Save Hemsby Coastline came together as a group in early 2014, as a local community led response to the storm surge which had devastated our village.

Hemsby was badly hit in the Storm Surge of Dec 2013, and lost 5 homes and a significant portion of the Marrams to the 20 ft. waves that battered the whole east coast.There has been many further damaging extreme high tide events since the surge, causing further homes to be lost.

Hemsby has no sea defence at all, other than an accretion of sand known locally as the Marrams.

Save Hemsby Coastline are a Not for Profit company, with a Charity application pending.

Our mission is to fundraise, raise public awareness and to take positive action to attempt to slow the process of erosion, which has an impact on people, homes, the economy of the village and of Norfolk.

Hemsby contributes £85M to Norfolk’s economy each year from its tourism based infrastructure.

In the winter 4000 people live here. In the summer that can rise to 20,000.

Hemsby is at a tipping point. Lack of action now will mean the beach continues to vanish, in turn leading to economic and social damage to the village, and a knock on effect to Norfolk.

To pay for our trial block solution over £50,000 was raised locally.

Matched funding was made available from Norfolk County Council from its Coastal Fund. An additional £20,000 was made available from Hemsby Parish Council.

The sum of £120,000 was spent on a trial section of sea defence, 110 metres long.

The solution is the first community led sea defence project of its type in the country.

The beach north of us in Winterton is accreting, so once our 1.4 km is protected there will be a full defence in place.

The Scratby Gabion Scheme butts up to the Hemsby Honeycomb blocks, which means the combined schemes are protecting 52 homes. SHC believe now is the time to implement our Honeycomb block solution. we believe we can show it is cost effective, has no negative impact on the environment and could be rolled out across the 1.4 KM of Hemsby’s coastline which remains under threat.

An estimated £2.3M (to be confirmed) is required to finish our work. This would provide blocks 3 layers deep and 2 wide for the whole village beachfront.

Locally the target area is described as ͞From the Cottages to the Crater͟ which refers to the Newport cottages conservation area to the south of our target area and the V2 crater which marks the end of Hemsby parish in the north.