🔗 Share this article

Loved ones of people buried in graves vulnerable to shoreline retreat argue that a lack of decision on how best to address the issue is creating avoidable anguish concerning the final resting places of their loved ones.

An Impending Threat to Ancient Graveyards

Local authorities have singled out three church graveyards in the villages 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 range of possible actions, from taking no action to exhuming remains and reburying them in safer sites. Officials say it is for local people to determine how to proceed.

“At the moment we’re in limbo. It causes me distress. They wanted this to be their final resting place, but it won't be because of the encroaching sea.”

Estimates indicate at least part of one graveyard could be claimed by the sea in the next 80 years, but some residents worry it will happen far earlier. “In my view it’s got less than 20 years, if you look at what’s happened in the last 30 years,” one said.

Haunted by the Ghosts of Eccles

A local business owner remembered a childhood visit to the nearby settlement of Eccles, which has largely disappeared into the sea, along with its place of worship and burial ground.

“You could 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 souvenirs and go grave robbing in search of 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 appalled by that.”

A Paratrooper's Resting Place in Peril

Along the shoreline lies the burial plot of a former paratrooper killed while working abroad. His parent said she lost sleep after learning her child's grave might one day be relocated.

“It does trouble me to think 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 premature 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 critical moment has been reached.”

Seeking Solutions and Certainty

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

Some are calling for additional sea defences to slow the inevitable erosion and to permit burials to proceed for now. Different voices argue the moment for moving graves is drawing near.

“It is very emotive,” said one relative. “The council’s report was thorough, but now there’s confusion about how it is taken forward. And everybody is washing their hands over who is responsible.”

A coastal manager said the graveyards were under the care of the local diocese. “Ultimately it is up to them to decide the direction to take. We are here to help support them through that journey with residents.”

It was also stated there was time to weigh all the options. “We are talking many years before it begins getting lost.”

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

The prospect of the loss of the churches and graveyards was labeled one of “immense sorrow for the area,” but church representatives also referenced a belief in life after death, providing a spiritual perspective on the physical disappearance of sacred ground.