🔗 Share this article

Loved ones of people buried in resting places vulnerable to shoreline retreat argue that indecision on how best to address the problem is creating avoidable anguish concerning the eternal homes of their departed family.

A Looming Threat to Ancient Churchyards

The council have identified three burial grounds in the communities of Happisburgh, Trimingham, and Mundesley as being in danger of being swallowed by the sea in the coming decades.

A newly published study on the situation sets out a series of options, from doing nothing to disinterring bodies and reburying them in safer locations. Authorities 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. My parents intended this to serve as their final resting place, but it won't be because of the encroaching sea.”

Projections suggest at least a portion of one graveyard could fall into the sea in the next 80 years, but some locals worry it will happen far earlier. “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

A local business owner recalled a school trip to the nearby settlement of Eccles, which has largely disappeared into the water, including its church and graveyard.

“It was possible to see human remains,” she said. “Certain people hold this romantic idea that the deceased will just get washed out to the ocean. That is not the case. People will take bones as souvenirs and go grave robbing looking for treasures. It’s completely undignified.”

“I’m worried that the identical fate that befell at Eccles will happen at Happisburgh and there’ll be bones on the beach. I would feel disgusted by that.”

A Soldier's Resting Place in Peril

Along the shoreline lies the burial plot of a former paratrooper killed while serving overseas. His mother said she lost sleep after discovering her son’s grave might one day be relocated.

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

In her view, new interments should stop but says it is premature 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 tipping point has been reached.”

Searching for Answers and Certainty

An absence of consensus over the timing and method to handle the challenge has resulted in grieving relatives feeling exasperated and worried.

Some want additional sea defences to delay the unavoidable loss and to permit funerals to continue for now. Different voices contend the moment for moving graves is drawing near.

“The situation is very emotional,” said one relative. “The official study was really good, but now there’s confusion about how it is implemented. And everybody is avoiding responsibility over who is accountable.”

A coastal manager confirmed the burial sites were under the care of the local diocese. “In the end it is up to them to decide the direction to take. Our role is here to assist them through that process with residents.”

He added there was time to weigh all the choices. “This concerns many years before it begins getting lost.”

“There is no unified opinion on what should happen yet. It requires productive community discussions to discover the right solutions for each village.”

The possibility of the loss of the historic sites was described as one of “profound sorrow for the area,” but church representatives also referenced a belief in resurrection, providing a theological perspective on the temporal disappearance of hallowed earth.