THE beach at Winterton has taken a battering in recent days with huge waves eating away at the sand in front of the cafe and car park.

So far the dune bank has held up with the help of Second World War concrete tank traps that were recycled as sea defences about 15 years ago when storms and high tides left  this section of the beach in a similar denuded state. That protection means the cafe and car park have been able to open.

But access to the shore from the northern end of the car park, next to the fishermen's huts, has been closed for safety reasons because the waves have created a sheer drop. Danger signs have been put in place, however there are concerns that some people, especially children, have been ignoring them.

Areas further north of the car park and south towards Hemsby have not been as badly affected and are fine for walking. The battle against erosion is a constant one on the Norfolk coast and the wartime anti-invasion defences themselves were victims of it, falling over the edge of the dunes.

Normally the beach at Winterton is recharged with sand collected by waves landing on beaches further up the coast and carried down with longshore drift. But sea defences installed to the north, designed to prevent sand loss and protect dunes, villages and farmland, have affected that regular replenishment. Many also believe offshore sand and gravel dredging has led to more draw down from the shore line, although aggregate firm bosses have denied that offshore extraction contributes to coastal erosion.

Another theory currently doing the rounds in the village is that the rock groynes installed a couple of years ago at Horsey ( See our blog: Defending The Beach), combined with newly-built sea defences at Hemsby, have increased Winterton's vulnerability.

Over the decades the beach at Winterton has grown and shrunk and the hope is that after the ravages of this winter it can be restored. Follow our Winterton-On-Sea Facebook page for updates to our blog.

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