down upon the beach, was effected...with perfect success...The Seaford Cliff is a high range of chalk (from 200 to 300 feet in height)...the present experiments were undertaken, with a view to throw out into the sea such a mass of the cliff as shall cause a change in the direction of the tidal current, and so carry the accumulating matter farther to sea into deeper water'. From "Illustrated London News", 1850.