A woman known as 'Granny Canute' has sacrificed her front garden to save a crumbling coastal car park from being cut-off by the sea.
Bryony Nierop-Reading, 78, has given up the garden of her Beach Road home in Happisburgh to let North Norfolk District Council build a new track to access the clifftop car park near the village's lighthouse.
The car park is owned by the district council and leased to Happisburgh Parish Council, which said the car park could soon close if access via Beach Road is cut off by erosion.
"The council asked me if I would be prepared to sacrifice my garden," Mrs Nierop-Reading, whose Beach Road home is now next in line to be lost to the sea, said.
"I didn't see any other alternative. I’m sad by it but it's just one of those things.
"It’s for the greater good of the village."
READ MORE: Happisburgh's Beach Road car park could close
The move comes as plans to build a new car park further inland were given the green light earlier this month. It will be accessed via a new road off Lighthouse Lane.
The plans will be built in stages, with the new access road built first and the car park after.
However, the car park is unlikely to open until the existing one has been rendered unusable by erosion.
Councillor Harry Blathwayt, portfolio holder for coast at North Norfolk District Council, said building an access track off Beach Road to the current car park through Mrs Nierop-Reading's garden is a "fallback option the council will probably have to take to keep the car park operating".
"The corner of her garden will become an access route to the car park," he said.
"It's an option we would be looking to take up and necessary action will be agreed with structural engineers.
"It's a contingency plan which will be dictated by the North Sea and continuing storms."
READ MORE: Coastal defences 'not feasible' at Norfolk village being lost to sea, says council
Granny Canute
Bryony Nierop-Reading was nicknamed Granny Canute after refusing to move out of her old Happisburgh home, which was lost to the sea.
Mrs Nierop-Reading moved to the village in 2009 - living in a 1930s, three-bedroom bungalow in Beach Road which she bought for £25,000.
The property was around 20ft from the sea at the time, but just four years later it was hanging perilously over the cliff edge.
However, Mrs Nierop-Reading decided to stay, missing out on £13,000 she could have claimed as part of a £3 million 'roll back' scheme in which North Norfolk District Council bought and demolished erosion-threatened properties in Happisburgh.
But she was eventually forced to leave in December 2013 after a North Sea tidal surge decimated the Norfolk coast.
The surge claimed around around a third of her bungalow and a week later she watched as the rest of the property was demolished.
She then moved into a caravan on the land she owned, but faced a second fight for her home when the council told her the plot was not designated for residential use.
She now lives in a house on Beach Road.
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here