🔗 Share this article

Loved ones whose relatives buried in resting places vulnerable to shoreline retreat say that a lack of decision on how best to tackle the problem is creating unnecessary distress about the final resting places of their loved ones.

A Looming Threat to Ancient Graveyards

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

A newly published study on the issue sets out a series of possible actions, from doing nothing to exhuming remains and reburying them in more secure locations. Officials maintain it is for local people to determine how to move forward.

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

Projections suggest at least part of one churchyard could be claimed by the sea in the next 80 years, but some locals fear it will happen much sooner. “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

One resident remembered a school trip to the neighbouring settlement of Eccles, which has almost entirely vanished into the water, including its church and graveyard.

“You could see human remains,” she said. “Some have this romantic idea that people’s remains will just get washed out to sea. They won’t. Individuals will collect remains as mementos and go plundering graves looking for treasures. It’s completely undignified.”

“I fear that the same thing that happened at Eccles will happen at Happisburgh and there’ll be bones on the beach. I would feel appalled by that.”

A Soldier's Resting Place in Jeopardy

Further up the coast lies the burial plot of a former paratrooper who died while working overseas. His mother expressed she lost sleep after discovering her son’s final plot might one day be relocated.

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

She believes, new interments should stop 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 early decision needs to be made when a critical moment has been attained.”

Searching for Solutions and Clarity

An absence of agreement over the timing and method to tackle the problem has left bereaved families feeling exasperated and anxious.

Several families are calling for additional sea defences to slow the inevitable erosion and to allow funerals to continue for now. Different voices argue the moment for relocation is approaching.

“The situation is very emotive,” a family member stated. “The council’s report was really good, but now there’s uncertainty about how it is taken forward. And all parties is avoiding responsibility over who is responsible.”

A local official confirmed the graveyards were under the care of the church authorities. “Ultimately it is down to them to choose the path to take. We are here to assist them through that journey with residents.”

He added there was ample time to consider all the choices. “We are talking many years before it starts to be lost.”

“There is no common view on what should happen yet. We need productive community discussions to discover the right answers for each village.”

The prospect of the loss of the historic sites was labeled one of “immense sadness for the area,” but faith leaders also spoke of a belief in resurrection, offering a theological viewpoint on the temporal disappearance of sacred ground.