The Norfolk village sliding in the sea - heartbroken mum fears her home will be 'gone before Christmas'

In a tough spot that hits right in the feels, a worried mum is facing the gut-wrenching idea that her cherished Norfolk cliff-top home might succumb to the sea before Christmas. Picture this: 26 feet (8 meters) of the shore vanished in just a month.

Nicola Bayless, the owner of a quaint three-bedroom semi in the idyllic Happisburgh, now finds her once-beloved home perilously positioned less than 50 feet (15 meters) from the cliff's precipice, an alarming consequence of the unforgiving storms Babet and Ciaran that battered the Norfolk coast during the autumn months.

She contemplates the grim prospect that her family's £375,000 property may vanish into the abyss by the close of December, as the entire village teeters on the brink of an impending calamity. Nicola, 48, said: “We haven’t even got into winter, but as we’ve lost that much, we could be forced to leave in springtime or even before Christmas. It’s frightening.”

Her late parents, Anita and Arthur Richmond, originally bought Beacon House in 2001 when it was over 670ft (200m) away from the cliff's edge. They knew the property, which sat among homes on Beach Road, wouldn’t be around forever as the government decided not to upgrade local sea defences. But since then, the sea has carved out huge swaths of the “cream cheese” like coastline, forcing dozens of locals to abandon their luxury properties.

And Nicola, who moved into the property seven years ago, now fears her 'worthless' home could become uninhabitable in just a few months. The nurse said: “It’s heartbreaking and it’s frightening if you let it take over your mind, it can get you down mentally. I’m not choosing to go and find somewhere new, it’s something I’m being forced to do. I would stay here forever, but I’m not going to put myself at risk.

"After Babet, four metres was gone. Then it was another two meres after Ciarán. But more has gone since then. So you’re talking, in a month, seven to eight metres. We used to have Christmas light competitions with our neighbours - how many lights you could get on your home. It looked like Las Vegas at the bottom of the road. It makes you sad that village life is disappearing as well.”

Nicola said she had holidayed in the idyllic Happisburgh area, famed for its red and white striped lighthouses, with her parents during the 1980s and 1990s. And during one of these memorable trips, they "fell in love" with Beacon House, which they went on to buy for £76,000 over 20 years ago.

Mum of two Nicola said her parents gave her the home in 2016 when she started a family, while they moved into her nearby terraced home and later to a bungalow. And they had believed the property, which had a huge 50m (164ft) back garden and an annexe, would later be passed onto their grandchildren.

She said: “My parents had said ‘It will see you out, it will see your kids out. On the survey, they were told they had 150 years before the cliff would meet the house. That was quite believable because of where it was. But they’ve only been gone five years and in that time, you wouldn’t believe how much has gone. I think they’d be very shocked if they ever returned and saw all this because it is just crazy, absolutely crazy. It’s climate change and the weather getting worse, and things like that – that’s all I can put it down to."

Recent storms Babet and Ciarán, which hit in quick succession between October 18 and November 4, brought some of the worst landslips in recent memory. Nicolas added: “We had the 'Beast From the East' back in 2012. That was pretty scary. You could actually see the sea coming up above the cliff. When we had Babet and Ciarán, it was the rain that was worse. It just tipped it down and poured away over the edge of the road.

“One minute there was a foot of tarmac hanging off. The next minute, there was six feet hanging off. About three hours later, I went down and the cliff had come away from underneath. The next day, that was all gone. It was crazy."

Nicola said she was told by her local council that she was now their “first priority” to be relocated after storms took away even more of the coastline last weekend. Rob Goodliffe, a coastal transition manager from North Norfolk District Council, said his team were working with Nicola to find "solutions" and offer support.

He said: “We have recently met with Nicola and other residents with imminent risk of erosion at Happisburgh to explore their situations and what kind of support may assist them. We are working hard to help them find solutions and support them.

"We are very grateful to be in the position we are with the Coastwise programme which will allow us to work with communities to explore options for the future to prepare for coastal change and begin to deliver practical actions.

"Through this scheme, we are however not able to provide compensation for loss of homes, which has been the position of successive governments for a long period of time. The Council is empathetic and sympathetic towards Nicola, the other residents and the communities affected along our coast and we look forward to working with them to help transition to coastal change.”