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Loved ones of people laid to rest in graves vulnerable to coastal erosion state that a lack of decision on how best to tackle the issue is creating avoidable anguish about the final resting places of their loved ones.

An Impending Threat to Historic Graveyards

The council have identified three church graveyards in the villages of Happisburgh, Mundesley, and Trimingham as being in danger of being consumed by the ocean in the next few generations.

A newly published study on the situation sets out a range of options, from doing nothing to exhuming remains and relocating them in safer locations. Authorities say it is for the community to decide how to proceed.

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

Projections suggest at least part of one graveyard could be claimed by the sea in the next 80 years, but some locals fear it will happen far earlier. “I think 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 recalled a childhood visit to the nearby village of Eccles, which has almost entirely disappeared into the sea, including its place of worship and burial ground.

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

“I fear that the identical fate that happened at Eccles will happen at Happisburgh and there’ll be skeletons on the shore. I’d be disgusted by that.”

A Paratrooper's Resting Place in Peril

Along the shoreline is situated the burial plot of a ex-soldier who died while serving abroad. His parent said she lost sleep after discovering her son’s grave might one day be moved.

“It does trouble me to think this may not remain his lasting resting place,” she said. “For us it’s an important place to go.”

In her view, new interments should stop but says it is too soon to exhume current plots. “My preference for now is to do nothing and closely monitor, but an timely resolution must be made when a critical moment has been attained.”

Seeking Answers and Certainty

The lack of agreement over when and how to tackle the problem has left bereaved families feeling exasperated and worried.

Several families are calling for more sea defences to slow the inevitable erosion and to permit funerals to continue for now. Others contend the time for moving graves is drawing near.

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

A coastal manager said the graveyards were owned and managed of the local diocese. “Ultimately it is up to them to decide the path to take. Our role is here to help support them through that process with communities.”

It was also stated there was time to consider all the choices. “We are talking decades before it begins getting lost.”

“Currently, there exists no unified opinion on what should be done yet. It requires productive community discussions to discover the right solutions for each village.”

The possibility of the loss of the churches and graveyards was labeled one of “profound sorrow for the area,” but faith leaders also referenced a doctrine in resurrection, offering a spiritual viewpoint on the temporal disappearance of sacred ground.