How a Kilnsea farmer came to terms with the sea taking his land
Andrew Wells describes how decades of coastal erosion have altered his land, his livelihood, and the way he thinks about the future
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In this story we speak with Andrew Wells, a retired dairy farmer who now runs a B&B in Kilnsea, a small village teetering on the edge of the Holderness coast. Kilnsea is about 20 minutes down the road from Withernsea, where we recently spent time with a group of High School students talking about the changing coastline. Andrew talks about the ongoing threat of coastal erosion in the area, reflects on the slow disappearance of the coastline he’s called home for decades, and shares how he’s learned to live with the inevitability of slowly losing the land he once farmed.
Note: We tried to speak to the Humber Pilots and the local RNLI crew for this story, but weren’t able to get interviews lined up this time. We’d still love to include their voices in a future episode, though, so if you’re connected to either and would be up for a chat (or know someone who might), please get in touch!
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“It’s a terrible thing climate change. With the erosion and the threat of the flooding, which is permanent and is always with you, climate change is obviously going to become more and more important.”
“The erosion happens at roughly 2 metres a year, you can’t do anything about it. Eventually it was going to start eroding our land, and I needed to wrap my head around that so it’s not worrying me.”
“In 2007 we got a vast amount of rain in a period of just over a week and there was ten thousand homes flooded in Hull. It was pretty desperate, it was something to do with climate change I would guess. We had 10 inches of rain and everything was absolutely saturated. We had to bring the cows back in for a fortnight until everything dried out.”
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Stories From Round Our Way. Everyday conversations with people impacted by climate change.