A chine is a steep-sided river valley where the river flows through coastal cliffs to the sea. Typically these are soft eroding cliffs such as sandstone or clays. The word chine originates from the Saxon "Cinan" meaning a gap or yawn.
The word is in use in central Southern England; in East Devon, Dorset, Hampshire, and particularly the Isle of Wight. In Devon, Sherbrooke Chine is west of Budleigh Salterton,[1] and Seaton Chine is at the western end of the West Walk esplanade, Seaton. In Dorset, west of Bournemouth are found Flaghead Chine, Branksome Chine, Alum Chine, Middle Chine and Durley Chine, and east towards Boscombe, Honeycombe Chine. Becton Bunny and Chewton Bunny are other examples of chines near Barton on Sea, Hampshire ("Bunny" being the New Forest term equivalent to "Chine").[2][3]
There are twenty chines on the Isle of Wight including the popular tourist attraction Shanklin Chine. All chines are in a state of constant change due to erosion, and the best-known example, Blackgang Chine, has been destroyed by landslides and coastal erosion during the 20th century.
Chines appear at the outlet of small river valleys when a particular combination of geology, stream volume and coastal recession rate creates a knickpoint, usually starting at a waterfall at the cliff edge, that initiates rapid erosion and deepening of the stream bed into a gully leading down to the sea.[4]
As the walls of the chines and cliffs of the south coast of the Isle of Wight are so unstable and erode continually, the strata are clearly visible. Chines are therefore very important for their fossil records, their archaeology and the unique flora and fauna, such as invertebrates and rare insects, for which they provide shelter.[5]
There is also some fascinating folklore attached to the chines because of their history with local smuggling, fishing and shipwrecks. Shanklin Chine is also famous for its involvement in the Second World War, when it was used to carry one of the Operation Pluto pipelines and as training area for the 40 Royal Marine Commando battalion before the 1942 Dieppe Raid.[6]
Chines are very dependent on the farmed landscape around them because crops are typically grown right up to the edges of the chines themselves, and water drains into the chines from this farmland.
Of the twenty named chines on the island, that in Alum Bay, Widdick Chine in Totland and those in Colwell Bay (Colwell Chine, Brambles Chine and Linstone Chine) are in Tertiary rocks; the remainder, on the island's south coast, are in Cretaceous. Clockwise from Cowes:[5]