Changes in the mouth of the Cuckmere

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The River Cuckmere has had a similar at history to the Ouse, for high water once flooded upstream to beyond Aifriston (1 ). The mouth of the river at Cuckmere Haven is naturally confined within a narrow valley approximately 1km wide between the Chalk cliffs of South Hill to the west and Cliff End to the east.
In 1587 the Armada Survey (Fig 6a) located the mouth of the River Cuckmere at the east side of the estuary close to Cliff End, diverted to this eastern side by a broad shingle spit.
In 1724 the river mouth was at a point mid-way between the valley confines (Budgen's map) and by 1757 (Lt. Roy's map) the mouth was against the cliffs at South Hill.
The mouth appears to have continued to migrate for by the time of Yeakell and Gardner's map in 1778-83 the river is shown discharging at a mid-point again (Fig 6b). This map also shows man made embankments along the east bank, to cliff End and further embankments upstream along the east shore of the river. These were built in the mid eighteenth century to protect the farm at Foxhole Bottom from flooding. In Greenwood's map of 1825 the mouth is shown further east, approximately two thirds the way to Cliff End. By the date of production of the first edition of the Ordnance Survey 6 maps in 18 73-74 (Fig 6c) the mouth was hard against the chalk at. Cliff End diverted by a narrow spit with a maximum width of only 30m at high water. Behind the spit there was a wide shallow haven which averaged 140m from the north to the south shores. By 1899 (Fig 6d) the shingle spit had encroached into this river haven most probably as a result of storms throwing shingle over the to1) of the spit and depositing it on the landward side. By 1911 map evidence shows that the sea had broken through the spit 100m from the cliffs in the west of the valley (Fig 6e), (this was possibly caused by the same storms that breached Pagham in 1910). This created a more direct path for the river and the eastern channel started to silt up behind the shingle. Eighteen years later the channel was completely infilled by mud and shingle. Today the mouth is stabilised by metal piling 200m east of the cliffs of South Hill. The 1980 O.S. Landranger (Fig 6f) show that the old channel is occupied by a shallow lagoon which was created by the local authorities in the 1970s to encourage wildlife. The shingle bank is kept raised high above the high water line to prevent floods.
NOTES.
1. Steers, J.A. 1964:- The Coastline of England and Wales.- Cambridge pp 311.