A beautiful UK seaside village could be lost to the sea within 25 years. Happisburgh on the Norfolk coast has reportedly lost more than 250 metres of coastline since the 1990s. Brits have long flocked to the area for its scenic views and history. The village’s 235-year-old lighthouse has the oldest working light in East Anglia, and is the only independently run example in Great Britain.
Climate analyst Dr Ian Richards warned the cliff line is “retreating faster than anyone expected”. He told the MailOnline:”What’s happening in places like Happisburgh isn’t just a prediction – it’s a process that’s already underway. Homes have collapsed, roads have disappeared and the cliff line is retreating faster than anyone expected.”
Some locals insist that, despite “much publicity” about the erosion, Happisburgh, which appeared in the Doomesday Book, primarily compiled in 1086, has an “exciting long term future”. But others are more pessimistic. One person wrote on Reddit: “The sea cannot be stopped from taking what it wants. Stalled, sure, but never stopped.” A different account added: “Another mile and my house becomes a beach front property.” Another individual, who lives “relatively local” to Happisburgh, said that attempts to mitigate against the loss of land have not worked.
They wrote: “The rocks definitely don’t work, they tried a (privately funded) rock defence to protect the lifeboat slip at Hembsy, the sea came in behind it and washed all the sand away, leaving a pile of rocks sat in isolation on the beach, and a 12 foot drop from the boathouse to the beach. Unfortunately in that area the ground is literally sand and offers no resistance to the sea.”
They added: “An interesting point, which is rarely mentioned in news articles, is that the flow of sediment is southerly down the North Sea in this region, so the sand banks down the coast are growing every year.
“To the point where Great Yarmouth’s piers are now ‘land locked’.”
“I question the wisdom of anybody who ends up owning a house at the top of a sand cliff near the sea,” another person said.
