For most people, Beachy Head is a wonderful place to get away, to escape, relax and enjoy the beautiful scenery. The stark white chalk headland in southern England is near the town of Eastbourne in the county of East Sussex. Not too far away is the Seven Sisters, a series of chalk cliffs that have been used in movies, one of the most recent being at the beginning of the film, “Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves.”
But locals are becoming quite concerned over what many of the tourists are doing, and one local resident, Phil Boorman, outright condemns the audacious behavior of some holiday-makers who insist on tempting fate by hanging over the edges of the sometimes slippery cliff faces.
Boorman recently described the antics of four tourists who decided to have their picnic lunch, sitting on the cliff edge near Beachy Head with their feet dangling down. He said: “Words fail me, other than to say nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity. Luckily for them, it turned out not to be their last supper. However, their ignorance could have resulted in a far worse scenario.”
But while visitors relish the idea of tempting fate, their actions have gotten to the point that many local residents walk on by them without saying anything. Last year, in September, Guy Hollingsworth, a local photographer, filmed a bunch of guys dangling their feet over the crumbling edges of the Beachy Head cliff face, as others in their group took turns photographing each other.
Guy, 41, from nearby Seaford, said: “It is ridiculously dangerous, people don’t understand just how dangerous it is. If they could see the cracks underneath them and the under-hangings where they are lying they wouldn’t go anywhere near it.”
The mystique and darker side of Beachy Head
The cliffs of Beachy Head have become a favored spot for those unfortunate people wishing to commit suicide. the media coverage of the suicide attempts is seen as only encouraging people to come and jump off, say some locals. The Beachy Head Chaplaincy Team (BHCT) was started in 2004 as a resource available to people with suicidal thoughts. There are large signs posted with a telephone number of the Samaritans urging potential jumpers to call them.
But despite the day and night patrols of the BHCT Samaritans, an average of 20 people take their own lives every year by jumping off the beautiful white cliffs. And as a historical note, the first evidence of the cliffs being used as a jumping off point for suicides was in the seventh century. “Worldwide, the landmark’s suicide rate is surpassed only by the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco and the Aokigahara Woods in Japan,” according to Thomas Meaney of The Wall Street Journal.
There is a mystique associated with Beachy Head, and it is seen in Birling Gap, a coastal hamlet not far from Beachy Head, and owned by the national Trust. Coastal erosion is tearing into the cliffs, slowly allowing the sea to reclaim the land. In the above picture, the remains of Coast Guard cottages can be seen, along with a large metal staircase that leads to the pebble-strewn beach below. At high tide, when beach-combers get stranded, the staircase is a way to get to safety. It is replaced often.
The Beachy Head Lighthouse
Built in 1902, for almost 80 years, the Beachy Head lighthouse was manned by three lighthouse keepers. Their job was to maintain the light, which was operational 24-hours a day. It wasn’t until 1983 that the structure became automated. For years, the red-and-white striped tower kept watch so that ships could avoid the surf and cliffs behind it.
The original light, which could be seen for 26 nautical miles, was changed to a new LED light system in 2010, reducing the distance the light could be seen to 8.0 nautical miles. The familiar foghorn was discontinued, silencing the lighthouse forever.
But in 2011, it was decided that the cost of repainting the lighthouse was too much to pay, and it was pointed out that with modern navigational systems, day markers stripes were no longer necessary. But lo, and behold, a campaign raised the required money needed to repaint the lighthouse and it now stands today in all its red-and-white splendor.
So if you are lucky enough to take a vacation to Beachy Head, go to Birling Gap to see the old Coast Guard cottages before the land they sit on is reclaimed by the unrelenting waves. And take lots of pictures of the wondrous white cliffs, but please don’t get too close to the edges.
