🔗 Share this article

Loved ones whose relatives laid to rest in resting places vulnerable to coastal erosion state that indecision on how best to address the issue is causing them unnecessary distress concerning the final resting places of their loved ones.

A Looming Threat to Ancient Graveyards

The council have singled out three church graveyards in the villages of Happisburgh, Mundesley, and Trimingham as being at risk of being swallowed by the sea in the next few generations.

A newly published study on the issue sets out a range of possible actions, from taking no action to exhuming remains and reburying them in more secure sites. Officials maintain it is for local people to decide how to proceed.

“At the moment we’re in a state of uncertainty. It upsets me. They intended this to be their last home, but it isn’t going to be because of the encroaching sea.”

Projections suggest at least a portion of one graveyard could be claimed by the sea in the next 80 years, but some residents worry it will happen far earlier. “I think it’s got under 20 years, if you look at what’s happened in the last 30 years,” one said.

Troubled by the Ghosts of Eccles

One resident recalled a childhood visit to the nearby settlement of Eccles, which has almost entirely disappeared into the water, including its place of worship and burial ground.

“It was possible to see human remains,” she said. “Certain people hold this romantic idea that the deceased will just get carried away to the ocean. They won’t. People will take bones as mementos and go plundering graves in search of valuables. It’s completely disrespectful.”

“I fear that the identical fate that happened at Eccles will happen here and there’ll be bones on the shore. I’d be appalled by that.”

A Soldier's Grave in Jeopardy

Further up the coast lies the burial plot of a former paratrooper who died while serving overseas. His parent expressed she could not sleep after learning her child's final plot might one day be moved.

“It truly disturb me to think this won’t be his lasting home,” she said. “To our family it’s an important place to go.”

She believes, new interments should cease but says it is too soon to exhume current plots. “What I would choose for now is to do nothing and watch carefully, but an timely resolution must be made when a tipping point has been attained.”

Seeking Answers and Clarity

The lack of agreement over when and how to handle the problem has resulted in bereaved families feeling exasperated and worried.

Several families are calling for more coastal protections to slow the unavoidable loss and to allow funerals to continue for now. Others contend the time for relocation is drawing near.

“It is very emotive,” said one relative. “The council’s report was thorough, but now there’s uncertainty about how it is implemented. And all parties is washing their hands over who is responsible.”

A coastal manager said the graveyards were under the care of the church authorities. “Ultimately it is down to them to choose the direction to take. We are here to help support them through that process with residents.”

He added there was time to consider all the options. “We are talking decades before it begins getting lost.”

“Currently, there exists no common view on what should be done yet. We need good local conversations to discover the right answers for each community.”

The possibility of the loss of the churches and graveyards was labeled one of “profound sadness for the area,” but faith leaders also referenced a belief in life after death, offering a spiritual viewpoint on the temporal loss of hallowed earth.