2-889-416 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Great Explosion at Seaford - the Explosion - Cliff Falling, 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 operations were conducted by the Board of Ordnance...fifty-five men of the Royal Sappers and Miners engaged upon the works...In the face of the cliff, at 150 feet below the edge, a nearly horizontal gallery was cut into the chalk [with] two chambers of 7 feet cubic form, containing 12,000 lb. of powder each....Two wires, respectively in connexion with two of Grove's batteries, of five pairs of plates each, completed the arrangements for exploding the enormous charges simultaneously'. From "Illustrated London News", 1850.