A home left hanging perilously over a cliff edge after a surge of recent cliff falls at the north Norfolk coast is set to be demolished by the council.
The old farmhouse at Cliff Farm in Trimingham dates back to the 18th century, but now dangles over the crumbling cliffs after a dramatic landslide last week.
The owner has been forced to evacuate his home, which will be demolished by North Norfolk District Council (NNDC) in the coming weeks to stop it from falling onto the beach.
The homeowner lived alone and bought the three-bedroom property after retiring just five years ago - paying around £132,000 for it at auction in 2019.
The wooden Windy Ridge chalet next door to the former farmhouse is also at serious risk of being lost to the sea, but the elderly owner, who is believed to have lived there all his life, is “determined to stay” and hopes to see out his remaining years in the clifftop home.
Erosion at Trimingham has been happening at an alarming rate due to heavy rainfall over the winter which has saturated the soft cliffs, leading to frequent landslides.
Fears of erosion even forced the Ministry of Defence (MoD) to move the village’s distinctive 'golf ball' radar station inland to Neatishead last year.
And in January 2020, the cliff fell sending tonnes of sand and silt plummeting down onto the beach and into the sea from Trimingham House Caravan Park above.
'It's a real tragedy'
“It’s very sad that the old farmhouse has been undermined by landfall over the last few weeks,” Harry Blathwayt, North Norfolk District Council’s portfolio holder for coast, said.
“Sadly, it will have to be demolished.
“The owner of the property has spoken to council officers and he fully accepts that the building is in a precarious position to say the least.
“As such, the council’s Coastwise team will be helping demolish it - getting contractors in and taking it down before it can fall on the beach.
“They’ve gone out to get quotes and as soon as a contractor has been appointed I’m hoping it will be very imminent – weeks not months.
“Very sensibly, the owner decided even if he was in a room furthest away from the edge he would be losing sleep, so he is no longer living in the property and has emptied it of his belongings.
“There’s no upside to any of this – it’s a real tragedy. This has been accelerated by the heavy rain we’ve had this winter.
“My understanding is that it was the sea view that attracted him to the property, but his dream of a clifftop house for his retirement has been taken away.”
Liz King, chairman of Trimingham Parish Council, has said they plan to use drones to plant seeds along the cliffs in a bid to naturally bind them together and slow down the rate of erosion threatening the village.
"The parish council is looking at a project moving forward to seed the whole of the cliff so that it binds together and absorbs an awful lot of that water, because it's not the sea but the water coming off the land which is eroding the cliff away," she said.
"What we're trying to do is use that water before it takes the cliff away.
"Years ago there were hundreds of wells in the village as every property had its own well which were drawing up and using water.
"We've also tried using pipes to drain water out of the cliffs.
"Now we've been talking to a company called Crop Angel about the possibility of using drones - with about a five-foot span - to drop seeds over the cliffs.
"But we're going to have to jump through lots of hoops before we get that far - and we could lose another property in that time."
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