🔗 Share this article

Loved ones of people laid to rest in resting places at risk from shoreline retreat argue that a lack of decision on how best to address the problem is causing them avoidable anguish about the eternal homes of their loved ones.

A Looming Threat to Ancient Graveyards

Local authorities have singled out three burial grounds in the communities of Happisburgh, Mundesley, and Trimingham as being at risk of being swallowed by the ocean in the coming decades.

A newly published study on the issue details a range of options, from taking no action to disinterring bodies and relocating them in safer sites. Authorities maintain it is for the community to determine how to proceed.

“Right now we’re in a state of uncertainty. It upsets me. They wanted this to serve as their last home, but it won't be because of the encroaching sea.”

Estimates suggest at least part of one churchyard could fall into the sea in the next 80 years, but some residents fear it will happen far earlier. “I think it’s got under 20 years, if you look at what’s happened in the last 30 years,” one said.

Haunted by the Past

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

“It was possible to 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 take bones as mementos and go plundering graves looking for treasures. It’s completely disrespectful.”

“I fear that the same thing that befell at Eccles will occur here and there’ll be skeletons on the shore. I would feel appalled by that.”

A Soldier's Grave in Peril

Along the coast is situated the grave of a former paratrooper killed 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 think this won’t be his permanent home,” she said. “For us it’s an important site to visit.”

She believes, new interments should stop but says it is too soon to disturb existing graves. “What I would choose for now is to do nothing and closely monitor, but an timely resolution must be made when a critical moment has been reached.”

Searching for Solutions and Certainty

An absence of agreement over the timing and method to handle the problem has resulted in bereaved families feeling exasperated and worried.

Some want additional coastal protections to slow the unavoidable loss and to permit burials to proceed for now. Others argue the moment for relocation is approaching.

“It is very emotional,” a family member stated. “The council’s report was really good, but now there’s confusion about how it is taken forward. And everybody is avoiding responsibility over who is responsible.”

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

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

“Currently, there exists no common view on what should be done yet. We need good local conversations to discover the right solutions for each community.”

The possibility of the loss of the churches and graveyards was described as one of “profound sorrow for the area,” but church representatives also spoke of a doctrine in life after death, providing a spiritual perspective on the physical disappearance of hallowed earth.