Camber Sands

Camber Sands

Camber Sands form a long, beautiful beach stretching along the coast of Sussex at Camber near Rye. This beach is the only sand dune system in Sussex, stretching away from the east side of the estuary of the River Rother at Rye Bay and on as one expanse beyond the Kentish border.

Dunes

The dunes are 'accreting', which is to say gradually getting bigger. The dunes are natural, but managed to prevent problems with wind-blown sand.

A large section of the western end of the dunes lie within the 'Camber Sands and Rye Saltings Site of Special Scientific Interest', while the rest is designated a Site of Nature Conservation Importance.

Second World War and inland to the east

The dunes were fortified and used for exercises in Second World War. There is a roughly square MoD danger area and base inland of the east of the area. The dunes resemble topographically those seen in parts of Normandy and challenging desert terrain. Similar training facilities exist at Braunton in Devon and in Pembrokeshire.

Access

There are three main car parks in Camber, Western car park on New Lydd road which also has a large overflow car park opposite, Central car park, and the new car park on the old crazy golf site on Old Lydd road. Central also has a large overflow car park. Only Central has direct access to the beach, as you have to negotiate long steep sandy paths over the dunes to reach the beach from Western car park, unsuitable for prams, or wheelchairs. The Western car park closes at 8pm in the summer.

Leisure

Houses over looking the sands

The beach has become a popular location for kitesurfing, Kite landboarding and kite buggying due to its sand and favourable wind conditions. Kite launches are only allowed in the designated area at the eastern end of the beach near the Jury's Gap car park.

The beach has two Holiday parks adjacent to each other owned by Park Resorts and Pontins

Appearance in popular culture

Camber Sands at Low Tide

Camber Sands, with the wide bay and large dune system, has been used in a variety of creative media. They feature on countless music album covers and videos and have frequently appeared on film and on television.

Films

• Dunkirk (1958), to recreate Operation Dynamo
• The Longest Day (the 1962 epic) representing the Normandy beaches during D-Day
• Carry On Follow That Camel was shot here during the early months of 1967, with Camber Sands representing the Sahara Desert, although filming had to be stopped several times because the dunes were covered in snow.
• The Monuments Men (2013)
• The Invisible Woman (2013), a period drama about the life of Nelly Ternan, has several scenes on the sand.
• The Theory of Everything (2014) about the life of Stephen Hawking, includes a scene on the sands and dunes.

Television

Camber Sands holiday resort was 'featured' in an episode of the E4 teen comedy The Inbetweeners, although no filming actually took place there. It was also featured in Series 2 of Green Wing: Alan Statham and Joanna Clore appear both on the beach in the finale as well as in the Park Resort Holiday Park.

Camber Sands was the planet 'Aridius' in the 1965 Doctor Who story 'The Chase' and then in 1986 was the filming location for a scene in the final two parts of the story Trial of a Time Lord, as part of an elaborate illusion generated by the Valeyard in the Matrix.

Visual Art

Artists the Boyle Family famously made some of their first casts using resin and fibreglass on the beach at Camber Sands in 1966. These initial studies - some of which were unsuccessful - culminated in the Tidal Series of 1969 in which fourteen separate casts were made of the same 150 x 150 cm area of beach. Made over a period of one week, the fourteen pieces showed in microscopic detail the way in which the tide affected the sand as it washed over the beach twice a day.

Outside links

("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Camber Sands)

• Location map: 50°55’59"N, 0°47’46"E