October 1996 

Taken from the foot of The Spittles, looking north towards the Cretaceous Cap overlaying the Belemnite Marls. This photo shows how the earlier landslips have been covered with vegetation over the following years. The dark streak on the cliff face (just to the left of the work Belemnite), is a seepage mark indicating where water is leaking out from the base of the Upper Greensand at its junction with the Gault, (forming the Cretaceous unconformity).

September 1997 

An unusual photo that was taken during a very low spring tide. This photo shows the now exposed 'boulder arcs' at the base of Black Ven, in front of The Spittles. These indicate the arcate toe limits of several earlier large landslips, the softer and lighter clay materials having since been washed away. The vantage point was half way between the base of The Spittles and the cliffs of Belemnite Marl. These are believed to have been formed following the landslips at Black Ven during 1983 and the winter of 1994/95.

September 1997  

Taken from the same position and at the same time as the above photo, but now looking towards the east, with Charmouth and Stonebarrow Hill in the distance. This photo shows one of the many mud flows that cover the surface of The Spittles. Although it had not rained for over 7 weeks, the mud flows were still soft and over knee deep in places. 

If you venture onto The Spittles, take extreme care !!!

September 1997  

Taken from almost the same place but this time looking north-west. This photo shows the ledges that have been created during successive landslips on Black Ven. At the time of this photo, Dorset Council and the Exeter BGS were conducting mapping surveys across these landslips. One of the queries they found was that between the marked Upper Cement bed and the Lower Cement bed, another limestone bed was found exposed. This bed does not appear in the mapping list from Lang's original survey. 

December 1988 

Taken on Christmas Day 1998, this photo shows the erosion and collapse of the Black Ven cliff adjacent to the Charmouth seafront. At this point the grass and surface 'drift' material just cover the top of the Birchi Tabular bed.

April 2000 

This photo shows the extensive number of cliff faces, levels and mud flows formed under Black Ven by landslips. The uppermost pale cliff face is Belemnite Marl, capped by Upper Greensand and Gault. Some of the vegetation seen in the October 1996 photo above, has been covered by new landslip material.

October 2001

The uppermost pale cliff face of  Belemnite Marl and of Upper Greensand and Gault capping is now hardly visible from the beach, due to extensive landslips in the past 9 months. Some of the vegetation seen in the October 1996 photo above, has been covered by new landslip material.

October 2001

By walking round the front of the Spittles, I was able to get this photo of the current state of the cliff faces of Black Ven. Following several heavy storms, most of the cliffs are covered in a coating of grey marl, hence the lack of colour in the rocks.

May 2003

The beach shows a lot of debris from recent high tides. The Birchi Tabular bed is well exposed on the Black Ven Marl.

May 2003

Black Ven displaying the pronounced terraces caused by landslips. The vegetation on the right hand side of the Spittles has been 'washed away' by landslips. The large rocks between the Spittles and the low tide line are good hunting for small pyrite fossils, including ammonites, bivalves and gastropods.

May 2003

A low tide exposes the limestone left behind, that forms these reefs, when the softer paper shales of the Shales with Beef, are eroded away.