Patterns and Tones: Happisburgh: A Coastal Village

Saturday, September 23, 2017

Happisburgh: A Coastal Village

"Happisburgh: A Coastal Village No. 1" 2017

Happisburgh (pronounced "Haze-bruh"), is a lovely coastal village on the north-east coast of Norfolk, England. This quiet seaside community is distinctive for its archaeological importance which was recently unveiled by its present predicament. Due to its geographical location unprotected from the North Sea, the rate of erosion is quite dramatic. In the 1950's, they constructed large concrete sea walls which have helped slow the onslaught of land removal but the village's fate will be forever at the mercy of the water. Yet due to this consistent erosion human footprints dating back 800,000 years ago were discovered in 2013. This is the earliest recoding of humans in all of Northern Europe.

Visiting this lovely village each year I have enjoyed its sweeping coastal views and shifting landscape. During the winter, I have been humbled by the intensity of its gale force winds. Happisburgh has the only independently run light house in all of Great Britain. Originally lit by candle light and then oil lamps, the lighthouse has been operational since 1789. I have to admit it gave me vertigo the one time I mounted its steps 85 feet up to the top of its lantern.

I always thought an English seaside town would look like Happisburgh. Perhaps it's the romantic ideal of its wild, lonely, and untamed nature or having been influenced by movies like "Wuthering Heights" but Happisburgh with its wide open sky and vast open ocean is poetic and solitary, a true British village strong and determined in the face of its adversary. It makes me want to return every year to see how it has reimagined itself.

Julie Green
September 23, 2017