Is the end near?
Our stretch of the East Anglian coastline is at constant risk from the sea. Over the millenia, local inhabitants have erected defences against the waves, ranging from minor channels and ditches to the great river- and sea-walls that guard our marshes and farmland. They work well, but only if they are constantly maintained.
The government has recently announced that the cost of maintaining the North Sea defences in the Sandlings has become more than the value of the land itself. In short, nobody is going to repair the sea-walls anymore, because there's no money to do it with. The environment agency--that's our environment agency--agrees with them, and furthermore says that the Sandlings isn't worth very much anyway, despite being the only existing refuge in the world for about two or three hundred extremely rare species of animals and plants. On top of that, it is one of the oldest man-made landscapes in Britain, and has existed as we see it today for ten thousand years. Now it is going to be allowed to revert to the state it was before Neolithic man came to Britain. Before any world civilisation, in short.
The threat from the sea is very, very real, especially at places like Bawdsey Manor and East Lane. In the past year, the battering waves have consumed forty metres of beach there, and have now formed a crumbling muddy cliff ten foot high which progresses further inland with every tide. In the next major storm, it is predicted that one of the Martello Towers plus a huge expanse of marsh-farmland will go to the sea. Within another few years it is estimated that most of the land between Bawdsey and Hollesley--that's dozens of square miles of unique marshland--will be gone.
But that's just the beginning. If none of the sea defences are being repaired, the sea will certainly break through the narrowest point of Orfordness, at Slaughden Quay. This would turn Orfordness into a literal island ... and worse, it would allow the tide to get into the River Alde/Ore twelve miles further upstream than it does today. In turn, this would cause the collapse of the river defences. Hazelwood Marsh, Iken Marshes and Sudbourne Marshes could be gone in years. Minsmere nature reserve, Westleton Heath and the remains of Dunwich would soon follow.
In the worst-case scenario, three quarters of the land in the Sandlings area (that's wildnerness and farmland) could be converted to tidal mudflats within ten years. Luckily my village is on relatively high ground, but one of the most historic landscapes in Britain will be changed forever ... a landscape which took thousands of years to create, and if lost, will take a similar amount of time to restore to its current condition.
Our stretch of the East Anglian coastline is at constant risk from the sea. Over the millenia, local inhabitants have erected defences against the waves, ranging from minor channels and ditches to the great river- and sea-walls that guard our marshes and farmland. They work well, but only if they are constantly maintained.
The government has recently announced that the cost of maintaining the North Sea defences in the Sandlings has become more than the value of the land itself. In short, nobody is going to repair the sea-walls anymore, because there's no money to do it with. The environment agency--that's our environment agency--agrees with them, and furthermore says that the Sandlings isn't worth very much anyway, despite being the only existing refuge in the world for about two or three hundred extremely rare species of animals and plants. On top of that, it is one of the oldest man-made landscapes in Britain, and has existed as we see it today for ten thousand years. Now it is going to be allowed to revert to the state it was before Neolithic man came to Britain. Before any world civilisation, in short.
The threat from the sea is very, very real, especially at places like Bawdsey Manor and East Lane. In the past year, the battering waves have consumed forty metres of beach there, and have now formed a crumbling muddy cliff ten foot high which progresses further inland with every tide. In the next major storm, it is predicted that one of the Martello Towers plus a huge expanse of marsh-farmland will go to the sea. Within another few years it is estimated that most of the land between Bawdsey and Hollesley--that's dozens of square miles of unique marshland--will be gone.
But that's just the beginning. If none of the sea defences are being repaired, the sea will certainly break through the narrowest point of Orfordness, at Slaughden Quay. This would turn Orfordness into a literal island ... and worse, it would allow the tide to get into the River Alde/Ore twelve miles further upstream than it does today. In turn, this would cause the collapse of the river defences. Hazelwood Marsh, Iken Marshes and Sudbourne Marshes could be gone in years. Minsmere nature reserve, Westleton Heath and the remains of Dunwich would soon follow.
In the worst-case scenario, three quarters of the land in the Sandlings area (that's wildnerness and farmland) could be converted to tidal mudflats within ten years. Luckily my village is on relatively high ground, but one of the most historic landscapes in Britain will be changed forever ... a landscape which took thousands of years to create, and if lost, will take a similar amount of time to restore to its current condition.
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