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Families whose relatives laid to rest in graves at risk from shoreline retreat say that indecision on how best to tackle the issue is creating avoidable anguish about the final resting places of their departed family.

A Looming Threat to Ancient Churchyards

Local authorities have identified three burial grounds in the communities of Happisburgh, Mundesley, and Trimingham as being at risk of being engulfed by the ocean in the next few generations.

A newly published study on the situation sets out a series of options, from doing nothing to disinterring bodies and relocating them in safer sites. Authorities say it is for local people to decide how to move forward.

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

Projections indicate at least a portion of one churchyard could fall into the waves in the next 80 years, but some locals 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 Past

One resident remembered a childhood visit to the neighbouring settlement of Eccles, which has largely vanished into the water, including its place of worship and burial ground.

“You could see human remains,” she said. “Certain people hold this romantic idea that people’s remains will just get carried away to sea. That is not the case. Individuals will collect remains as souvenirs and go plundering graves in search of treasures. It’s completely disrespectful.”

“I fear that the same thing that befell at Eccles will happen at Happisburgh and there’ll be skeletons on the beach. I’d be disgusted by that.”

A Paratrooper's Resting Place in Jeopardy

Further up the coast lies the burial plot of a ex-soldier killed while working abroad. His parent said she lost sleep after learning her son’s grave might one day be relocated.

“It truly disturb me to consider this won’t be his lasting home,” she said. “For us it’s an important site to visit.”

She believes, new interments should stop but says it is premature to exhume existing graves. “What I would choose for now is to take no action and closely monitor, but an timely resolution needs to be made when a critical moment has been reached.”

Searching for Answers and Certainty

The lack of agreement over when and how to tackle the challenge has resulted in grieving relatives feeling exasperated and worried.

Several families are calling for additional sea defences to slow the inevitable erosion and to permit burials to continue for now. Others contend the time for relocation is drawing near.

“The situation is very emotive,” a family member stated. “The council’s report was really good, but now there’s confusion about how it is implemented. And all parties is washing their hands over who is responsible.”

A coastal manager said the graveyards were owned and managed of the local diocese. “Ultimately it is down to them to choose the direction to take. We are here to assist them through that journey with residents.”

He added there was ample time to consider all the options. “We are talking decades before it starts to be lost.”

“Currently, there exists no common view on what should happen yet. It requires good community discussions to discover the right answers for each community.”

The prospect of the loss of the historic sites was described as one of “profound sorrow for the local community,” but church representatives also referenced a doctrine in resurrection, offering a theological viewpoint on the temporal disappearance of hallowed earth.