Military pillboxes built in 1940-41 lie at the cliff foot, roads end pricipitously at the cliff edge and the local press regularly covers stories of properties falling into the sea. Historical evidence is also abundant. Erosion has been rapid from at least the Roman era and dozens of villages and towns now lost to the sea are recorded. The coastline of Holderness is eroding at around 2m per year. The erosion occurs mainly during storms and tidal surges and a loss of 6m was recorded over two days at Barmston in October 1967.
Erosion increaces as one moves southward.
The cliffs are made up of loosly consolidated glacial till but there is no relationship between rates of erosion and type of till, nor with the height of the cliff. From Valentin 1958 Reasons for rapid erosion There are several factors resulting in the Holderness coast suffering such rapid erosion. The first is that the Holderness plain is a former bay infilled with easily eroded glacial tills. Waves undercutting the cliff produce slumping type landslips and the debris from these is easily swept away by the sea. The submarine contours drop off rapidly offshore, at Dimlington High land in the south the 10m submarine contour is only 600m from the beach.