The attractive Red House, which has stunning views of the North Sea, should be valued somewhere over £2 million.
But because of the rapid pace of coastal erosion in certain areas of Suffolk, it is now not only useless but also hazardous.
This week saw the start of the 1920s redbrick home’s demolition in Thorpeness after owners Richard Moore, 76, and wife Sheila, 73, were advised by council representatives that it was hazardous to remain there.
Since summer 2021, more than 50 feet of their backyard have been washed away, leaving the grand detached home just 30 feet from a 35-foot-high sandy cliff.
The home has been held by Ipswich Town FC director Mr. Moore and his wife for 25 years, and they have leased it out as a luxury vacation rental. They have not yet responded to the issue.
They would be quite angry that it has come to this, a villager said. The Red House is a stunning building, thus it is unfortunate that it is being demolished.
They might have spent a lot building their own sea defenses, just like their neighbors, but you can’t withstand nature’s powers indefinitely.
The six-bedroom house, which could accommodate 16 people and included a hot tub with sea views in the yard, is now being demolished on the property by an excavator.
The 53-year-old TV producer Lucy Ansbro said she and her boyfriend Matthew Graham spent “hundreds of thousands of pounds” in October to have 500 enormous boulders, each weighing three tonnes, placed at the foot of the cliff to safeguard their house.
They took the place of gabions, which were sea defenses composed of boulders wrapped in wire baskets and had been guarding the home until heavy weather washed them away around Easter last year.
Similar barriers keeping the water at bay in front of the Red House, whose owners reside in Ongar, Essex, were destroyed by storms a few months previously.
We completed the renovation using emergency procedures since, at the time, our property was in more danger than the Red House. Miss Ansbro
We did so because the council was under no duty to do so. The Red House was contemplating participating, but they lacked the necessary funding.
We would not be residing there now if I had not placed those pebbles there. Compared to the Red Home, most of our house is closer to the sea, and the cliff would be in the midst of our yard.
The Norfolk and Suffolk coastlines are among those in northwest Europe with the quickest erosion rates because they are soft, sandy terrain.
As a consequence, coastal houses in Easton Bavents and Pakefield have been destroyed, although none as dramatic as the most recent casualty.
Miss Ansboro serves as a director of the Thorpeness Community Interest Group, which is in talks to strengthen sea defenses with the Coastal Partnership East, a collection of regional coastal authorities.
“We represent the whole community,” she said, “and we are trying to make them aware of the issue.
“Once the Red House is gone, other homes fronting the sea are in danger, then those behind are in danger,” the proverb continues.
According to Coastal Partnership East, in the first several months of 2022, erosion in front of the Red House drastically worsened, “putting the north end of the property at severe danger.”
Early Spring marked the “critical moment,” after which “any interventions at the toe of the cliff would have made little difference.”
According to a representative, Coastal Partnership East has been closely collaborating with the Thorpeness community to create solutions to lower the danger of coastal erosion.
This is mostly at the village’s north end, where erosion has been worse since 2018. The favored choice by the community is a rock revetment, which is a seawall that slopes and is progressing into precise design.