Council confirms eight more houses are at risk in Thorpness due to coastal erosion
A third home has started to be demolished, and with ongoing bad weather, people are watching to see what happens next
Homes along the Thorpeness coastline are continuing to be demolished as accelerated coastal erosion eats away at the Suffolk shoreline, leaving residents, visitors and nearby communities grappling with uncertainty about the future.
Our reporter Jasmine Oak has been at the scene.
Three properties have already been taken down, with further demolitions planned in the next few weeks as the cliff edge retreats following storms and unusually high tides earlier this winter.
‘Very sad, but inevitable’
Kat Palmer, who has relatives living in the village, said watching homes disappear into the sea was difficult but not unexpected.
“Of course, it’s very sad for the owners and the locals in the village and the local area. It’s nature taking its course, coastal erosion, so it’s difficult to kind of watch, but at the same time it’s nature.”
She said those living in the village inevitably worry about what may come next.
"I think anyone in the village has a certain amount of worry, but I guess there’s hope for many people that the whole village won’t be lost.”
Witnessing homes come down
John Stone, who has spent many years visiting the area, said he was present when the first property was demolished earlier this year.
“We were here a couple of weeks ago when the first one came down. We came on the day the lady moved out, and it was very sad; she’d been here, I think she said 50 years.”
He described the damage caused by high tides earlier in January as a shock.
“It was very much of a shock to see what the high tide, I think on January 2nd had done down the bottom there. Very much surprised and not looking good.”
Reflecting on the homeowner’s final day, he added:
" She was obviously very, very sad. She knew it was obviously going to happen, but as they say, doomsday had come. And that was her last day. What could one do against the sea?”
Mr Stone also questioned why some areas appear to have stronger defences than others.
“The house just next to the one that came down first has got a lot of sea defences down there, of boulders. And I couldn’t understand why that couldn’t be done further along.”
Looking at the rubble left behind, he said:
“When you look at all this rubble, you think, oh, wait a minute, why can’t we just tip that over the bank and put it in and make it some form of sea defences and then put some boulders there? But I gather that may not be practical.”
‘It destroys this row’
Richard White, who co-owns a property in Thorpeness which he visits several times a year, said the repeated demolitions were heartbreaking.
“It’s very sad. We’ve seen the other properties come down during the last year, but it’s just the way the coast is changing with the currents of the sea, and storms are just taking the sandy cliffs away, which is very sad.”
He said some residents had previously invested in private defences, though their long-term effectiveness remains uncertain.
“We know the lady who lives in this house here who had lots of granite boulders put in a few years back, and they’re holding up her cliff at the moment, but I’m not sure it’s going to last much longer.”
Mr White suggested large-scale engineering solutions could help, but acknowledged the cost.
“There are things that could be done, but they cost a lot of money. I think the one answer I know is being explored by the various authorities is to put in groins, which would break the flow of the storm surges that come down the coast.”
His wife, Lyn White, said time was critical.
“It all needs to happen quickly, though, if anything’s going to be remedied, the groins need to be put in soon, because it’s happening now.”
Wider concerns for the Suffolk coast
Robert Wheeler, from nearby Aldeburgh, said the pace of erosion at Thorpeness had become increasingly alarming.
“We’ve lived in Aldeburgh for nearly 30 years, and the situation here has deteriorated significantly in Thorpeness.”
Watching another house being demolished, he said:
"It’s very sad, but inevitable, I think, really. It’s clearly not economically viable to protect Thorpeness or the more vulnerable areas of Thorpeness.”
He added that while Aldeburgh currently feels safer, there are concerns about knock-on effects.
“Yes, I am concerned about Aldeburgh, obviously. I don’t really know enough about the tides and how they work to be able to judge whether there will be a knock-on effect… but it’s clearly worrying.”
‘Completely shocked by the speed of it’
Sally, who lives elsewhere in Suffolk, said she and her partner had once considered buying a house along the same stretch of coast.
“We were advised at the time to only go ahead if we could afford to lose all our money within the next 50 years, but not within the next 15 years.”
Seeing the demolitions now, she said:
“I’m completely shocked. When the first one went a couple of years ago, we’d seen that it was on the market the year before for one and a half million pounds.”
She added:
“Totally shocked by the speed of it and obviously concerned what does this mean, you know, for East Anglia as a whole.”
With more properties at risk and further demolitions planned, residents and visitors alike say the situation at Thorpeness highlights the growing challenge coastal communities face as erosion accelerates along the Suffolk shoreline.