THE graveyard of a Grade I listed church at Newbiggin-by-the-Sea, on the Northumberland coast, is in peril of falling into the ocean from erosion if motion just isn’t taken to secure the coastal defences, its Vicar, the Revd Anthony O’Grady, learned last week.
St Bartholomew’s, and the graveyard, are on Church Point, directly fronting the ocean. Violent storms within the Nineteen Fifties lowered sand levels here by as much as 15 metres, and older people locally could remember when they might walk quite a distance from church to sea, Fr O’Grady told the BBC last week.
The state of the town’s sea defences was debated within the House of Commons as way back as 20 years, on the instigation of Denis Murphy, Labour MP for Wansbeck. It revealed the primary reports of abrasion within the bay to have been made on the turn of the last century, when it was attributed to mining subsidence and increased wave movement.
A sea-wall defence system was accomplished between 1989 and 1992, but soon proved to be inadequate. DEFRA planning consent for a latest, substantial system was finally granted in 2004, and work must have began in 2006, but it surely moved down DEFRA’s priority list and was withdrawn. Mr Murphy warned on the time, “Every business shall be put in danger if sea defences will not be constructed.”
Ian Lavery, Labour MP for Blyth and Ashington, revisited the topic on 25 July this yr, telling the House of Commons: “St Bartholomew’s church in Newbiggin- by-the-Sea, in my constituency, is a Grade I listed constructing. It is a lovely church but it surely is in serious danger of sliding into the North Sea due to coastal erosion.
“Sadly, the last government allowed funding for sea defences only to guard residential properties. Can we have now a debate in government time to debate the best way to change that rule before this lovely church and a few of its former residents slide into the North Sea?”
He was assured by the Leader of the House of Commons, Lucy Powell: “I’m sorry to listen to about that historic church in my hon. friend’s constituency. He is correct that coastal erosion is one in every of the important thing challenges that his community and lots of others face, and it’s one in every of the problems that my right hon. friend, the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, is prioritising in his work on the flood resilience task force and on coastal community resilience; so I’ll be sure that [his] comments have been heard and that he gets a full reply.”
Northumberland County Council has secured funding for an in depth study of the ocean defences. Fr O’Grady was on annual leave, and unavailable for comment on Tuesday, but he told the BBC last week, “We do need motion soon to guard the graveyard and the church for future generations.
“We first became aware of an issue at the tip of 2023, once I was approached by the Environment Agency and Northumberland County Council to make us aware the present sea defence wall in front of the church needs replacing. You can see elements of decay already at the bottom of it: it’s starting to crumble.”
St Bartholomew’s describes its location as “a welcoming focus on this town for a whole lot of years . . . an integral a part of the past, the current, and the longer term lifetime of this place and all that it’d change into”.
