Welcome to the Norfolk's Coastal Heritage Project

About the Project

The Norfolk's Coastal Heritage project will inform, engage and empower local communities, allowing them to take an active part in preparing for the impact coastal change will have on their heritage. The project will do this by supporting local communities to investigate their heritage and will involve public meetings, training sessions, publicity, a website, equipment and reports on its work. Initially the project will focus on Happisburgh, a single community where coastal change is currently having a significant impact. Additional communities involved in the second stage. The project will be an exemplar, with a methodology that will be applicable to coastal communities in the rest of England.

Project Background

Between June and September 2009 the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) consulted the public on coastal change policy. The consultation set out DEFRA's ideas for how coastal communities can successfully adapt to coastal change and the Government's role in supporting this. It forms part of a wider programme of work that looks at supporting communities adapting to increasing risks of both flooding and coastal erosion.

In parallel to the consultation on coastal change policy, DEFRA invited bids from local authorities interested in becoming 'Coastal Change Pathfinders'. Pathfinders will actively engage with local communities and explore DEFRA's ideas by piloting a new £11 million coastal change fund. This project outline forms part of North Norfolk District Council's Coastal Change Pathfinder Programme.

The Norfolk coast has very rich and diverse physical form, cultural heritage and natural environment. This includes historic towns and villages, historic buildings, archaeological features, cliff, sand dune, beach, marsh and fen environments and agricultural landscapes. Buildings, heritage assets and museum collections form part of or contribute to our knowledge and understanding of the current historic environment and these, combined with less tangible sources (such as local traditions and oral history) all contribute to the sense of place of coastal communities.

The area around Happisburgh is one of the most significant in heritage terms, with a wide range of important features located within the area expected to be affected by erosion by 2105. These include an internationally significant Palaeolithic site, ring ditches (probably ploughed-out Bronze Age burial mounds), the buried remains of possible Saxon buildings, St Mary's church, a manor house built in 1900, the remnants of a lighthouse and World War Two structures. The archaeological remains of the village of Eccles, lost to the sea in the early 17th century, are infrequently visible on the beach about 3km to the southeast of Happisburgh village.

The whole of the north Norfolk coast is subject to coastal change. With a rapid natural erosion rate, the stretch between Cromer and Happisburgh is one of the most active. The most recent Shoreline Management Plan indicates the continued defence of this section is not sustainable in the long-term and suggests the medium to long-term policy should be to allow coastal retreat. Issues relating to coastal change at Happisburgh have received considerable local and national media attention and are the focus for the Coastal Concern Action Group (CCAG).

The Government is committed to maintaining sustainable coastal communities. Where coastal change happens, all aspects of the affected communities need to be supported to help ensure they remain attractive places for people to live and visit and that the local economy continues to thrive. Local communities need to be informed, engaged and enabled to take an active part in deciding what happens locally.

The project aims to inform, engage and empower local communities, allowing them to take an active part in preparing for the impact coastal change will have on their heritage. By encouraging communities and individuals to actively investigate their heritage, it will provide practical support, helping them to adapt to coastal change now and in the future.

Initially the project will focus on Happisburgh, the community where coastal change is currently having a significant impact; an ideal candidate with its high profile in the media, its broad-ranging heritage assets and its important role in North Norfolk District Council's Pathfinder Programme. Part-way through, the project will widen its reach to other communities on the Norfolk coast.

The project's objectives are to:

• To form an integral part of North Norfolk District Council's Pathfinder Programme.
• To design and deliver a local solution that will help coastal communities with the transitions associated with coastal change.
• To increase the local communities' knowledge and understanding of their heritage.
• To help local communities prepare for the impact coastal change might have on their heritage.
• To provide local communities with the skills and experience to record their heritage before and as it is affected by coastal change.
• To give a voice to the people of Happisburgh, enabling them to tell their own story for posterity.
• To help the community of Happisburgh interpret their heritage and key assets and make this available to visitors and others by a variety of means.
• To inform future Shoreline Management Plans.
• To support lifelong learning (a corporate objective of Norfolk County Council).
• To develop and enhance understanding of Norfolk's cultural heritage and resources (a corporate objective of Norfolk County Council), including the Norfolk Historic Environment Record (NHER).
• To develop a methodology that is applicable to the rest of England.
• To write up the project showing the process followed, the results and the lessons learned.

Deliverables

The project will involve local communities actively investigating their heritage in a broad range of ways. Initially the project will focus on Happisburgh, before widening its scope to other coastal communities. A key to the project's success will be gaining the support of organisations, groups and individuals.

A Project Officer will arrange and support the majority of the investigations, with the local communities deciding themselves the activities they wish to be involved with. The activities will include:

Public meetings where local heritage and coastal change are discussed. These will involve presentations by heritage professionals, local historians/archaeologists and opportunities for local communities to express their views.

Stakeholder meetings with members of local communities and community groups to provide information and reassurance (for example, with landowners, parish councils, Coastal Concern Action Group, local historians/ archaeologists, local societies and archaeological societies and at schools, job centres and caravan parks).

Training sessions chosen by communities, involving and followed by related active investigations. Training sessions offered will include: field survey, building recording, finds identification, the NHER, oral history, museum collections and coastal change. These sessions will equip members of the community with the necessary skills to monitor and record the heritage features, memories and reminiscences which are of most significance to them and at greatest risk from coastal change.

Regular follow-up visits to provide advice and support to local communities in their recording and monitoring work.

A website where interested members of the community can download resources (including recording forms), share ideas, describe their activities and record discoveries. The website would be hosted through the Norfolk Heritage Explorer and would form a repository for information gathered during the project.

Leaflets, banners/posters and other interpretative materials explaining the project, local heritage and coastal change. Interested members of the community will be able to contribute to these.

The provision of computer, survey and recording equipment, such as a laptop (housed at a local library, school, public house, church, village hall, community centre or caravan park), internet access, cameras, Global Positional Satellite (GPS) units, tapes, ranging rods, tape/video recorders, finds bags, toothbrushes, washing up bowls, storage boxes and packaging material.

Project reports, available through the NHER, the project website and local libraries. These will detail the project's methodology, describe discoveries, analyse decisions, detail outcomes and provide guidance for future projects elsewhere in England.

The dissemination of the project's work to local communities in informal ways, such as through the project website, the Norfolk Historic Environment Record, the Norfolk Heritage Explorer, the Portable Antiquities Scheme database, meetings, presentations, leaflets, displays, posters and CDs/DVDs containing oral history recordings.

An event (such as a heritage fair and/or conference) to celebrate the heritage and future of Happisburgh.

Advice and training to establish similar projects elsewhere in England.

Ongoing support and advice to coastal communities.

A project report outlining the project interventions and the process, highlighting key issues and identifying lessons learned.

Norfolk Landscape Archaeology
Union House, Gressenhall
Dereham, Norfolk NR20 4DR
Tel: 01362 869282