Westgate-on-Sea is quite a busy little beach, it is popular with retirees and if they spot you beach combing they seem to home in on you. They can range from being friendly and quizzical "excuse me what are you looking for?", to somewhat rude to you, if you do something that they think is unusual (like taking a photo of a seagull for example!:0) "Ooooh, somebody likes taking pictures!" Honestly I have never heard such rudeness from retirees. Lol ;)
It is a designated SSI so they ask that you do not remove anything living from the beach but take photo's instead.
Westgate-on-Sea For Kids?: This is a great beach for kids, especially in the summer when the seaweed is kept under control. I would also highly recommend this beach for elderly relatives as there is plenty of seating and a good atmosphere.
Amenities: There is a cafe on the promenade, toilets, and behind the beach in the sand dunes there are seating and BBQ areas.
What Can be Found There?:
Driftwood in large quantities washes up at Westgate-on-Sea, in half an hour you could probably fill a carrier bag with driftwood, and help clean the beach a little. I found cute driftwood planks, and other shaped pieces. The driftwood is quite often black when you find it, this will turn to wood colored when it is dried. The photo shows a whale I am making using driftwood from Westgate-on-Sea.
Shells galore, there are plenty of shells to be found on this beach. Up on the top of the beach are larger shells, like whelks, and lower down great deposits of cockle, flat winkle, small oyster, dog whelk, razor clams, slipper limpets and mussel shells. When the tide goes out you can find many delicate pink and yellow colored shells. - There are not a great amount of species of shell to be found here, but the ones that are seem to be the most beautiful examples.
Amber: Pieces of amber wash up here after a storm. I've found 2 pieces of it here and wasn't even looking for it. One a natural piece of amber called 'butterscotch amber' and another an amber cabochon that was probably lost from a pendant. Look for amber in the seaweed, it gets trapped in it and washes up on shore.
Fossils: I didn't find any fossils here but imagine they can be found in the chalk. Things like sea urchin fossils can probably be found here.
Other Fun Things: Lots of stuff to be found here, lots of trash gets washed up in the bay. My friend kept picking up the most horrible things, pieces of solidified oil, and only god knows what else. :0 He even found an unopened and perfectly usable tub of play-dough! There are lots of bits of plastic, toy soldiers, toy guns, plastic bracelets. We filled a bag with trash from the beach as we went and chucked it away.
Sea Glass: A lot of sea glass to be found here, it hasn't been worn down much by the sea though, and you can find quite large pieces, some with writing on. The sea glass here is interesting.
Conclusion: Westgate-on-Sea is an interesting little area where you can always find something unusual. If you are after well preserved shells, flotsam and jetsam, or interesting pieces of driftwood then it's one of the best places to go.
It also has a large amount of different seaweed species washed up on the shore which are interesting to look at.
You were fortunate to find amber.
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