🔗 Share this article

Loved ones whose relatives buried in graves at risk from shoreline retreat say that indecision on how best to address the issue is causing them unnecessary distress concerning the eternal homes of their departed family.

An Impending Threat to Historic Graveyards

Local authorities have singled out three burial grounds in the villages of Happisburgh, Trimingham, and Mundesley as being in danger of being consumed by the sea in the coming decades.

A newly published study on the situation sets out a range of possible actions, from taking no action to disinterring bodies and reburying them in more secure sites. Officials maintain it is for the community to determine how to proceed.

“At the moment we’re in a state of uncertainty. It upsets me. My parents intended this to be their final resting place, but it won't be because of the sea.”

Projections suggest 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 under 20 years, if you look at what’s occurred in the last 30 years,” one said.

Haunted by the Past

A local business owner recalled a childhood visit to the nearby settlement of Eccles, which has largely disappeared into the sea, including its church and graveyard.

“You could see people’s bones,” she said. “Certain people hold this romantic idea that the deceased will just get carried away to sea. They won’t. Individuals will collect remains as mementos and go grave robbing looking for treasures. That is completely undignified.”

“I fear that the identical fate that befell at Eccles will happen here and there’ll be skeletons on the beach. I would feel appalled by that.”

A Soldier's Resting Place in Jeopardy

Along the shoreline is situated the grave of a ex-soldier who died while working overseas. His parent expressed she lost sleep after discovering her child's grave might one day be moved.

“It truly trouble me to consider this may not remain his lasting home,” she said. “For us it’s an significant place to go.”

She believes, new burials should stop but says it is premature to exhume current plots. “What I would choose for now is to take no action and watch carefully, but an timely resolution needs to be made when a tipping point has been reached.”

Searching for Answers and Certainty

An absence of consensus over the timing and method to handle the problem has left bereaved families feeling frustrated and anxious.

Several families want more coastal protections to slow the unavoidable loss and to permit burials to continue for now. Others argue the moment for relocation is drawing near.

“The situation is very emotional,” said one relative. “The official study was really good, but now there’s confusion about how it is taken forward. And all parties is avoiding responsibility over who is responsible.”

A coastal manager said the graveyards were owned and managed of the church authorities. “Ultimately it is down to them to decide the path to take. We are here to assist them through that journey with communities.”

He added there was ample time to weigh all the choices. “This concerns many years before it starts to be lost.”

“Currently, there exists no unified opinion on what should happen yet. We need good local conversations to discover the right answers for each community.”

The possibility of losing the historic sites was described as one of “profound sadness for the local community,” but church representatives also referenced a doctrine in life after death, providing a theological viewpoint on the physical disappearance of hallowed earth.