Sovereign Park, Eastbourne, East Sussex

Image: © Andrew Diack Taken: 28 Nov 2024

The photo shows part of Sovereign Park, which is a coastal landscape consisting partly of fossil storm beaches formed centuries before by strong waves and currents. Shingle was driven onshore, and ridges of flint pebbles were formed. Around the year 1600 a shingle foreland existed up to one and a half kilometres south of the location shown in the photo, but conditions changed, and for the last 400 years coastal erosion took place before the building of a groyne field in the 1800s helped to slow that process. The undulating surface of Sovereign Park is formed of sorted beach material similar in nature to that of modern beaches such as those lying adjacent to it. The uneven former beach surface of the park provides a number of microhabitats that are suitable for an assemblage of pioneering plants that are adapted to growing in tough conditions, as the area can be cold, dry, windy, sunny and hot at different times but where the soil is always thin, salty and lacking in nutrients. Plants that are adapted to this harsh environment include sea kale, yellow-horned poppy, wild carrot, Viper's bugloss and sea campion. Red valerian is also naturalised within the park, though it was introduced from the Mediterranean.

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