Video
Josh: Hi. I’m Josh. I’m 14 and I live in north Norfolk. I think coastal erosion is an issue that everyone living in this region can relate to. The high cliffs on the north Norfolk coastline are soft and vulnerable because of storm surges and rising sea levels. This wears away at the rock causing coastal erosion.
Josh: The village of Happisburgh perched on the edge of the sea is one of the worse effected communities in the country. Sea defences can be built, wooden groynes, solid sea walls, but they’re expensive and they erode over time and need rebuilding.
Josh: Unfortunately, the Happisburgh’s case and many other villages in this area and in the country the actual cost of defending it was a lot more than the value of the houses.
Male: Piece by piece the house came down.
Josh: In Happisburgh in 2012 the North Norfolk District Council decided to demolish the houses most at risk rather than pay for defences. It’s a policy still in place today. But is it as unfair as it seems, I don’t know.
Josh: I want go visit some places, go and meet some people and hear both sides of the argument and then I can make my mind up.
Josh: Coastal erosion. Is coastal erosion worth preventing?
Josh: Brian is from North Norfolk District Council. So I’m going to take him up on his offer and find out why they’re not protecting all of the coastline.
Josh: But first I want to see what’s left of the sea defences. I’m guessing they were put in place after the 2013 storm surges. The groynes they look quite old these ones. And that over there, they look like the remains of what was a house. It’s just fallen in to the sea.
Josh: Hi. I’m Josh.
Brian Farrow: Hi. Morning Josh. I’m Brian, pleased to meet you.
Josh: Hi. Why does erosion happen more here?
Brian Farrow: You’ve got to remember these are soft cliffs, sands, gravels, silt and glaze. They’re easily erodible. They easily wash away and there is no protection.
Brian Farrow: Historically I think the erosion rate here would be between a metre and a metre and a half. In the worse condition we saw up here a few years ago I think we recorded 13 metres in one month.
Josh: 13 metres in a month.
Brian Farrow: In a month. And that was massive.
Josh: So what is the council doing about it?
Brian Farrow: We’ve got a policy in place. The policy is what’s called the Shoreline Management Plan. You could if you had the money, you could defend this coastline, everywhere you wanted to, but it would cost an absolute fortune. And you’d be constantly spending everything you’ve got doing it. There’s no cheap answer. There’s no simple solution.
Josh: So how much does it cost then?
Brian Farrow: A traditional defence would have been a series of groynes, the remains of what you see up there.
Josh: A groyne is a wooden barrier built out in to the sea to prevent movement of sand and beach material.
Brian Farrow: Typically a groyne would cost at today’s prices, let’s say £1,500 for every metre. A lot of money. A cheap sea wall £3,000 a linear metre. So that’s three, six, nine, twelve, 15, 18, 21.
Josh: I’ve just spoken to Brian and yeah, it was really interesting to hear what he had to say but there’s not a lot we can do because it’s all down to money now.
Josh: Now I’m going to meet Jamie, a farmer whose land is affected by erosion. His farm is in Trimingham, ten miles up the coast from Happisburgh.
Jamie Harrison: Morning.
Josh: Morning.
Jamie Harrison: So Josh let me just show you how close we are to the coast, alright. I hope you’re not scared of heights. The tide’s going out as you can see and a fairly dramatic coastline we have here. You can see the top soil we’re working on and the clay strata further down in the cliff line.
Josh: So how have you been affected by coastal erosion then?
Jamie Harrison: Well it’s been an ongoing process over a number of years. And the field we’re looking at now behind was 75 acres, we’re now down to 52 acres.
Josh: So you’ve lost quite a lot then.
Jamie Harrison: It’s very dramatic, it’s very dramatic.
Josh: But do you think we’re doing enough?
Jamie Harrison: Unfortunately we haven’t got enough houses in this part of the world to justify the cost of putting the infrastructure in place to prevent soil erosion. We hope in the future there could be funds for at least an order to protect this coastline.
Josh: Next stop I’m visiting a Happisburgh resident, Malcolm.
Malcolm Kerby: Hi Josh. I’m Malcolm. It’s good to meet you.
Josh: He’s been living in Happisburgh for 19 years and he thinks we need to do more to protect the people.
Malcolm Kerby: From that point there the defences stretch north, still do, about 13.5 kilometres.
Josh: Yeah.
Malcolm Kerby: And from the other end of the bay here there are 14 kilometres of solid concrete sea wall all the way down to Winterton. So this gap at Happisburgh is the only gap and it’s the weak point.
Josh: Yeah.
Malcolm Kerby: If you allow this to continue to erode you end up with people that are going to lose their homes. So it eventually transfers from a coastal erosion problem into being a very, very human problem.
Josh: In 2011 Malcolm campaigned with the North Norfolk District Council to ensure home owners receive enough money from the government before their houses were demolished.
Malcolm Kerby: And it was the first time in British coastal history that any risk property had ever been purchased.
Josh: My opinion has changed since the start of this. Originally I thought that we should keep on defending the houses and put money into defending but it’s not natural. And the difficulty with sea defences aside from the cost is that they just move the erosion problem further down the coast to other vulnerable areas.
Josh: We should just let the sea do what it does and then give the people who are being affected by it some compensation because these are whole communities that are being troubled by this problem. And they are having their whole lives effected and it’s not fair. And I think, yeah, they should get something back before they lose everything.
Video summary
Download/print a transcript of the video.
Josh, a student from North Norfolk, investigates whether we should protect villages in danger from coastal erosion.
Josh visits the village of Happisburgh where he meets a local resident, a coastal engineer from North Norfolk District Council and a farmer, all of whom have very different ideas about the right approach to dealing with coastal erosion.
After listening to the arguments, Josh comes to a conclusion.
This clip is from the series Geography: The Big Issues.
Teacher notes
Download/print the Teacher Notes for this video (pdf).
Before watching the video
Using a map of the UK, locate Happisburgh in Norfolk and write a locational description of where it is. Use online mapping to explore the area further, for example look at the areas of coastline to the north and south of Happisburgh. What forms of coastal management can be seen along this stretch of coastline? Discuss with students why we need coastal management.
Introduce key terms such as:
- Erosion: The process where natural forces like wind, water, or ice wear away and transport soil, rock, and other materials from one location to another.
- Shoreline Management Plan: A strategic plan for managing coastal flooding and erosion risks. Each part of the coastline in England Wales has an SMP.
- Groyne: A barrier built at 90 degrees to the sea to prevent longshore drift. They are usually made of wood but can also be made of concrete.
- Compensation: Money given to people in the event of a loss, for example if they are unable to sell their home due to coastal erosion and there is nothing being done to protect it.
During the video
You may wish to stop at relevant points during this short film to pose questions and check understanding or wait until the end. Useful questions might include:
- Why is the north Norfolk coastline vulnerable?
- What are groynes?
- What is happening to Happisburgh?
- Why does erosion happen at Happisburgh?
- What is a Shoreline Management Plan?
- Why is coastal management a controversial topic?
- How much land is being lost to the sea?
- What is going to happen to people’s homes and businesses?
- Why might compensation be needed?
After watching the video
Discuss with students the impacts of erosion. These could then be categorised into social, economic and environmental. Look at photographs of the erosion at Happisburgh, ask students to describe the changes over time. They could also predict what could happen in the next 10-20 years.
A decision-making exercise could be created where students need to decide what should happen to Happisburgh. Three options could be discussed such as:
- Doing nothing.
- Installing rip rap (rock armour) and groynes to slow down coastal erosion.
- Moving everybody away from the coastline to safer accommodation.
Students should discuss each option in turn and then come to a justified decision, weighing up the evidence for each scenario. This is a good opportunity to practice some extended writing and to get students thinking and writing like geographers.
Where next?
Research the coastal management at neighbouring coastal towns such as Overstrand and Sea Palling. Look at the Shoreline Management Plan for those locations and the impacts that these have on Happisburgh.
Students could look at recent news articles about Happisburgh to help them to understand the impacts of erosion since the clip was created.
Curriculum Notes
This clip will be relevant for teaching Geography at Key Stage 3 and 4 in England, Wales and Northern Ireland and 3rd and 4th Level (S1/S2/S3) in Scotland.
Students and teachers over the age of 16 can create a free Financial Times account. For a Financial Times article about costal erosion, click here,
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