Stolen by Time and Tide

I watched a repeat of the TV programme Coast the other day, it was the one covering the coastline from Norfolk all the way down to Dover. The episode covered the erosion of the cliffs along the Suffolk coastline, in particular around Southwold and it reminded me of my second visit to Covehythe, just a few miles north of Southwold itself. My first visit was in September 2009 and my friend Bryony and I cycled and walked along the cliff top paths to get down to the beach. I returned in February this year and was shocked to find that much of the paths we had walked were now long gone, fallen to the beach after dramatic coastal erosion over the winter months.

Living and spending time on the coast of East Anglia you are aware of the constant erosion but this was the first time I had personally witnessed just how fast this natural (and normally slow) process occurring. The shape of the coastline is changing with almost every tide and within a few decades dozens of metres of cliff and land are washed back to the sea.