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Beacon Cliff

Beacon Cliff is an actively eroding cliff between Taddiford Gap in the east and Becton Bunny in the west. Because of the obliquity of Becton Bunny and appreciable cliff erosion this cliff has lengthened from east to west with time. In the early 19th century it quite short, as shown in a cliff section by Charles Lyell (1829), because Taddiford Gap and the mouth of Becton Bunny (very oblique to the coast) were quite close. The prominent headland between the two valleys, easily seen from the Isle of Wight and elsewhere, was probably a good place to site a warning fire beacon in the 18th century or a little earlier. This cliff probably did not exist, however, in the 16th century because at that time Long Mead End and Becton Bunny would probably have been joined. [Information from Ian West's excellent and exhaustive Geology of the Wessex Coast website].