Classic Cottages join the Paul Watson Foundation UK for a beach clean

This is our third beach clean of 2025, following ones in Sussex and on the Isle of Wight – to demonstrate our commitment to contributing to the communities and environments in which we’re lucky enough to have beautiful holiday cottages across the UK. 

Our Norfolk team are based in the popular seaside town of Hunstanton and they, along with a few members from our marketing team joined Nic Clifford, Eastern Regional Coordinator and her team of trusty volunteers and helpers on a sunny Saturday morning beach clean from Old Hunstanton to Hunstanton. 

We met at the RNLI Lifeboat Station at Old Hunstanton which is located just a short stroll from the beach, next to the beach café. One of the team always remains at the meeting point, to sign people in and out and provide directions to late comers. After a safety briefing, we all headed out along the beach and sand dunes, litter pickers and hoops in hand. To enhance our contribution to the area, Classic purchased additional equipment for the foundation to help with future beach cleans. In total an impressive 36kg of waste was collected including bottles, cans and discarded plastic - a great effort from everyone! 

Beach clean complete  we all enjoyed coffee and cake in the sunshine from the Beach Café, the perfect treat after a busy morning. The beaches along this part of the Norfolk coast are very popular, with miles of sand at low tide, ideal for families looking for the quintessential day out and it was very rewarding to do our bit to support the foundation and to help keep the communities beaches clean and litter free; both for beach goers and the environment.

Nic says "After a short safety briefing, mentioning the risk of falling rocks, from the coastline's infamous, colourful layers, (dating from the early and late Cretaceous periods around 100 million years ago!) we collected our litter pickers and hooped sacks. The briefing also included warning that the tide was due in, along with the need to keep an eye out for juvenile Common seals, being bothered by humans or dogs.  It was a busy day on the beach! 

Amongst the collection of almost 40kg of debris, was plastic in many, many forms in addition to socks, odd flip-flops, dog poo bags and disposable barbecues  just left in the sand, some, complete with coals. In one spot, it was evident that a group of people had upped and left, leaving EVERYTHING just where they'd been sitting. This included their whole array of picnic trash,  their spent BBQ, and piles of empty glass bottles and cans. 

This clean-up was a marvellous joint effort between Classic Cottages, Project One Wave Coastal Debris Campaign volunteers and keen members of the public. Huge gratitude to Classic Cottages for providing us with extra litter pickers and hoops for sacks. It was a joy to meet the local staff from the Hunstanton office. Liz, of Classic Cottages,  also organised for a cuppa and cake for everyone,  from Old Town Beach Cafe"

The Paul Watson Foundation UK was founded in 2005 to defend, conserve and protect the ocean both in the UK and overseas. The Foundation host regular beach cleans and other activities in the area so do keep an eye on their Facebook page for upcoming events or their website.