Holbeck Hall Hotel Notes

This was my Geography homework to write down notes of information about the Holbeck Hall Coast incident.


3/6/93-6/6/93 the Holbeck Hall/Hotel collapsed.
It was 60-70 metres away from the edge of a cliff and so it was not declared dangerous, until it collapsed, of course.
But when it did collapse, the owners complained that something should of been done before it fell down so this incident would never have happened.
There were signs (cracks) before that meant that there would be a cliff collapse SIX weeks before. These cracks were dealt with, but incorrectly.
The cracks were created by the mud cliff first being baked by the sun, and then being attacked through its weak spots by rain.
Just after this, the hotel garden was also seen to have suffered a minor movement.
The landslide was a rotational one. It involved approx 1000000000 kg of glacial till and 27000 metres squared of mud/till.
There was originally between 60m and 70m of garden between the hotel and the cliff edge. At 0600 hours on 4/6/93, 55 metres of the garden had disappeared.
Luckily no one was injured.
In 1997, it became the subject of a significant court case in English law.
The court case was between the owners of the hall/hotel and Scarborough Borough Council.
The owners of the hotel said that as owners of the shore, the council had not taken any practical measures at all to prevent the landslip.
The claim was rejected on the grounds that the Council was not liable for the causes of the landslide itself.