🔗 Share this article

Families of people buried in resting places at risk from shoreline retreat argue that a lack of decision over how to address the problem is creating avoidable anguish about the final resting places of their departed family.

An Impending Threat to Ancient Graveyards

The council have singled out three church graveyards in the villages of Happisburgh, Mundesley, and Trimingham as being at risk of being consumed by the sea in the next few generations.

A newly published study on the situation sets out a range of possible actions, from doing nothing to disinterring bodies and reburying them in more secure sites. Authorities say it is for local people to determine how to proceed.

“Right now we’re in a state of uncertainty. It upsets me. My parents intended this to serve as their last home, but it isn’t going to be because of the sea.”

Estimates suggest at least a portion of one churchyard could fall into the waves in the next 80 years, but some residents fear it will happen much sooner. “I think it’s got less than 20 years, if you look at what’s occurred in the last 30 years,” a farmer stated.

Haunted by the Past

A local business owner recalled a childhood visit to the neighbouring settlement of Eccles, which has largely vanished into the sea, including its place of worship and burial ground.

“You could see human remains,” she said. “Certain people hold this idealized notion that the deceased will just get carried away to the ocean. They won’t. Individuals will take bones as mementos and go plundering graves looking for valuables. That is completely undignified.”

“I’m worried that the identical fate that befell at Eccles will happen here and there’ll be skeletons on the shore. I’d be disgusted by that.”

A Paratrooper's Grave in Jeopardy

Further up the coast lies the burial plot of a former paratrooper killed while serving overseas. His parent said she lost sleep after discovering her son’s final plot might one day be moved.

“It truly disturb me to think this won’t be his permanent resting place,” she said. “For us it’s an significant place to go.”

She believes, new interments should stop but says it is too soon to disturb existing graves. “What I would choose for now is to take no action and closely monitor, but an early decision needs to be made when a tipping point has been attained.”

Seeking Answers and Clarity

An absence of agreement over when and how to tackle the challenge has left bereaved families feeling exasperated and worried.

Some want additional coastal protections to slow the inevitable erosion and to permit burials to continue for now. Others argue the moment for relocation is approaching.

“It is very emotive,” a family member stated. “The official study was thorough, but now there’s uncertainty about how it is taken forward. And all parties is washing their hands over who is responsible.”

A local official confirmed the burial sites were under the care of the local diocese. “In the end it is down to them to decide the direction to take. Our role is here to help support them through that journey with communities.”

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

“There is no common view on what should be done yet. We need good community discussions to discover the right solutions for each community.”

The prospect of the loss of the historic sites was described as one of “immense sadness for the area,” but church representatives also spoke of a doctrine in resurrection, offering a theological viewpoint on the physical loss of hallowed earth.