This is Stokes Bay, or at least, part of it. Stokes Bay is a shingle beach. It’s also managed. The shingle you can see is not only replenished naturally, it’s boosted by artificial supplements. I haven’t been able to find out much information about that, except that I have just found the Coastal Partners website, which is the body that manages the coastline in this area.
I became interested in Stokes Bay as a result of the u3a geological group. As usual, I was looking for a project, and the beach seemed like a reasonable subject.
I’m not going to put a huge amount of effort into this, but I am going to put more effort than just “Oh, there’s a shingle beach, that’s unusual.” Which means I will be paying quite a bit more attention to the beach than is normally the case.
I have been doing a little bit of digging (no, not on the beach, on the internet). I did find a map that was dated in the 1830’s that showed Stokes Bay being shingled. To me, I believe that means that it was a naturally shingled beach.
The beach, being managed today doesn’t mean that it’s behaviour isn’t interesting – it is. i think it is worth looking at.
Bills Posts 