Isle Of Sheppey Research Articles

Hydrogeochemical indications of regional flow in the Lower Greensand aquifer of the London Basin

The Lower Greensand (LGS) forms the second most important aquifer in the London Basin but, being largely absent beneath the city itself, has received much less attention than the ubiquitous overlying Chalk aquifer. While the general directions of groundwater flow in the Chalk are well established, there has been much less certainty about flow in the LGS owing to regionally sparse borehole information. This study focuses on two hitherto uncertain aspects of the confined aquifer: the sources of recharge to the west-central London Basin around Slough, and the fate of LGS water where the aquifer thins out on the flank of the London Platform in the Gravesend–Medway–Sheppey area on the southern side of the basin. The application of hydrogeochemical techniques including environmental isotopes indicates that recharge to the Slough area is derived from the northern LGS outcrop, probably supplemented by downward leakage from the Chalk, while upward leakage from the LGS in north Kent is mixing with Chalk water to the extent that some Chalk boreholes on the Isle of Sheppey are abstracting high proportions of water with an LGS fingerprint. In doing so, this study demonstrates the value of re-examining previously published data from a fresh perspective. Thematic collection: This article is part of the Hydrogeology of Sandstone collection available at: https://www.lyellcollection.org/cc/hydrogeology-of-sandstone

Intertidal cohesive foreshores: Erosion rates and processes illustrated by a shore platform at Warden Point, Kent, UK

Data are presented from a 9-year monitoring period, using a Traversing Erosion Beam (TEB), of erosional lowering of an inter-tidal shore platform developed in cohesive London Clay at Warden Point, Isle of Sheppey, Kent, UK. Over the monitoring period, average lowering decreased from >30 mm a−1 at 30 m down-platform from the MHW line to <15 mm a−1 at 75 m down-platform and <8.0 mm a−1 at the lowest measured point 120 m seaward of MHW, giving an overall average 17–18.0 mm a−1 across the measured section of platform. Differences in lowering rates recorded between the three down-platform measuring stations were statistically significant, as were differences between average annual rates and between seasons. It is suggested that these differences in recorded rates of lowering result from variation in the relative importance over space and time of sub-aerial versus marine processes of weathering and erosion. Adding the local relative sea-level rise of 2.23–2.36 mm a−1 the average annual rise in mean water level over the platform surface was ~20 mm a−1 and at the cliff-platform junction >32 mm a−1. Backed by cliffs 48 m tall retreating at a long-term average > 1.0 m a−1 the maximum contribution of platform lowering to the long-term erosional budget of the study site was ~7.4%.The significant differences in recorded annual and seasonal erosion rates indicate that extrapolation of average rates based on data collected for two years or less on such rapidly eroding platforms should be treated with caution because they may not be representative of the longer-term average rate either for the entire platform or for individual monitoring points.

Geological and Geotechnical Characteristics of London Clay from the Isle of Sheppey

The paper describes a series of experimental testing on natural stiff London clay samples retrieved from the New Hook Farm in the Isle of Sheppey, UK. The experimental program includes determination of macroscopic and microscopic properties, chemical compositions, Atterberg limits, permeability, and compressibility parameters in both intact and reconstituted states. The paper integrates the earlier studies, the new findings, and the commercial investigation results with the aim to extend the current knowledge of the geological and geotechnical characteristics of this stiff clay from the east of the London basin. Some comparisons are also made with shallow depth London clay from Heathrow Terminal 5 site.

Local participation in coastal adaptation decisions in the UK: between promise and reality

ABSTRACTIn the early years of the twenty-first century, the UK government stressed the importance of working in “partnership” with communities in England and Wales in seeking just outcomes for policies not to defend some coastal areas from the sea in the longer term. Whilst government acknowledged that some communities would need support if they were to contribute to policy decisions, a critical reading of policy statements and academic literature suggests dissonance between government prescription and the attitudes of citizens towards coastal change, their propensity and willingness to make representation through collective action and their experiences of engagement with authority in this context. Policy rhetoric underlined the importance of communities participating directly in decision-making processes. However, promises of participation were only partially fulfilled in planning exercises covering Selsey and the Isle of Sheppey in southern England – the core of this study. The availability of resources to communities seeking influence over decisions was a significant factor in the effectiveness of community representation. Whilst the authorities may have the capacities to open deliberative processes to non-traditional actors, major exercises were structured to exclude direct representation, were impermeable to some discourses and failed to deliver the promise of participation enshrined in relevant policy statements.

New Perspectives From Unstructured Interviews

In the early 1980s, Ray Pahl, a sociologist at the University of Kent, and PhD student Claire Wallace conducted interviews examining young people’s experiences of growing up, work, and unemployment on the Isle of Sheppey; these interviews are now deposited at the University of Essex, and this article examines how historians and others might reuse them to interrogate other subjects. The article examines one working-class young woman’s ideas about gender and sexuality in the early 1980s, using the Listening Guide method developed by psychologist Carol Gilligan to probe the individual subjectivity and emotion, as well as the cultural discourses at play in this interview. The interviewee was a young woman who was involved in a culture of casual sex with men “on the ships,” and the article focuses on how she saw the exchanges of money, drink, and gifts between them and herself, and how she avoided seeing her actions as “prostitution.” The analysis shows how in a particular locality in the early 1980s, a particular subculture could allow some young women to sidestep the dominant codes governing young, working-class women’s sexuality and go “on the ships” without seeing this as marking them as “prostitutes”’ or any related category. Thus, the article troubles the ontology of “prostitution” as a category. It also suggests how we can use a single individual’s narrative to offer a broader account of cultures or subcultures, by starting with the individual and examining how one subjectivity navigated and interacted with broader cultural discourses. Finally, this article also offers suggestions about some of the methodological and ethical issues with reusing archived sociological data but argues that it holds rich possibilities.

Landslide activity in London Clay at Warden Point, Isle of Sheppey, SE England

The Port of London Authority (PLA) has for many years maintained a radar station at Warden Point, Isle of Sheppey, on the south side of the Thames Estuary. Until 1991, the station was manned continuously, but at that time, the cliff edge encroached close to the (unmanned) radar building seaward of the main station, and when the radar antennae were moved to a site further inland (but still within the same small compound), the opportunity was taken to convert to wholly unmanned operation and to demolish the existing buildings. The aerial photographs in this photographic feature have been selected from a sortie by Commission Air made on 27 January 2011 at or around low tide, specifically to permit the foreshore and cliffs in the vicinity of Warden Point to be viewed in connection with the PLA’s continuing interest in the cliff retreat at this site. These photographs are reproduced by kind permission of the Port of London Authority, who hold the copyright. The radar station is situated close to a small hamlet that is affected by the retreat of the coastal cliffs, having lost its church (St James’s) in the 19th century. A pile of rubble on the foreshore may mark the eventual position of its remains. Figure 1 is a long distance view in a southerly direction from the start of the sequence showing Warden Point. An account of the landslides at this site has been given by Dixon & Bromhead (2002). Outcomes of that research included confirmation that there were low pore water pressures in the clay owing to undrained unloading, and added significantly to the stock of back analysed residual strengths. Fig. 1. General aerial view of Warden Point looking in a southerly direction. Figure reproduced with kind permission of Port of London …

Social housing retrofit strategies in England and France: A parametric and behavioural analysis

IFORE (Innovation for Renewal) is an EU Interreg funded partnership including two large housing associations, one in England, one in France, and a university from each country. The project is an exemplar large-scale retrofit, 100 houses have been retrofitted at Rushenden, on the Isle of Sheppey (Kent, England), and a similar number at Outreau, a suburb of Boulogne (Pas-de-Calais, France). This paper offers an overview of the methods used by the project team to find common solutions and to identify similarities between retrofit measures and occupant's behaviour in both countries. The cross-border nature of IFORE makes the project also original in relation to other similar national retrofit projects that have been developed prior to it. Dynamic thermal simulation was used to evaluate the thermal behaviour of the buildings refurbished. It is a valuable decision-making tool when assessing alternative retrofit measures. Initial surveys were carried out to make a classification of the housing stock which formed the context for the computer simulations. Some results from the simulations, carried out with ESP-r in England and Pleiade+Comfie in France, are presented in this paper. The comparison of the results from the two simulation tools shows great similarity between the two methods, which gave confidence for their use in evaluating alternative specifications for the works that have now been adopted for retrofit. At the same time sociological studies have characterised the populations in order to bring the most advantageous results from the retrofit works in reducing carbon emissions but also reducing fuel poverty whilst improving comfort standards.

Enhanced West Nile virus surveillance in the North Kent marshes, UK.

BackgroundAs part of efforts to more fully understand the potential risks posed by West Nile virus (WNV) and Usutu virus (USUV) in the UK, and following on from previous reports of a potential bridge vector Culex modestus for these viruses, at wetland sites in North Kent, mosquito surveillance was undertaken more widely across the Isle of Sheppey, the Hoo Peninsula and the Kent mainland.MethodsLarval surveys were conducted and Mosquito Magnet® adult traps were used to collect adult mosquitoes. Pools of female mosquitoes were tested for the presence of WNV using real-time reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction. A subset of samples was tested for USUV.ResultsCulex modestus was found in both the pre-imaginal and imago stage at all five locations surveyed, accounting for 90% of adult mosquitoes collected. WNV or USUV were not detected in any sample.ConclusionsAlthough no mosquitoes have been shown to be virus positive, the field survey data from this study demonstrated the dominance of an important bridge vector species for WNV in this region. Its wide geographical distribution highlights the need to update risk assessments on WNV introduction, and to maintain vigilance for WNV in the South East of England.

The Challenges and Opportunities of Re-Studying Community on Sheppey: Young People's Imagined Futures

The ‘Living and Working on Sheppey: Past, Present and Future’ project took its starting point from the research undertaken by Ray Pahl and his team three decades ago on the Isle of Sheppey. In 2009–11, we revisited some of Pahl's archived material, collected new (including some replicated) data and produced new materials, working collaboratively with community members of the Blue Town Heritage Centre on Sheppey. In this article, we examine the methodological challenges and opportunities of re-studying communities in this way, discuss the implications of community involvement in carrying out a re-study, and present some findings from one aspect of the re-study: young people's imagined futures in 1978 and 2009–10.

Working with material from the Sheppey archive

This article reflects on the experience of working with archived data in the Living and Working on Sheppey project which revisited material from Ray Pahl’s research on the Isle of Sheppey, published in the modern sociological classic, Divisions of Labour (1984). The article considers the reasons for revisiting archived material and some of the opportunities and challenges of working with archived material. For this discussion, we focus on one particular element of the original research: a collection of essays written by school leavers in 1978, and the archived notes from Pahl’s preliminary analysis of these data. We also draw on interviews with Pahl about this aspect of his research, and our experience of repeating the essay-writing exercise. We conclude with some comments on the dynamic character of the archive.

The fine sediment regime of the Thames Estuary – A clearer understanding

Estuaries are well known to be ecologically important in themselves with their high biological productivity and as habitat areas of wider value, for example, for over wintering water birds. Fine sediments have an important role in estuarine functioning both as settled material forming intertidal areas (mudflats and salt marsh) and in suspension. Hence the fine sediment regime of an estuary is a key consideration in understanding and managing an estuarine system.A reappraisal of the fine sediment regime of the Thames Estuary has been undertaken with reference to new observations of suspended sediment concentrations and collated morphological change data.The new observations of suspended sediments made in 2004 showed a very similar form of the longitudinal variability of suspended sediment concentrations compared to the last estuary-wide survey undertaken in 1969 with the turbidity maximum centred 50 km landward of Southend.The assessment of historic morphological change indicated that over the 20th Century the Thames has experienced differing types of morphological change (anthropogenic and natural) in the upper estuary landward of London Bridge and in the lower estuary seaward of Barking. In the upper estuary the sub-tidal channel has deepened and widened and has been accompanied a loss of intertidal area. In the lower estuary the sub-tidal channel has deepened and narrowed accompanied by a gain in intertidal area. The recent regime of morphological change in the estuary is characterised by intertidal accretion with some sub-tidal erosion.The inclusion of morphological change into the fine sediment budget has removed the discrepancy between sediment inputs and outputs to the Thames Estuary that was hitherto assumed to be proof of large amounts of sediment coming into the Thames from marine sources. Whilst the possibility of some sediment sourced from the seaward end of the estuary, for example from cliff erosion on the Isle of Sheppey or dredging in Sea Reach cannot be completely excluded, the sediment budget does not require a large marine input in order to present a coherent picture of the fine sediment regime of the estuary.

A fossil head of an enicocephalomorphan (Hemiptera: Heteroptera) from England revisited: Identity of the first fossil species of Enicocephalidae from Europe

&dagger; Pyrenicocephalus jarzembowskii, gen. et sp. n. (Hemiptera: Heteroptera: Enicocephalomorpha: Enicocephalidae: Enicocephalinae) from Early Eocene, London Clay, England, Isle of Sheppey, is described and illustrated according to the unique pyritized adult head reported as a larval enicocephalid head by Jarzembowski (1986). The head anatomy of similar and related genera of Enicocephalinae is compared and the close relationship of the new genus to a clade including the extant genera Oncylocotis, Embolorrhinus and Hoplitocoris is suggested, most probably as the sister genus to Hoplitocoris (presently with Afrotropical, East Palaearctic and Oriental range).

Peter John Cook

Born on the Isle of Sheppey, Peter John Cook followed in his father’s footsteps to attend Guy’s Hospital and study medicine. His brother Leonard followed him into medicine and to...

Design and construction of the New Sheppey Crossing, UK

The £100 million A249 Iwade bypass to Queenborough improvement scheme includes a new road bridge over the Swale and the construction of road links on either side, improving transport links between the Isle of Sheppey and mainland Kent. The Highways Agency awarded a 30-year design, build, finance and operate contract to Sheppey Route Limited in February 2004. Sheppey Route Limited's contractor, Carillion, has designed and constructed the 5·6 km long A249 Iwade bypass to Queenborough improvement. The bridge and road project were completed during summer 2006. The existing A249 crosses the Swale via a vertical lifting bridge and there are long delays to traffic when it is raised to allow shipping through. The new Swale Crossing is a vital part of the scheme and will provide major benefits by reducing congestion and improving journey times on the route because it is high enough for ships to pass underneath. This paper describes the design, fabrication, erection and construction of the new Swale High-level Crossing.

A device for measuring downwearing rates on cohesive shore platforms

AbstractThe device described in this paper, known as the traversing erosion beam, is believed to be the first to be designed specifically for measuring rates of downwearing of cohesive foreshores, such as clay shore platforms, under high‐energy wave conditions. It is primarily constructed of Flexlink Aluminium Structural System components and consists of a horizontal beam with a main leg and two further support legs. A sliding ‘dolly’ module is moved along the beam at precise intervals using a longitudinal scale as a reference. The topographic profile of the measurement surface is transferred to the dolly by a vertical sliding steel alloy rod, from which the relative height differences are measured by a separate engineer's digital height gauge placed on the dolly. The main leg of the device fits into a marine grade stainless steel box, which is deeply embedded into the foreshore or shore platform to act a permanent datum. The box is robust and can be expected to have a lifetime of at least a year, and possibly even five years or more.Sample data are provided from a clay shore platform at Warden Point in the Isle of Sheppey, Kent (UK), which demonstrate that the TEB can provide information on seasonal as well as annual rates of downwearing. The device has also been tested successfully on a peat and clay foreshore at Pett Level in Sussex and on a shore platform cut in glacial till at Easington, Yorkshire. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley &amp; Sons, Ltd.

The Rushenden Estate, Queenborough, Kent: An Early British Industrial Estate

Queenborough, a town with origins as a medieval planted settlement on the Isle of Sheppey, Kent, is set for major redevelopment over the coming years as part of the regeneration of the Thames Gateway region. English Heritage has produced an Historic Area Appraisal,1 and, in the course of its research, documents relating to a hitherto obscure Edwardian industrial estate came to light. Laid out from 1904, the Rushenden Estate is significant because it was one of the first factory estates in the wake of Trafford Park, Manchester (1896), widely acknowledged as Britain's2 — or even the world's3 — world's first industrial estate. Despite some economic history analyses and studies of individual sites, the subject of early industrial estates is surprisingly incomplete. Using material evidence derived from documentary research and fieldwork, this paper describes the evolution and growth of the Rushenden Estate, placing it in regional and typological contexts and within the milieu of the 'Second Industrial Revolution'.

Meeting report: Soft coastal cliff: understanding and managing retreat

This article reports on a seminar held at the Institution of Civil Engineers in May 2004. This, and a previous meeting in 2002, stemmed from Government-funded research into soft cliff erosion. While the previous meeting dealt with the theory, this one dealt with more practical issues by way of four papers. Dr Neil Dixon described work carried out on landsliding of unprotected London Clay cliffs at Warden Point on the Isle of Sheppey. Dr Alan Clark described practical examples of engineering schemes at Lyme Regis and at Castlehaven, Niton and the Military Road on the Isle of Wight. The final two papers described aspects of work on the Norfolk coast: Dr Mike Walkden presented a process-based regional model of shoreline recession while Peter Frew of North Norfolk District Council described the problems faced by his authority in managing a retreating coastline where property is under threat.

PERCEIVED NUISANCE OF MOSQUITOES ON THE ISLE OF SHEPPEY, KENT, UK

Little is known about the biting nuisance of mosquitoes in the UK, despite the high numbers found in some locations. A telephone questionnaire survey was used to determine the perceived nuisance of biting insects on the Isle of Sheppey, Kent, a place notorious for mosquitoes. Two hundred randomly selected individuals were interviewed and asked if they suffered from mosquito bites. If they answered yes, they were asked to describe where and when they were bitten, and what measures they took against mosquitoes. Forty-six percent of respondents completed the questionnaire. Of those, 50% reported being bitten by mosquitoes, mostly outside during the summer. Seventy percent said that most biting occurred during the evening and night. Of those respondents who protected themselves against biting (27), most used repellents (70%), with the remainder changing their behaviour to avoid mosquitoes, including closing or screening windows (33%), wearing thicker clothes (7%) and spraying insecticide (4%). One person slept under a bednet in summer (4%). This study provides evidence that on the Isle of Sheppey mosquitoes are considered a major nuisance by a sizeable proportion of the population. Since there is growing interest in the threat posed by new and emerging diseases in the UK, health authorities will need to make substantial efforts to inform and reassure the public about the threats posed by mosquitoes in areas where they are common.

Landsliding in London Clay coastal cliffs

Factors controlling rotational landsliding in the unprotected London Clay coastal cliffs atWarden Point, Isle of Sheppey, Kent, aredescribed. Surveys of the landslides have been carried out at regular intervals since1971, and these are supported by an extensive subsurface investigation that included the installation of 56 piezometers. These studies have resulted in an understanding of the pore water pressures in the cliffs, including the role of undrained unloading resulting from slope formation, and pore pressures within the landslide mass ‘carried down’ the slope. The zone of depressed pore pressures is carried inland with the slope as the coastline retreats. Factors controlling the shear strength mobilized during first-time slides, and rates of movement, include geological control on the position of the slip surface and reduction in shear strength to close to the residual value along the basal section of the slip surface. This strength reduction results from stress relief controlled pre-failure deformations. A simple model is proposed to allow calculation of pore water pressures associated with the degrading slide mass. These have enabled back-analyses to be carried out which extend the residual shear strength envelope for London Clay to high effective normal stress levels, and explain the rate of re-activated slide movements.

Depth-dependent permeability in London Clay measured using standpipe piezometer equilibration data

An investigation into the pore water pressure regimes in the actively eroding London Clay coastal slopes at Warden Point, Isle of Sheppey, Kent included the installation of 56 standpipe piezometers at a range of depths down to 60 m below original ground level. As expected, given the active coastal environment, a significant number of the instruments were destroyed before final equilibration water levels had been obtained. Using initial equilibration data from the fully equilibrated instruments, it is demonstrated that Hvorslev's theory for the response of a piezometer located in incompressible soil is valid for standpipe piezometers installed in unweathered London Clay. Using this theory a simple method is proposed for predicting the final equilibration water level of partially equilibrated instruments. The initial equilibration data from 13 of the piezometers were of sufficient quality to enable calculations of in situ, permeability. These demonstrate a relationship of decreasing permeability with depth for London Clay, conforming to and greatly extending the small number of existing results. Les pentes côdères de Warden Point, dans l'lle de Sheppey, dans le Kent, sont constituées d'argile de Londres qui subit une érosion active. Dans le cadre d'une étude des régimes de pression d'eau interstitielle, on a installé 56 piézomètres sur des tuyaux verticaux enfoncés agrave; diverses profondeurs, jusqu'à 60 m en dessous du niveau original du sol. Comme l'on s'y attendait, étant donné l'activité de l'environnement c&amp;cric;tier, un nombre significatif d'instruments a été détruit avant que les niveaux définitifs d'eau équilibrante n'aient été obtenus. En utilisant des données d'équilibre initiales produites par les instruments entièrement équilibrés, nous avons démontré que la théorie de Hvorslev pour la réponse d'un piézomètre situé dans un sol incompressible est valable pour des piézomètres installés sur des tuyaux verticaux dans de l'argile de Londres non altérée. En utilisant cette théorie, nous proposons une méthode simple pour prédire le niveau final de l'eau d'équilibre des instruments parrtiellement équilibrés. Les données d'équilibre initiales produites par 13 des piézométres étaient de qualité suffisante pour permettre les calculs de perméabilitéin-situ. Ceux-ci montrent une relation de perméabilité décroissante avec la profondeur pour l'argile de Londres, ce qui confirme le petit nombre de résultats existants et permet d'aller au-delà.