Granny Canute sacrifices more of garden to save Happisburgh car park

Bryony Nierop-Reading, 78, has given up the front garden of her home in Happisburgh’s Beach Road to let the district council build a new track to the car park near the village’s lighthouse as the current road crumbles into the sea.

Mrs Nierop-Reading first sacrificed part of her garden back in January this year, but diggers rolled into the village again this morning to dig up more of her garden as the sea continues to close in.

Bryony Nierop-Reading, known as Granny Canute, has sacrificed the garden of her home in Beach Road, Happisburgh, to stop the village's car park from being cut off by erosion (Image: Denise Bradley)

“Erosion keeps creeping in to the point where the entrance to the car park is getting too narrow,” Mrs Nierop-Reading, who has lived in the village since 2009, said.

“If I had said no to the council access to the car park would be cut off and there would be people parking all over Happisburgh in people’s driveways.

“So I didn’t have a choice – I had to sacrifice my garden for the sake of the community.

"Unfortunately, my house will be next. It’s depressing and it’s only going to get worse.

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"This could all have been saved if the government and council had done something about sea defences in Happisburgh.

"It’s disappointing that they’re just letting parts of the country disappear."

Work in Bryony Nierop-Reading's front garden outside her home in Beach Road, Happisburgh (Image: Denise Bradley)

The new access track, built by North Norfolk District Council (NNDC), is a temporary solution to keep the current car park open after plans to build a new one further inland were approved earlier this year.

The plans will be built in stages, with a new access road off Lighthouse Lane being built first.

However, the new car park is unlikely to open until the existing one has been rendered unusable by erosion.

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Erosion at Happisburgh (Image: Mike Page)

Granny Canute

Bryony Nierop-Reading was nicknamed Granny Canute after refusing to move out of her old Happisburgh home, which was lost to the sea. 

Mrs Nierop-Reading moved to the village in 2009 - living in a 1930s, three-bedroom bungalow in Beach Road which she bought for £25,000.

The property was around 20ft from the sea at the time, but just four years later it was hanging perilously over the cliff edge.

Bryony Nierop-Reading pictured at the end of Beach Road, which now falls into the sea below (Image: Denise Bradley)

However, Mrs Nierop-Reading decided to stay, missing out on £13,000 she could have claimed as part of a £3m 'roll back' scheme in which North Norfolk District Council bought and demolished erosion-threatened properties in Happisburgh. 

But she was eventually forced to leave in December 2013 after a North Sea tidal surge decimated the Norfolk coast.

The surge claimed around around a third of her bungalow and a week later she watched as the rest of the property was demolished.

She then moved into a caravan on the land she owned, but faced a second fight for her home when the council told her the plot was not designated for residential use.

Bryony Nierop-Reading in her caravan in 2014 (Image: Antony Kelly)

She now lives in a house on Beach Road.