After this storm
Beach journal 28th January 2026
West Pier, Brighton. 10.30 am. 9°C, mostly sun, no breeze. Low tide.
The recent storm has stripped the beach to a thin layer. Underfoot the stones and ground shells are small enough to feel soft and spongy. Larger pebbles are scattered over the surface. The low sun has me squinting as I drop down over the ridge at the top of beach and the shore is a grey, deserted moonscape.
By the time I reach the old posts of the pier I’m padding over a wide expanse of sand that has been revealed. A curving pattern of paw prints suggests the delight of this morning’s visitors.
Tonnes of shingle have been removed from the promenade and roads all along the coast. I wonder if it’s been trucked back west to Shoreham, to help manage the longshore drift, forced into early action by the storm.
The lack of onions on the beach was noticeable. Shipping container spills near the Isle of Wight had smothered the coastline in vegetables, containers of oil and other items that washed up for days. Every visit meant bags full of onions and other produce, styrofoam, rolls of tape and assorted plastics emptied into designated containers.
It wasn’t the shipping company that organised teams to clear the mess. Leave No Trace alerted the community, the council provided hands, bins and litter picking equipment and the seafront office coordinated the efforts. Local people turned up in their hundreds to sweep the beach for several days, gathering up the most harmful items first. The love for the beach, for the sea and for the local wildlife and sealife was tangible on those days.
The people I saw were mostly alone or with a dog, quietly, resolutely, taking action, doing what they could. The containers filled with tonnes of waste, the beaches gradually clearing, cared for.
Sadly a seal was caught in plastic vegetable netting and did not survive.
Onions on a beach hardly feels like dramatic news in these times but on days when my nervous system can’t tell which threats are local and immediate against a backdrop of continued widespread horror and injustice, picking up onions on a beach was a storm I could respond to.
When the next storm comes, we’ll deal with that one too.
In between we listen to the waves.
Candlemass blessings to those who mark the wheel of the year. May your own inner fire be ignited and your dreams awakened.
It was such an awful scene seeing our beaches covered with so much container spill 😔
Thanks for my weekly Brighton fix. I was there on Tuesday as my daughter went to a gig. Didn't know about the beach clean or we would have helped out. Have a great week.