This report is a published product of an ongoing study by the British Geological Survey (BGS) of the
coastal change at Aldbrough on the Holderness coast, East Riding of Yorkshire, UK. The test site at
Aldbrough has been selected as one of the BGS Landslide Observatories because it is representative of
the high rates of coastal recession along this stretch of the east coast. The Aldbrough Landslide
Observatory is operated under the BGS ‘Slope Dynamics’ task within the BGS’s ‘Landslide’ project of
the ‘Shallow Geohazards and Risk’ team. As well as providing new insights with respect to the volumetric
rates of recession and the near surface processes, it is a focus for the trialling of new surface and subsurface
monitoring technologies. The establishment of the Aldbrough observatory and the initial research findings
are reported in a series of reports in addition to this report. These are:
Hobbs, P. R. N., Jones, L. D., Kirkham, M. P., Pennington, C. V. L., Jenkins, G. O., Dashwood, C., Haslam, E. P.,
Freeborough, K. A. and Lawley, R. S. (2013) Slope Dynamics Project Report: Holderness Coast – Aldbrough: Survey &
Monitoring, 2001 - 2013 British Geological Survey, Open Report No. OR/11/063.
Hobbs, P.R.N., Kirkham, M.P. & Morgan, D.J.R. (2016) Geotechnical laboratory testing of glacial deposits from Aldbrough,
Phase 2 boreholes. British Geological Survey, Open Report No. OR/15/056.
Whilst this report is focused on the drilling and instrumentation programme, it should be read in
conjunction with the reports listed above, which provide further details on survey and monitoring, and the
geotechnical properties of the underlying geology. A series of reports will follow presenting the updated
drilling and instrumentation reports, and their publication will be announced through the BGS project web
page. Readers of these reports will probably also be interested in the context for this research, which can
be found in:
Hobbs, P.R.N., Pennington, C.V.L., Pearson, S.G., Jones, L.D., Foster, C., Lee, J.R., Gibson, A. (2008) Slope Dynamics Project
Report: the Norfolk Coast (2000-2006). British Geological Survey, Open Report No. OR/08/018