St Alban's Head
Coordinates: 50°34′44″N 2°03′23″W / 50.5788°N 2.0565°W
St Alban's Head (corruption of St Aldhelms Head) is a headland located five kilometres southwest of Swanage, on the coast of Dorset, England. It is the most southerly part of the Purbeck peninsula, and comprises an outcrop of Portland Stone from the overlying Lower Purbeck Stone.
On the bluff of the headland is a monument to the development of radar during World War II, by the Telecommunications Research Establishment at nearby RAF Worth Matravers. There is also a coastguard station, now maintained by the National Coastwatch Institution (not to be confused with HM Coastguard) and some former coastguard cottages. A norman chapel known as St. Aldhelm's Chapel, which is dedicated to St Aldhelm, Bishop of Sherborne, also stands here.
St Alban's Head has been heavily quarried - a defunct sea-cliff quarry exists underneath the coastguard station and a still working quarry, called "St Aldhelms Quarry" and owned by Haysom and Sons (a well known local quarrying family), exists a quarter of a mile inland.
St Alban's Head is part of the Jurassic Coast, which stretches over a distance of 153 kilometres (95 mi), from Orcombe Point near Exmouth, in the west, to Old Harry Rocks on the Isle of Purbeck, in the east.[1] The coastal exposures along the coastline provide a continuous sequence of Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous rock formations spanning approximately 185 million years of the Earth's history. The rock layers along the Jurassic Coast are tilted slightly to the east; the oldest layers are found in the west, with progressively younger rocks forming the cliffs here in the east.
St Alban's Head is designated a Special Area of Conservation under the European Union's Habitats Directive.
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[edit] References
- ^ "Dorset and East Devon Coast". UNESCO World Heritage Centre. 2001. http://whc.unesco.org/pg.cfm?cid=31&id_site=1029. Retrieved 2007-01-14.
[edit] See also
List of places on the Jurassic Coast
[edit] External links
- grid reference SY9675
- Ian West's Geology of the Wessex Coast Field Guide, including photographs
- National Coastwatch Institution St Alban's Head Website
- Radar memorial at St Aldhelm's Head
[edit] Gallery
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NCI St Alban's Head Lookout Station
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Sandstone cliffs immediately to the east of St Alban's Head
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Old Coastguard cottages at St Alban's Head
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St Aldhelm's Chapel at St Alban's Head
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Radar research memorial at St Alban's Head
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Freestone monolith at the St Alban's Head Quarry
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St Alban's Head from Egmont Bight
