The startling images that show the fast-paced erosion eating away at Britain’s coastline
Tough choices have been made in the context of the “roll back” agenda pursued by the Environment Agency. In all the fuss about flooding this is an equally important and emotive issue – but one where small communities are being neglected because of their lack of “chimney pots”. This article tells us:
The black and white photograph, taken over a century ago, shows a row of seven terrace houses set well back from the sea in an idylic location atop the white chalk cliffs of England’s south coast.
Fast-forward to this week and the scene at Birling Gap, near Eastbourne, East Sussex is quite different.
Instead of a picture-perfect postcard of peaceful coastal lifestyle, it is now a worrying example of the fast-paced erosion that is tearing up parts of the British coastline.
Photographs taken this week, in sharp contrast to an image of the row of houses taken in 1905, shows a cherry-picker removing the walls of a former coastguard cottage left teetering on the edge of cliffs.
Just six inches from the end of the cliff at Birling Gap the home has become the third victim of the encroaching sea. Two other properties were demolished in 1994 and in the early 2000s