Dr Cathryn Pearce

@cathrynpearce

British historian. Author: Cornish Wrecking, 1700-1860 | Researching c18th-19th shipwrecks, the Royal Navy & coastal communities. #CoastalHistory #NavalHistory #MaritimeHistory #SussexCoast

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Dr Cathryn Pearce@cathrynpearce· 26d

Meet Feathers, our new herring gull rescue. She was picked up by my husband after being hit by a car on the A259. He had to stop when he saw her in the headlights as she was directly ahead, laying in a pile of feathers. A parent (?) wasn't far away, flattened, poor thing. #GullRescue

Photo of a fledging herring gull, with black bill and dark eye, and one tail feather. She's standing on a piece of concrete near the grass. Her crop is full, as she was just fed.

Dr Cathryn Pearce@cathrynpearce· Jul 14

Oh fun! Went down a rabbit hole looking up... warrens! We had one on the coast in Piddinghoe parish, on manor lands of the Pelhams in the 18th century. I need to read more about it, when I'm done with the piece I'm writing. Wondering if there are any remains... #SussexCoast #CoastalHistory #rabbits

Screen grab of an Ordnance Survey map, 1st series, early nineteenth century, showing the coast between the village of Rottingdean to Newhaven, with a warren marked in the Downs between the two, just below the village of Telscombe.

Dr Cathryn Pearce@cathrynpearce· Jul 13

I'm really wanting to get out to do some writing, but it's summer on the SE coast, which means CROWDS. I'm glad I took a lot of photos and have my memory to work with! #AmWriting

Quote: "The nature of the visited place affects the very tone of a journal entry. It influences the selection of the facts one chooses to jot down about that place. In short, the historian who visits a place writes a different history than the historian who stays home, satisfied to read about a place someone else once visited,' -- Barry Lopez, in Horizon.

Dr Cathryn Pearce@cathrynpearce· Jul 3

I know this is a bit late, but if you're in Sussex and looking for something to do tomorrow, 4 July, come to the RNLI fayre at Newhaven!

Poster that says: 'You are invited to the RNLI Summer Fayre. Fun for all the Family: Stalls, attractions, displays and music. Meet the Crew Stormy Stan and More! Bar and BBQ. Seahaven Academy, Haven Way, BN9 9TD. Sat 4 July, 10am -4pm The RNLI is the charity that saves lives at sea.

Dr Cathryn Pearce@cathrynpearce· Jun 27

The storm went over us quite quickly, but tonight France/Belgium and The Netherlands are getting hammered! I hope there's no lightning strikes there like there was in Sussex last night. These clips are from www.lightningmaps.org

Dr Cathryn Pearce@cathrynpearce· Jun 27

I hear that we're having another storm incoming!

Screen grab from lightning.com showing strikes moving up the Channel towards Beachy Head

Dr Cathryn Pearce@cathrynpearce· Jun 26

The storm has arrived in East Sussex! We have a light show off Beachy Head, so it should be visible to @davidveevers.bsky.social , too!

Screen grab showing lightning strikes on a map

Dr Cathryn Pearce@cathrynpearce· Jun 26

Went out to the garden and received a shock. Our neighbour's sycamore has been heat damaged. Last week the leaves were so thick I couldn't see any branches. A pair of crows nest there. But now, bare branches and burnt leaves. #NatureHeatStroke

photo of a sycamore tree, leaning toward the east, showing burnt leaves and bare branches.

Close up photo of the sycamore, showing bare branches in the middle of the tree.

Dr Cathryn Pearce@cathrynpearce· Jun 13

Oh, that's a good choice! I hope the traffic wasn't too bad. We're near the Long Man of Wilmington, but both east-west routes get packed.

Image of a steep hill with a chalk figure carved into it. The chalk figure is of a man holding a stave in each hand. There is a lot of debate about the age and the original carving, and what it is supposed to represent.

Dr Cathryn Pearce@cathrynpearce· Jun 12

Spending a few hours working on book ideas. Environment will play a large part in it. So glad I have photos from a boat trip showing Sussex's not-so-friendly coast, even in good weather. #Fieldwork #Boatwork #SussexCoast #HistoryWriting

Image of six of the Seven Sisters, a series of chalk hills and cliffs at high tide and taken from the sea. It looks like a wavy white wall, with no real place to land a boat.

Dr Cathryn Pearce@cathrynpearce· Jun 11

Writing Day! This is one of my favourite John McPhee quotes. Yes, there are times when writing is a joy, and when you go into flow it's delightful. But then there are the other times...but you come out of it with something to be proud of (and it's not by writing with A-eye. #Writing

"If you lack confidence in setting one word after another and sense that you are stuck in a place from which you will never be set free, if you feel sure that you will never make it and were not cut out to do this, if your prose seems stillborn and you completely lack confidence, you must be a writer. If you say you see things differently and describe your efforts positively, if you tell people that you "just love to write," you may be delusional. Draft No. 4 by John McPhee.

Dr Cathryn Pearce@cathrynpearce· Jun 10

The photo is a bit dark -- the flag was in the wrong direction so competed with the sun. These are dotted through Newhaven and Peacehaven, and have a more positive message than the ones recently put up illegally: 'Kind Humans Make Humans Kind'. Absolutely!

Photo of a banner produced by LookAgain Newhaven, funded by Lewes District Council. lookagainnewhaven.co.uk

Dr Cathryn Pearce@cathrynpearce· Jun 1

Incoming! Our garden will be very happy! #SussexCoast

Photo taken from a cliff overlooking the English Channel. Dark rain clouds have gathered on the horizon, and are slowly heading towards land. The tide is out and the sea calm, for the moment.

Dr Cathryn Pearce@cathrynpearce· May 22

Guess where we were today?! I also took 650 photos of Sea Fencibles documents. I have some transcribing to do! #AmResearching #Birds

Photo of a tall grey and white bird wading in the pond at the National Archives, Kew, UK. The water also reflects the bird.

Dr Cathryn Pearce@cathrynpearce· May 10

I'm fascinated by water's movement. Today, with a northeast wind and a high tide, the ripples make themselves visible. They almost look like wrinkles in our skin. #SussexCoast

Photo from the top of a cliff looking down into the green waters of the English Channel. There are ripples in several directions -- on from the northeast, and another created by the sea lapping the shore, crisscrossing the southeast ripples in an arc.

Dr Cathryn Pearce@cathrynpearce· May 8

Woo Hoo! We won the Seahaven Business Award! We were amongst some heavy competition, including Maverick Charters. Congrats to all the volunteers at Newhaven Museum!#Sussex

Photo of the Award, a gold star with a crescent moon and the Seven Sisters white cliffs.

Dr Cathryn Pearce@cathrynpearce· May 2

It arrived with some strong rolls of thunder into Seaford. Loved how ominous it looked out to sea. Unfortunately, we got caught in it and were soaking wet by the time we walked back to the car.

Photo from Seaford's coastal path, showing a dark ominous cloud out to sea while people (and a dog) are walking towards Splash Point.

Dr Cathryn Pearce@cathrynpearce· May 2

A lovely walk along Seaford's seafront to Splash Point and the kittiwake rookery. That is, lovely until the rain arrived! We saw lots of kittiwakes, and four cormorants as sentinels on their chalk tower. We also saw people on the edge of the cliff on top of Seaford Head, unware of the cracks below.

Photo of a white cliff from sea level, with a chalk tower with a one cormorant on the top, and two midway down. The cliff also has a lot of shelves in it with kittiwake nests, but they can't be seen in the photo. Along the bottom is a line of posts, each with a kittiwake standing on it.

Dr Cathryn Pearce@cathrynpearce· Apr 29

I'm so excited about this! Sarah was my PhD supervisor (the best!) at Greenwich. She was my top cheerleader, and always made me feel positive. Her scholarship is also top notch! Congratulations, Sarah, and well deserved! #MaritimeHistory snr.org.uk/snr-events/a...

Screen grab of the Society for Nautical Research's webpage announcing the award to Sarah Palmer for her book Maritime Metropolis: London and its Port, 1780-1914 (Cambridge University Press, 2024). The award will be held at the Queen's House, National Maritime Museum, Greenwich on 30 April 2026.

Dr Cathryn Pearce@cathrynpearce· Apr 27

What a lovely evening! The sun decided to hide behind the clouds just when I got into position to take a snap. Ah well! And then when it showed, it was huge! I thought it was orange though, rather than hot pink. Hmmm! #SussexCoast

Photo taken from the Undercliff looking west. Brighton is in the distance. The sun is behind a raft of clouds.

Photo looking west with the sun a gigantic orange/pink orb hanging on the horizon. Dark clouds are in the background.

Dr Cathryn Pearce@cathrynpearce· Apr 24

Managed to get another speaking gig for the autumn, so the third new one for the year! Word of mouth can do wonders. Seaford is a great place to talk about wrecking history; they have a reputation, just like the Cornish... and lots of stories to investigate! #SussexCoast #Shipwrecks #CoastalHistory

Museum label showing a drwing of a cormorant standing on a cliff, overlooking a ship grounded on the beach, and men with lanterns and bags of treasure. The label says, 'Without the former trade as a port Seaforders survived by fishing, smuggling and plundering wrecked ships and drowned sailors and so were called "cormorants" or "shags" after the scavenging sea birds.'

Dr Cathryn Pearce@cathrynpearce· Apr 18

I'm nursing a sore neck today. I spent too much time watching fulmars on the cliff top from the beach. They are so graceful, and have such cute faces! The cliff face wasn't as cute, though! #SussexCoast

Photo of the cliff face, showing a cave with a fulmar nesting in it. The fulmar has a white body and grey wings, a small bill and a dark eye.

Photo of a fulmar flying above the cliff. They have an elegant wing span, with wings that are bent in the middle for gliding. They live at sea during the winter.

A skull image carved in the cliff by wind and rain, with help by human hands.

Dr Cathryn Pearce@cathrynpearce· Apr 11

Trying to find out more about an image of a painting we hold at Newhaven Museum. It's of Seaford Bay, between Newhaven and Seaford. These are a few closeups. #SussexCoast Anyone have any clues as to painter or date?

An image showing the Newhaven cliffs in the background, with sailing ships and barges in the middle, and a part of a broken up groyne in the foreground.

Image of the sweep of Seaford Bay, showing Newhaven in the background with a windmill on the far hill, a facory with smoke, people walking along the beach, and rows of wooden groynes in an arc. A woman walks with her child and a basket towards Seaford (or Tidemills?)

Close up of the woman and child, also a man sitting on one of the groynes and another family of three -- a man, woman and child. In the background are the buildings of Newhaven, with one having a smoking stack. A sailing ship is moving through Mill Creek, having entered through Newhaven Harbour at the River Ouse.

Dr Cathryn Pearce@cathrynpearce· Apr 8

Our front garden is becoming a beautiful wild place for birds, bees, and butterflies.

Photo of a front garden with white and purple spanish bluebells and yellow celandine amongst the grass.

Dr Cathryn Pearce@cathrynpearce· Mar 26

Thank you @alcs.co.uk I definitely could use that payment towards our vet bills. Our dear girl is at the vets on emergency again tonight.

Golden cocker spaniel sleeping in a lap of a man with a blue fleece. She is wearing a black t-shirt to keep her from licking her stomach incisions.

Dr Cathryn Pearce@cathrynpearce· Mar 15

Getting excited about my upcoming presentation for @sussexpast.bsky.social! The cliffs of Peacehaven-Newhaven were not the place to be shipwrecked... sussexpast.co.uk/event/spring...

Photograph from the top of the cliff west of Newhaven looking east. The cliffs are vertical, and the algae on the rocks below show that high tide comes right to the vertical cliff face. There's not much beach, especially at spring tides (the highest tides).

Dr Cathryn Pearce@cathrynpearce· Mar 10

The clouds and sun off the #SussexCoast did not disappoint today! After two days of being socked in, the fog lifted enough for us to actually see bits of the sky. It also gave us an inkling of what is to come tonight from the southwest. #RainRainRain

Photo from the cliff top showing the sea with rain and fog in the distance, but patches of blue sky above.

Dr Cathryn Pearce@cathrynpearce· Mar 10

#NavalHistory people! Help! Our local museum has a life raft we're trying to research. Does anyone know anything about it? It is triangular, and is stamped with a 1940 date.

Image of the life raft, showing the triangular shape. It is a light brown colour.

Image showing the information printed on the raft: It says C2176, then D.R.Co. Jul 1940, and Mid/30.

Dr Cathryn Pearce@cathrynpearce· Feb 21

I have no drawing talent, unlike my cousin, a professional artist, & my aunt who has an MFA. But I'm pleased that the sparrow I drew for my notes actually looks like a sparrow! This is a tree sparrow which I grew up with. Now I watch (and love) the UK house sparrows. So sad they're endangered 😭

Drawing of the head and body of a tree sparrow on graph paper. It has a chestnut brown cap, grey head, and chestnut brown stripe through its eyes. It's chest is grey. This is an entry in my commonplace book, in which I combine both observations, quotes and memories. This time I wanted to know the difference between the sparrows in my hedges and the ones I grew up with.

Dr Cathryn Pearce@cathrynpearce· Feb 15

On Friday, the coast was a study of grey on grey, although the clouds still managed to cast their shadow on the water. Today, the heavy rain moved on, leaving a study of clouds and light. #SussexCoast