| Luccombe Bay | |
|---|---|
 Luccombe Bay looking to the north | |
  Luccombe Bay Luccombe Bay shown within the Isle of Wight | |
| Civil parish | |
| Ceremonial county | |
| Region | |
| Country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| EU Parliament | South East England |
| UK Parliament | |
Luccombe Bay is a bay on the south-east coast of the Isle of Wight, England. It lies to the east of Luccombe Village from which it takes its name. It faces south-east towards the English Channel, its shoreline is 2⁄3 mile (1.1 km) in length. [1] It consists of a predominantly sand and shingle beach lined with sea cliffs which range from 200 to 280 feet (60 to 85 m) in height. [2] It stretches from Horse Ledge in the north to Bordwood Ledge in the south. The sea bottom is a mixture of mud and rocks.
The Isle of Wight is a county and the largest and second-most populous island in England. It is in the English Channel, between 2 and 5 miles off the coast of Hampshire, separated by the Solent. The island has resorts that have been holiday destinations since Victorian times, and is known for its mild climate, coastal scenery, and verdant landscape of fields, downland and chines.
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to the west and Scotland to the north-northwest. The Irish Sea lies west of England and the Celtic Sea lies to the southwest. England is separated from continental Europe by the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south. The country covers five-eighths of the island of Great Britain, which lies in the North Atlantic, and includes over 100 smaller islands, such as the Isles of Scilly and the Isle of Wight.
The English Channel, also called simply the Channel, is the body of water that separates Southern England from northern France and links the southern part of the North Sea to the Atlantic Ocean. It is the busiest shipping area in the world.
Along the top of the cliffs which line the bay is the site of the National trust maintained 4 1⁄2-mile (7.2 km) Luccombe and the Landslip Walk.
A national trust is an organisation dedicated to preserving the cultural heritage of a particular geographic region. Although the focus of a national trust may vary by region, the principal role is to ensure the preservation of historically significant items, and to conserve areas of natural beauty. National trusts generally operate as private non-profit organizations. The first such trust organisation, The Trustees of Reservations, originated in 1890 as a regional group serving the state of Massachusetts, USA. The first national trust, the National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty, was founded in England in 1895 and operates as a charitable organisation serving England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Other national trusts have since been set up around the world.
The bay is best viewed from Luccombe Chine which descends to the beach about two-thirds of the way along the bay. There was a footpath down a set of wooden steps to the beach from the coastal path, but these are currently closed due to damage from landslips. A small fishing community existed at the foot of the Chine on the bay until it was destroyed in the Great Landslip of 1910. The area is the site of a lot of erosion and cliff retreat (though no cliff failures), with a loss of around a foot (30cm) per year. [2]
Luccombe Chine is a geological feature and visitor attraction south of the village of Luccombe on the Isle of Wight, England. A wooded coastal ravine, one of a number of such chines on the island created by stream erosion of soft Cretaceous rocks, it leads from the clifftop to Luccombe Bay.
In earth science, erosion is the action of surface processes that removes soil, rock, or dissolved material from one location on the Earth's crust, and then transports it to another location. This natural process is caused by the dynamic activity of erosive agents, that is, water, ice (glaciers), snow, air (wind), plants, animals, and humans. In accordance with these agents, erosion is sometimes divided into water erosion, glacial erosion, snow erosion, wind (aeolic) erosion, zoogenic erosion, and anthropogenic erosion. The particulate breakdown of rock or soil into clastic sediment is referred to as physical or mechanical erosion; this contrasts with chemical erosion, where soil or rock material is removed from an area by its dissolving into a solvent, followed by the flow away of that solution. Eroded sediment or solutes may be transported just a few millimetres, or for thousands of kilometres.
