🔗 Share this article

Loved ones of people laid to rest in resting places at risk from coastal erosion state that a lack of decision on how best to address the problem is creating avoidable anguish concerning the final resting places of their departed family.

A Looming Threat to Historic Churchyards

Local authorities have identified three burial grounds in the communities of Happisburgh, Mundesley, and Trimingham as being in danger of being engulfed by the ocean in the coming decades.

A newly published study on the issue details a series of possible actions, from doing nothing to exhuming remains and relocating them in more secure locations. Authorities say it is for the community to determine how to proceed.

“At the moment we’re in a state of uncertainty. It causes me distress. My parents intended this to be their last home, but it isn’t going to be because of the encroaching sea.”

Estimates indicate at least a portion of one churchyard could be claimed by 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 consider what’s happened in the last 30 years,” one said.

Haunted by the Ghosts of Eccles

One resident remembered a childhood visit to the nearby settlement of Eccles, which has almost entirely vanished into the water, including its church and graveyard.

“It was possible to see human remains,” she said. “Certain people hold this idealized notion that people’s remains will just get carried away to sea. They won’t. Individuals will take bones as mementos and go plundering graves looking for treasures. That is completely disrespectful.”

“I’m worried that the same thing that befell at Eccles will occur at Happisburgh and there’ll be bones on the beach. I’d be disgusted by that.”

A Soldier's Resting Place in Peril

Along the shoreline is situated the burial plot of a former paratrooper killed while working overseas. His mother expressed she lost sleep after discovering her son’s grave might one day be moved.

“It does disturb me to consider this may not remain his lasting resting place,” she said. “To our family it’s an important site to visit.”

In her view, new burials should cease but says it is too soon to exhume existing graves. “My preference for now is to take no action and watch carefully, but an timely resolution needs to be made when a critical moment has been reached.”

Searching for Solutions and Clarity

The lack of agreement over when and how to tackle the problem has resulted in bereaved families feeling exasperated and anxious.

Several families are calling for more sea defences to delay the unavoidable loss and to allow funerals to continue for now. Different voices contend the moment for moving graves is approaching.

“The situation 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 avoiding responsibility over who is accountable.”

A local official confirmed the graveyards were owned and managed of the church authorities. “In the end it is down to them to choose the direction to take. Our role is here to help support them through that process with residents.”

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

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

The prospect of the loss of the churches and graveyards was described as one of “profound sorrow for the local community,” but church representatives also spoke of a doctrine in life after death, offering a spiritual perspective on the temporal disappearance of sacred ground.