Beer Stone and Beer Quarry Caves

Sandwiched in these cliffs between the Upper Greensand and Middle Chalk is the 95 million year old Beer Head Limestone. Beer Stone is a fine shelly chalk. 98 percent of chalk is composed from microscopic planktonic plant remains - coccoliths, but at Beer there was a current flowing across the seafloor and this winnowed away the coccoliths leaving a fine shelly Limestone. The Beer Stone outcrops at Beer beach but it only forms a very thin layer. However at Beer Head, the Hooken Landslide and 1 mile (1.5 km) inland from Beer village, the band of Limestone is much thicker and the quarry caves give a fascinating insight into the stone’s importance, as well as Beer’s history and the lives of the men who worked there.

Chalk Cliff Erosion

Erosion of coastal Chalk cliffs is slow. Chalk is relatively hard, and only becomes unstable when the sea has carved a cave into its base, destabilising the weight of cliff above. The sea then has to wash away the cliff fall before the process can start all over again. The milky coloured seawater found at the base of Chalk cliffs, particularly around fresh falls, is evidence of coastal cliff erosion in progress.