The shingle bank is very steep and has been formed by succeeding high tides and the occasional storm. Fishing boats are winched up this bank to be out of reach of the waves.
Was one of these seafront villas that of the socialite banker Edward Clodd (1840-1930), 'Strafford House', where he was wont to entertain literary guests. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Clodd
Anthony Hope (Memories and Notes, 1927) tells how he, Hardy and other notaries sailed from Aldeburgh in Clodd's yacht to visit poet Edward FitzGeralds's grave at Bredfield.