Freiston Shore Managed Realignment site, LincolnshireIn the UK, the first managed retreat site was an area of 8000 meters square at Northey Island in Essex flooded in 1991, followed by larger sites at Tollesbury and Orplands (1995), Freiston Shore (2001) and Abbott's Hall Farm, at Great Wigborough in the Blackwater Estuary, it is one of the largest managed retreat schemes in Europe.