The Horse Shoe Bite

A Memory of Newhaven.

The small sandy beach at Newhaven was known as the horse shoe bite. It was completely covered at high tide, but as the water receded, it exposed fine golden sand, ideal for making castles and getting in your sandwiches. A row of barnacle-peppered rocks along the breakwater wall also got revealed with the falling tide, where a myriad of crabs hid amongst the clinging seaweed and a wonderland of rockpools formed, waiting to be explored.  
In the distance on the left of the photo you can just see the beginning of the breakwater, it's on the right of the harbour as you look at the sea. It was a good walk to the end, where generally in good weather there'd be a gaggle of fishermen dangling their lines. One half of the breakwater, as you proceeded seawards, was sheltered from the west by a high wall, inside of which was a sheltered promenade, fronted by arched openings that ran its entire length. In fine weather we would race along the exposed top of this covered way, but on stormy days it wasn't the place to be caught, and we'd watch the waves crash and cascade over the grey concrete sea defence from a safe distance, closer to the harbour. My mum told us that when she was a youngster, she and her brother would dive of the end of the breakwater at high tide. It sounded dicey to me, as she said you had to time it right, and wait for the wavesto rise and give you a good depth of water. It was something we were discouraged from doing.  
Frequently there were car ferries and cargo boats entering or exiting the harbour, and the wash from the boats would send out large waves. These we were allowed to play in, and we'd swim out of our depth to catch the biggest of them and surf in on our bellys, fabulous fun. We had many giggles watching the uninitiated getting swamped by the suddenly swollen waves. The tide in the bite could catch you napping too, as it would creep in along the rocks and get you from behind.
When the tide prohibited you from gaining access to the sandy beach, we'd spend time on the West beach to the far side of the breakwater. It was a steep beach with big smooth chalk boulders lolling among flint pebbles like beached white whales. It was totally different from the sheltered sandy horse shoe, the sea was always rougher, but much more productive as far as driftwood and interesting flotsom and jetsom were concerned, and a great place to enhance mum's collection of holey pebbles.
The other oddity I remember was the old fort and moat. The fort was tunnelled under the white chalk cliffs, fronted with brick arches and barred windows. The fort itself had been boarded up for years, but the moat was behind the horse shoe beach, and sea water would flood in under the road at high tide, and out again as the tide ebbed. The smell from the thick gooey mud the receding tide revealed made you wrinkle your nose, but was inhabited by a healthy community of little green crabs who obviously thrived in the conditions, I think mum called them applejacks, but I can't be sure. Anyway they're long gone poor little things, the moat's been filled in and turned into parking.
There was another beach we used to visit on the other side of the harbour, the East side. It was a bit of a trek, but the beach was often deserted, and the swimming was great, like the West side it was a pebble beach that shelved steeply, but the sea was more sheltered. Mum would light a fire from the driftwood and brew up in an old bean can, and we'd cook sausages on bits of stick, and I have to say, those were the best sausages I've ever tasted, mmmm...


Added 23 April 2008

#221403

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