Cliff Gallery

View at Wheal Coates tin mine, St Agnes, Cornwall

View at Wheal Coates former tin mine, on the cliff top between Porthtowan and St Agnes, north coast of Cornwall, showing the Towanroath Shaft Pumping Engine House. Date: circa 1980s

© Mary Evans Picture Library/ANDREW BESLEY

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The Pleaskins, Giants Causeway

The Pleaskins, Giants Causeway - an elevated view showing cliff heads with columns in the cliff faces. (Location: Northern Ireland: County Antrim: Bushmills). Date: circa early 1900s

© National Museums NI / Mary Evans

Antrim, Bushmills, Causeway, Cliff, Columns, County, Elevated, Faces, Giants, Heads, Ireland, Location, Northern, Pleaskins, Showing, View

Collecting Eggs at Flamborough Head

Collecting seagull's eggs at Flamborough Head, Yorkshire. A traditional practice for farmers whose land adjoined the cliff edge, which gave them a legal right to supplement their income by selling eggs. The farmer sub-licenced gangs of three or four climmers, to gather eggs of the gulls, common guillemot, razorbill and others from the cliff side. It was a perilous business, requiring fitness and skill, but the rewards must have been great - in 1908 such eggs commanded a shilling a dozen (about the same as a hundredweight of coal) and it was estimated that gangs could collect up to 300 or 400 eggs a day in season. Date: 1911

© Mary Evans / Grenville Collins Postcard Collection