🔗 Share this article

Families whose relatives buried in graves vulnerable to coastal erosion say that indecision on how best to tackle the problem is creating unnecessary distress concerning the final resting places of their loved ones.

An Impending Danger to Ancient Graveyards

The council have identified three church graveyards in the communities of Happisburgh, Trimingham, and Mundesley as being in danger of being engulfed by the sea in the coming decades.

A recent report on the issue sets out a series of options, from doing nothing to disinterring bodies and reburying them in safer locations. Officials maintain it is for local people to decide how to move forward.

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

Projections indicate at least a portion of one graveyard could be claimed by the sea in the next 80 years, but some locals fear it will happen much sooner. “I think it’s got less than 20 years, if you consider what’s occurred in the last 30 years,” one said.

Troubled by the Past

One resident recalled a childhood visit to the nearby village of Eccles, which has almost entirely vanished into the sea, along with its place of worship and burial ground.

“It was possible to see human remains,” she said. “Some have this idealized notion that people’s remains will just get washed out to the ocean. That is not the case. People will take bones as mementos and go grave robbing in search of valuables. That is completely undignified.”

“I fear that the same thing that befell at Eccles will occur at Happisburgh and there’ll be skeletons on the shore. I’d be disgusted by that.”

A Paratrooper's Grave in Peril

Further up the coast is situated the grave of a ex-soldier killed while serving overseas. His parent expressed she could not sleep after discovering her child's final plot might one day be moved.

“It truly disturb me to consider this won’t be his lasting home,” she said. “For us it’s an important place to go.”

In her view, new burials should stop but says it is too soon to exhume current plots. “My preference for now is to do nothing and watch carefully, but an early decision needs to be made when a tipping point has been attained.”

Seeking Solutions and Clarity

An absence of consensus over when and how to handle the problem has left grieving relatives feeling exasperated and worried.

Several families are calling for additional sea defences to delay the inevitable erosion and to permit burials to proceed for now. Different voices contend the moment for relocation is approaching.

“The situation is very emotional,” a family member stated. “The official study was really good, but now there’s uncertainty about how it is implemented. And everybody is washing their hands over who is responsible.”

A coastal manager confirmed the graveyards were owned and managed of the local diocese. “In the end it is down to them to choose the direction to take. We are here to assist them through that process with residents.”

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

“There is no unified opinion on what should be done yet. It requires good local conversations to find the appropriate answers for each village.”

The prospect of the loss of the historic sites was described as one of “profound sorrow for the local community,” but faith leaders also spoke of a doctrine in resurrection, offering a theological perspective on the physical loss of sacred ground.