SIR — Hilary Binding's review of medieval descriptions of flooding in Somerset (Notes By The Way November 19) is given a framework and support in a recent (Nature) scientific paper.
Present sea-level was first reached after the ice age 3,000 years ago and persisted with minor fluctuations during the growth and decay of the Roman empire.
Sea-level then rose quite rapidly, possibly to seven metres above the present level at 1000 AD.
Norman castles were often built where they could be supplied by ship and Dunster was then likely to have been on the coast.
Sea-level then declined to its present height during the past millenium, with a brief rise at around 1500 AD, possibly accounting for records of medieval flooding.
Had medieval Minehead people known that the sea-level was to drop about two to four metres after the harbour was built they might have thought twice about it, especially if they had realised how much coastal erosion it would cause east of the harbour wall. That lesson still has not been learned.
Our environment is damaged by, and money continues to be wasted upon, ugly sea walls and massive stone barriers.
Instead, the Warren Point to Dunster storm beach should be reconnected to its supply of cobbles, now banked up to the west of the harbour.
Every year an "overspill" cobble spit is taken from the harbour entrance and this material is immobilised by dumping it at mid-tide nearby. The cobbles should instead be put near high tide on Warren Point where wave action can keep it moving eastwards. Erosion would stop and the storm beach would recover.
The Environment Agency, now apparently employing consultants with GPS sets and quad bikes, needs to confirm this picture quickly, or at least state their conclusions before our coast is utterly ruined by well-meaning but thoughtless engineering works such as the armour plating now being applied to the golf course.
Richard Clarke,
Harbour Court,
Minehead.