I can't find anything in today's news over here, I don't know where you got your information. San Simeon, sometimes called the Hearst Castle, is enormous and a collapse would have hit the headlines. Last month a large chunk of Highway 1, which runs along the coast and is the main route to San Simeon, was destroyed by a landslide and the highway remains closed in that area. Is that what you are referring to?
THE wall of one of the south’s best-known landmarks has collapsed A photo shared on Twitter today has shown ruins left behind after the seawall of Hurst Castle has collapsed. Wall of historic Hampshire castle collapses
TTH - do you need an explanation for that ?? TD Geoff Hurst - Wikipedia A striker, he remains the only man to score a hat-trick in a World Cup final, when England recorded a 4–2 victory over West Germany at Wembley Stadium in 1966.
Well if they were going to name a castle after anyone Geoff Hurst would be a good choice. Him or either of the Bobbies on that team.
Local rag coverage here with photo below - reader comments re cowboy EH maintenance sadly ring true to me as Solent tides are doubled by flanking the IoW on it's southern side.
From the ABP website: Double High Water To try to understand the reasoning behind the description ‘Double High Water’ one has to look first at the tidal flow throughout the English Channel. When it is High Water at Dover it is Low Water at Land’s End and vice versa. Imagine the English Channel as a rectangular tank 300 nautical miles in length and having a uniform depth of 36 fathoms pivoted at its mid-length. If inclined in either direction the water flows towards the lower end, thus giving the effect of High and Low Water at opposite ends. At the point of pivot, however, the level remains constant. Of course the English Channel does not tip, but external forces created by the position of the moon and sun relative to the Earth create the same effect, originating from the Atlantic Pulse which keeps the English Channel alternating between High and Low Water with the time of High Water at one end coinciding approximately with the time of Low Water at the other. This effect is called an oscillation and occurs twice daily. If the actual physical features conformed to this ideal pattern there would be no tidal rise or fall at mid-length, but though the tides at each end of the Channel do conform approximately to this pattern; the friction, irregular depths and restriction in width of the Channel between the Isle of Wight and the Cherbourg Peninsula result in a further four oscillations daily within an area bounded by Portland, Cherbourg, Littlehampton and Le Havre. Combined with the natural twice daily oscillation, this produces the ‘Double High Water’ curve as experienced in the Port of Southampton. In the shallower waters within the Isle of Wight and the Port of Southampton up to thirty further oscillations of varying magnitude again vary the ‘Double High Water‘ curve to produce the ultimate Southampton tidal curve embodying the local tidal features, namely, the short duration of the ebb tide, the ‘Young Flood Stand’ and the pronounced fall between first and second High Water stands. There is more!! Incidentally, nearby Poole has a double high water for the same reason and Weymouth and Portland have a double low water
Damned silly place to build a giant stone building. It was inevitably only going to last half a millennia or so. My 'not everything needs preserving' side says leave it, as a heritage warning to all. Complicated stuff, though. I know a few 'heritage building' pros. As ever; it's all a lot more complicated/expensive/dangerous/difficult/uncertain than the readily outraged like to imply. Bet there's a few heritage builders already prepping quotes... A potential boon for Southern stonemasons!
According to Auntie, BTW, the sea only undermined the Victorian 'east wing' extension rather than the more innovative Tudor keep. So just extrapolate that decline in competency to see what low standard we can expect ~160yrs later when any 'boon' is more likely to result in yet more jerry-building - as in 'affordable' tending to imply 'future slum' in the housing sector !
Ah, here's an ominous 25 Jan press report - its arguably-most-telling section as follows; A source who works at the castle said there were “real fears” that if left unrepaired the whole wall of the east wing could disappear into the sea, saying: “It is hugely worrying.” English Heritage insist this is not the case, however, saying: “While urgent repairs are required to the east wing battery, there is no immediate risk to Hurst Castle.”Um ... whoops !?
Good catch there Red Goblin. Hurst Castle is owned by EH, but its management is with a local company - amiable enough to visitors - with little expertise I fear. The cost of any repairs will not be cheap, as I fear will be proved. When will it be best to make repairs given the weather and tides?
I think you'll find Crown Estates the true owner atop the pecking order in which EH is merely a #3 cat's-paw sub-manager subservient to Whitehall @ #2. Nor would I brand their whistle-blowing operative sub-contractor more blameworthy than blindly-complacent EH as you oddly seem to have done the way I read it. Incidentally, anyone really wanting to pig out on the local geology replete with maps - sorry TD - may care to browse Hurst Castle Spit (Ian West c/o Southampton Uni). Its 2yo panorama below, for quick instance, strongly reminds me of the close-up in my last-cited press article by sharing the same/similar camera angle of the wall's dodgy red-brick foundation coursework so recently proven ultimately unfit for purpose. Steve