Stabilisers and Mood Stabilisers
You cannot fail to have noticed the work to stabilise the cliffs on the South Cliff in Scarborough over the last 18 months.The 250-ton red crane on the edge of the Esplanade has now gone and the cliff above the Spa looks like someone has rolled a beautiful green Persian rug along the bank.
I did enjoy the sight of the crane and its great big red mechanical elbow as it uncurled itself out over the cliff in the mornings, readying for work. It was lowering large steel sledges, full of soil, to deposit along the bank above the Spa. The sledges were fat at the back end which gets filled with soil. It was then lifted by the crane out over the cliff, where the soil was tipped from the fat end to the narrow end, then released through a trap. The soil reinforces the slope by changing the gradient of the bank, which helps drainage and provides landscaping for further planting. Fascinating.
Ingenious contraptions such as this sledge-funnel gizmo have been used by communities for solutions to the problems of living in difficult environments for an age. For example, Mont Saint-Michel is a medieval monastery built on a high rock off the coast of Normandy in France. The builders used wooden sledges to transport soil and supplies up the side of the island’s lofty upper sections to the stores and housing of the abbey. Tranquil rose gardens and verdant lofty cloisters stand where there was once only rock, because of those who placed importance to take the time and effort to create a healthy environment for people to thrive.
George Lord Beeforth, mayor of Scarborough from 1893-94, owned a considerable amount of land along the South Cliff. He thought every piece of ground should have a tree planted in it. He felt it would help stabilise the cliffs, improve the climate and emit a healthy resinous odour. Pleasant plant smells have long been associated with good health. The Scots pine was a favourite of his and many of the ones he planted can still be seen along the edges of South Cliff gardens.
Beeforth’s plan for improving the environment on the South Cliff was to intersperse evergreen with deciduous trees. Along the slopes he planted species such as oak, sycamore, horse chestnut, elm, maple, pear, poplar, willow and buckthorn. The area benefits from trees changing shape and colour with the seasons. But Beeforth also intended that there would always a healthy leafy glade to enjoy, along the cliffs.
Another species of note planted by Beeforth was the giant sequoia, native to the Sierra Nevada mountains of California. It can grow to an enormous height and became popular in Victorian times. Its other names include Wellingtonia, after the first Duke of Wellington. It is “as high as Wellington, who towers over his contemporaries!” proclaimed botanist John Lindley. The sequoia was originally named after Cherokee polymath Sequoyah, celebrated for inventing a system of written language for his tribe. The sequoia is still popularly known as Wellingtonia in Britain and as a sequoia in the rest of the world. Sadly I have not seen any surviving examples on the South Cliff but there is still a healthy specimen in Peasholm Glen.
Trees and fresh running water have long been associated with good health. Just beneath the trees of the South Cliff gardens were the north and south springs of the Spa. Thomas Hinderwell, in the second chapter of his book, The History and Antiquities of Scarborough and the Vicinities, spent a great deal of time discussing the springs and their water analysis. He explained that the Spa waters had a great influence on complaints of the mind such as hysteria, malady and nervousness as well as on complaints of the body, such as gout, chronic skin problems and stomach disorders. It’s an audacious and salubrious list for a water analysis recorded as simply having a high content of magnesium sulphate, aka bath salts!
A mineral still used today that has been used to combat the complaints listed by Hinderwell is the psychiatric medication lithium salts. Classified as a mood stabiliser, this common mineral occurs naturally. It is combined in small amounts in nearly all igneous rocks and mineral springs and used as a medication for bipolar disorder. Lithium was not listed by Hinderwell but it is used today to treat the same list of complaints thought to be relieved by the effects of the Spa springs. Public consumption of water from the springs ceased in the 1960s. The mineral content was thought to have significantly changed over the years as the South Cliff developed.
When I think of the south bay, I think of the two-penny shove machines, the electronic arcadia music and the sugary treats and beverages. Interestingly, lithium was included in the original recipe for soft drink 7Up when it was marketed as a medicinal beverage. Lithium was used in 7UP until 1948 when all American beverage makers were prohibited from including such ingredients in soft drinks. People were happier back then.
You cannot fail to have noticed the work to stabilise the cliffs on the South Cliff in Scarborough over the last 18 months.The 250-ton red crane on the edge of the Esplanade has now gone and the cliff above the Spa looks like someone has rolled a beautiful green Persian rug along the bank.
I did enjoy the sight of the crane and its great big red mechanical elbow as it uncurled itself out over the cliff in the mornings, readying for work. It was lowering large steel sledges, full of soil, to deposit along the bank above the Spa. The sledges were fat at the back end which gets filled with soil. It was then lifted by the crane out over the cliff, where the soil was tipped from the fat end to the narrow end, then released through a trap. The soil reinforces the slope by changing the gradient of the bank, which helps drainage and provides landscaping for further planting. Fascinating.
Ingenious contraptions such as this sledge-funnel gizmo have been used by communities for solutions to the problems of living in difficult environments for an age. For example, Mont Saint-Michel is a medieval monastery built on a high rock off the coast of Normandy in France. The builders used wooden sledges to transport soil and supplies up the side of the island’s lofty upper sections to the stores and housing of the abbey. Tranquil rose gardens and verdant lofty cloisters stand where there was once only rock, because of those who placed importance to take the time and effort to create a healthy environment for people to thrive.
George Lord Beeforth, mayor of Scarborough from 1893-94, owned a considerable amount of land along the South Cliff. He thought every piece of ground should have a tree planted in it. He felt it would help stabilise the cliffs, improve the climate and emit a healthy resinous odour. Pleasant plant smells have long been associated with good health. The Scots pine was a favourite of his and many of the ones he planted can still be seen along the edges of South Cliff gardens.
Beeforth’s plan for improving the environment on the South Cliff was to intersperse evergreen with deciduous trees. Along the slopes he planted species such as oak, sycamore, horse chestnut, elm, maple, pear, poplar, willow and buckthorn. The area benefits from trees changing shape and colour with the seasons. But Beeforth also intended that there would always a healthy leafy glade to enjoy, along the cliffs.
Another species of note planted by Beeforth was the giant sequoia, native to the Sierra Nevada mountains of California. It can grow to an enormous height and became popular in Victorian times. Its other names include Wellingtonia, after the first Duke of Wellington. It is “as high as Wellington, who towers over his contemporaries!” proclaimed botanist John Lindley. The sequoia was originally named after Cherokee polymath Sequoyah, celebrated for inventing a system of written language for his tribe. The sequoia is still popularly known as Wellingtonia in Britain and as a sequoia in the rest of the world. Sadly I have not seen any surviving examples on the South Cliff but there is still a healthy specimen in Peasholm Glen.
Trees and fresh running water have long been associated with good health. Just beneath the trees of the South Cliff gardens were the north and south springs of the Spa. Thomas Hinderwell, in the second chapter of his book, The History and Antiquities of Scarborough and the Vicinities, spent a great deal of time discussing the springs and their water analysis. He explained that the Spa waters had a great influence on complaints of the mind such as hysteria, malady and nervousness as well as on complaints of the body, such as gout, chronic skin problems and stomach disorders. It’s an audacious and salubrious list for a water analysis recorded as simply having a high content of magnesium sulphate, aka bath salts!
A mineral still used today that has been used to combat the complaints listed by Hinderwell is the psychiatric medication lithium salts. Classified as a mood stabiliser, this common mineral occurs naturally. It is combined in small amounts in nearly all igneous rocks and mineral springs and used as a medication for bipolar disorder. Lithium was not listed by Hinderwell but it is used today to treat the same list of complaints thought to be relieved by the effects of the Spa springs. Public consumption of water from the springs ceased in the 1960s. The mineral content was thought to have significantly changed over the years as the South Cliff developed.
When I think of the south bay, I think of the two-penny shove machines, the electronic arcadia music and the sugary treats and beverages. Interestingly, lithium was included in the original recipe for soft drink 7Up when it was marketed as a medicinal beverage. Lithium was used in 7UP until 1948 when all American beverage makers were prohibited from including such ingredients in soft drinks. People were happier back then.