🔗 Share this article

Families whose relatives laid to rest in graves vulnerable to shoreline retreat say that indecision on how best to tackle the problem is creating avoidable anguish concerning the eternal homes of their departed family.

An Impending Threat to Historic Graveyards

Local authorities have singled out three church graveyards in the communities of Happisburgh, Mundesley, and Trimingham as being in danger of being engulfed by the sea in the coming decades.

A newly published study on the situation details a range of possible actions, from doing nothing to disinterring bodies and relocating them in safer locations. Authorities maintain it is for local people to determine how to proceed.

“At the moment we’re in limbo. It causes me distress. My parents wanted this to serve as their last home, but it isn’t going to be because of the sea.”

Projections indicate at least a portion of one churchyard could fall into the waves in the next 80 years, but some residents worry it will happen far earlier. “In my view it’s got less than 20 years, if you look at what’s happened in the last 30 years,” one said.

Troubled by the Ghosts of Eccles

One resident remembered a childhood visit to the nearby settlement of Eccles, which has largely vanished into the sea, along with its place of worship and burial ground.

“You could see human remains,” she said. “Some have this idealized notion that the deceased will just get carried away to the ocean. They won’t. People will take bones as souvenirs and go plundering graves in search of valuables. That is completely disrespectful.”

“I’m worried that the same thing that happened at Eccles will occur at Happisburgh and there’ll be bones on the shore. I’d be appalled by that.”

A Paratrooper's Grave in Jeopardy

Along the shoreline lies the burial plot of a ex-soldier killed while working overseas. His parent expressed she lost sleep after discovering her son’s final plot might one day be relocated.

“It does trouble me to consider this may not remain his permanent home,” she said. “For us it’s an important site to visit.”

In her view, new interments should stop but says it is premature to disturb current plots. “What I would choose for now is to do nothing and closely monitor, but an timely resolution must be made when a tipping point has been attained.”

Seeking Answers and Clarity

An absence of consensus over the timing and method to tackle the problem has resulted in bereaved families feeling exasperated and anxious.

Some are calling for additional coastal protections to slow the inevitable erosion and to permit funerals to proceed for now. Different voices argue the moment for moving graves is approaching.

“The situation is very emotional,” a family member stated. “The council’s report was thorough, but now there’s confusion about how it is implemented. And everybody is washing their hands over who is responsible.”

A local official said the burial sites were owned and managed of the church authorities. “In the end it is down to them to decide the direction to take. Our role is here to help support them through that process with residents.”

He added there was time to consider all the choices. “This concerns decades before it starts to be lost.”

“There is no unified opinion on what should be done yet. It requires productive local conversations to find the right solutions for each community.”

The possibility of losing the historic sites was labeled one of “profound sorrow for the area,” but church representatives also referenced a doctrine in resurrection, providing a theological viewpoint on the temporal loss of sacred ground.