The Neptune Coastline Campaign (formerly Enterprise Neptune)

Anecdotes from a former National Trust Regional Director

Now in its 50th year the Neptune Coastline Campaign has been the National Trust’s most successful appeal having raised millions of pounds over that period to acquire and protect unspoilt stretches of the coastline of England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
I was lucky enough, during my thirty or so years’ employment with the Trust to have worked in 3 coastal regions, namely East Anglia, Northumbria and the North West and there are a great many stories I could tell about my involvement with the Campaign. However space and time restrict me to just a few and they are closely related.
When Enterprise Neptune was launched in 1965, a survey was carried out to establish three categories of coastline not already owned by the Trust :
1. number of miles that were already developed
2. number of miles that were not spoilt but of insufficient merit
3. number of miles that were considered worthy of acquisition should they ever come on the market
While Director of the Northumbria region (1984-1992) the NT sent out an edict in 1985 to coincide with the 20th anniversary of Neptune, to all coastal regions to update the original survey of their coastlines. This proved a most interesting exercise not least because it significantly increased the total number of miles in category 3 from around 700 to around 900 miles.
In the Northumbria region, which included the coastline of Northumberland, Tyne and Wear and County Durham, we discovered that the whole of the Durham coast (11 miles) was either in category 1 or 2 and that the Tyne and Wear coast was not surveyed at all presumably because it was considered to have been entirely developed, which it largely was.
With regard to the coastline of County Durham we took the view that the reason for the earlier categorisation was the extensive colliery workings on the coast, about 5 in all, which were pouring the waste product back into the sea thus rendering the beaches black. This provided some sort of livelihood for the sea-coal traders, mostly redundant miners, who would arrive on the beaches either on bicycles or in lorries and hand-pick the lumps of coal deposited by the incoming tides. It was a regular occurrence, when I visited the coast, to meet a trader struggling up the cliff path with a couple of sacks of coal suspended over the handlebars of his bike!
We also took the view that within a maximum of 25 years, most, if not all of those collieries would be redundant, all the coal having been extracted. What we had not anticipated was that within 5 years every one of them would have disappeared and that within a further 3 years most of the beaches would have reverted to their natural colour.
Shortly after we had carried out our survey the then Chairman of the National Trust, Dame Jennifer Jenkins, paid a visit to the region and I took her to the Durham coast to see for herself how magnificent it could become without the colliery workings. She was in full agreement that we should seek to acquire the 9 (out of 11) miles that we had identified as being worthy of acquisition.
I then let it be known to the Durham County and relevant District Councils that we were in the market for the coastline and to let me know if they heard of any land sales. As it happened, in my meeting with Easington District Council I was told they had been offered Beacon Hill and some surrounding farmland for which they had no use so they passed on the offer to the National Trust. 6 months later, and thanks to Enterprise Neptune, we had our first property, 4.5 acres and the highest point on the Durham Coast – quite a landmark !
Dame Jennifer returned to the region 2 years later to celebrate the acquisition of the 500th mile of coastline under the Neptune campaign when we managed to acquire Warren House Gill, including a further mile of the coast
This was a truly memorable occasion perhaps the highlight of which was a traditional lunch of cold ham, mashed potato and pease-pudding followed by apple pie and custard in the Easington Working Men’s Club, serenaded by the Horden Colliery (disused by now!) brass band, and in the presence of the then Secretary of State for the Environment, Virginia Bottomley and the then MP for South Shields, Dr David Clark (now Lord Clark of Windermere).
By the time I left the region for pastures new in 1992 we had acquired 4.5 of the 9 miles of the Durham Coast in our survey
Mention of South Shields brings me to my next anecdote which relates to the coastline of Tyne and Wear. As I mentioned earlier, Tyne and Wear did not feature in the earlier survey and would not have featured in the one I was involved with had it not been for a telephone call I received from the South Tyneside Borough Council’s (STBC) Planning Officer, David Barraclough.
He was concerned that the Port Authority was extracting sand from the beach at South Shields and asked me what was the National Trust going to do about it! I explained that we had no interest in this stretch of coast and therefore could not get involved whereupon he told me that it was time we did have an interest as it was spectacular!
I promised to see for myself and he was absolutely right : a magnificent magnesian limestone cliff stretching for about 2 miles with stacks and arches rising from the sea including the famous Marsden Rock. I wondered how the Trust had missed this in its various surveys and I quickly inserted it in the latest one !
Some time later David Barraclough telephoned again asking if the Trust would like to acquire the Leas, 200 acres of close-mown grassland, the cliff and the beach below, including Marsden Rock ; about a mile of coastline in total. When I subsequently met him he said the STBC wanted to give the property to the National Trust to enhance the image of the area, to help them in their marketing ambitions and because they felt the NT would intepret the property better than they ever could.
I explained that since there was no income potential there would be a net loss each year and that we could not afford to accept the gift without an endowment. After some to-ing and fro-ing they agreed to continue to pay their annual running costs, index-linked, for the following 50 years. Any surpluses would be put into an endowment fund. On this basis, the NT agreed to acquire the property
Subsequently the Trust decided that close mowing was inappropriate and that only paths along desire lines needed to be cut regularly for the benefit of local people. This would enhance the wildlife and the flora in the uncut areas and substantially reduce the running costs.
In that way the Trust has been able to put reasonable sums into the endowment fund each year.
Shortly after this acquisition went through, I was negotiating with Trinity House for the purchase of Souter Lighthouse and associated buildings, which was surrounded by the land at the Leas and so would fill in the jigsaw. This went through the committee process aided by Neptune funds and today is visited each year by thousands of visitors. Mr Barraclough must be a happy man!
My final anecdote concerns the Leas shortly after it had been acquired. The sheer cliff had been designated as a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) some years previously for its geological value and the rare lichens that were growing on it. Unfortunately a large vertical fissure had appeared about 3 metres from the cliff edge and about 5 metres in length. There was only one thing for it to relieve the danger to the public both above and on the beach below : that was to dynamite the affected section.
We called in an Army section to carry out the work as a voluntary exercise, informed the media of our intentions and cleared the beach and clifftop of the public at the appointed time. An entirely successful operation took place in front of the television cameras and the demolition was shown on the local TV news that night.
The next morning I was telephoned by the Nature Conservancy’s Regional Director who informed me that I had broken the law by destroying an SSSI without their consent for which the maximum penalty was a huge fine or possible imprisonment! I apologised profusely, grovelled like mad and explained that it had to be done for health and safety reasons.
Word got out that there was this little local difficulty and the TV company, with tongue firmly in cheek, stated that the Conservancy need have no worries, nor indeed the NT Regional Director. They then showed the film in reverse so the cliff, from its collapsed condition, was reconstructed as if nothing had happened – the power of the media !!
The bottom line to all this is that the Neptune Coastline Campaign has been astonishingly successful in its aim to acquire and protect the coastal heritage of England, Wales and Northern Ireland to the extent that today no less than 742 miles are in the National Trust’s ownership – so only 158 to go !

Oliver Maurice
INTO Director