Birling Gap

See a suite of historical images of the cliff retreat at Birling Gap in the Postcard Section.

Looking east from the access steps in December 2000 and an aerial view from the 1990s (National Trust).

Birling Gap Hotel saved from demolition

The Argus, 15-06-1987

The famous Birling Gap Hotel has been saved from demolition following a world-wide protest. The National Trust has decided to keep the complex operating until cliff erosion takes its toll. The hotel, between Beachy Head and the Seven Sisters cliffs is expected to fall into the seas in about 15 years' time.
The Trust's decision has been greeted with delight by hundreds of locals and the Collins family, which has run the hotel for more than 28 years. Mr Graham Collins said: "It has been a long, long battle and we are extremely pleased that it has been settled. "We feel it is a triumph for local people and it proves that large organizations like the National Trust can change its mind with a bit of persuasion."
The Collins family is now planning to plough Ł70,000 into the business to upgrade the facilities visited by thousands of holidaymakers every year. Mr Collins added: "We told the trust that we were prepared to invest that amount of money and we will certainly be keeping our side of the bargain. We want to make the area as beautiful as possible. We know that we have only about 15 years but we think it's worth it."
In 12 months, the Birling Gap Action Committee gathered a 25,000 signatures petition supported by people all over the world. Mr Percy. Gray, a member of the committee said: "This is a great victory and we are relieved that it is over. There is no way that this hotel could have been destroyed after all the protests.
The National Trust bought the hotel and surrounding land five years ago and announced, in January last year its plan to knock it down. A final decision was deferred following a huge public outcry. A spokesman said: "We have decided not to demolish the hotel following strong representations by the local community "that the building should stay".

Dark future looms as sea reclaims timeless idyll where authorities fear to spend

The Guardian, 29-11-1994

by Sarah Boseley
THE lights went out in the last Coast Gard cottage in Birling Gap last night as the electricity to the rented house were the Royal Academy artist Jean Cooke has painted the sea and the Seven Sisters cliffs for 22 years was cut off. Only a miracle can prevent the demolition of the end-of-terrace cottage No 1, as, man - represented by Wealden district council and the National Trust - preempts nature, since the sea is devouring the cliffs edging the Sussex Downs at just under a metre a year.
Ms Cooke estranged wife of the painter John Bratby, who died two years ago, was desolate she prepared to face along, dark night. "I feel I'm being kicked out. I feel like a refugee," she said. But not only No 1 is at risk. The whole community of seven terraced Coast Guard cottages and a hotel as well as nearby sympathizers is fighting the decision earlier this year to adopt a policy of "managed retreat" for Birling Gap. Backed by English Nature the Sussex Downs Conservation Board and the National Trust, which owns much of the property, propose to allow the Gap to return to nature. But largely thanks to a long-dead woman they still call "Muvey", the robust Victorian Coast Guard terrace is peopled by artists and liberal intellectuals or their descendants - all bitterly opposed to the community's disappearance.
Muvey - real name Rebecca Betts - was Dame Barbara Castle's mother. Her daughter-in-law, Joyce Betts, lives in No 3. In No 2 lives Betty Lazareno, singing teacher widow of a refugee musician from the Spanish Civil War who was taken in by Muvey. In No 4 lives Jean Fawbert, whose mother knew Muvey's family and friends in Pontefract. In No 5 lives Lord Howie of Troon, a former London neighbour of the Betts family. All of them visited Muvey in the 1960s and so loved the spot they bought or rented cottages there.
"I like it because of the splendid beach which I look from the top of the cliffs," said Lord Howie who was once a Labour government Whip. "There is a marvellous shoreline and amazing solitude." As a civil engineer by training, he is aware that the erosion could be stopped. But so is Wealden district council, which commissioned a study by consultant engineers Posford Duvivier. In January the council considered building a 180-metre rock Wall at the foot of the cliff for Ł 40,000. But, said David Glover client services manager, the cost-benefit analysis results were very marginal. To get a grant the Ministry of Agriculture would have to be persuaded that less tangible benefits, such as preserving amenities for walkers and tourists, tipped the balance.
"We contacted English Nature, the National Trust, the Sussex Downs Conservation Board and the parish council. All four said they wished to see no form of engineering work," said Mr Glover They were concerned that the white cliffs at Birling Gap, without erosion, would turn green. But the little community argues that that should not matter as they are beyond the gleaming Seven Sisters. They point to the sea defences built by adjacent Eastbourne and Lewes district councils, who have protected their cliffs.
The community is tiny and elderly, but when the National Trust proposed demolishing the hotel and four cottages after buying them in 1982, their successful battle for survival was backed by many walkers of the South Downs Way and visitors to one of Sussex's best beaches. It has a timeless quality - enhanced by the characters who live there all or part of the time. Recalling her mother in law, Mrs Betts said: "She thought it was absolutely gorgeous here. You can walk up the garden in your nightie and have a cup of tea on the lawn." Ms Cooke fell in love with the place in 1973 and demanded to rent cottage No 1, even then condemned. Now, it will go be-fore Christmas. Graham Collins, whose father managed the hotel before him, says they have got 12 years at the present rate. In just over a century, unless something is done, Birling Gap will be a sward of green grass, as if a little community never existed.

Villagers on cliff edge to sue trust

The Times, 23 November 1998

by Helen Johnstone
PEOPLE living in a hamlet that is teetering on a cliff edge are to take legal action against the National Trust in an effort to stop their homes falling into the sea. Villagers from Birling Gap, East Sussex, which attracts 250,000 visitors a year, believe that the trust, which owns the land, should protect their homes. The trust admits that its policy of managed retreat will mean homes falling into the sea but says that it wants to work with nature.
The cliff has been eroding at a rate of about 3ft a year and campaigners say that a set of boulders at the bottom of the cliff could halt the decline and save the properties for 30 years. This plan, called a rock revetment, is the only hope of saving the settlement, which consists of a few cottages, an hotel, public conveniences, a car park, a telephone box and a coastguard station. The scheme is opposed by conservationists, who argue that it would upset the natural landscape in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and a Site of Special Scientific Interest. But the Birling Gap Cliff Protection Association says the trust should have already acted and should foot the estimated Pounds 300,000 bill for the project. Jeanette Taylor, solicitor for the association, said: "We will be taking action against the National Trust unless they come up with proposals. We feel it is their duty as the landlord to protect the property and the people who live there. Why purchase this piece of land and then let it fall into the sea?"
Lord Harris of High Cross, the chairman of the association, said: "The community of Birling Gap must be saved." He said the trust had a duty of care to protect structures. "We think we have a good case." Lord Howie of Troon, who rents a coastguard cottage, said: "If you allow nature to take its course, you destroy the habitation. What you are saying is a group of dwellings is less important than grass."

Sussex woman, 92, faces big demolition bill

The Argus, 06 February 1999

A SICK 92-year-old woman faces having her clifftop home demolished - and being forced to pay up to Ł30,000 for the privilege. Wealden District Council says the house at Crangon Cottages, Birling Gap, is unsafe and could collapse at any moment. It is applying to magistrates for permission to knock it down. And a spokesman confirmed that if successful, it would then make owner Lizzie Lazareno pay. He said: "We have to go through with demolition as the building is dangerous.
"We will then recover the cost from the owner as it is her responsibility if the house is unsafe." Lizzie, who is in poor health, has been staying with her son in Hertfordshire for several months. Planning consultant Alan Edgar, who is to lead a challenge in the courts against demolition, recently carried out a survey of her home.
Mr Edgar, a member of the Birling Gap Cliff Preservation Society, said: "She is quite infirm and the last thing she needs is for her house to be knocked down and then be asked to pay for the privilege. "We will most certainly be contesting this. I don't think they have any right to do it." The society is calling on council planners to approve a cliff protection scheme. Last month Wealden Council rejected a Ł300,000 scheme. But the society is to try again, and this month submitted a new application for a smaller Ł40,000 scheme. Society member Jean Fawbert lives just two doors away from Lizzie and also lives under the constant fear of demolition.
She said: "The scheme we are proposing is to protect the base of the cliff from erosion with large rocks to show the council that it works and that a bigger scheme is necessary. "These houses shouldn't be allowed to just be demolished or fall into the sea." And she added that if demolition does go ahead the council should at least pay a contribution to the cost. There are now just six cottages in the tiny terrace at Birling Gap. Fifteen years ago the pilot's cottage at the end of the terrace crumbled into the sea and in 1995 the next cottage along was demolished. The surrounding land is owned by the National Trust, which rejected the society's bid for a cliff protection scheme last November. Residents were told that sea defences were not favoured by the Trust as they were often unsustainable. First published on Tuesday 24 November 1998: Folk who live on a cliff threaten to sue the Trust THE National Trust is to meet worried cliff-top residents threatening legal action against the organisation for doing nothing to stop their homes crashing into the sea.
Each year, the cliff edge at Birling Gap creeps one yard closer to a row of cottages and a nearby hotel. One cottage has already crumbled into the sea. A second has been demolished. More than 250,000 people visit the beauty spot near Eastbourne every year. The National Trust, which owns the land, is refusing to take emergency measures to stop the erosion which will, within decades, claim all that stands there. But now locals are preparing to take National Trust chiefs to court in their battle to safeguard the future of the hamlet.
The Birling Gap Cliff Protection Association believes the Trust should have acted long ago to avert imminent disaster. They have sent a letter to the Trust's office for Kent and East Sussex saying they will proceed with legal action on Friday unless their demands are met. Association solicitor Jeanette Taylor said: "We will take action against the National Trust unless they come up with firm proposals. "The purpose of the National Trust is to protect these areas." NT chiefs, however, argue that building sea defences by dumping giant ten-tonne boulders at the foot of the cliff will be an eyesore and would disturb natural shoreline processes.
NT spokesman Paul Pontone said a meeting will take place with the residents on Friday. But he added: "It is now considered more practical and environmentally friendly to try to work with nature rather than against it. "The Trust is currently investigating ways in which the effects on individual residents will be minimised over time. "It is also anxious to ensure that the 250,000 visitors to Birling Gap each year will continue to enjoy access to local facilities, including the beach.
"The Trust cares for some 565 miles of coastline in England and Wales, and its experience has been that building sea defences usually creates more problems than it solves and is unsustainable in the long term."

CLIFF-HANGER OVER DEFENCE DECISION

The Argus, 24 August 1999

EACH year, the cliff edge at Birling Gap creeps 3ft closer to a terrace of six cottages where residents live in constant fear of their homes being washed away by the sea. One house has already collapsed and a second was demolished. Villagers are calling for sea defences to be built.
Last week they appeared to have won their battle after Wealden councillors approved a scheme to place hundreds of tonnes of rock below the cliffs to form a barrier against the sea. The rocks will be placed along a 30-yard stretch of coastline and covered with shingle. But now a row has broken out between conservationists, who argue defences would interfere with nature and destroy one of the finest undeveloped coastlines in the country, and residents. Councillors went against the recommendations of their own planning officers who called the scheme, "an alien, artificial and incongruous feature, interfering with the natural process of coastal erosion." The Birling Gap Cliff Preservation Society, set up by cliff-top residents, is hoping to force the National Trust, which owns the land and three cottages, to pay between Ł30,000 to Ł80,000 to fund the project. But the trust wants the plan to go to a public inquiry and says it is not clear if it will have to pay for the scheme. It opposes the plan, saying it would disturb natural shoreline processes and wreck an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and a Site of Special Scientific Interest.
It is being supported by the Sussex Downs Conservation Board, which is urging the Government to reject the planning application. Richard Reed, chairman of the board's planning committee, said: "We will be writing to John Prescott's office to ask for a decision at national level on this planning application." Jean Fawbert, who lives in one of the cottages, believes the trust has a legal and moral responsibility to save the properties. She said: "We are very pleased common sense has prevailed. But this is only one step forward and it is now up to the National Trust to take action." Earlier this year a Ł300,000 scheme to protect the cliffs was rejected by Wealden councillors. An appeal is expected to be heard on November 2.
Alan Edgar, an independent town planner brought in by residents to fight their case, accused the green lobby of putting a pile of rocks before people. Earlier this year Wealden Council told 94-year-old Elizabeth Lazereno, who owns the cottage closest to the cliff edge, it was possible her home would be demolished and she could face a Ł30,000 bill for the work. Mr Edgar added: We want to protect jobs and tourism as well as the properties." Bob Edgar, a conservation officer with English Nature, said : "Once we start to introduce artificial coast protection, where do we stop? The area has been eroding for thousands of years, it's nothing new." The National Trust said it was "disappointed and surprised" councillors gave the plan the go-ahead. Marketing and communications manager Paul Pontone said: "The question of liability and if we will have to pay for the scheme is not clear cut. It rests with the courts."

Derek Jameson - Do They Mean Me?

The Argus, 13 May 2000

Battling on for Birling; Online at my age; Hardly an inconvenience; Seeing is not believing.
As an exercise in bureaucratic madness, the Battle of Birling Gap deserves a place in the history of our times. Birling Gap is a tiny hamlet consisting of a few cottages, a car park and a busy hotel perched on the edge of the rugged Seven Sisters cliffs just before you get to Beachy Head on the way to Eastbourne.
Some day, sooner rather than later, as the waves continue inexorably to eat away at the cliff face, this lovely little hamlet is going to topple into the sea. Unless the bulldozers move in first and flatten Birling Gap. This drastic course is favoured by the hamlet's principal landlord, the National Trust. English Nature and the Sussex Downs Conservation Board concur, to use the correct jargon. Difficult to comprehend, I know, so let me spell it out. Yes, three august bodies charged with protecting our heritage wish to wipe the people and places of Birling Gap off the face of the Earth. Not likely, say local residents. They want to build sea defences, a protective revetment, at the foot of the cliffs. That's a wall of natural rock forming a barrier between sea and cliff.
True, the destructive forces of the English Channel must win in the end, but at least the 19th Century hamlet would be safe for years to come like nearby Belle Tout lighthouse, famously shifted back several metres.
No rescue plan stirs the hearts of the National Trust, owners of three of the six most threatened cottages as well as the Birling Gap Hotel. They claim sea defences provide only a temporary reprieve, are unsightly and simply transfer erosion further along the coast. Birling Gap is classified as "a geologically important site," which makes sea defences a crime against the environment. What they really mean, say the cynics, is the trust doesn't want to carry the cost of coastal defences.
As the battle reaches its decisive phase, the Birling Gap Cliff Protection Association is fighting hard for survival. There are two plans in existence for sea defences, one for a revetment 185m long to protect the entire settlement, the second to safeguard Crangon Cottages, those nearest the cliff edge. Wealden District Council, the local authority responsible for the area, is hopelessly divided on the issue. Councillors support the smaller project while their paid officials oppose it. A Government inspector is to resolve the Battle of Birling Gap. He will open an inquiry in Alfriston on July 18 to decide whether to grant planning permission for one or both revetments.
But, as landowner, the National Trust is likely to reject his verdict and allow the sea to do its worst. Unless, of course, the public makes itself heard. Yes, I've gone on line at my age As you may have seen in the Argus last week, I've taken my place on the super information highway at the grand old age of 70. My views on this and that are going online, as they say, courtesy of www.retirement-matters.co.uk, a Brighton and Hove website. ...

Tide of anger rises at cliffs

The Argus, 18 July 2000

by Chris Baker
The white cliffs of the Seven Sisters and Beachy Head are one of England's great iconic landscapes. Scratch at any image of England and the strip of chalk cliffs between the Downs and the sea is never far below the surface. The arts and crafts movement of the early 20th Century idealised the Downs. It was not by chance that Second World War propaganda used paintings of the Birling Gap with the slogan: "Your Britain. Fight for it now".
Photographs taken at the beginning of the century show the cliff top at the Birling Gap 60 or so metres further out to sea than today. Sixty or so metres from a row of cottages that are today at the centre of one of the bitterest planning battles in Sussex. The battle to build sea defences and try and stop the erosion at one of only six beaches on England's south coast untouched by man. The Birling Gap's landlord, the National Trust, backed by a clutch of environmental organisations, want the cliffs left to erode naturally - something they are doing at rate of about three-quarters-of-a-metre every year.
The owners of three of the six cottages, backed by the Birling Gap Cliff Protection Association, want to build a sea wall to stop the cliffs crumbling back any further and the homes falling into the sea. Sea defences seemed to have won last year when Wealden councillors, against the advice of their own officers, backed the smaller of two plans for a rock wall at the base of the cliffs. Such is the sensitivity of building a sea wall along the iconic coast that Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott was quick to call a public inquiry into the scheme.
Such is the sensitivity of telling householders to leave and watch their homes tumble into the sea, the National Trust last week offered to buy the three homes it does not own. The trust is scathing about the proposed sea wall, saying it would damage the cliffs, it would not work and would cause further erosion elsewhere along the coast - a process likely to speed-up as sea levels rise. Caroline Richardson, the trust's managing agent at Birling Gap, says: "The proposals would not be effective in achieving the goals they set out to achieve.
"The best it would do is to provide a few more years life to some of the cottages." The trust demolished one of the cottages in 1996 and owns three of the remaining six as well as the Birling Gap Hotel. Of the three privately-owned cottages, one is someone's main home. The others are holiday or second homes.
One of the owners lives in a care home, another died at the end of last year. The third cottage belongs to Jean Fawbert and turning her out of her home is the touchstone of this 21st Century battle. Alan Edgar, of the Birling Gap Cliff Protection Association, is equally scathing about the trust, saying: "It is a body living in the past and trying to implement feudal policies. "They have colluded and connived to gang up on the owner-occupiers at the Birling Gap." He says the trust has a legal and moral responsibility to protect the cottages, while the sea wall itself would only be visible if parts of the cliff were washed away. Against him are environmental oganisations such as English Nature, the Countryside Agency and the Sussex Downs Conservation Board. They argue either of the two proposed sea walls, one 30 metres long, the other 200 metres long, would create an artificial promontory with the cliffs being eroded at either end.
The cliffs are the finest remaining example of a glacial dry valley in England and have been protected as a site of special scientific interest since 1953. It is the longest natural exposure of chalk cliffs in Europe. It is on a heritage coast, butts on to a voluntary marine conservation area and is inside the Sussex Downs area of outstanding natural beauty. The area's coastal management plan, drawn-up by local authorities and the Environment Agency, recommends there should be no defences. For English Nature the geological issue alone makes it important sea defences are not built along a "critical part of our national heritage". Richard Leafe, of English Nature, asks: "What makes Birling Gap special? Is it the cottages or is it the coastline?
"We believe the Birling Gap needs saving and the way to save it is to allow it to erode naturally as it does now. We are not trying to demolish the houses, we are suggesting things continue the way they are, the way they have been and the community has lived with for many years."

The houses that are falling into the sea

The Times, 21 July 2000

by Michael Durham
A well-connected community is agitating to save its homes from the sea. Its enemies? The elements - and the National Trust.
Jean Fawbert's front room feels pleasantly old-fashioned. Like the parlour of a retired mariner, it has ships in bottles, sea shells, watercolours of waves breaking. We are close enough to the sea to hear the surf. Too close, in fact: in fewer than 20 years this house could be washed away. The sea is an enemy at Birling Gap, a tiny hamlet nestling in a fold of the white cliffs near Eastbourne in East Sussex. For local people, however, there is a second enemy: the National Trust. Normally associated with the preservation and upkeep of old buildings and a vanished way of life, the Trust is being accused of standing by while a community disappears.
This enclave of 12 houses and some 30 people, which has 250,000 visitors a year, is being slowly washed away as the Channel annually advances by about three quarters of a metre. The next dwelling to go over the cliff will be Betty Lazarino's cottage, which Wealden Council has declared unsafe and wants to demolish. Geoff Nash's bed-and-breakfast bungalow is also on the brink. But this week the Save The Gap campaign, a well-connected pressure group, took on the National Trust, officers of Wealden Council and English Nature as a planning inquiry opened to consider the Trust's refusal to install sea defences. The group includes two peers (both members of the Lords, but of markedly different political affiliations). They are Lord Harris of High Cross and Lord Howie of Troon. Residents, some of whom can trace a direct link to Baroness Castle of Blackburn, the Labour stalwart, are also members.
Mrs Fawbert, an amateur artist, has lived at No 4, The Coastguard Cottages, Birling Gap, for ten years and has known it for as long as she can remember. "It has been in the family for 30 years, since my mother bought it. I can remember visiting all that time ago. It's a lovely place to live, I just can't believe it might go," she says. She fears the sea could be gnawing at the foundations of her house within 20 years.
Like other residents, Mrs Fawbert is reluctant to talk about the people whose way of life and homes are under threat. But the nature of the community is part of the fascination of the Birling Gap saga. Two generations ago the short row of cottages closest to the sea, originally built as a row of eight by the Admiralty in 1878, became the homes of a remarkable clifftop community, including many artists. The matriarchal founder was Mrs Annie Betts (later Castle), a member of South Barnet Labour Party and mother of Barbara. Years later Joyce Betts, Barbara's sister-in-law, inherited the mantle and lived next door to Jean Fawbert until her death earlier this year. That cottage has now passed to a new generation of the Betts family.
Another long-time resident, Lord Howie of Troon, the Labour peer, bought No 5 in 1965 and has rented it since the lease ran out a decade later. "I got to know the place long before I was in Parliament. It has been marvellous. My grandchildren will be the third generation to enjoy the place." The six remaining cottages - two have already been claimed by the sea - became a substantial and mutually supportive community, clinging to the chalk downs. The artist Jean Cooke, former wife of John Bratby, the Royal Academician, lived for years at No 1, until it was pulled down by the National Trust in 1996, leaving her homeless. The community's most recent arrival, Jane Pattison, a tenant who has lived at No 6 for seven years, is also an artist. She is currently finishing a stained-glass window for Friston Church as a memorial to her daughter, Raphael, who died suddenly last year, aged 19.
"I came here with Raphael because she went to a local school and I didn't want her to board - we saw this house and thought 'wouldn't this be the thing?'," Jane says. "It's a very special place to me now, for lots of different reasons, and a lovely place to work. I would hate to see it go." The National Trust owns three of the cottages (as it happens, the three nearest the sea are privately owned) and most of the land at Birling Gap, a geologically sensitive area and a Site of Special Scientific Interest that is internationally famous for its coastal erosion. Unfortunately for the residents, the Trust has chosen to put geological erosion before houses, natural processes before people. At first sight the coastguard cottages are not impressive and scarcely appear inhabited because the front doors are at the back, where there are long sunny gardens.
Betty Lazarino, who is now in her nineties and has lived at No 2 for most of her life, is not at home when I visit. Her cottage is propped up at the edge of the cliff. But Alison Batterham, Lord Howie's daughter, is in the garden with Jane Pattison, while their children play nearby. "You can see what a terrific place for families this is," Alison says. "Why destroy it?" The Birling Gap Hotel, popular with walkers and daytrippers, is also doomed. Further up the lane, Don Holloway has taken to the barricades on behalf of the community, even though it will be another century or two before his own retirement bungalow falls into the Channel. He, too, is angry with the National Trust. "They won't give you a straight answer," he says.
Lord Harris of High Cross, better known as the inspiration for free-market Thatcherism, has also weighed in on the side of the residents. The owner of a holiday flat at nearby Eastbourne, he regularly takes Sunday lunch at the Birling Gap Hotel, and describes the Trust's officials as "biased - they put a spin on things". So what has the Trust done - or not done - to invite this invective? It has adopted an official policy of "managed retreat" from the sea which, according to locals, amounts to surrender. As the sea advances, properties will be demolished and the occupants dispossessed. Birling Gap will gradually revert to being greensward.
Local people have proposed burying huge boulders of French limestone in the shingle to stop the sea's advance. Wealden Council, backed by the Trust, refused permission for a retaining wall the length of the beach, but subsequently agreed to a shorter one. At that point the Department of the Environment called in the papers for ministerial study. The National Trust is sticking to its guns and says it has carefully balanced the rights of householders with the needs of conservation. It has, it says, "reluctantly" concluded that the Gap's special landscape, character and geology must take precedence.
Paul Pontone, the Trust's spokesman, says a rock barrier could be unsightly and speed erosion further along the coast. It might, in any case, not work. "It is a personal tragedy for property owners, but houses built on cliffs constantly falling into the sea are very clearly vulnerable," he adds. In this the Trust is supported by leading geologists and English Nature. To geologists, Birling Gap is an unspoilt example of a glaciated dry river bed, carved through chalk by torrents of water from melting ice 100,000 years ago. The meltwater left deposits of softer, brown pebbles that are eroding faster than the surrounding chalk. The geologists are horrified at the prospect of huge boulders of French limestone being buried at the foot of the cliffs.
"What makes this site so special is that you can study the erosion as it happens. Climate change and rising sea levels are the biggest thing in the environment; you can read the history of climate change here," says Dr Andy King, senior geologist at English Nature. "It's a site of international importance and it would be a tragedy if it were destroyed."
None of this cuts much ice with Jean Fawbert. "The National Trust is determined to see our houses fall into the sea. I may not be around to see it happen, but that's not the point - there is no reason to let the sea take them," she says. "I want this house to be enjoyed by my daughter. She hasn't any other home." Whose heritage - rocks or people?

A few yards of terra firma separate the last cottage in the row from the sea. The cliffs erode by about two feet a year.

Bulldozers move on clifftop cottage

The Argus, 02 March 2002

by Tom Pugh
A demolition gang was today tearing down a National Trust cottage teetering on a crumbling cliff top. Workers yesterday began dismantling number 2 Crangon Cottages at Birling Gap, near Eastbourne. The side of the late 19th Century cottage is within 10ft of a 30ft drop over the cliff edge. The National Trust bought the cottage last year knowing it would have to be demolished after Wealden District Council declared it unsafe. It is one of five terraced cottages threatened because the cliff erodes by some 3ft a year. Three are owned by the National Trust.
The terrace was built for coastguards 125 years ago. Cottage owner Richard Worsell, 61, plans to fight on to save his property, which is next door to number 2. He said: "I have predicted I have about three years to go before my cottage gets too near. "But I plan to stand my ground. Some people have questioned my sanity in buying this place when it's so close but that was my choice."
More than 60,000 people signed a petition to build a sea barrier at the foot of the cliff. But a Government inspector ruled it would not save the cottages and would damage the environment. Lord Harris of High Cross, chairman of the Birling Gap Cliff Protection Association, said: "Sadly we must stand by and watch the demolition men do their worst." The trust bought the privately-owned cottages as a goodwill gesture, taking responsibility for demolition work.

Additional information about the 'Battle for Birling Gap' can be found on the pages of The Birling Gap Cliff Protection Association.