Happisburgh is a small town in Norfolk County, England. It is currently facing some pretty severe coastal erosion. The tides have been cutting into the cliffs and slowly moving them inland towards houses and other structures. According to the British Geological Survey, Happisburgh never used to be a coastal town, because at one point there was a whole parish between it and the sea. The town is unfortunately sitting on layers of glacial till that do not hold up well against pounding waves.
December 30, 1999
You can find it yourself on Google Earth using these coords: 52°49'23.11"N 01°32'20.53"E
Check back next week to see the largest (supposedly) text in the world.
HAPPY HALLOWEEN, FOLKS!
Poor half a house there.
ReplyDeleteFor those not familiar with Norfolk, Happisburgh is pronounced 'Hazeborough'. There is a BBC film about the coastal erosion at http://www.bbc.co.uk/britainfromabove/stories/rewinds/happisburgh.shtml
ReplyDeleteIt is a good spot for Time Travellers:
It was home to one of the Transmitters for the 'Decca' home chain parabolic navigation system (a bit like Loran but higher precision over shorter range).
Before that, in 1790, the earliest Lighthouse in Norfolk was built there, still in operation, and still in private operation after all that time!
Happisburgh is where the earliest archaeological remains in NE Europe have been found, with remains from 900,000 years ago http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/research_projects/featured_project_happisburgh.aspx
Great information! Thanks for the pronunciation too, that's definitely not how I've been saying it!"
DeleteIf you look at Google Satellite with 'labels' turned on it still shows Beach Road continuing beyond the new cliff line and onto the beach - a bit spooky
ReplyDeleteInterresting thoughts
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