On Christmas Eve in 1839, a family returning to their home in the evening found that part of the garden appeared to have sunk by around 2ft and that they had difficulty opening the door. During that night a huge rending sound was heard and in the morning the cottage had mysteriously 'slid' some way from the path.
This came to be known as The Great Slip of 1839, in which a large tract of land known as a blockside, below Bindon Manor and Dowlands Farm, had broken away from the mainland. A great chasm appeared between the cliffs and the tract of land, which later became known as Goat Island.
It quickly became famous, attracting many sightseers, and was especially noted as the first natural event to be studied and described by scientific means. William Conybeare and William Buckland, eminent scientists of the day, were on hand to observe, explain and provide insights, which are still useful to current research today.
The land above the cliffs was mainly used for farming and the Goat Island plateau contained part of a wheat field. The following August, a ceremonial harvest was conducted, the harvesters led onto the island by four young maids wearing white dresses and carrying gold-painted sickles adorned with ribbons, followed by a brass band.
The harvest was carried out (no doubt with plenty of good Devon Cider for refreshment) and much of the wheat was sold as souvenirs, thus heralding the enterprising tourist trade: one farmer was so fed up with people crossing his land that he began charging an entrance fee and a tearoom was opened to sell refreshments for the many sightseers.
National publicity not only attracted thousands of tourists but also included Queen Victoria, many people visiting by paddle steamer. A piece of music called the Landslide Quadrille was written in honour of it and a large amount of prints and engravings were made, which now provide an invaluable record showing how the environment has changed since then. Some of these can be seen in Lyme Regis Museum.
In the 1950's the area was designated a National Nature Reserve and is now part of England's first natural UNESCO World Heritage Site - the Jurassic Coast, from Orcombe Point in Exmouth, East Devon, to Old Harry Rocks in Dorset - displaying a progressive geological sequence of 185 million years, including the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous periods along its stretch.
This particular stretch, known as the Undercliff, spans between Axmouth, the east side of the River Axe at Seaton in Devon, to Lyme Regis in West Dorset. There have been many other landslips before and since the Great Slip of 1839, the area being one of great instability.
There are few parts where you can actually see the sea as most of the walk is heavily wooded and overgrown, partly due to the instability of the terrain closer to the edge, thereby necessitating that the path be a little further inland. The temperate climate and south-facing, sheltered bay has its own micro-climate, and many rare plants and other wildlife thrive here.
I completed the whole of this walk in 2008. It's a site where once on you can only exit at either end, and I'd previously managed half the walk (and back again) twice, but never the whole length before. It's a seven and a half mile walk as the crow flies, and all the tourist brochures and websites say that it can be walked in three and a half to four hours. However, the terrain is very rough and it's a strenuous walk with many twists and turns, not to mention the ups and downs!
The walk took considerably longer than that; some six hours in all. It's not one to do by yourself as, apart from the possibility of a fall and a broken limb, there are also adders basking on the heathland parts. They are the only poisonous snake in Britain and although they aren't aggressive (they'll only bite if disturbed and threatened), and although the venom is easily treatable, it does necessitate getting someone who's been bitten to a hospital as quickly as possible without them having to walk. I don't own a mobile phone so I don't know if there's any signal along the undercliff - which I would have thought not - so a companion is necessary to go and get help.
The general rule is to have a party of at least three. If someone is hurt one of the others can go for help and the other(s) to stay with the injured to keep them comfortable and not alone. As it happens there were only two of us on my walk; myself and a friend who was visiting on holiday. Fortunately, we didn't pitch head first into a chasm or accidentally tread on any snakes! ;)
As all the tourist information will tell you, it's unsafe to leave the designated path, due to the hidden fissures and chasms. It was a long time ago when I did the half-walks - almost 40 years since the first time, and around 32 years since the second time - and the chasms on the inland side could be seen quite clearly then. They were very deep with huge lianas of ivy roots snaking down. I saw an adder basking on a rock during the first walk too.
Because of the very steep terrain in parts, there are many log-banked flights of steps to make the walk easier now (they weren't there the first times I'd walked it). They look rather cute...until you've climbed up and walked down about thirty of them!
Some are short, others are long...and then there is this one!
Below Bindon are the remains of the Pumping House, which was used to bring water up to the farms and cottages on the cliff above, until a later landslide swept away some of the land and a ram. Only the chimney and part of the watercourse remains, along with the foundations of the house.
The house itself was still there during my first walks, albeit just a shell then, and I could kick myself for not taking any photos of it when I had the chance.
Behind the chimney is this rather magical watercourse. Now overgrown with water plants, reeds, ferns and mosses it looks like a lovely water garden.
Opposite is the stream emerging from beneath the path, with the remains of a wall a few yards downstream. I'm not sure what that was for but I'd hazard a guess that it's a dam to control the flow.
That's pretty much the halfway mark of the walk. I didn't take as many photos after that, as I was finding the walk quite a challenge by then. I have something which has been diagnosed as Polyarthritis by one doctor and Fibromyalgia by another doctor, but whatever it is it causes severe joint problems, and after a lengthy and strenuous walk I was in some considerable difficulty with stiff and painful joints. However, onward and upward! And there was certainly a lot of that, and I groaned to see a very long flight of log steps at the beginning of the second half!
One of the interesting bits was this house, which slipped down in it's entirety during the Great Landslide of 1839. Since abandoned, it gradually fell apart and is now just the remains of a single wall.
A few other bits and bobs below; an old metal pipe, the foundation or surrounding wall remains of a building...
...and looking over a chasm, a concrete pipe disgorging a stream of water.
Only two and a half miles to go!
And finally we saw the view across Lyme Bay.
The photo below also shows the Cobb, a stone-built harbour made famous by the film "The French Lieutenant's Woman" from the book written by John Fowles and filmed in Lyme Regis and parts of the Undercliff. John Fowles lived in Underhill Farm at the time that he wrote the book, published in 1969. He later lived in another historical house in Lyme itself (Belmont House) and I am very proud to have had the privilege to be invited there to meet him. A lovely man who was willing to take the time to discuss an animation proposal about the Undercliff over coffee.
"I Hate The Undercliff". That was the slogan written on the t-shirts of the film crew. With the twisting paths, rough terrain and the possible need of a machete, they weren't too enamoured with the problems encountered by carting their equipment out there. I almost felt the same towards the end of the walk, when the last few steps were just a step too far, but it's a special place with a huge amount of history and I'm really glad that I did the whole of the walk at last.
And I even got to see a little bit of Underhill Farm (below) just before the end at Ware in Lyme Regis.
So, after around six hours, with a lunch break of sandwiches and coffee, plus breather and photo stops, we finally made it into the town. We treated ourselves to some chips from the local 'chippy', which we ate whilst standing looking out to sea...no seats for us hardy souls, lol...before catching the bus back to Seaton. Well earned!
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