Minehead Sea Front Flood -1996

A few weeks back we had an 11-metre tide with strong winds. Go back twenty five years this would have flooded the sea front. I thought I’d have a walk and see how the new sea wall was holding up. It appeared to be doing its job.

Go back 150 years and the sea front was protected by a shingle bank. Like most shingle beaches they can be breached, like it did at Bossington a few years ago. The houses along the quay were often flooded.
As Minehead became a popular holiday destination rather than a port, in the early 1900s it was decided that a sea wall and promenade should be constructed to stop the incoming waves. T
he road to the quay was heightened and some houses removed to accommodate the new construction. A pier was also constructed in the 1905.

Groynes were also constructed to try and take the power out of the waves. This resulted in the sea washing away a lot of the beach material but managed to stop some of the flooding.
Over the years the wall was breached and damaged and in the latter years of the twentieth century came to the end of its useful life.
Back in the late 70s and 80s it was the local spectacular on a spring tide to go down to the sea front and watch the waves crashing over the wall and flooding the road and beyond. Huge waves would thunder in and shoot high in the air carrying stones and boulders off the beach. It was really hard for the inhabitants of Quay St who were constantly been flooded out.

What made it worse is the fact their houses are now below the road height. It was a common sight to see carpets hanging on their front railings to dry out.
Major floods have been recorded in 1910, 1936 and 1981. The final straw came in October in 1996 when an exceptional high tide together with a really strong inshore winds hit the now already battered wall.
I can remember walking past where Minehead Eye is today and seeing the tops of the waves above the Queens Hall skyline.

I had never seen it like that before. It was evening, I turned the corner and stood by the arcade. Massive waves pouring thousands of gallons of seawater with every wave.
Staff from the arcade were desperately trying to sweep the water and stones away. On the front stood Arnold Palmers small amusement park. There was a model village, crazy golf, kart track with a miniature railway which was constantly damaged by floods and was finally destroyed by boulders and stones thrown in by the sea.

The following morning, I went down again to see the aftermath of what nature have done to us. The destruction was unbelievable. On the front was a concrete building affectionately know as the Pink Shelter. Tony Berry used to run a bike hire business from there, and also the information centre. The windows were smashed in, tons of water poured inside bring stones and sand. The huge stone sections of the wall weighing 10 tons were just pushed back onto the promenade.
At the golf club end stood a series of beach huts, they were just swept away and smashed. One apparently ended up on the railway line. All of Butlins was flooded, and their boating lake and front wall destroyed.

The whole sea front road was covered in stones. The sea caused part of the wall to collapse opposite the Hobby Horse, and the path just disappeared into a large hole.
A new wall had to be built from the Quay to the golf club end. Several plans came forward but it was decided to have three elements of protection. A raised wall to be built along the entire length of the sea front. On the side leading to the quay, large boulders put it front to take most of the wave impact. The other end would have a wall and a series of steps leading to the sand which would act as a barrier. They also build huge stone groynes leading from the wall out to the sea. This is to hold the sand which was dredged about a mile offshore and pumped via a huge pipe suspended by floatation tanks.

You can see one of those tanks on the promenade today. Thousands of tons of sand were deposited to heighten the beach. This was to stop the tide reaching the wall but if it did, the stepped section in front of the was there to reduce the impact. The sea of the wall is curved so should the waves hit; it would throw the water back.

The cost of all this work was £1.2 million and was completed by the company Tarmac, and took 2 years to construct.
The old pink shelter was removed and a circular viewing platform was constructed so making wheelchair access available.
To see over 100 photos of the floods, its damage, and the rebuilding of the wall.

By Clive Smith
Editor, Word Gets Around Magazines
December 2020

Photos were taken by Clive Smith and Barrie Leete.