The British villages that will soon be lost to the sea

On the Welsh coast, surrounded by Snowdonia, the village of Fairbourne sits on a low, flat stretch of land. With sea on one side and mountain on the other, it seems perfectly situated. It is also doomed. Defended by high banks, the village is already substantially beneath sea level during storm tides. As sea levels rise, the government has decided to abandon it to the waves. Funding for sea defences is set to end by 2054.

Fairbourne is far from the only community to face this fate. Over the next 28 years, some 200,000 buildings in Britain are set to end up below sea level. In some places, sea walls and embankments will hold the line. In others, nature will be left to take its course. People have been living in Happisburgh, Norfolk, for a very long time. The village church is grade 1 listed, the pub dates back to the 16th century, and in 2013 archaeologists examining a site exposed by coastal erosion found footprints dating back 850,000-950,000 years – the earliest found outside of Africa.