BBC Lying About Happisburgh Erosion
By Paul Homewood
They’re lying. They know they’re lying. But they carry on lying anyway:
In a small village on the north Norfolk coast, some residents are wondering how long they’ve got left in their homes before they are lost to the sea.
During the last 20 years, 34 homes have crumbled into the water in Happisburgh because of coastal erosion. Nicola Bayless thinks her home could be the next. She says she is devastated that she might have just spent her last Christmas there.
Along with East Riding in Yorkshire, Happisburgh and other parts of the north Norfolk coast have the highest number of properties at risk from coastal erosion in England.
"I’m angry and I’m heartbroken," Nicola says. "My children have grown up here, my husband died here and my parents lived here before they died.
"I’m so sad that things have come to this," the 47-year-old nurse says.
When Nicola, who also works as fitness instructor, moved to Beach Road 18 years ago, her three-bedroom semi was in the middle of the street.
But punishing weather conditions linked to climate change have eroded so much of the village’s soft sandy rock that her house is now the last one before the cliff edge.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-norfolk-63822899
No where in the article is there any mention at all of the fact that the coast at Happisburgh has been eroding away rapidly for centuries. Instead the impression is deliberately given that “punishing weather conditions linked to climate change” are the cause.
As many will know, I have written extensively about Happisburgh for many years, every time these lies are propagated. I won’t bore you with all of the detail again, but you can read them here. A selection of historical facts tell the story:
- In the Middle Ages, the village of Whimpwell stood between Happisburgh and the sea. By 1183 only one field remained, and now it is under the sea, not even visible at low tide.
- Happisburgh has lost land to the sea throughout the centuries. The rate of erosion has been erratic – at times large areas have disappeared overnight, and at others the cliff has remained virtually the same for some years
- A twelve-acre field at Happisburgh was drilled with wheat. A north-west gale raged all night, and by new morning the field had disappeared.
- White’s Directory for this year reported that the sea had encroached 250 yards in the last 70 years at Happisburgh.
Many attempts have been made down the years to protect the coast. An entry under Happisburgh in White’s Directory states ‘it is calculated the Church will be engulphed in the ocean before the middle of the ensuing century. In the same year, William Hewitt, MRCS, a relative of the Revd. John and a Stalham surgeon, suggested that breakwaters should be constructed parallel with the cliffs.
The first sea defences were built at Happisbugh and were later extended. Steel, greenheart and jarrah wood were used in their construction. The rate of erosion decreased, any loss of land being due mainly to surface water causing falls of cliff.
During the last forty years portions of the revetment have been destroyed, and repairs have been carried out on numerous occasions, but have not succeeded in preventing the formation of a large bay to the south of Happisburgh. To attract grant aid for capital works, stringent Government criteria must be satisfied, which relies heavily on the value of land and property at risk, thus prejudicing the relatively low property value in Norfolk as opposed to for example the South Coast of England. The Government’s declared present policy is to maintain ‘ a sustainable coastline’
The photo below shows houses close to the cliff edge in 1955. They look to be no more than a couple of decades old, and most certainly would not have been built anywhere near the cliffs, good indication of the rapid erosion prior to 1955.
https://www.francisfrith.com/happisburgh/happisburgh-the-beach-c1955_h304044
So what are these punishing weather conditions linked to climate change?
Sea levels have been rising since the 19thC, and if anything the rate of rise has slowed on the East Anglian coast. About 1mm a year of the rise is due to the land sinking.
As for storms, the Met Office admits that storm frequency and strength has been declining since the 1990s, in line with global warming theory:
https://rmets.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/joc.6213
BBC lies are bad enough. But what really is most disgusting is the way they use personal tragedy to promote their climate scares.
Comments are closed.
NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT 
The BBC used to be more subtle about its political agenda but, in recent years, they have become embolden and are not afraid of preaching outright lies and distortions.
Judging by the numbers of people who are cancelling their licenses and those who are very disgruntled on the blogs, it looks like the BBC’s days are numbered. It won’t matter to those employed there as they will just drift in to another politically inspired reporting job but it will be a shame that a once great institution should be brought to its knees.
To warn off prospective future buyers, “UN” should be added to its name!
Ahh…BBCUN….(that could give spellchecker a hard time.
Unfortunately, folk like Nicola are hoodwinked by both the local authority and the estate agents, neither of whom would have told her when she bought her property 18 years ago that the coast was historically under erosion and that it would be vulnerable in the future. The local authority should, by law, be obliged to explain to all current and future residents the situation, in the same way as they should with regard to buying property on flood plains. And the law should insist that estate agents and other seller explain clearly the situation. It’ll never happen.
Norfolk 2nd Jan 2023:
Does the BBC expect us to suppose that Nicola’s solicitor and her building society’s surveyor would not be aware of the history of coastal erosion in Happisburgh? Certainly her parents knew.
The District Council would present all the facts if asked. No estate agent may have been used by the vendor and in any event would not make any representations upon which the buyer would be expected to solely rely – property particulars tend to set that out . The principle applied is Caveat Emptor. Then why should the BBC know any of that?
Of course one can ask. Nevertheless, it seems to me that both the local council and estate agents, if involved, should be required by law to point out that the land on which the property is located will disappear. By the same token, I feel that the government should be a little more proactive in alerting prospective buyers to the problems of purchasing land and property on a flood plain. There are maps that show flood plains but it takes a bit of research to find them. As far as I know, there are no official maps showing land that is about to fall into the sea.
That coast must have been eroding since the English Channel was formed by the Storegga Slide tsunami, some 8000 years ago. Nothing to do with the industrial revolution a mere 150-odd years ago.
The BBC takes the biscuit for exuding virtuous hypocrisy. You only have to listen to its Feedback program as it delicately trips through irrelevant complaints of its choice; leaving the Climate Hypocrisy Propaganda elements totally ignored.
Why are you listening at all?
Fair comment. I just like to keep an eye on what the BBC is up to. Got to keep up with things in the pub you know😉😉
Meanwhile,onthe opposite side of the North Sea, the Netherlands 60% of which is at or below sea level does not have the same problem!!!!!!!!!!!
Yes the rate of sea level rise has slowed along the East Anglia coast .It may be worthwhile putting Thomas Sheppards Holderness coastline chart up Paul https://urbanrim.org.uk/erosion%20map.htm
Again, “is that true? Or did you hear it on the BBC?”
‘White’s Directory for this year’ Which year?
Paul, this (fighting the sea level/erosion claims) is an ongoing issue. You do it better than me, but here are my two goes at it:
Paul and friends, Should not someone in UK (I live in Denmark) kindly inform Nicola? After all, it seems she is about to lose her home!
If I am not mistaken, the East Coast of England has been eroding away since the end of the Ice Age.
Doggerland, after all, now under 40 meters of sea, enabled early Danes and Brits to walk to each other over dry land 6500 BCE (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doggerland)
You are mistaken Hugh Sharman ..There were no ethnic ‘ Danes ” or ‘Britons’ to speak of back then and the British Isles have periodically eroded during the Pleistocene interstadials that preceded the Holocene Optimum and the end of the last glaciation ..It was a balmy southern Mediterranean climate in the Eemian epoch when hippos swam in the Thames and the seas were 2- 3 metres above modern day levels
No Stuart!
Doggerland was “drowned” some 8200 years ago while the seawater was rising 120 meters from the “peak” of the last ice age, 22,000 years ago.
It was developed with human habitation! Modern archeologists are able to tell us what a tough life it was as the sealevel rose so quickly.
Of course, it was also underwater during the Eemian and all previous interglacials!
Anyway, have a Happy and Prosperous New Year!
ps We agree about the BBC ” pimping human misfortune for climate evangelism” of course!
Yes the British Isles eastern coastlines have eroded and submerged and re-emerged during the previous interglacials and glacial resurgences … Your argument was ‘ has been eroding away since the end of the Ice Age ” Have you comprehended that chronological oversight yet ?…. The exclamation marks and the Doggerland obsession [so what if the land shelf was inhabited ?] seemed to be a specialty of Jim Le Maistre’s ..Where is he these days ?
The BBC : pimping human misfortune for climate evangelism .
BBC and CNN are just about the same leftists controlled talking heads and printer of lies and fake news just recent fake news from CBS fake
News Shows like 60Minutes and CBS Sunday Morning